Getting to dive or $$? What's your priority?

[Marie13]

I was looking at air fare for FL for a long weekend of diving in late January/early Feb into FLL. UA was cheaper than SW from ORD. But still over $400? Screw that! I can get at least trips down to Mermet Springs in southern IL for that. Plus since I would drive to Mermet, I can have my own steel tanks (HP80s) and not be forced to use AL80s.

So what trumps it for you? Diving period or do conditions have to be perfect (warm water, excellent viz, etc.)?

 

[victorzamora]

I was looking at air fare for FL for a long weekend of diving in late January/early Feb into FLL. UA was cheaper than SW from ORD. But still over $400? Screw that! I can get at least trips down to Mermet Springs in southern IL for that. Plus since I would drive to Mermet, I can have my own steel tanks (HP80s) and not be forced to use AL80s.

So what trumps it for you? Diving period or do conditions have to be perfect (warm water, excellent viz, etc.)?

So....all diving has a cost, right? Even if you got free fills at home and could fall into divable water off your back porch, you'd have the cost of the time to dive....right? My thinking is it's cost per happiness-unit. One reason I don't dive the Keys is because for not much more money I could do better diving in the Caribbean. $/happy goes up, I go there. I understand that diving in SE Asia is spectacular. I doubt I'd enjoy that diving much that much more than Roatan/Cancun/Belize, and very little PTO hurts it even more.

However, I've got Lake Joccassee ~1hr from me which is >300ffw deep and only costs me $5/person to park (plus gas fills). I don't do it often because I don't love the diving there, so the $/happy is pretty low. A buddy goes frequently, and calls me dumb for going to the FL springs ~6.5hrs away. I say the opposite (and I'm right, of course).

It's all about what you enjoy and whether or not the dollars are worth the grins you get out of it.

Edited to add: It's also about your budget. I'd rather dive 10 good trips (like FL springs) a year than one 2-week SE Asia trip every other year. I'd also rather do 10 good trips (like FL springs) than 20 trips to the local lake.....but if you have the time and money to do 6x 2-week trips to SE Asia per year, then go for it!

 

[uncfnp]

What it takes to get the dive I want and what I want to see. It may be the dive freedom of Bonaire. The coral formations of Cozumel. The cenotes of Mexico. The drift dives and marine life of West Palm Beach. The wrecks off the NC coast.

Hopefully one day...the diversity of the Galapagos. The sea life of the Socorro Islands. The kelp forests and sea lions on the pacific coast. And of course the Indo-pacific adventures.

And this is just a start of the underwater wonders that I want to see. Yep, it ain’t cheap but I’m worth it.

 

[hammet]

Florida can be hit or miss that time of year for (ocean) diving as the wind and waves won't cooperate to let the boats get out of the inlet. I'd say it's about a 50/50 chance for any given day.

 

[hammet]

also, you can't take $$$ with you when your deaded.

 

[The Chairman]

The ocean might be hit or miss, but the caves and springs are always open.

 

[tbone1004]

I'm in the same boat as @victorzamora
Jocassee is a great training place, and any time getting wet is better than being dry. I have pass so for $50/year I can as many people as I can fit in my car and go diving. It also gets me into all of the other state parks which is the justification because I will probably dive Jocassee maybe 4-5x/year. I have free air/nitrox/oxygen fills, and do all of my own gear repair so the cost of that trip is the gas to get out there which is about $15, 2 hours of my time to drive, and then the actual time spent there. The $/happiness units are not very high, but sometimes I just need to get in the water and decompress from work. I have very few free weekends, so it's nice to dive for the sake of diving. If I had a boat and could hit some of the more interesting spots in the lake, I may head up there a bit more often, but I don't, and there isn't a lot of "stuff" to see on the boat ramp at Jocassee. The most entertainment is people watching the divers up there.

Florida springs is tough for a normal weekend for me because I hate the highway slog to get down there. I need to do that as a long weekend trip for me to really feel like it was worth the drive. The total cost for a 3 day weekend for me ends up being somewhere around $300 based on cost of food/lodging/fuel/gas fills, but it's the 14+ hours in the car that makes it hard for me to justify heading down Friday night, getting one long dive in Saturday, and one short dive in Sunday. Just isn't worth the drive for me so I need those 2 full days of diving for me to justify the drive. Very difficult with limited free weekends this year and with Victor now having basically no PTO.

Keys are basically out because the drive is insane, the diving isn't that great, and the total cost of the trip is very high. If I'm going to do that, like Victor said, I'd much rather look at a liveaboard or go to Roatan or something where the diving is better and the $/happiness units is much higher.


If I were in your shoes, I'd invest in the proper cold water gear, find a buddy with a boat, and dive the wrecks year round once you get at least AN/DP knocked out

 

[MargaritaMike]

also, you can't take $$$ with you when your deaded.

No you can't. I just don't want to run out of $$$ BEFORE I'm deaded.

 

[elgoog]

My thinking is it's cost per happiness-unit.

This x1000 for whatever definition of "happiness" for each individual.

For me, I like diving in different locations as much as I like diving the same sites at home over and over again - the former gives me the variety of reefs, marine life, wrecks, cavern/cave (starting next April, woot!!!) that I want to experience and the latter fulfills my need to be in the water on a weekly basis in an environment that I love. I have a few locations in my list that I want to go to at least once in my life, some that I've already been to that I've decided I'll keep going back to and some that I've been to and probably not repeat.

Cost/convenience is a factor for me in terms of prioritizing what order I go to the various locations in my list. This order makes sense to me but may seem completely arbitrary to someone else. Diving conditions don't have to be perfect but I always try and plan trips around the best chance of good conditions. Even with all the advanced planning, luck is always a factor. I got lucky a couple of times in Mexico and also in the Keys as the weeks I was there were right before/after/in the middle of periods of really bad conditions. Not so lucky this past weekend diving the oil rigs in SoCal - it's already an advanced dive and the ocean conditions made it a fair bit harder; I skipped the 2nd dive due to that.

I dunno, I dive for fun and for the experiences - wherever that takes me. I'm extremely fortunate to be able to afford this hobby and also take time off on a reasonably regular basis to dive where I want to.

 

[stuartv]

Hit up CheapCaribbean.com and book yourself a trip to Coz for not much more - and at an All Inclusive place, so food and drinks are included.

Also, shop harder for a dive op. It's not hard to find ones that have better tank options than AL80s. Maybe not an HP80, but HP100s are pretty easy to get.

To me, diving is about more than just being in the water. It's also about what I get to see. Thus, I will spend the $500 to drive to NC for a weekend, just to do 4 boat dives (hopefully, if the weather cooperates) on wrecks full of sharks. I could stay home and dive at the local quarry for free.