As a followup to @sunseek’s post about the experience needed to dive Raja Ampat, I have some additional questions. Instead of hijacking her/his thread, I thought it might be better to post my specific questions separately.
My husband and I are headed to Raja Ampat over Christmas 2023-- 11 days on the Amira followed by 7 days at the RA Dive Lodge. I consider myself a novice diver— we currently have 150 dives each (AOW, Nitrox). My air consumption on my last trip ranged from .43 cf/M to .55 cf/M. Our experience includes two LOBs --in the GBR/Australia and Turks & Caicos. We have also done diving in Rangiroa (Tiputa Pass), Bora Bora, Fiji (Tavauni), Grand Cayman, Bali, Loreto/ Baja, Hawaii, etc. We have two dive trips booked between now and RA to log more dives (10 days in Belize in April and 7 days in Loreto/Baja in Sept).
After reading about the challenging currents, I'm a little nervous about diving RA, to be honest. We often hire personal guides on our trips if they are available, but the Amira does not offer that-- they have 1 guide per 4 divers. We have never done diving that required reef hooks --we only recently purchased them in preparation for our trip. While we have our own DSMBs, we're not proficient at using them and have relied on our DM to deploy his. We've never done what I think is a negative entry, although we dove Rangiroa’s Tiputa Pass from zodiacs with a relatively quick back roll entry required.
My question is this: if you haven't used reef hooks or done negative entries before, how do you get that experience before going places that have strong current that require those skills? I’ve deployed a DSMB in a pool, but I know I should get some open water experience doing it before RA and I think I'll try to hire a private DM to do that with me in Belize when we’re there next month.
I welcome any advice on how I can improve my skills before heading to Raja Ampat as I like being prepared.
My husband and I are headed to Raja Ampat over Christmas 2023-- 11 days on the Amira followed by 7 days at the RA Dive Lodge. I consider myself a novice diver— we currently have 150 dives each (AOW, Nitrox). My air consumption on my last trip ranged from .43 cf/M to .55 cf/M. Our experience includes two LOBs --in the GBR/Australia and Turks & Caicos. We have also done diving in Rangiroa (Tiputa Pass), Bora Bora, Fiji (Tavauni), Grand Cayman, Bali, Loreto/ Baja, Hawaii, etc. We have two dive trips booked between now and RA to log more dives (10 days in Belize in April and 7 days in Loreto/Baja in Sept).
After reading about the challenging currents, I'm a little nervous about diving RA, to be honest. We often hire personal guides on our trips if they are available, but the Amira does not offer that-- they have 1 guide per 4 divers. We have never done diving that required reef hooks --we only recently purchased them in preparation for our trip. While we have our own DSMBs, we're not proficient at using them and have relied on our DM to deploy his. We've never done what I think is a negative entry, although we dove Rangiroa’s Tiputa Pass from zodiacs with a relatively quick back roll entry required.
My question is this: if you haven't used reef hooks or done negative entries before, how do you get that experience before going places that have strong current that require those skills? I’ve deployed a DSMB in a pool, but I know I should get some open water experience doing it before RA and I think I'll try to hire a private DM to do that with me in Belize when we’re there next month.
I welcome any advice on how I can improve my skills before heading to Raja Ampat as I like being prepared.
)
