Aldora and 3 P's Reviews

[caseybird]

Couple of thoughts,
The HP 120 is a heck of a sweet tank with great buoyancy/balance characteristics. The LP 100 or 120, not so much.
I've done hundreds of dives in Coz with several ops, and the dive boat always arrives with the rig built up. At that point, every diver can check and finish the setup to their most exacting requirements. I've never seen the mythical " no one touches my gear" guy in practice.
YMMV.

 

[ggunn]

I've never seen the mythical "no one touches my gear" guy in practice.
YMMV.

I've seen them here but not out on the boats.

 

[BRT]

I've seen them here but not out on the boats.

I'd have to guard it with a machine gun to stop them completely.

 

[uncfnp]

With 300+ dives and no one but ourselves dealing with our gear, our first "concierge" dive trip took a little getting use to. But we managed to adapt.

 

[ggunn]

FWIW, on the Blue Angel boats if you start rigging your own gear the DM and Captain will leave you alone and let you do it. Sometimes I do that, sometimes not. It's not a big deal.

 

[waynel]

With 300+ dives and no one but ourselves dealing with our gear, our first "concierge" dive trip took a little getting use to. But we managed to adapt.

Yes, sooo hard to just get off the boat and grab a cold one! But hey, someone has to do it!

 

[ronscuba]

I know some operators want to see you to setup your own gear on the 1st dive as part of their evaluation on your dive experience..

 

[ronscuba]

How many divers does 3P put on their boats ?

 

[deepsea21]

How many divers does 3P put on their boats ?

If I recall, a max of 10 on Skinny Shark and 8 on Loan Shark. Both Skinny Shark and Loan Shark are 32' long so they are significantly larger than many of the "6-packs" that some may be accustomed to and some operators may cram to make an 8-pack. Skinny Shark has a 9.5' beam and I believe Loan Shark has a 7' beam. Regardless, lots of room on both. It also depends on the season - peak season they are running full boats and may rent a third to accommodate overflow but in the off season, say there's 12 or 14 divers booked for AM dives they obviously send both boats and split the groups 6/6, 8/6 or whatever. Also, if a group knows each other and wants to dive together they'll send that boat full and the other boat with just 2-3 divers on it. Was lucky enough to have that happen a couple of times in the off season on a Saturday "change-over" day - talk about "boutique" diving with 2 or 3 divers getting an entire boat and crew to themselves! Some dive ops would cancel the trip or try to steer clients to an afternoon dive - not 3P's - if you're booked you're going!

 

[uncfnp]

How many divers does 3P put on their boats ?

They advertise max 10 on the Skinny Shark but as deepsea21 pointed out it has a very wide beam with lots of space. I was mostly on the Loan Shark but I don't recall more then 7 maybe 8 but again we never felt crowded, especially under the waves since experienced divers were allow to dive their own profile so the group was well spaced.