spoolin01
Contributor
I share your sentiments, but as halemano explains, it's not small tanks that likely rule your dive - and I suspect you'll find it difficult to pin the ops down much beforehand. You know what I'd like to see? - water busses that run a defined route, like a city bus, and say "see you back here topside in an hour". There are plenty of dive sites that could work safely with that kind of service, though not all obviously. 90 minutes would be even better but that's probably dreaming. Maybe there are ops that will do that - I've only tried a couple and they fit halemano's description (these were also for Molokini and Lanai which are remote, subject to currents and/or extreme depth, and farther from port). The few two or three-tank boat dives I've done in Hawaii or Florida have mostly fit the same 45 minute +/- plan so I'm not surprised at that outcome. My guess is that if you can charter or at least dominate the boat with your group, you have a better likelihood of getting something closer to what you prefer for bottom time, perhaps though somewhat at the expense of site selection. If the two-tank trip is scheduled for 4 hours (out-of-port time) you can see that there's not gonna be time for 60 minutes per dive. Many divers want the offshore islands like Molokini, Lanai, and Molokai, the naturalist-guided dive clearly is OK with many, and there can perhaps even be plusses to slightly deeper, farther offshore sites, so you can see how the short, guided dive model works for the ops. On the Molokini back wall I saw (among lots else) a nice Giant Trevally, and two tanks later, a really (really) fat frogfish on the St. Anthony, and the guides worked to make sure you see and appreciate what's there - definitely cool, also $250. I think I'd prefer the budget water bus model and my own exploring and plan, but willingly took these types anyway.
