Dive Paradise and Dive computers

[Charlie99]

scubajen once bubbled...
I thought when you are your buddy were down to about 700psi, then you both went up together, got on the dive boat and waited
the others to be done. Guess I assumed wrong.?

What you describe is what I've seen at AquaSafari, Scuba Club Cozumel, and sometimes with ScubaDu. Varies by operator, and which boat of that operator you are on. The better operators group customers by experience level. If you have a boatload of new divers, you don't want them ascending by themselves.

Another variable between operators is whether the dive ends on table time, on the DMs computer, or your computer. I've experienced all three, as well as DMs that want to end the dive at 60 minutes, independent of air and NDL.

There is a wide variance of dive practices, even within the same company. My experience is that once a DM is comfortable with you, anything reasonable is OK. Using nitrox also helps --- such as with the Scuba Club Cozumel DM whose only request was that I not wait more than 15 minutes after he got out of the water before going to safety stop and sending up DSMB. The next dive would start 1 hour after he got out, and the nitrox made my shorter than normal surface interval acceptable.

 

[Charlie99]

scubajen once bubbled...
I guess that is what I get then for being on a large boat.
... I am sure we will still have a good time and maybe on
our next trip we will go on the smaller boats.

There is good and bad about the different sized boats. The really small one are open boats. Not all have shade, and while nice and fast in smooth water, in rougher water they really pound. Most don't have a head.

My favorite size is the "double 6 pack" boats that take up to 12 customers. They will generally be more comfortable, have shade, and a head. My preference is a bit tilted by my preference for going during off weeks, such as 1st week of December or 2nd week of January, when the double 6 pack will probably have only 5 to 8 people --- lots of room.
We may take a few more minutes getting to the dive site, but it is a pleasant journey and an enjoyable part of the trip.


I even like the huge 24 plus passenger boats. They are a great place to absorb the large groups from dive shop organized trips, and this keeps them away from me.

 

[5615mike]

Guys and Gals,

What you are all venting about is exactly why we started diving with Aldora. Now this is not an ad for them but they don't let anyone dive without computers. If you don't have one, they provide one. They will allow you to dive until your gas is gone as long as you don't go beyond the yellow in your deco gauge. Should someone hoover through their gas, DM has an 8ft octo that you share air with him until the next diver gets to 500 to 700 psi and then you start your safety stop. Another benefit is that they use 120 steel tanks but the best is that they allow you to dive your computer within safe limits. They charge more but you don't run into those problems. All boats are small and never more than 6 divers.

Just my .02's worth