Organizing Dives

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joshua.d.vise

Contributor
Messages
81
Reaction score
66
Location
South Korea
# of dives
25 - 49
Hi all,
I definitely want to keep the Korea tab active, even though things have been so wonky for so many of us. Let's aim for the future, and think about the following:

What are some types of dives (wreck, deep, etc) you would be interested in doing in Korea? Where do you think you could do them? If someone were to organize this kind of dive trip, how would you want it structured?

As for me, I would love to get a wreck certification in Korea. I'm mostly interested in weekends, with two days filled with dives. I would appreciate diving somewhere that would have good accessibility by public transportation (train or intercity bus). I still rent most of my equipment, too, so access to that would be important.
 
Hi all,
I definitely want to keep the Korea tab active, even though things have been so wonky for so many of us. Let's aim for the future, and think about the following:

What are some types of dives (wreck, deep, etc) you would be interested in doing in Korea? Where do you think you could do them? If someone were to organize this kind of dive trip, how would you want it structured?

As for me, I would love to get a wreck certification in Korea. I'm mostly interested in weekends, with two days filled with dives. I would appreciate diving somewhere that would have good accessibility by public transportation (train or intercity bus). I still rent most of my equipment, too, so access to that would be important.


Here is the thing about this. There are several dive operations here in Korea that cater/claim to organize such events. However they are basically charging close to a 40% markup on the actual cost of the diving for what they term "organizer fees"

I did such a trip once 2-3 years ago, organized by a group out of a city down south. The cost of the diving was either 120,000 or 130,000 (I cant recall exactly). However I drove myself there and had all of my own gear. I know damn well 2 dives from a boat here in Korea is typically no more than 70,000-80,000.....so to pay that much means that guy made 40 bucks profit of each diver by doing nothing other than making a facebook event, and calling a dive shop.

The truth is however, all "we" need is someone that can speak Korean! That my friends, is what I can do! I was trying to do the same with another expat diving club. Bless their hearts a bunch of good folks but damn it what started as a "diving club for foreigners" became really a handful of instructors certifying students for their instructor quotas diving the same dive shop weekend after weekend.

One of the issues however and what became the main reason for my falling out with said group...is liability when we act as an organizer for dive activities. Instructors training students under an agency certainly should have their own insurance and such in order. How does that roll over to just random folks like us that want to "organize" fun diving activities when we are just people that want to dive?

If you or anyone else want to actually organize some fun diving, I sure as heck am on board with that. At a minimum however it seems prudent to require that everyone that participates have at least basic DAN insurance and some type of waiver form. It sure would be nice to dive with other foreigners in some place other than Yang Yang!
 
Hmmm. How did I miss this thread when it came out?:oops:

@coralreefer_1 and I have discussed this and my findings have been slightly different than his. As a Korean-speaking PADI Rescue Diver (non-professional), I’m finding dive costs to often be around 50,000W per dive (boat & tank incl., summer 2022), but I’ve seen as high as 80,000W for fun diving events organized by large, reputable dive centres.

In discussions with dive centres or organized groups, they are often keen to know if I can communicate in Korean enough to understand briefings and safety warnings in order to dive safely. Also, as I’m not a professional diver, they’ve indicated I need to be part of a group guided by a professional or experienced local. I specifically asked them if I could just show up with a buddy, rent tanks, pay boat fees, and dive. The answer invariably is no. They generally site local conditions (cold water, low viz, potential for currents) as the reason for this, and indicate that due to their own liability issues, they need to err on the side of caution to make sure divers are safe.

Generally, they will want to do some kind of check dive (a simple dive above 18m where they see how you handle yourself.) Now, that I’ve dived with a couple Korean groups and can demonstrate significant local dive experience, they have started to skip the check dive, so there’s an element of local experience, networking, and name dropping, which totally fits the Korean context.
 
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