I just got back from my first boat dive. What a great day. A friend had invited me on a trip to Molokini aboard the Maui Diamond II, he had 2 free tickets . . . I was not going to pass that up! They treated us so well I figured I'd share the trip with everyone in the Hawaii Ohana.
My buddy picked me up at 5:30am and by 6:30 we were getting onboard. This being my first boat dive I had no clue what to expect. I was pleased that they let me use my own tanks (I use DIN).
There were 15 of us onboard, 5 scuba divers, 5 intro scuba/snorklers and 5 crewmembers. They call themselves a "valet" dive service, so they do everything for you. Loaded all my gear, unpacked for me and brought me my gear. Seth, our Divemaster, set up my gear (which I checked afterwards) but if I had asked I'm sure he would have let me do it myself.
The Boat itself I'm guessing was about 35ft. and probably had enough room for several more passengers. I was relieved (bad pun I know) to see there was a head onboard. And lots of benches to sit on. We travelled at a consistent 18knots, and the trip took about 60-70 minutes each way.
Diving a Hogarthian (nearly DIR) rig I expected some comments/questions, especially being such a new diver. While there were a lot of questions, which I did my best to answer, no one called me a "tech wannabe" or any such thing, and I never got the impression that they thought so either, they treated me (and each of the other passengers) with professionalism, respect and with an air of friendliness.
I explained that I had chosen a gear configuration which I could use no matter what type of diving I eventually got into and was very comfortable with the bp/wing and long hose configuration. I explained that it was my first boat dive, so Seth went over the procedures very carefully with me about entries and exits. He set the turn point at 1500psi with a max depth of 85ft. He also went over hand signals that he used and a great deal of other "safety" and "legal" type stuff in a humorous manner.
The Dive itself began with us sitting on the edge of the transom, the crew put our "BC's" on us, which gave me a bit of difficulty since I'm used to donning/doffing my gear alone and have my own "system" that I'm comfortable with, but I tried doing things their way and just laughed at the trouble I had being helped. My first giant stride later and I was in the water. We all decended to the bottome at about 35ft. together (the average depth of the first dive was 41ft.) Seth had a nice balance of keeping us together and showing us the sights vs. leave them alone to explore. He led us down a sloping "wall" (more a slope than a cliff) to 85 ft where a "school" (herd, flock or whatever) of white tip and gray sharks were. Well over a dozen of them, all juvenile, several nice morray eels, and lots of reef.
We worked back up the slope, ascended, did a 3 min. safety stop at 15ft. then surfaced. After waiting for my turn I handed my weightbelt up (took a bit of work to get it off, since it was under my crotch strap) then the crew took all of my gear, except fins (mental note: remember to remove bungeed backup from neck before giving anyone your bc) and I climbed up the ladder.
After a 30 minute SI we went back in (I would have been more comfortable with a 1 hr. SI, which is about my only complaint of the day) At 70ft we watched a large group of garden eels. Seth had us "sneak" up on them and keep our distance so that we did not scare them away. We watched another shark under a ledge, which shortly thereafter came out and got close enough to reach out and touch. We ascended, did a safety stop (we had pushed NDL's on the computer to within 1 minute) and then surfaced. After my "practice" earlier the weight belt was a bit easier to doff and this time I remembered to take the backup reg off before handing up my gear.
The water on the return trip had gotten a little choppy, making for a few bumps with seas about 1-3 ft., but it was only a 1 hour trip back to Maalaeia harbor. Deli Sandwiches, soda and chips were a nice light lunch on the ride back. Once back at the harbor the crew unloaded our gear, put it into the van for us and my buddy and I headed back to Lahaina.
My buddy tells me that on his scale of 1-10 he gave our DM a 9.3 and that he was the second best DM he had dove with. I have nothing to compare it to, just lots learned, and much more to go. So in my book it was a great day - not even a hint of seasickness! (note: taking motion sickness medicine the night before really works well)
Aloha my fellow ScubaBoarders, and thanks for letting me share with ya' all. (did you actually read this whole thing? . . . why??? - j/k) I think it ended up sounding like a commercial, but I was really happy with the day.
Tim
My buddy picked me up at 5:30am and by 6:30 we were getting onboard. This being my first boat dive I had no clue what to expect. I was pleased that they let me use my own tanks (I use DIN).
There were 15 of us onboard, 5 scuba divers, 5 intro scuba/snorklers and 5 crewmembers. They call themselves a "valet" dive service, so they do everything for you. Loaded all my gear, unpacked for me and brought me my gear. Seth, our Divemaster, set up my gear (which I checked afterwards) but if I had asked I'm sure he would have let me do it myself.
The Boat itself I'm guessing was about 35ft. and probably had enough room for several more passengers. I was relieved (bad pun I know) to see there was a head onboard. And lots of benches to sit on. We travelled at a consistent 18knots, and the trip took about 60-70 minutes each way.
Diving a Hogarthian (nearly DIR) rig I expected some comments/questions, especially being such a new diver. While there were a lot of questions, which I did my best to answer, no one called me a "tech wannabe" or any such thing, and I never got the impression that they thought so either, they treated me (and each of the other passengers) with professionalism, respect and with an air of friendliness.
I explained that I had chosen a gear configuration which I could use no matter what type of diving I eventually got into and was very comfortable with the bp/wing and long hose configuration. I explained that it was my first boat dive, so Seth went over the procedures very carefully with me about entries and exits. He set the turn point at 1500psi with a max depth of 85ft. He also went over hand signals that he used and a great deal of other "safety" and "legal" type stuff in a humorous manner.
The Dive itself began with us sitting on the edge of the transom, the crew put our "BC's" on us, which gave me a bit of difficulty since I'm used to donning/doffing my gear alone and have my own "system" that I'm comfortable with, but I tried doing things their way and just laughed at the trouble I had being helped. My first giant stride later and I was in the water. We all decended to the bottome at about 35ft. together (the average depth of the first dive was 41ft.) Seth had a nice balance of keeping us together and showing us the sights vs. leave them alone to explore. He led us down a sloping "wall" (more a slope than a cliff) to 85 ft where a "school" (herd, flock or whatever) of white tip and gray sharks were. Well over a dozen of them, all juvenile, several nice morray eels, and lots of reef.
We worked back up the slope, ascended, did a 3 min. safety stop at 15ft. then surfaced. After waiting for my turn I handed my weightbelt up (took a bit of work to get it off, since it was under my crotch strap) then the crew took all of my gear, except fins (mental note: remember to remove bungeed backup from neck before giving anyone your bc) and I climbed up the ladder.
After a 30 minute SI we went back in (I would have been more comfortable with a 1 hr. SI, which is about my only complaint of the day) At 70ft we watched a large group of garden eels. Seth had us "sneak" up on them and keep our distance so that we did not scare them away. We watched another shark under a ledge, which shortly thereafter came out and got close enough to reach out and touch. We ascended, did a safety stop (we had pushed NDL's on the computer to within 1 minute) and then surfaced. After my "practice" earlier the weight belt was a bit easier to doff and this time I remembered to take the backup reg off before handing up my gear.
The water on the return trip had gotten a little choppy, making for a few bumps with seas about 1-3 ft., but it was only a 1 hour trip back to Maalaeia harbor. Deli Sandwiches, soda and chips were a nice light lunch on the ride back. Once back at the harbor the crew unloaded our gear, put it into the van for us and my buddy and I headed back to Lahaina.
My buddy tells me that on his scale of 1-10 he gave our DM a 9.3 and that he was the second best DM he had dove with. I have nothing to compare it to, just lots learned, and much more to go. So in my book it was a great day - not even a hint of seasickness! (note: taking motion sickness medicine the night before really works well)
Aloha my fellow ScubaBoarders, and thanks for letting me share with ya' all. (did you actually read this whole thing? . . . why??? - j/k) I think it ended up sounding like a commercial, but I was really happy with the day.
Tim
