How do I find a liveaboard that will let me dive MY way?

[Cali_diver]

I agree, Damaii would be a great choice. They let you get right back in the water with a new tank, especially when you find something great.... but you might have to get a massage!

 

[ronscuba]

I've been on 5+ liveaboards and haven't found any of them to be overly restrictive.

The dive site and conditions determined whether or not divers were allowed to go out on their own.

Easy calm site, diving was open once the boat anchored. You come/go as you pleased. Drift diving followed by a tender, it was expected for divers to stay in the general area of the group. Seems very reasonable to me.

I can't imagine any liveaboard boat letting 2 divers go out on their own if it was a drift dive site or required a tender to get there.

 

[TSandM]

Check out Red Sea Explorers, and the MV Tala. Al80 doubles, open gates, scooters -- sometimes there's a max dive time, if they need to keep the boat on schedule; other times, it's up to you. If you are set on solo, I don't know what they think about that. I don't dive solo, so I never asked.

 

[blatter]

Having to dive with a group sounds like a total nightmare.

Bilikiki in the Solomons will treat you like a grown up and let you do your own thing. Dive times generally not limited and only limited when the boat has to move to another site, which isn't often. They give briefs of course, and have an instructor in the water on every dive, but you don't have to dive with the group or with others and you are free to dive pretty much how you want. Excellent boat and trips!

 

[Deitsch]

I went back and forth via email with somebody representing the Indo Siren, and in the end it sounded like they were still pretty controlling. The exact words were,

"Our cruise director is responsible for the safety of our guests (and for the safety reputation of our fleet) and will learn about the diving skills of our guests during the first few dives. First after that can be decided, who will dive with who and who will be allowed to dive without a dive guide."

That's a step in the right direction, but just saying they are responsible for the safety of the guests doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I'm still looking!

I was on Indo Siren in January/February this year and after the first couple of dives to make sure we knew what we were doing, we were allowed to do our own thing. They didn't open the gate for 4 hours like you are asking for because we were on a schedule to get from one site to another but they did give us our bottom time limit (typically 70 minutes) and then we could go off on our own. I was on a 10 day photo workshop, 3-4 dives a day and often found myself alone.

There were sites where I wanted a dive guide because I was looking for something in particular and I would arrange it with the guide ahead of time. Once he found me what I was looking for, we parted ways and I had the rest of the dive to myself.

My experience is that most liveaboards treat you this way once you have shown that you are an experienced and responsible diver.

 

[zf2nt]

Having to dive with a group sounds like a total nightmare.

Well, yes and no. When it's a screaming fast drift dive I don't see any other way it can be done. And we did a couple of those. But when it's still water and you are scouring a bare silty bottom for Ribbon Eels and such then yes, it's almost not worth diving if you have to follow a group. In fact, there was 1 day on our 10 day trip where that was the case. After the first dive of the day, I just stayed in my cabin and read my book. My wife went and told me about it afterwards and it sounded totally boring.

What was interesting to me was that initially I signed up to use Nitrox for the whole trip. But after the first dive, when I learned how closely the DM's wanted to supervise the dives, I managed to back out of the Nitrox program and just use air, thereby saving myself $300. Sure enough, they were so nearly following air profiles that there were only two dives I did the entire rest of the trip where I can truly say that using Nitrox would have been an advantage. (I never took the GUE pledge so can dive on air in good conscience!)

 

[ronscuba]

Very surprised to hear you had to follow the group on still water dives. I've only experienced that on the 1st checkout dive. Were you diving via a tender or open off the back of the main boat ?

 

[Shasta_man]

Wasted time/skipped dives in Komodo because you had to dive with a group?! That's an experience I'll never have. Seems like every boat I went on were we drop as a group but then it's a loose group just in the general area of the guide and you might not even see the guide again until I get back on the skiff. If you want to stay with them, you can but we always surface independently all over the place. Sometimes you end up with the guide, sometimes not. I get a lot of value out of guides showing critters I would likely swim by without noticing, and I don't feel like they are forcing me along or requiring me to surface early. I also end up getting to know the guides, particularly those actually from the place you are at rather than expats, and having a good time with them and some times it really pays off. (Way too much kava on the last liveaboard in Fiji..)

 

[Akimbo]

You probably won’t like liveboards where you dive off small supports boats as well as directly off the deck. The logistics requires you to keep on schedule with others, both departing and surfacing, even if they don’t require buddy teams.

Some boats will allow solo, but require a c-card. Generally, they are less restrictive than boats that have a published no-solo policy, but they may still put depth, time, and decompression limits on you. They may also require you to wear a pony, yet still restrict doubles or rebreathers.

Another factor that I find makes a huge difference is the skill level of other divers onboard, even if you dive solo. It is always better if you can book with a more experienced group. The captain will chose dive spots that are “suitable for the majority” if you are lucky, or the “lowest common denominator” if you’re not. I doubt you want to spend all that money and be on “bunny slope” dives. Dive masters will usually be less up-tight with highly skilled divers and you are more likely to learn interesting stuff from passengers and crew.

Demonstrating diving and seamanship skills help the captain and crew to trust you — pretty understandable really, they do have responsibilities. It is well worth spending some time in the beginning to get to know them and ask questions. They know that the divers most likely to hurt themselves are the ones who act like they know everything and stay aloof. You can learn a lot and it helps them to understand that you can be trusted, but it also helps you to evaluate them. Don’t hesitate to ask for tours of the engineering spaces (engine room, compressor room, etc), mooring systems, and pilot house. See http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/485101-diving-seamanship.html

 

[Worldwide Dive and Sail]

I went back and forth via email with somebody representing the Indo Siren, and in the end it sounded like they were still pretty controlling. The exact words were,

"Our cruise director is responsible for the safety of our guests (and for the safety reputation of our fleet) and will learn about the diving skills of our guests during the first few dives. First after that can be decided, who will dive with who and who will be allowed to dive without a dive guide."

That's a step in the right direction, but just saying they are responsible for the safety of the guests doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I'm still looking!

Hi z2fnt

Thanks for your interest in diving with Indo Siren in Raja Ampat. The query about your booking and how we dive came to us from a third party agent without any information provided in the initial email regarding your certification/ experience level.

This is how the request came through to our reservations team.. "they are asking for a written reassurance from the boat that they can dive independently. Is this possible?"
As such our reservations team responded as above stating also "we will not give written assurance to divers we do not know, that they will be allowed to dive without a dive guide."

On a typical Siren Fleet trip the cruise director & dive team checks everyone's cert levels & experience on the first dive and divides groups accordingly. The divers within that group then have the option to stay with the guide or simply wave bye-bye and do their own thing (within the guidelines of the dive briefing- times, recommended depths etc)

In our brochure we state "Guests may choose to join one of our dive pros or dive unguided with your buddy. The choice is yours!"

That said, the crew are responsible for all the guests on board and I think we can all agree that if 1 diver goes off gung-ho pushing limits and gets bent - that can have a detrimental effect on the trip for the rest of those on board. So any company has to be cautious in giving written assurances upfront that a diver they have not met can dive independently of the group - especially in remote locations.

In light of this response, and perhaps the overview given by Andy Deitsch of his trip in Feb 2014, we hope you might reconsider joining Indo Siren in Raja Ampat and feel free to contact our team directly or send a pm over scubaboard.

Best wishes,
Siren Fleet Marketing