Dive Operator Best Practices

[vladimir]

IMO dive guides really have a difficult challenge trying to meet the needs of the groups they are assigned to. These seem always to include the newly-minted OW diver with rented gear on his first Ocean dive, the photographer who wants to sit in one place looking at a worm for an hour, and the grumpy old scuba veteran who wants to be left alone.

All of whom would be fine if they didn't have to dive together, as a group. One of the pleasures of liveaboard diving for me is that the group's diving abilities and expectations (ie, lots of photographers) are usually pretty compatible. The other pleasure ,for me, is (often) not having to dive with the group.

 

[xjeslesx]

Fruit, camera baskets, fluffy pillows, pristine sites, place to hang your wet gear?
Those are things that probably can't and wont be provided in many remote dive locations.

The things I would hope to find on all charter services are:
Safe air, with maintainenced compressor.
Safe tanks, vip and hydro up-to-date, non leaking!
Skilled and safe DM's/guides. ie... don't take divers to 90' with alum 80's and encourage them to stay at depth till 300lbs. (I waved bye bye to the DM at 750lbs).
Skilled and safe captain/boat operator.

As long as the crew can get me back safely I've had a great time.
If the dives are nice it is just iceing on the cake.

 

[ti325v]

Interesting read for me as I am building a new boat for our shop.....We are remote, so we take the safety thing to extremes, we do get the occasional current and the storm that whips up out of no where..... so smb`s and air horns for everybody, all staff, including the boat boy trained in O2, REDUNDANT 02 systems A WORKING A.E.D. yes we have hammocks to stow your gear, a shower on the swim deck, fresh fruit, can accommodate any dietary requirements, hand rails above if the boat is rocking, an enormous ladder, nice table for cameras and such at the back of the boat, 2 enclosed showers, a rinse tank for cameras, plenty of shade, all built into 15 X 4 meters, we are a small operation, we are the only shop in the country to have our air checked. In fact the only one with all of the above SAFETY stuff. As well as depth sounder and gps and satellite phone.
Custom written insurance that will cover your evacuation to the mainland and the chamber. INCLUDED in the cost of your dives, as there is one bank on the island and you better have the $5,000 in hand that the chopper costs or you are gonna die on the deck and $3000 deposit at the door to the chamber your DAN, or DIVE Assure pays you back later here, I am the only op in the country with contacts directly between my insurer the chopper and the chamber.... Sorry though, I am not going to put a hang bar down, if you cannot hold a safety stop, take a course with me....I do however drop a 9 liter tank to 5 meters when we do deep dives. We love to dive at night and we have invested in REALLY good lights for our customers. Mind you we are in a third world country, and I am basically slitting my own wrists by investing in all this stuff, few and far between are the divers who appreciate or understand it, they want to go out with the guy that is $2 cheaper...go figure.....
I am doing this like I wish I had seen it done all my diving career.
Funny, because in some ways I am a real hard ass, and fellow instructors joke that I have to put up a sign "If you have less then 500 dives, go see the other guy" ....of course it is all in good fun.
You my friends on the board would appreciate and understand what I am doing, but the average diver has NO clue.
Wow, why do i sound so bitter ? I love what I do, I am living the dream, in a paradise, My staff are the only ones in the country with health insurance.....Oh that`s right it`s the two dollars....

 

[danvolker]

Interesting read for me as I am building a new boat for our shop.....We are remote, so we take the safety thing to extremes, we do get the occasional current and the storm that whips up out of no where..... so smb`s and air horns for everybody, all staff, including the boat boy trained in O2, REDUNDANT 02 systems A WORKING A.E.D. yes we have hammocks to stow your gear, a shower on the swim deck, fresh fruit, can accommodate any dietary requirements, hand rails above if the boat is rocking, an enormous ladder, nice table for cameras and such at the back of the boat, 2 enclosed showers, a rinse tank for cameras, plenty of shade, all built into 15 X 4 meters, we are a small operation, we are the only shop in the country to have our air checked. In fact the only one with all of the above SAFETY stuff. As well as depth sounder and gps and satellite phone.
Custom written insurance that will cover your evacuation to the mainland and the chamber. INCLUDED in the cost of your dives, as there is one bank on the island and you better have the $5,000 in hand that the chopper costs or you are gonna die on the deck and $3000 deposit at the door to the chamber your DAN, or DIVE Assure pays you back later here, I am the only op in the country with contacts directly between my insurer the chopper and the chamber.... Sorry though, I am not going to put a hang bar down, if you cannot hold a safety stop, take a course with me....I do however drop a 9 liter tank to 5 meters when we do deep dives. We love to dive at night and we have invested in REALLY good lights for our customers. Mind you we are in a third world country, and I am basically slitting my own wrists by investing in all this stuff, few and far between are the divers who appreciate or understand it, they want to go out with the guy that is $2 cheaper...go figure.....
I am doing this like I wish I had seen it done all my diving career.
Funny, because in some ways I am a real hard ass, and fellow instructors joke that I have to put up a sign "If you have less then 500 dives, go see the other guy" ....of course it is all in good fun.
You my friends on the board would appreciate and understand what I am doing, but the average diver has NO clue.
Wow, why do i sound so bitter ? I love what I do, I am living the dream, in a paradise, My staff are the only ones in the country with health insurance.....Oh that`s right it`s the two dollars....

So where is your dive operation "about to be" ?
From what you are talking about so far, your getting a great head start.
Regards,
DanV

 

[Peter Guy]

Interesting read and there certainly seems to be an "experience/area" aspect to the list.

For example, what I would like from a day charter (leave at 8 a.m., back at 1 p.m. -- two dives) is certainly different from a ribbie 15 minutes to dive site, dive and return which is different from a live aboard (whether just overnight or a week or more). Thus the "best" (or "better") practices must relate to those parameters.

HOWEVER, there may well be some that cover all:

a. SAFETY -- shouldn't that always be the first consideration -- including having safe exit and entry practices, good air (if doing fills) and knowing when it is NOT the time to dive "there!"

b. Local Knowledge -- isn't that WHY you have paid someone to take you out -- to get the best diving available? (And Thal, I think your "no guide" commets are just wrong -- especially in an area like KBR's muck diving where the guides can do such a fabulous job of finding the critters that are the reason for the dive.)

c. Honesty -- about what is offered and about who is on the boat which then can alleviate the issues of gaggle diving or not matching divers properly.

So Mike, those are my best practice needs -- a safe, knowledgeable and honest boat operation -- every thing else would be gravy.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

So Mike, those are my best practice needs -- a safe, knowledgeable and honest boat operation -- every thing else would be gravy.

Amen brother!

 

[Randy g]

So where is your dive operation "about to be" ?
From what you are talking about so far, your getting a great head start.
Regards,
DanV

+1

Sounds like someplace I want to go.

 

[iztok]

Sorry though, I am not going to put a hang bar down, if you cannot hold a safety stop, take a course with me....

I am guessing the boat is not anchored or there are no significant currents?

 

[ti325v]

Con Dao Island in Vietnam...
In fact we should have been open there two months ago, but the guy I contracted to rent the boat from doubled the price when I went to pick it up. Thinking I was desperate, and would say yes. Not me brother...I`ll just delay opening while your rental boats sit idle for the seven month low season. The boat will pay for itself in less then 3 years.
It will be the best dive boat in the country. That fisherman basically refurbished old fishing boats in to semi-dive boats. I have designed this boat to be everything I would ever want a dive boat to be.....


About the hang bar.
I have dived off thirty or more boats, 1 had a bar.
If you cannot hold a safety stop, well....my friends did say..."if you have less then 500 dives go see the other guy"...Ripping current ? ascend the anchor line and hold on there, or I drop ascent lines of the back....but if the current is ripping like that it is a drift dive anyway. Also the bar I saw was useless in a current, as anybody holding onto it would just force it up, in fact I imagine in even a moderate current it would get pushed to the surface.
I do everything I can to assure a safe environment, the only reason I can think of for a hang bar, is if you (to put it gently).. need the regs that are there because you were not watching your air, YOUR responsibility or extended decompression.....then we just swim over to the rocks and sit there for 30 minutes....besides this is a totally recreational environment.
I am the one of a handful of people in the country with twins and side mounts.
You do deco diving ? Wow.

 

[spoolin01]

Large tanks, clean air, shallow dive sites, no interference in my dive profile. Everything else wouldn't make up for failing to provide those.