Key Largo-Rainbow Reef dives

[boulderjohn]

So are they letting this guy work for free? Does he not get paid? Those wages are built into the price. Rainbow is a business, they exist to make money- nothing less. To think that Rainbow will just eat the cost of paying a DM defies logic and common sense.

This guide has a price, and the divers pay for him; it is just lumped into what you pay for the charter. Take away the guide, and the price of the charter could be less.

Unless we know that the DM is unpaid; it's unlikely that a business will not include the price of the guide in everyone's cost.

Good, but something about this conflicts with "interns". I pay for about 30 or so DM's insurance but all of them are employed permanently. This has to be somewhat of an administrative nightmare for them.

I lived in south Florida for about a month and a half this winter, diving north of Fort Lauderdale. I did a lot of dives, and I saw a surprisingly large number of DM interns. They were learning the ropes of dealing with customers, and they were learning the local practice of tying the boat off to wrecks. I talked with several of them. They were all newly certified DMs. One was actually already an experienced instructor. They were interning with the dive operator to learn the ropes of the local job and make them employable in that market. I have worked with a number of DM candidates here in Colorado. I think I did a pretty good job, but I did not teach them the south Florida practice of dive bombing wrecks and tying off to them; I don't have anything like that anywhere near me, and I have never done it myself. All my graduates would need some similar sort of internship to learn those specific skills and become employable in that market.

Some DM candidates also work as interns on boats, but they cannot do that unless they are supervised in that work by an instructor. The reason is the insurance factor already mentioned.

I have been diving at least one week a year in south Florida for about 15 years, at least a month for the last four years. I can't begin to estimate how many times I have heard the captain remind the customers at the end of the dive to tip the DM, because he or she works for tips. I have to wonder about the legality of that, so I suspect they have been identified under the peculiar U.S. laws as tipped workers, meaning that the company must pay them a very small minimum wage on the assumption that they will get the rest in tips. Under the law, if they do not get enough money in tips to reach minimum wage, then the company must make up the difference. That doesn't take much. On most trips, my tip alone would come close to doing that. I am not sure because I don't know what the Florida minimum is for tipped workers. The Federal minimum is just over $2/hour.

I have never dived with Rainbow Reef and I don't know diddly squat about them.

 

[carltona]

If you dive anything other than a private charter or a 6-pack with 5 of your best friends you are on a cattle boat and you signed up to be part of the herd. Try to do what 90% of the rest of the cattle DONT DO... Listen to the briefing and take responsibility for yourself. If you're a new diver, PAY for a private guide/instructor to help you. I live in Key Largo and have my own dive boat but I often like to take visitors and guests on a commercial boat especially if the wind is over 15 from the east. Rainbow Reef is one of my 3 favorites. Great boats and very helpful staff.


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[CajunDiva]

Those are nice comments, and I tend to agree with you. Except that I don't like the term "cattle boats". I used to compete in the rodeo arena, and when I hear cattle, it brings to mind a bunch of mindless creatures just following each other around. I don't think there's a scuba diver alive who fits that description!

Just because a dive boat is larger and can accomodate a larger group of divers does not make it a "cattle boat" in my book. If you throw 30 divers on a boat with the skipper and a mate, that might qualify. What Rainbow Reef does is put one guide with each six divers, so you are with a "six-pack" group regardless, and you get great service. (which is included at no extra cost) If you choose not to participate with the guide, then you are in your own "two-pack" (hopefully you have a buddy!) and you still get the great service.

Yes, their boats are large, but they also have wide beams...you don't feel crowded in the least. When the wind blows and the waves kick up, I'd rather be on a battleship any time...the small boats will still be tied up to the dock.

It's all a matter of preference...

 

[boulderjohn]

Just because a dive boat is larger and can accomodate a larger group of divers does not make it a "cattle boat" in my book. If you throw 30 divers on a boat with the skipper and a mate, that might qualify.

I was on a dive boat with about 30 people last year, diving the Duane and the Spiegel Grove in Key Largo. I didn't know hardly anyone when we started, but I got to know some on the long bus ride down, the boat ride, and the long bus ride back. The ones I met were very experienced--hardly cattle.

I was on a boat with nearly that many in Kona, Hawai'i a couple of years ago. We were split into 3 groups. The dive master with our group said that the least experienced diver in that group had over 300 dives.

 

[CajunDiva]

You're so right! But no matter how many dives a diver has completed, they're still a diver. We all go through basically the same training, and it takes a good amount of intelligence and self-reliance and self-confidence to become a scuba diver. I give everyone the same degree of respect...to start out. Some earn it, some are just in it for themselves. Again, it's all about perspective

I can honestly say that I have met more quality friends on dive boats than anywhere else in my life. (Except maybe grade school!)

 

[conchrandy]

Just found out that two of my instructors are RR "Grads". Top notch, too.

 

[CajunDiva]

Just found out that two of my instructors are RR "Grads". Top notch, too.

You will find them at many of the dive ops around the Keys. As NetDoc said, they train more dive instructors than anyone. Rainbow Reef Career Development Center was highly recognized at DEMA