How lucky are we?

[diverrex]

Over the past 5 years I've been lucky enough to dive Belize (x2), Curacao, Key Largo (x2), Akumal, Cozumel (x2), Dominica, Grand Cayman and Bonaire. To me there is no problem in having a good DM as a guide. They know where the good stuff is. Case in point on Bonaire in June we did 6 boat dives with a DM, 8 dives on our own from the beach. On the 6 DM guides we saw 5 frogfish, on the 8 dives on our own we saw none. If I spend the money to go to Bonaire I want to see frogfish. Under the right conditions having a good DM is not really much different than diving with a really good buddy. But there are a few key issues, not all dive ops are alike, you have to research and find the good ones. The three things you need IMO are:

Good DM's
6 divers or less
allowed to finish your tank

It's not hard to find the good dive ops that have these three things but you need to seek them out, not just go to any dive op, and it may even cost $5 - $20 a day more, but that's peanuts compared to the total trip cost. It's also my expereince that these type of good dive ops are also used by other good divers, not cruise ship or infrequent vacation divers.

The right DM guide under the right conditions can be a real positive. I can easily count 10 DM guides that I'd love to dive with again, good guides, good divers, good guys (or gals) and helpful with local inside knowledge of topside stuff (bars, restaurants, tourist things to do or not do, etc.). So I wouldn't freak out over having a guide, now not being able to do 60+ minute dives or diving in a group of 16, then I'm not happy, but I've learned how not to do that.

 

[on_two_wheels]

Yeah....I took about a year off after a move and just started diving again in march or april. I had been certified for about 16 months at that point with about 40 dives. Since I started again just this year, I'm now at 86 and looking for 100 by year's end and will have started DM training. Since starting to dive again, I just can't get enough!!! That green, murky water just keeps calling!!

 

[drbill]

California divers often are better trained (and experienced) to handle anything the tropics have to deal out (other than a hurricane!). However, despite all my decades diving in our waters and many places around the globe, I'm just not sure I'm ready for Antarctica or the Arctic, or even the PNW! But then why would any diver in their right mind go there?

 

[iztok]

California divers often are better trained (and experienced) to handle anything the tropics have to deal out (other than a hurricane!). However, despite all my decades diving in our waters and many places around the globe, I'm just not sure I'm ready for Antarctica or the Arctic, or even the PNW! But then why would any diver in their right mind go there?

I am sure that 80/80 divers say the same thing about SoCal and NC Graveyard diving as well! ("Why would any diver in their right mind go there?")

I sure am not ready for Antarctica or Arctic. But I think I could do some easy dives in PNW (easy by PNW standards).

 

[on_two_wheels]

California divers often are better trained (and experienced) to handle anything the tropics have to deal out (other than a hurricane!). However, despite all my decades diving in our waters and many places around the globe, I'm just not sure I'm ready for Antarctica or the Arctic, or even the PNW! But then why would any diver in their right mind go there?

I actually have been to antarctica. I wasn't a diver at the time and wouldn't have had time to dive anyway. However, if I did I'd certainly give it a go....with a local DM.

 

[ligersandtions]

That's what I've been told!

What about Cozumel? Those are beach dives too.

Cozumel is almost exclusively boat diving. It's all drift diving, so the boat doesn't anchor, but rather follows your bubbles and picks you up at the end. I believe all of the diving in Cozumel is done with a DM, but some ops will let those with better consumption stay down longer.

 

[Leejnd]

The right DM guide under the right conditions can be a real positive. I can easily count 10 DM guides that I'd love to dive with again, good guides, good divers, good guys (or gals) and helpful with local inside knowledge of topside stuff (bars, restaurants, tourist things to do or not do, etc.). So I wouldn't freak out over having a guide, now not being able to do 60+ minute dives or diving in a group of 16, then I'm not happy, but I've learned how not to do that.

So much of it really is dependent on the DM you get. I've had awesome DMs (French Polynesia, Costa Rica, Bali) and horrible DMs (Galapagos, Belize [at the Blue Hole]). The awesome ones added hugely to my dive enjoyment - I saw things that I never would have known even to look for. And they seemed way more focused on ensuring our enjoyment than on being babysitters or herders. The bad ones - well, one of them almost killed me, but I won't rehash that story. Let's just say I would have been way better off at those dive sites without a DM at all.

I agree with your advice to do your homework. You can't really know for sure that the DM you get is gonna be top-notch (unless you request someone specifically that you know is good) but if the dive op itself is willing to have these discussions and commits to running the dives appropriately, you have good shot. But even then, you might get stuck with a bad one - in the Galapagos I did as much research as I could, and thought I'd picked a good op - but then they outsourced our dive to a sub-standard op, which we didn't realize until afterward.

Cozumel is almost exclusively boat diving. It's all drift diving, so the boat doesn't anchor, but rather follows your bubbles and picks you up at the end. I believe all of the diving in Cozumel is done with a DM, but some ops will let those with better consumption stay down longer.

I actually have no problem doing a DM-led group dive on drift dives. Some sites just work better that way. When we did the Tiputa Pass in Rangiroa, the current is so strong that you end up a looong distance away from the boat. If everyone went off and did their own thing, picking everyone up would be a nightmare! So in that case, it just makes sense to do small-group dives with a DM leading.