Budget Diving

[CBulla]

Company car... so I do not 'feel' the fuelcosts as much... I do about 10000 to 13000 miles a year for diving so this quickly adds up.

Ooohhh.. 10000-13000 miles? My friend, I drive that alone in one vehicle. My wife has dropped from 28000 mi to under 14000, of course, breaking the rear axle on my jeep has slowed down some of that driving... its proving for the better.

I probably won't dive the farther-out Channel Islands as much since the fuel cost has driven the cost up dramatically.

Beach diving is always fun, so I'll keep doing that.

Your rides are a bit longer out there aren't they? Ours here, on a fat diesel boat, run 1.5 to 2 horus.

We are going to forgo a few equipment upgrades and stick to the local shore dive here which is only a short drive.

Uh... yeah, me to. Maybe I can garner an equipment sponsor

Back to the question. I've avoided financial disaster during this economic slowdown. Me and my wife are still employed, own our home, and our savings are intact. Anything else would mean no diving.

Well, we don't have much savings and don't own our home (thank GOD, it would have been bought at the most horrid of times), however, I am comfortably gainfully employed.

Good for us, but we still have the higher food and fuel prices. This year's gas prices have added $15 to our round trip to Jupiter, FL. The boat ride went up $5 each, too. I can handle the extra $25 for the trip with my daughter. Ten of those trips is not that expensive compared to what I read folks spend on gear or resort vacations.

Gas prices have changed my shopping habits. 50 mile round trips to buy a $20 item make no more sense. The new hose I got came by UPS. Same with that flashlight. But the UPS man can't get us to the dive site, so we drive it.

By the way, I read where airlines are slowing down to save fuel. Not Florida motorists. This week's trip on I-75 and the turnpike show that 80 mph is still about average. Go 70 and you'll get run over.

See you diving.

Excellent points. I'm actually working on few things to assist with the gas stuff. Some time back it was discussed on ScubaBoard about ways to up milage and I had mentioend Acetone to gas. I was ridiculed a little bit but tried it anyway and to my suprise it really worked by adding almost 35% more mileage in our minivan and 25% in the Jeep. I'm now looking at adding a hydrogen boost to the system, (Hydrogen Boost Brown’s Gas Joe Cell HHO Water Car Save fuel mpg</) to see how much more I can up the MPG. I'm not looking for hyper-mileage, but anything to bump down our $500 gas budget thats mostly alloted for my transit to and from work.

Something of a curiosity... Most dive boats are diesel. Most docks have a seafood resturant(s) near by with waste veggie oil. Diesel can run on straight veggie oil and the motor can be modified to do it for about $1000. Wouldn't an ambitious dive boat convert for and run SVO for virtually nothing (it still takes a lil diesel to warm up the motor then switch to SVO).. that would cut costs way down. It'd be 'green friendly' to. Feedback on this?

SVO is what I'm debating doing with an older Mercedes. With the fuel cost cut down, it takes the stress out of the cost of gas milage to the sites or even the Keys. That would be the ultimate of creativity I suppose. One would think that living practically on the Gulf of Mexico directly I could dive more often, but the coast here is mucky and its about that time we have shark and tarpon migration.

 

[pickens_46929]

Hmmm... how are my diving habits changing in light of everything.

Well for one, I am diving locally more than I was before. While I tried to hit Key Largo or Fort Lauderdale or Jupiter about once a month when airfares and other expenses were cheaper, I can't do that now. So I've booked at least 1/2 of those trips within driving distance on the Great Lakes.

The second thing I am doing is going in with other folks and doing whole boat charters. I managed a couple trips last year like that but wasn't too concerned. Now it becomes even more important to maximize the diving per dollar and get enough people (min. 6) and do a whole boat. Works better for the charter operators too.

Third thing is that I've cleaned out my dive closet and gotten rid of most duplicate gear or gear I otherwise don't use. That 2nd BC I learned to dive on... gone. Regulator set I didn't particularly like but has been there for 2 years... sold. Some of this has gone for other gear and some for offsetting the increased costs of trips.

Lastly, I am trying to combine more business and dive trips together. In previous years I rarely mixed the two together because it was a big hassle dealing with 3 suitcases, laptop, etc. etc. Not that I like the extra baggage, but I am combining more trips. Work pays for the airfare and I pay for some extra nights lodging, diving and the extra rental car days.

Those things mean that I think this year will be as good in terms of the number of dives as last year (if not better). (I am hoping!)

 

[Stu S.]

My brother's pal fuels a Mercedes diesel car for a week on the waste oil from one restaurant. That's about a 150 horsepower car. A 38 foot Delta dive boat has two 370 Hp Volvo engines. It may take more than one fish eatery to power something that large. The veggie oil is too valuable to throw out, for sure.

A fine guy named Phil runs a dive shop in a big bucks Florida town. Sells Scubapro and Aqualung to the BMW and Mercedes set. These folks are spending less, as they are told there's a recession going on. Probably a psychological reaction rather than hurting for cash. (Nothing looks shabby in Lake Mary.) Hopefully this does not affect his store too badly.

 

[fisherdvm]

As much as some pro here complains of DMs who works for nothing or pennies, what's wrong with assisting in the pool just for pizza, pop, and free air in the winter, and trips to the quarry in the summer?

 

[highlandfarmwv]

I am putting more and more expenses on my US Airways credit card, which lets me fly to the Caribbean for $57. I used it twice in the last year. If you get a new card, you get 25,000 air miles, and that was what my trip to Aruba cost last September. (Tnen $175 on to Bonaire and back to Aruba).. If you can get to bonaire cheaply, the diving is cheap oncve you are there.

Costs less to travel to Bonaire than to go to the Keys and boat dive.

 

[beester]

A couple of things that we do to keep cost down.

-(as already mentioned)... we carpool. Most dive sites are about 200 miles both ways and with the gas prices hovering around 8,8 $ per gallon this can quickly add up. Normally we are with about 10 to 15 people diving every weekend. We normally try to stack as much people and equipment in as few cars as possible. Fortunately there are quite a lot of people who drive company cars. So they tend to be designated drivers

- We have with the club our own compressor. This means that airfills are very very cheap. Obviously you can only break even on this if you have enough people filling.

- People in our group can benefit from club material at very very cheap rental prices (5 us $ for tank, regulators, jacket, etc).

- We organise with a group of people some things like dinner parties etc in the local community to make some money. This money then is spent on maintaining the compressor and club material.

- Fortunately we live near an estuary which has been described as a fjord (deep rock walls). So we can do the most beautiful dives with shore entries. This obviously is much cheaper then relying on boat dives. So when you get to the dive sites the dives themselves are basically free.

- Charter prices for boat dives (north sea wreck dives) have gone up some (fuel prices) but if you can charter the whole boat from some fixed weekends and do this well in advance it can be still reasonable (about 100us$ per person for 2 wreck dives).

That's basically it... but the thruth be told... I really love diving... I would and will cut costs at other points then dive less.

 

[jldodd]

I think the number one thing to keep in mind in keeping costs down as mentioned by many before, is avoid the salt water. Shore diving lakes/quarries/springs can be every bit as exciting as that tropical reef everyone aspires to. If you have to have salt water to keep it interesting, check into what a good number of members on SB do... kayak diving. You can get past the surf and get closer to the good reefs without paying a bunch of money to ride on a boat.

 

[perdidochas]

I think the number one thing to keep in mind in keeping costs down as mentioned by many before, is avoid the salt water. Shore diving lakes/quarries/springs can be every bit as exciting as that tropical reef everyone aspires to. If you have to have salt water to keep it interesting, check into what a good number of members on SB do... kayak diving. You can get past the surf and get closer to the good reefs without paying a bunch of money to ride on a boat.

Sorry to say, but springs/lakes/quarries are not nearly as exciting as are even mediocre coral reefs.

That said, diving inlets and nearshore reefs can be a lot of fun, especially if you night dive them. When I lived in Miami, I used to love night diving the Hollywood area nearshore reefs.

 

[cmufieldhockey8]

No 2 hour drive day trips to the caves unless I carpool with somebody or if its for the entire weekend.

Pack lunch too.

 

[ketchumid]

The cash squeeze is really affecting a lot of plans. What a difference a couple of years make. I’ll be looking to pick up some extra cash this summer by waiting tables at my friends pizza place, hopefully enough tips to put aside some $$ to take the wife and daughter to a tropical location next winter. Besides that I’m land locked and will not venture into the lakes here, (6000 feet elevation- really cold, no dry suit)