Dive boat etiquette and buoyancy check

[Lorenzoid]

Why not just do it while the boat is at the dock before you leave?

If possible, sure. I would ask the dive crew what they suggest. Obviously, don't just strap on a tank and jump in the water without their permission. For one thing, you'd probably need the boat ladder to be deployed, as there often isn't any sort of ladder into the water from a boat dock. From the boat, at the dock, is exactly how we were requested to do our weight check before the first dive of a dive resort trip I was on.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Do you have time to meet up with a local instructor? Call the dive boat that you'll be using and ask about what cylinders they provide, so you can figure your weighting out with a local instructor. I'd suggest talking to Ryan @custureri or @LandonL to get you squared away before your boat dives.

 

[fisheater]

If I read your post correctly, you'll be using your own gear on that boat dive. If so, you can get really, really close to your ideal weight before you even hit the water.

Weigh all of your fresh water gear, lead, tank and you. You'll need to add lead equaling 2.5% of that to have the same buoyancy in salt water. (If you'll be using a different tank, you'll need to take into account.)

 

[FGMN-K]

I dove Fort Lauderdale with new gear I bought in June. I sent you a direct message with some information regarding a couple of recommendations

 

[Nemrod]

I’ve been diving my new gear in freshwater and plan to do a boat dive in Fort Lauderdale in a couple months. All my previous diving has been in saltwater with rental gear on boats and I would purposely overweight but now I’m more concerned with buoyancy and trim.

My question: is it okay to ask the crew if I can do a quick buoyancy check before descending on a dive boat since I’ll be in different density water than I’m used to? Or is this something I should sort out before the dive?

Thanks!

In the Fort lauderdale area most of the diving is done by drifting, drift diving. The captain set the groups up at the start point of the dive and in you go when the captain yells Dive! Dive! Dive! So, if you plan a buoyancy check or surface time before descending in what are often hot drops, might not work out. You could get left behind or cause the entire group to miss the reef or ledge or wreck. There is almost always current, sometimes fairly strong, thus the drift diving.

James

 

[seeker242]

Why not just do it while the boat is at the dock before you leave?

A lot of boats will not just let you jump in the water at a busy marina. I would bet their lease specfically prohibits something like that. Could easily get run over by the other idiots driving around.

 

[Rukkian]

Doing a weight check on the way in will potentially hold up the whole group. If everybody else is waiting at the bottom of the mooring burning through their air, you won't be very popular on the boat.
My plan would be to overweight on the first dive and do the check between dives once the boat is moored at the second site or sort out the issue before hand. If you try to do a buoyancy check at the end of a dive you will have an empty, buoyant tank so not the solution.

While I agree with most of this, doing a buoyancy check with a near empty tank is actually a good way. You should be able to sit at 15' deep with an empty tank if you are weighted correctly with little/no air in your bcd.

 

[scrane]

I don't think its a big deal. Dive boat crews deal with this all the time. Just take a pound or two more than you do in fresh water. A couple of pounds overweight is a non issue. If you need to make an adjustment on your next dive.

 

[Ana]

Ask? You don't ask the crew if you can do it. You are the customer. You TELL them that you need to do it.

Then you ask them where and when they would prefer. ( Even on a drift dive they should be able to run a line out so you don't drift away while adjusting your buoyancy )

If they do not cooperate on such a basic safety issue, bail out and go with another boat.

Unless the dive is planned for a weekday with an almost empty boat, I doubt this will fly. Is just not the way of the area. You can TELL the person in the phone taking your reservation whatever you want, they may or may not tell you what will happen for real once you walk onboard.
There are reasons that many locals decide it isn't worth to use charters, this type of flexibility may qualify as one of the many.

Why not just do it while the boat is at the dock before you leave?

If by some miracle they let you get in the water at the dock, the odds of having the salinity at the dock as your dive in the ocean are maybe 50/50 ? I didn't do the calculations, but there are many variables, this area is not like the typical Caribbean islands where the docks are just in a protected lee of some sort ,but pretty much in the same ocean/sea where the dive will take place. Here most of the docks are off the Intracoastal Water Way, and unless yours is next to an inlet during hi tide, the water is brackish with a big range of salinity depending on previous rains, distance to that inlet, and several other factors.

Whatever amount works for you in fresh water add to compensate for the salinity. Like others mentioned above, being a pound or 2 overweight may not be optimal but it is not the end of the world.

 

[Texasguy]

Well, first dive is usually a wreck. A wreck is tied into. You can take all the extra weights, jump in, go down - a controlled sink holding a rope all the way down, then do your weight-in right where the rope ties into the wreck at the bottom. If you have any extra weights you don't want to use, put them next to the rope and enjoy your dive (also helps if you make a mistake and get light at the end of the dive - you return and put them back in). Otherwise you can pick the extra weights up on assent - don't even have to swim with them during your 1st dive, that is the beauty of this method. Then on the boat discard those extra weights. Do the 2nd drift dive already knowing what weights you need.

This will allow you to do:
- On everyone's schedule
- No need to ask for extra permission and be afraid of refusal
- Allows you to complete dive 1 and 2 properly weighted
- Allows to make adjustments at the end of the 1st dive if you make initially a mistake in judgment

Not my first rodeo... 25 or otherwise. Tell me this is not a brilliant solution.