Boat crew setting kit up

[Straegen]

In Florida, I have always setup my own gear and it was expected of me to do so. In Mexico and St Martin, I was surprised to see the crew offer it as a service. I have a feeling it has a lot to do with the size of the boat. I personally supervised (as in watched carefully) the crew set my rig up and then I did the usual safety checks before I hit the water. On all the dives, I never saw a problem and the crew in Mexico took great care in handling my gear so no problems there but my dive gear never left my sight.

If I were an op owner, I would expect the divers to setup their gear but the crew to help get the gear on and a diver and into the water. Possibly pick the gear up out of the water depending on the conditions. For liability reasons, I wouldn't help a diver setup any gear and I wouldn't choose a boat that makes diver gear setup difficult.

 

[simplediver247]

Most Important thing I learned in college from Psyh Professor Tom Tighte
Common Sense is Not Common.

Lead Follow or get out of the Frickin Way

 

[Diver0001]

I'm not surprised by the reactions on this thread but I'm going to break with the herd here.

On a diving vacation I consider it a luxury to have some "gnomes" around that take care of the gear... filling your tanks back up, rinsing stuff and and making things ready to go for the next dive. It's great.

And no.... It's not because I don't know how to put my stuff together. It's a vacation and if someone is willing to go the extra mile to make my life as easy as possilbe, then I appreciate that effort.

However: if the "gnomes" are not trained in how to do it right then I would have a BIG problem with that. And to be perfectly frank, well trained "gnomes" might very well do a better job of putting gear together than some certified divers. I just got back from Egypt from a dive-camp where there were a group of about 25 divers there from the UK of which about 1/3 had their BCD's loosly attached to the tank on every dive. I think properly trained gnomes can do better than that.

Obviously, the fundamental responsiblity is still the divers'. If you choose to go this route then it *must* be a standard part of your briefing to reinforce before every dive that the diver should double check their gear and do a proper buddy check before getting in the water. They should do so anyway but some people are notoriously sloppy with respect to safety procedures and need to be told before every dive. And for those divers who can't be bothered to double check their gear before a dive, it's proably not wise for you to put it together for them. My *guess* is that the majority of people who say "don't touch my stuff" are probably divers who don't bother doing proper buddy checks.

R..

 

[RTee]

Vladimir, You bet...Blame it on the military...One man one kit. I always carry my own junk be it at work, fishing, hunting, canoe/camping and or diving. While I understand everybody must make a living I would be so embarrassed having somebody half my weight carrying two tanks as depicted on the picture ...and for only 2 dollars that I will carry my own.

My next out of country diving trip will be two weeks of shore diving in Bonaire next February where it is my understanding that no such sherpa service exists for those doing shore diving.

The day I become so physically challenged that I can no longer do it, I will pick my diving destinations accordingly so all i have to do is to bring my stuff to the boat where the tanks are already there, set-up my stuff, rig up and if I feel like teasing my GF I will inadvertently forget to attach my crotch strap and let her fix it as part of her pre-dive check... then I can work on the post dive massage

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Vladimir, You bet...Blame it on the military...One man one kit. I always carry my own junk be it at work, fishing, hunting, canoe/camping and or diving. While I understand everybody must make a living I would be so embarrassed having somebody half my weight carrying two tanks as depicted on the picture ...and for only 2 dollars that I will carry my own.

My next out of country diving trip will be two weeks of shore diving in Bonaire next February where it is my understanding that no such sherpa service exists for those doing shore diving.

Bali and Bonaire are very different in terms of customs and expectations. I've been to both places several times. You are correct that there is no such sherpa service in Bonaire ... and in fact, I've yet to dive on a boat where the crew offers to set up your gear for you. Bali is quite different ... and if you don't allow those folks to set up and porter your gear, they find it insulting. In effect, their view is that you're denying them the ability to do their job.

When I travel, I find it best to get to know the customs of the place in which I'm traveling and to respect those customs.

Best of luck with the massage ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Zippsy]

I'm betting the people who say they would not let the Balinese women sherpa their tanks have never been diving at Tulumben. I could barely walk on those rocks with my thin soled booties while carrying only my mask, fins and weightbelt. There is no way I could have carried the tanks without proper shoes and there is no way I could have kept up with the old barefoot woman carry two tanks/BCDs!

 

[RTee]

I'm betting the people who say they would not let the Balinese women sherpa their tanks have never been diving at Tulumben. I could barely walk on those rocks with my thin soled booties while carrying only my mask, fins and weightbelt. There is no way I could have carried the tanks without proper shoes and there is no way I could have kept up with the old barefoot woman carry two tanks/BCDs!

You are right I have never been there.

Bob...thanks. So far so good...lol

 

[scubafanatic]

Touch my gear- no tip. Touch my tank valve-no tip. If you can't set up your own gear you have no business being out of the pool. If too you don't want to set up your own gear don't bitch if its wrong, fails, or falls apart. I would not allow anyone to set up my gear and will not use an op that insists on it.

Jim, you may be taking it to a bit of an extreme here...the trick is striking a balance between accomodating local customs/procedures while simultaneously satisfying your own requirements. I'm VERY picky about my gear (I custom design/build/modify all my scuba gear) so, of course, I assemble all my kit before dives myself...that being said, I will allow the boat crew to 'participate' in the process to the extent they're not involved in mission-critical things (schlep tanks/weights, hold tank upright on tossing boat while I swap out BC/reg/etc.) Boat crew are people too, need to feel productive in doing their jobs, which means helping the paying guests. I don't shoot them the 'stay the hell away from my gear!' look...through my actions I quickly teach them the level of involvement/help I want from them, they're usually pretty quick to figure out what I want to handle myself versus them chipping in on. I don't want to come across as the arrogant-gringo, but if you're reasonably diplomatic/friendly I get to do things my way without offending the boat crew. I will say that showing up on board with gear that wouldn't look out of place in a Star Trek movie set does set up the expectation that I probably do have a clue about gear configuration/diving and the level of babysitting I'll need is going to be pretty minimal!

 

[scubafanatic]

This is all much ado about nothing. To me, the boat crew assembling gear, passing out weight, etc. is simply a way of making things run more smoothly on a crowded boat.

Assembling my gear consists of sliding a BCD onto a tank and cranking down the camband. It has a permanent kink at 7.25", so if its an AL80, it will be nice and tight.

It doesn't take a lot of training or experience for someone to figure out how to screw a regulator 1st stage onto a yoke valve and attach the LP hose to the BCD inflator. (Of course, I have managed to mess that up by attaching the 1st stage over the top of the bungee cord holding the tank in place, but that's another story).

Some boat crews neatly dress the hoses, putting the LP hose under the BCD velcro flap, clipping the console to the BC, putting the octo in its holder. Others just stuff all the hoses behind the cumberbund to keep them out of the way. Either works for me.

The boat crew passing out lead also minimizes the back and forth traffic on a boat. I'm happy to find my lead in a pile beneath the BCD to put into the pockets as we near the drop point. This sure beats a boatful of divers all gathered around the weight bin, pawing through it trying to find what they need. For those with weight belts, the better crews get a pretty good eye for where on a belt to put the weights so they will fit each particular diver, whether a petite 100 pound women or a size XXXL guy. In either case, the diver will adjust as necessary.

Come on guys, do you have so little faith in your skill at inspecting your setup that you fear having someone else put it together?

Charlie, believe it or not, some of us have gone to great lengths to design/configure our 'ideal' (custom) scuba gear, gear that is many levels beyond typical rental/vacation diver kit, so there are very few people out there that would have a clue how I'd want my kit assembled/configured, thus don't make me waste my dive redoing my gear after someone else mis-assembles it, I'll cut to the chase and just do it myself.

 

[Diver0001]

Charlie, believe it or not, some of us have gone to great lengths to design/configure our 'ideal' (custom) scuba gear, gear that is many levels beyond typical rental/vacation diver kit, so there are very few people out there that would have a clue how I'd want my kit assembled/configured, thus don't make me waste my dive redoing my gear after someone else mis-assembles it, I'll cut to the chase and just do it myself.

I think we're going to need pictures.

R..