How to meet like minded divers whilst travelling solo in Australia?

[MLangridge]

Hi everybody,

I'm new to all of this but am heading out to Australia in early December for a couple of months and would really like to meet some other solo travellers to add to the fun of the diving. I'm 22 and a recent graduate from the UK, travelling for a while before I start work and am worried that when I look at all of the dive groups/ holidays it seems like they are mainly aimed at highly experienced divers or couples. Being young and single, whilst I am keen to spend a good amount of time diving while I am over there, it would also be great to find like minded individuals to help enhance the social side for me.

If anybody has any advice for how I might be able to find a group of such individuals to dive with or if you are in a similar situation it would be great to hear from the community here. Also I know saying Australia is very vague but I haven't yet booked or decided on any exact destination, if anyone sees this post and knows of some not to be missed dive locations or dive schools that would be great help too!

Thanks in advance,

Michael

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

This forum is the best place to start! Lots of divers post their intentions and ask if any local divers want to meet up and dive with them, so try posting here when you are going to a destination. Also there are a lot of dove shops and clubs all over the place so look them up as they usually schedule trips and can advise upcoming events. If you go on any of the over night trip or day trips scheduled out of the tourist places the majority of divers will be solo and are buddied up with like minded people on the trip. I think you will find some buddies quite easily So welcome to Scubaboard and also to Australia

 

[Wingy]

Everything as Aquapro has said - also - pop up notices on backpackers windows, join couchsurfers so you know where they regularly hold events, join HelpEX so your profile is up there and you may find another person with similar (hopefully diving) interests. All dive shops and clubs - and the australian diving forum - are good resources. Aussie dayboats are very often full of singles......no one gets bent out of shape about being buddied up with another diver.......id never heard the term instabuddy until scubaboard. You may have people doing their open water dives through to 70 year olds with thousands of dives. Geographically working out which coast you are going to be on will be a good place to start looking online and also check FB for Australian Underwater Photographers group etc.

 

[WetPup]

Agree with all of the above. I usually end up on dive trips on my own because my partner doesn't dive. If there's nobody to buddy up with, I usually just end up diving with the divemaster for the day for no extra cost. It seems fairly common - a lot of the day trip boats, and even most liveaboards will have other passengers in the same situation. I've met some awesome people this way, and some random buddy I got paired up with for a day 15 years ago I'm still in contact with.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

All of the above plus I'd suggest you also do some research on critters. We have some pretty unusual critters, Weedy Deadragons, Leaffy Seadragons, Red Indian fish, Pygmy Pipehorse, Dragonfish, Tassled Anglerfish (frogfish according the the USA) Carpet Sharks, Pineapplefish and lot of cuttlefish types to name a few. If any of these critters really appeals to you, you may want to head to the destination where they are commonly found.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Does Australia have "Meetup"? I know that almost anywhere you are you can enter meetup in your computer along with where you're interested and up pops all the meetup groups of various interests. And you may be able to find what you seek and more. All the best!

 

[WetPup]

Yeah, we have Meetup here, but there's no real organisation within the dive community as such in my experience. I went looking for people that way years ago and everything seemed pretty much dead, noone was active. Everyone is just so geographically dispersed that everything more or less gets done through your local dive shop due to practicalities. They're the ones who organise the national park permits you need, and with so much of our diving requiring a boat, most people understandably put that kind of local community organisation in the "too hard basket".

 

[chillyinCanada]

But what of other meetup groups besides just diving?

 

[bowlofpetunias]

If you are in the Sydney area.. we have a lot of excellent shore dives and a number of local shops that will buddy you up with someone.

 

[WetPup]

But what of other meetup groups besides just diving?

In my experience you're better off looking up local organisation's Facebook page. Meetup here is kind of dead.