Best trips to log dives?

[drrich2]

Start logging with cloud backup so you don't lose your log if you lose a log book. Since you mention a need to 'rebuild it,' I figured maybe you lost it?

Bonaire is indeed a good way to go; I got 30 dives on an 8-day trip, and could've hit 32 likely if I'd been willing to push the issue that Saturday morning.

Live-aboards vary; I hear Blackbeard's offers around 19 dives for the week, Juliet similar, and some Caribbean live-aboards 25 - 27 dives for a week. Cocoview Resort in Roatan, IIRC, offers 2 boat dives, 2 drop-off dives on the way back to the resort from those 2 boat dives (you fin back to the resort, that's your dive) and house reef shore diving (on a huge house reef with a nice wreck), so you can wrack up comparable dive counts.

Picking a Caribbean Live-aboard - Picking a Caribbean Live-Aboard

You can rack up a big dive count in Cozumel pretty cheap, though 4 dives/day there can wear a person out. I got 26 dives in an 8-day trip.

Tres Pelicanos & Casa Mexicana, Cozumel Sept. 2018 Report - Tres Pelicanos/Casa Mexican Trip Report Sept. 2018
My Research Notes from Planning Cozumel Trip - My Research Notes from Planning Cozumel Trip

Any trip is going to have a cost, paid in time, effort and money. For example:

1.) Blackbeard's is cheap on cost, but 19 dives/week is not 25-27. But if you have lots of time, 2 weeks would be a lot of dives. Many people don't find over a week trip workable.

2.) Bonaire is pretty cheap on-island, but airfare is killer. If you could stay 2 weeks and your ear drums hold out, that could average nicely.

3.) Trips to cheap far-flung places sound great, but consider the cost in round-trip travel not just in money but time (e.g.: 2+ days there, 2 days back?) and ordeal (e.g.: I hear Philippine trips from the U.S. can have a 12 hour continuous flight on one leg of the journey). Will you go coach to stay cheap, or pay up for a less miserable sardine can?

Don't forget the coronavirus COVID-19 issue. If you travel to a given destination, is your workplace going to raise a stink about it? If you happen to come back with low-grade fever and a cough, are you looking at a couple weeks missing work? When will this trip (or trips) be?

 

[Doc]

Don't forget the coronavirus COVID-19 issue. If you travel to a given destination, is your workplace going to raise a stink about it? If you happen to come back with low-grade fever and a cough, are you looking at a couple weeks missing work? When will this trip (or trips) be?

This reply is off topic, but no more so than the above.

DD, I love your posts, but c’mon. What if the OP goes into St Louis and gets the drippies?

If we temper every bit of advice in every forum’s thread with a health warning, people might as well watch the first 12 minutes of network news.

People... let’s get busy going diving!

So, to the OP.... (more OT, but you opened the door)

Do a SB search in regards the usefulness and realities of doing DM>Instructor. You can likely learn a lot about diving from doing DM. You won’t learn much in the Instructor portion except “how to teach”.

Go do lots of dives. I agree with the Coco View recommendation. Six in a day is easy for a healthy fit diver, giving you 30 in a week. Impossible to maintain that schedule, even shore diving on Bonaire, which, would wind up being overall more expensive.

And your wife approves? She’s a keeper.

 

[dmaziuk]

Go do lots of dives. I agree with the Coco View recommendation. Six in a day is easy for a healthy fit diver, giving you 30 in a week. Impossible to maintain that schedule, even shore diving on Bonaire, which, would wind up being overall more expensive.

Though six a day is not a schedule I'd care to keep for more than 2 days straight... should be easily doable at any place between Den Laman and Hamlet if you figure out your food. If you do that at Westpunt Curacao you could save a bunch on airfare too. Might come up pretty close.

As my better half just said, the difference is you're more involved: you have to buy food, cook, plan your day, pick dive sites... in an all-inclusive you just dive.

Edit: and buddies. If you need to find buddies, you're better off at CCV I expect.

 

[willo]

I'm loving the feedback here, here's what I sort of see happening.
1) I'm definitely going to do a liveaboard this year. this is just a matter of figuring out my options.
2) I'm going to plan something like bonaire in with my wife. I spent a fair amount of time training her (to dive) when we got married. That'll also keep me from being murdered over doing the livaboards as solo trips.
3) I'm planning a hawaii trip later this year, we'll definitely get some dives in but it won't be the complete focus of that trip.
4) I'm going to leverage work travel - I may get to make it to some great locations with work funds, should be handy.

I think with this strategy I should be on track to work on my next level of certs in a year or so.

 

[stuartv]

I think Blackbeard’s may be the best value. A week with everything included for $1100. Just add your airfare to get to Nassau. I really enjoyed my cruise last summer.

 

[MrBigfins]

Anywhere you go can attribute well to your dive count if you go with the intention of diving. Did 46 dives in Cozumel last trip, and that was with a bit of time off for family time. But your best bet is to mix it up. Gain some experience in varies diving situations. Do a week in Cozumel for some deeper drift dives. Do a week in the thousand islands area doing some river dives. Do some quarry dives for some low biz colder dives. Do a Yucatan trip for a week of cenotes dives. Do a week in Bonaire racking up shore dives. Spend a week in Florida doing some negative entry drift dives. Spend some time in NC doing some wreck dives. Spend a week on Blackbeard's doing a mix of dives.

All of these give you the opportunity to do 4-5 dives a day, and more importantly than just numbers they give you a wider experience base. This will make you a better diver instead of just a diver with a higher dive count. Regardless of where you choose to go, work on a different skill on each dive. Work on perfecting bouyancy, or trim, or your kicks. Concentrate less on dive count and more on diving. Most importantly, enjoy yourself and have fun diving.

 

[pinshootr]

Scuba Club Cozumel

 

[Germie]

You read about advertisements of 24 dives on a liveaboard, but only 35 minutes per dive. I don't pay for dives under 60 minutes or I must abord them myself. My average divetime is now about 67 minutes over 2100 dives, including the shorter dives in winter because of the cold.

A lot of dives doesn't mean a lot of experience. I prefer 10 dives of 60 minutes over 20 of 30 minutes. A better value is the accumulated divetime instead of number of dives.

 

[chillyinCanada]

You read about advertisements of 24 dives on a liveaboard, but only 35 minutes per dive. I don't pay for dives under 60 minutes or I must abord them myself. My average divetime is now about 67 minutes over 2100 dives, including the shorter dives in winter because of the cold.

A lot of dives doesn't mean a lot of experience. I prefer 10 dives of 60 minutes over 20 of 30 minutes. A better value is the accumulated divetime instead of number of dives.

Ideally OP will be gaining a breadth of experience during these dives as well.

 

[willo]

NC wreck dives are the reason I got into nitrox.
Ok you've totally talked me into Blackbeard's. That's definitely making my to do list.