Guided diving for advanced divers

[The Chairman]

The whole resort.

How big is the resort and how many people do you need for that to happen?
Sounds like a logistic nightmare, the largest group I have travelled with was 13, it worked, but never again, some people could not agree on the colour of an orange.
More power to you if you can 'deal' with more than 6.

You didn't have @cardzard to herd the kittens. We always have fun.

I doubt that your group dives result in any more dive freedom.

Sure we do.

 

[MB NZ]

Why? You don't like diving anymore? Why?

Why? What am I missing?

You are actually very perceptive. It's not that I don't like diving anymore, it's more a question of how much I am willing to give up for it now. A few issues for me, the one I've highlighted here is hopefully fixable with enough planning. I say the magic is gone because at one time I was willing to put up with pretty much anything just to be diving!

 

[AdivingBel]

I tend to travel alone for diving, so that makes it a little trickier.

Is this by design? Just to clarify...I don't actually "travel" with anyone (except my wife on occasion ). We meet at the dive destinations. We plan our "next" trips over dinner while we're together diving and stay in touch via email. It's not an organized group nor is it always the same divers or same size group (sometimes just one or two others). It's just a loose amalgamation of experienced, "somewhat like minded," "no drama (this is key)" divers that have found each other over the years partly due to trying to avoid the situation you described. It doesn't happen overnight, but they are out there if you're looking for them. It's part of the beauty of the "common ground" of dive travel plus it gives you something else to do between dives. You don't have to be a social animal...just not completely anti-social. Try looking around on your next trip. I hope you have a next trip...

 

[MB NZ]

Is this by design?

Not really. We have a son who is too young to dive, so I carried on. My wife has more or less given up. Old diving buddies are now spread across the world with families and commitments of their own. New dive buddies have no interest in diving other than catching a lobster and don't see the point of diving just to look at fish!

 

[lermontov]

Not really. We have a son who is too young to dive, so I carried on. My wife has more or less given up. Old diving buddies are now spread across the world with families and commitments of their own. New dive buddies have no interest in diving other than catching a lobster and don't see the point of diving just to look at fish!

you need a new pool of dive buddies that have the same goals -only way to do this is to pay the bucks and go on a tech charter

 

[TMHeimer]

Just back from a long trip to the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Did a mixture of shore, day boat and liveaboard diving. Shore diving was mainly solo and dived with both large and small groups on boats. A lot of it was wonderful, but I didn't particularly enjoy the group diving and especially with larger groups. All divers where highly competent so that wasn't the problem. Being guided around like a sheep just doesn't do it for me anymore. Ironically, I was a dive guide 20 years and have had someone wonderful dives with guides as a customer in the past. These tended to be slow moving dives in small groups looking for macro life. To put this in context, I'm a solo diver at heart and do a lot of independent diving either from my own boat or friend's boats. Just coming up to 1000 dives.The magic has gone and don't think I'd book another dive holiday again, but if I did, group sizes and guiding policy would be discussed well in advance. Anyone else have similar feelings? Any other thoughts?

I agree. On my one tropical trip (Panama) it was just me and the DM for 4 days. Great. Last day was a group when one idiot left the "line" and screwed it up for all. Ironically, I too am approaching 1K (996 dives).

 

[AdivingBel]

Not really. We have a son who is too young to dive, so I carried on. My wife has more or less given up. Old diving buddies are now spread across the world with families and commitments of their own. New dive buddies have no interest in diving other than catching a lobster and don't see the point of diving just to look at fish!

Well that's it buddy...we've got your next few years all planned out for you. All you have to do is continue dive traveling to exotic locales, looking at pretty fishes, all the while looking for a new pool of dive buddies. Sounds like fun. Oh to be you...

 

[Mike_4635]

I have been diving with Aggressor LOBs for the last 13 year over the world. While they will have at least one DM in the water, they have let you dive your own plan with very few exceptions live the hook in dive in Palau.

 

[hedonist222]

I think its how you maneuver before and during that dictates your experience.
When I could not have a private guide at one place and 4 of us were allotted as dive buddies for the coming days, 3 of us were advanced and the 4th, a really sweet lady who consumed her tank in 30 minutes, we agreed with the guide that he would ascend with her and we could carry on. Not 100% ideal because we did want a guide with us at Bunaken and because we did want someone pointing out things to us. But it worked.

At another site, a gentleman who either did not care or did not realize that he was spending, on average, 8 minutes photographing each thing the guide pointed out to us and generally halting our dive because the guide had to wait around till he was done. A quick friendly chat with the dive center and the chap was explained that he had to either hurry up or finance his own guide. He opted for the latter and happy ending for all.

Its just how you handle things. I now get my own guide so as not to impede on anyones dive.

 

[Belzelbub]

Being guided around like a sheep just doesn't do it for me anymore. Ironically, I was a dive guide 20 years and have had someone wonderful dives with guides as a customer in the past. These tended to be slow moving dives in small groups looking for macro life. To put this in context, I'm a solo diver at heart and do a lot of independent diving either from my own boat or friend's boats. Just coming up to 1000 dives.The magic has gone and don't think I'd book another dive holiday again, but if I did, group sizes and guiding policy would be discussed well in advance. Anyone else have similar feelings? Any other thoughts?

Oh, absolutely. Though to be fair, guided dives were never my thing. Apart from training dives, I’ve never actually done a dive while being guided. It’s always been in a small groups of friends. Pretty sure the largest group was 6 people diving off of two boats.

I see videos people post with a large group of divers and just think that it doesn’t really look like much fun to me. I dive to enjoy the wildlife, and often to bring some home for dinner. I don’t dive to be around a bunch of people.

Boating is the same way for me. I go to places where there aren’t many people around. I see these big raft ups at popular sandbars, and just don’t see the draw. Especially when some of those spots are accessible by land.

Different strokes. I get that some people are drawn to these types of activities. Just not for me. I also get that many can really only dive on vacation, so you take what you can get. I’m lucky enough to live near the water and to be able to dive frequently off of private boats. Otherwise, I probably would have hung up the regs a while ago. I want to explore, I don’t want to be led.