Help a Newbie get the Most out of the Great Barrier Reef -- Liveaboard? Spirit of Freedom? ProDive?

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Given the bias to novice divers, do experienced divers become unpaid DiveMasters?
No in our trip al the 'students' or just finished students dove together or with a divemaster if wanted. The other people were independent buddy teams.

They were very Safety oriented (with everybody getting a number at the start of your dive and you had to report your number back in when you came aboard. They also logged al the times and depths. I believe Australian regulations are really strict about max 30m. One guest came up with 30.5 or something and had to sit one dive out as a penalty.. (which i found a bit ovr the top, but maybe it is what is described for them no to get in trouble by an inspection)
 
N
One guest came up with 30.5 or something and had to sit one dive out as a penalty.. (which i found a bit ovr the top,
Never seen that here, no one inspects your SPG or AI computer, you say a figure and they write it down and you sign.
I am sure people came up with a little less than 50 Bar yesterday as there was plenty to see at the deco stop, not one person said they had less than 50 Bar.
Just saying. :wink:
 
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Never seen that here, no one inspects your SPG or AI computer, you say a figure and they write it down and you sign.
I am sure people came up with a little less than 50 Bar yesterday as there was plenty to see at the deco stop, not one person said they had less than 50 Bar.
Just saying. :wink:
There they checked the computer or he was to honest thinking a little overshoot was not a problem.. anyway, he was not happy, and the boat captain also not.
 
and the boat captain also not.
You do know why, don't you?
The paperwork has to be seen to be correct in case "WorkSafe Queensland" ever has to sight it.

Edit: Nanny State rules, another reason I sold the charter boat and compressor.
 
You do know why, don't you?
The paperwork has to be seen to be correct in case "WorkSafe Queensland" ever has to sight it.

Edit: Nanny State rules, another reason I sold the charter boat and compressor.
Struth. Nanny is very strict in Aus. Surprised she’s not outlawed common sense. This rule is a blinder:
  • two copies of the dive team's dive plan
Not one, but two copies. Is it carried in the diver’s briefcase along with the checklists? What if it’s a team of one, or has nanny outlawed solo?

The antithesis of recreational diving in the UK
 
Struth. Nanny is very strict in Aus.
Ha, and you can guess how much is really done when it comes to paper work?
4/5ths of 5/8ths of bugger all.

Did an edit of the wording, I am not a 'wordsmith'.:cool:
 
I was in Australia for diving just once in my life, I had just three days to spend on a LOB in Cairns, and I was there with my family: the wife is also a CMAS instructor, as me, and our sons were 12 and 17.
They were both PADI OW certified, and they got their AOW during this trip. We did choose Pro Dive Cairns as they were the cheapest, and when you choose cheap of course you do not have great expectations. But we were on a strict budget, having to pay for all 4 of us...
Actually our low expectations were exceeded, Pro Dive Cairns revealed to be a solid organization, and my sons got a very good instructor, which was capable of being patient despite the language barrier and the fact that my younger son is dyslexic, so reading the manual, in English, was really hard for him, and the instructor did take the time, between one dive and the other, to slowly explains him all what was required to know.
The program was 11 dives in 3 days, which is really hard for us: we are used, here in the med, to make just one dive per day, max two in exceptional cases.
Se we made only 10 of the 11 dives, jumping over what was planned to be the "best one", a deep dive to 30+ meters on the early morning of day 3. As the previous evening we had 4 dives culminating with a night dive in the middle of a dozen of sharks, which had been just fed with the remaining of the dinner, we did not have enough juice for waking up at 6 o'clock and make a very demanding dive on the morning of day 3.
The Great Barrier revealed to us to be not so great, at least comparing to some more spectacular sites here in the med or at Maldives. My wife was particularly not satisfied of the choice of diving sites, it was evident that this operator brings back repeatedly their customers in the same 11 sites, so there was nothing "adventurous".
However for a family trip with our sons not yet well experienced it was globally a good experience, certainly a very good training for my sons, and everything was perfectly safe, well planed and executed.
So I think that for a not very experienced diver, wanting to improve his skills while enjoying some nice coral reefs, Pro Dive Cairns is a good choice.
For a more experienced diver, searching for more adventurous sites, probably there are better choices.
Please note that my experience is quite outdated, as that trip to Australia was in 2007 ! So, many things could be changed from then....
 
Pro Dive Cairns
2 Divers on the boat yesterday were new divers trained by Pro Dive Cairns and they did very well for new divers.
I was diving with a Commercial diver from Europe [also a PADI divemaster and CMAS 3 star trained] we both thought they did very well.
So the standard is still good up there, good to see, a few operators could learn from them IMHO.
 
I dunno. I dived a couple weeks ago and two people on that trip had got their AOW from Pro Dive livaboard in Cairns.
I wouldn’t have even certified these guys for Open water. Whole diver vertical, bicycle kicking every bit if sand off the ocean floor the whole way, terrible buoyancy control and blasted through their air in 25mins.
Doesn’t seem like the standards are very high to fling out those C cards there.
 
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