Diving on the cheap

[Moogyboy]

hey everyone

I thought I'd put this question to the board...personally I do most of my diving in quarries around Ohio, and one in particular that's close to home. Always fun, and generally inexpensive. I've only ever been on two faraway dive trips; money's the main reason I don't go on more. I get the dive envy-blues a lot, you know, reading on here about everyone going on beautiful (and frequent) vacations--Caymans, Cozumel, Bonaire, Aruba, all that--and all of everyone's snazzy gear, getting advanced certifications, etc. I don't know if this is strictly a travel related question, I think it has more to do with general approach to diving or something. Are there any thoughts about how and where to maximize one's diving pleasure when one is not exactly well-to-do? Also, I'd like to hear opinions about whether diving might sometimes be too expensive for average people. It sure feels that way sometimes, like I'm out of my league with the real divers who log even 25 a year on three continents. Aiieee...

Anyway, that's my topic for discussion today. I hope it's not a dumb topic.

cheers

Billy S.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I'm not sure what you mean by "average people" but diving can be expensive...or it can be very expensive. Of course what's expensive depends on what you have to spend and on what you are willing to spend. I've known folks who have done lots of expensive diving who didn't have lots of money. It all depends on ones priorities.

I'm lucky in that I hate to travel and I like fresh water. I've had to do enough for business that it's ok with me if I never spend a night away from home again. I also wouldn't be bothered if every meal I ate for the rest of my life was at home either. My interest in what was below the surface in fresh water is what always made me want to dive. I grew up doing lots of fresh water fishing and always wished I could get a good look fo myself...and now I can.

So...we too dive the quarries in the midwest along with some of the natural lakes around that aren't bad diving. We usually do it as a day trip or camp if it's an overnighter which is the next best thing to being home as long as there's a quit uncrowded place to camp.

We also took up cave diving. Missouri is close enough for us to get to over a weekend. We've even gone for just the day but that was tough. Most often we camp but there are some inexpensive hotels around when we're to lazy to pack the extra gear or do the extra work of setting up camp which infringes on dive time.

When we dive the Florida caves we usually camp.

All the above diving is either free of access fees or at least very expensive. Sometimes the helium we use gets to be a burded but there's enough shallow diving available that we can skip that when we want.

When we're up to springing big bucks for a dive boat we dive wrecks in the great lakes. We don't do that too often because between travel, hotel, boat fees, breathing gas and food it can run a grand easy for my wife and I to do two days of diving. Still it's close enough that the trip is worth it even for a single day.

Comapare that kind of diving to what? 3 grand and UP for the two of us to fly to some resort for a week of dives with the resort crowds. Now say I want to bring my son with? I won't say whether or not I could come up with that kind of money or not but I have no desire to. No...give me a local lake, quarry, cave, my whole family and a tent any day.

 

[The Goat Show]

Where are some of the quarries you dive in the Columbus area?
Anything near Dayton?
I go to school in the area and need a place to dive.
Thanks

 

[MSilvia]

no, you're absolutely right... it's an expensive sport, and is prohibitively so for a lot of people. When one of my fiance's friends found out we both owned all of our gear, she assumed we were loaded. Of course... she owns a house and we don't, so part of it might have to do with how big a priority it is in your life.

That not withstanding, I maximize my diving pleasure by doing a lot of beach dives and going from friends' boats between charters and vacations. Moving to the coast helps tremendously... I hardly dove at all when I lived in west Texas. I also try to get in on good deals and travel on the cheap. Some friends and I went to the florida keys for new years, camped out for the week, and the most expensive part of the trip (including airfare, lodging, and a trip to the dry tortugas) was the rental car.

It doesn't have to be exotic to be fun though... I get every bit as much pleasure from diving in cold, low visibility water with good hunting and cool shipwrecks as I do from diving on colorful reefs in marine sanctuarys. I don't care much for quarry dives though... in your shoes, I'd consider moving.

 

[FritzX]

Hi Billy,

Diving is NOT too expensive for average people. It's all a matter of priorities and perseverance. When I started diving 20+ years ago all of my equipment was scrounged on the cheap (I was in high school at the time). Also, I have never been on a diving trip (hope this will be changing soon). Nearly all of my non-class related diving was done from shore in various locations for the cost of an air fill only. The key is to vary the dives so there’s always a sense of adventure and discovery. Sure, adventure and discovery in some Caribbean paradise would ALWAYS be nice, but I never had a problem finding an adventure much closer to home (exploring the remains of old docks and piers, where all sorts of things had been dropped into the water over the years, or pulling lost fishing gear from underwater obstructions, or digging up old crockery beer bottles from the river bottom, etc... ).

Keep the baby Faith

 

[Moogyboy]

hey ho

I too have gotten all my gear pretty cheaply, either used or at discount. I still don't think I've spent over $1500 on all the gear I've ever owned...maybe less than $1000.

The camping idea in places like the Keys sounds like a good idea. I didn't know you could do that. I suppose driving the whole way would cost less than airfare as well. Hmm...

I don't want to sound like I can't stand the quarries, I always love going to those, especially with other people. Camping out overnight at Portage Quarry in northeastern Ohio is one of my favorite dive memories, in fact...the other was diving at Portage in the middle of a raging thunderstorm!

I suppose this dive trip envy is something I need to nip in the bud, eh? Diving is diving. Just need to trek further than Circleville.

cheers

Billy S.

 

[Moogyboy]

note: Those fond memories I mentioned weren't counting Tobermory and Bimini, of course. Now that was some excellent diving.

cheers

Billy S.

 

[DORSETBOY]

Dont know the situation over the pond but diving in the uk can be expensive or actually very inexpensive. I've got a dive shop back in Wales that sells such high volumes that they can undercut the internet dive suppliers which makes a nice change!

Foreign dives for me are generally either done in the red sea or over in thailand, either way in can do a week or even two weeks diving and all other costs inc flights for under £600.

I'm diving at the moment in a semi dry that's lasted me for 4 years (regs the same) and a bcd that's lasted 2 years so far. None have been serviced cos there's nothing wrong with them and Im not going to waste my money. All of my diving equipment, inc two 12l dumpies costs in total about £700 and that's inc my computer too.

 

[JKSteger]

From my limited experience diving so far (about a year); I too wander about some of the trips and such. I've purchased all of my own gear, either used but serviced gear from my LDS or new items from my LDS and have probably spent about $1000.00 USD so far just on gear.

I live south of Atlanta, GA and so am a few hours drive from the Florida spings, Gulf coast and Atlantic Coast. I'm not made of cash and usually camp out wherever I go (for diving out of state). It has been rather inexpensive to actually dive for me. However, I do wander about some divers that have the whole year planed out with dive trips going with groups. I find them to be more expensive than just going by myself and bringing a buddy along as almost each trip the group or LDS wants about $499.00 or $899.00 for a couple of days of diving! I sometimes wonder where they get their prices.

An example would be the Gulf of Mexico trip. I can drive down and back for $50.00, (2) Two tank boat trips for 135.00, camp for $25.00, bring food to either cook or sandwich stuff for about $20.00. This comes to about $230.00 for myself.

One of my LDS's is getting a group to go to the same destination (I provide transportation and food) and they are charging $395.00 dbl occubancy)...For a (2) Two tank boat dives. I know it's probably a fair price due to hotel room rates but I would rather save the hotel and camp. It's all about priorities. I put my loging priority down on the list where other put it up a little higher.

So far for me it hasn't been too expensive but I have never tried to dive in these "dive paradises" either.

This is just my experience so far...YMMV.

Jeremy

 

[DennisS]

The islands are expensive. If you want to go cheapo tropical diving, drive down to Broward County in Florida during the summer. The seas are flat and warm, the rooms are off season rates, there are lots of great shore dives, and a dive is the cost of an air fill and a handful of quarters for the meter.