How Best To Choose a Dive Boat Operator?

[quietstorm]

I write to ask your opinions about how best to choose a dive boat operator.

I am an intermediate diver without my own equipment who likes to dive on boat charters. I am new to ScubaBoard, which obviously is a great resource to learn about other divers' opinions of dive boat operators (e.g., Maui Backwall).

But in addition to information posted on ScubaBoard, I am curious as to what other questions I might ask a prospective dive boat operator in order to try to make the best decision. What recommendations do you people have to help make a good choice?

In addition to price, do I ask about DM/diver ratios? Maximum diver loads? Type of boat? Type of equipment? Tanks? What should I be looking for? How do I evaluate their answers? Is there certain equipment I should want to have or to avoid? Types of tanks? Are there different types of boats to have or to avoid? Are there any tell-tale signs that might indicate a dive boat operator is preferable or to be avoided? How best do I evaluate the information I receive?

I have been fortunate to dive in many locations with many dive boat operators, some terrific, some not, but have yet to really learn which questions to ask ahead of time in order to improve my chances of a great boat dive.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[DandyDon]

Since you skipped completing your profile with location and dive experience, it is difficult to address your question.

When I travel, I take about 100# of dive gear and some clothes, as I don't like using rental gear. It's bad enough that I have to use their tanks filled from an air compressor that may never have been tested, but the first questions I start with is: "Do you have 100 cf tanks? Nitrox?" Your other suggestions are good.

After I learn who does have larger tanks and other questions particular to my reason to dive there, then I run here on SB.

 

[friscuba]

It's always worthwhile to scan the message boards and see who the other divers have had a good time with, and more importantly a bad time with. On the message boards, in most cases, recommendations tend to be toploaded with companies who've been around the longest and have the largest vessels... more bodies through means more recommendations (there are companies in Hawaii that can put 200-300+ divers in the water a week, assuming they do an OK or better job they will always get more recommendations than the company who puts 15-30 divers in the water a week, even if they do a good job of it). If you start seeing bad recommendations or complaints about a company, then that's a definite flag.

Things to ask about... size of boat (if that's important to you) as far as carrying capacity and number of passengers they actually carry. Type of boat? You'd probably really need to know your boats to make any kind of an assessment. Even size in overall length can be deceiving, as layout is everything when it comes to useable space. Are dives guided or not? Number of divers per DM? Typical dive profiles and dive times... do they arbitrarily cut dives at "X" minutes or when the first person runs low on air, or do they dive computer profiles and send divers up as they run low, continuing on with others who are within computer limits and have plenty of air. Beverages and lunch or snack provided? Head on board? - if that's important to you - most larger boats have 'em, but I've known of several over the yeras that flat out disable them so they don't have to deal with the cleanup (many ops the standard is to just hop overboard). You can also ask how long their typical day runs, that may give you some insight as to whether they rush things or not - keep in mind a 5 hour day with 24 passengers is not the same as a 5 hour day with 6 passegers, it takes a lot of time to get tha many people off, and back on, a boat twice.

If you are flat out concerned that the operator is legit, boats carrying passengers in Hawaii need to be regestered as passenger vessels, for 6 pack boats you will generally see a set of HA numbers on each side of the bow and the commercial boats will end with a CP (HA####CP) and bigger boats should have a Certificate of Inspection visible somewhere. Of course you can't really determine that over the phone. Also, all "Captains" are required to physically carry their US Coast Guard Licenses on board the craft when in operation.. if in serious doubt, strike up a conversation and wonder out loud what a Coast Guard license looks like. There should be a licensed Captain on board at all times, that means if the Captain is leading the dive, without another licensed Captain on board, you might wonder. Running into a "business" that's operating without this stuff is uncommon here, but not unheard of.

Size of tanks is a worthwhile question. You generally don't find a lot of 100s in Hawaii, 80 aluminums with the occasional steel are common. I've seen lots of steel and aluminum 72s out there (the aluminum 72 looks like an 80 to most casual observers). If you have a DIN reg setup, either travel with an adapter or call ahead to see if they have DIN tanks, they're not all that common here. Nitrox availability is a good question, many have it available but don't really advertise that fact.

If you are wanting the back wall of Molokini specifically, do ask if they go there when conditions allow. I'd kind of be leery about any dive operators who can say what dive site they're going to before they even get out on the water, a general area maybe, not specific sites as conditions, or the fact that someone else may already be there, can come into play.

In the end, picking a dive operator is still somewhat of a crap shoot. Have fun.

 

[DandyDon]

In the end, picking a dive operator is still somewhat of a crap shoot. Have fun.

Sounds like my experiences, other than when I followed suggestions from SB.

 

[Leejnd]

I have recently had the good fortune to do a lot of dive travel, so I've had to select dive ops and boats at places such as Belize, Costa Rica, Pensacola, and Bali (leaving for Bali in a week...woohoo!) I can tell you the questions that I've been asking, as well as what I *didin't* ask that came back to bite me.

Before you can even know where to begin, you need to know something about the way boats in that area operate. It can vary dramatically depending on the region. For example, in many popular tropical regions, dive boats tend to run DM-led dives, where all the divers are expected to follow the DM, whereas here in SoCal, the boats tend to expect the divers to go off on their own and be able to find their own way back to the boat. So that is always the first question I ask...do they run DM-led dives, or are you allowed to be independent?

Some dive ops/boats simply do not allow independent diving -- every diver is expected to hang with the DM. That's fine, I'm okay with that, if that's the standard procedure around there (and in cases where it's a drift dive, it's pretty much expected)...PROVIDED they will send the divers who blow through their tanks early up to do their safety stops on their own, and allow those of us with lower SAC rates to finish our dive. Only once was this a problem for me, on a dive in Tahiti -- we had a couple very new divers with us, and I still had 1800 psi on my tank by the time they'd blown through theirs, yet the DM made us all end our dives. (I didn't dive with them again!) My feeling about that is that we are all certified divers, and should be expected to be capable of handling a safety stop without a babysitter.

Others above mentioned some other things to ask about with respect to DM-led dives...and I would point out the question about how many divers per DM. This recently was an issue for me in Belize -- we did most of our dives on a dive boat that only had 6 divers per DM, which was great. We did one dive day with a different boat, and we ended up with group of about 30, with two DM's. It was a mess. We went back to the other boat.

I just recently learned (here on SB) about how some dive ops give you AL 72's. I'm told this sometimes happens in Bali -- I'm about to head there, and I now know to watch out for that. Hey I'm paying the big bucks for these dives, and I can't exactly haul my tanks across the planet to go there, so I'm expecting to have a regular sized tank for my dives there, ya know?

If you are looking at dive boats in regions where you are NOT going to be DM-led, then that opens up a whole host of other questions. What are the typical conditions and expertise level of the dive spots they frequent? Some boat trips may be headed for areas that are beyond your skills...around here there are a few dive sites that really should only be visited by experienced divers, and it's important to know before you board if that is where they are planning on going. Will they be in areas known to have strong currents? Do they have a chase boat in case you get caught in one, or your navigation skills fail you (as has happened to me!)?

While this may not be very important to some, I DO like to know what I'm going to be eating for lunch. We have a few boats around here that serve downright gourmet meals, including full hot breakfasts and homemade lunches! While others pick up muffins and a deli plate from Costco. Hey, it matters!

If you are going to an area where you have never been before, don't just assume the boat will be appropriate for the region. We made plans to dive Isla del Cano in Costa Rica a few months ago, and were told that it was a 2.5 hour trip across the open ocean to the island. I made the (erroneous) assumption that the boat would be an appropriate one for that kind of trip. WRONG! I shoulda done my homework. Turned out to be a small open craft with nothing but hard benches for seats, cram-packed with too many divers, plowing at full-throttle across heavy seas, pounding with bone-crushing intensity through waves that splashed full-force into our faces with no protection, for 2 1/2 of the most miserable hours of my life. We stopped halfway so the men could pee off the side...in full view of the women...who had to sit there and squirm until we got to the dive site and could jump in to relieve ourselves. Lessons learned there for sure!

It's great that you are asking these questions now. I could have prevented some less-than-desireable diving situations had I had the foresight to ask these questions in advance myself.

 

[RoyN]

The people on the boat were very friendly eventually became my new mom and dad.

 

[johnny_bravo]

I think a) Scubaboard reviews and b) good Interweb site...if (a) or (b) exists most of your questions like size of boat or procedures will be answered.

Cheers.

-J.-

 

[AbyssalPlains]

The people on the boat were very friendly eventually became my new mom and dad.

Uuuh....what?

 

[DandyDon]

Uuuh....what?

He adopted some people to finance his scuba trips...?

Posted on the wrong thread, I guess.

 

[diversteve]

I generally look for Newton (mfr.) dive boats if possible. As they're often outfitted with divers in mind. Converted cabin cruisers, catamarans, six-packs etc. are likely going to be harder to get off/on or require more donning/removing gear while still in the water. Exception being liveaboards.

I also look for the diver/capacity ratio. And give extra attention to outfits that post on their website: Our capacity is xx but we only take x divers per trip.

Any time a diveop talks about their cruise ship dives, that's a potential red flag for me. I've never had that work out well.

Bigger tanks is a bonus but I've only seen that once. I also like non-DM led diving with a good briefing.