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From another current thread in this forum, asking about liveaboard diving distinctions between Belize and Roatan, I expand on this, because I think it requires larger, wider view.
It’s an ongoing and never ending question.
I’ve been doing dive travel both ways since 1968, so if you’re clever, you’ll know I’m old. I will thusly begin to ramble.
Take this post as “a whole”. Don’t latch on to one phrase and go all bull-goose looney. That’s too easy. Don’t get distracted by Dunning Krueger. With perspective comes perspective.
This post is all about marketing. When it’s done right, we don’t know it’s happening. The dive industry does not have the skills of CocaCola or even Buick. They are ham handed, but who doesn’t like bacon..
First we must assume you want a dive vacation, not a vacation with diving. What do you really want? Be honest. Land based: Club Dread with comely GOs vs Dive Camp. Or Liveaboard (LOB) schooner full of grog filled buccaneer Diver men...or a floating horizontal metal hotel with Julie and Gopher?
Land based, you can venture outside the fence and get an education. LOB you can understand projectile vomiting. Each has its attractions.
A liveaboard’s greatest utility is to take you to dive sites unreachable by land based. Most LOB offerings no longer provide this.
When LOBs first began widespread use, in the 1970’s, we used them to see and explore those far-flung exotic places like the Nassau and Grand Bahama. Then, newly invented land based competition from UNEXSO forced the liveaboards to move further afield.The exotica of Nassau town faded. James Bond notwithstanding, they still are selling that and the Famous Stewey’s Reef Canned Shark Rodeo. Let’s see the Bahamas out islands. (An excellent use of a liveaboard, still!)
In 1972, know that Cayman was pretty exotic, just short of Kathmandu or Timbuk3.
We dove (the 80s) with the Hughes Antares III off of Los Roques VZ. It opened these crazy good Caribbean dive sites by the simple act of providing access as there was no land based dive infrastructure. Unfortunately at their home port base of ops, the supply line was stretched unmanageably thin. No comestibles, no mechanical components. Boats require “stuff”. There was no supply train, no logistic chain. Even the air connections were dubious. Great diving, it failed.
The NEKTON wanted to invade Roatan in the late 80’s but the ongoing chain-of-supply continuity issues were a deal breaker. They went to Belize instead. LOBs can either try to maintain a physical standard in “the boonies”, or move closer “to town”.
Dive travelers have overall lost their sense of adventure. The internet encourages commentary and nothing demonstrates how suave and wise that you are than well reasoned experiential basis. In the early years we reveled in the parts of the storied trip where things went horribly wrong. Now we turn to Yelp.
Belize is the Caribbean shining example of LOB superiority if you came to dive. LOB’s present no bashing about in dive boats, expansive access to otherwise the highly localized “same reef structure” that each local land based does repeatedly. You even get the Blue Hole, bless your heart.
I look at the Roatan LOB in a similar light as the ships that plied Grenada and Tobago. If I can get the same specific dive sites at land based pricing...why would I spend a week on a converted oil rig crew boat? They’re all deep vee refits, the one Caribe exception is the Aqua Cat which has its own physical limitations. A boat is a boat. You may well notice it moving to some degree.
On Grenada, you dove the exact same sites as land based. There is phenomenal diving on the NE shore, but the LOB stayed hovering by civilization (SW) and sea condition safety. On Tobago, they picked you up in town and stayed just off shore of my grass shack, land-based adventurous-looking diving. Many times I have carried tanks thru the Speyside surf seeing a LOB bobbing offshore. Poor devils.
Are not LOBs the ultimate AI? You don’t have to worry about any pesky natives, insects, or pesky natives. Cruise Ships and LOBs, “splendid isolation” (thank you Warren Zevon)
The Roatan history of LOB attempts is very telling and indicative of operational difficulty. The supply chain was essentially non existent until recently. Now that this has been resolved, a business must deal with the crippling machinations of “taxation” (outright larceny) by every level of Honduran government and extant power structure.
The big draw for Roatan LOB has always been (the promise of) increased opportunity of access to far flung and diverse dive sites. (Different reef architecture) The bugaboo has always been weather and fuel cost (if you now got past food and machine parts). To dive anything other than Roatan’s protected South side is simply not guaranteed. Utila, maybe. Cayos Cochinos, less than maybe. What’s the holy grail? Cisne/Swan. It’s a long steam across open ocean. Then the taxation (usery & graft) fees kick in- it’s only been reached by LOB once.
It is widely accepted the the first Caribbean LOB was the Isla Mia running out of Roatan. Finding your way to Roatan in 1979 aside, now your getting on a wooden boat-shaped thing out even further away from dirt...much less pavement. This might have been the last great adventure, you and Neil Armstrong.
Liveaboards can really open up a zone to diving. When they chose to operate from a port that guarantees reliable provisioning, their value in “exploration” has come to an end. The world has arrived, it’s time to move on...or invent a different sales model.
The modified SCUBA travel sales presentation utilizes the featuring of hollow nutrition candy bars. Yummy sugar but really not much. In the Belize example, you can not find an advert that doesn’t feature the Blue Hole...with a photo from 5,ooo feet above in a plane. Thrilling image, but it’s simply not what you’re going to experience. LOB is the single best way to dive the Belize Blue Hoke. You “can’t not go”, but likely it’s one-and-done. I was there shooting film (real film, to give you an idea of the era), and I can not express how meh it was. Never been back, no thanks.
Roatan’s version of this? Mary’s Place. SDM tells me it’s in the Top 1 List of Dives on Roatan. It’s draw: It is a dark deep narrow crack in the reef structure that looks way different than any other thing on Roatan. Not dissimilar to fascination with “wreck” dives...oooh...a shape, and one that I recognize! Mary’s Place is a wonderful dive site, but for many reasons, 99/100 divers will simply not get to see “the cool stuff”.
Like the Blue Hole in Belize, Roatan’s Mary’s Place...they sell. Hollow calories.
Starting in the 70’s I dove a place we called Truk. Kimeo Isaac in a rowboat. Went inside the Shinohara Maru. Then in the 80’s I did a LOB to Chuk, kept safe by good idea new rules....there to watch some fellow diver (was going to say “idiot”, but I didn’t) he was grinding his wrist Mount in the sand under the steamroller to get that maximum depth reading. You know that place? Got what he wanted.
Some people have a different view of the reason (need, value) of a dive. Is the LOB going to allow me the imprimatur log book card, been-there-dove-that ticket punch? Have whatever you need, but admit and realize that you were sold it with the offer of a Happy Meal.
It is even observable in the land based environment. The definition of a “dive vacation” has changed inarguably over the years since 1980 when it started booming. On Roatan, most visitors stay and dive West End. Of those who dive, most do about 6, even if they bought a 10 dive ticket. Some get them all, not many. My favorite, CCV, lures with the promise of unlimited diving. I still do 27/wk, but not many do more than 17. Yet they are lured by different things, the West End visitors and CCV divers. The psychology is varied. How dare you say I am not a Hondo Diver?
The afterglow from a dive vacation is palpable. The corona from a LOB is quite expected. Best thing ever. Always are. Can’t miss. Perfect. Check back with me after you’ve been around, many and far flung.
I am so ________ that I prefer the Galapagos as land based. After five LOBs and ten land based, what’s the word in that blank? Jaded? Experienced? Deluded? Dunning-Kruegered?
It’s an ongoing and never ending question.
I’ve been doing dive travel both ways since 1968, so if you’re clever, you’ll know I’m old. I will thusly begin to ramble.
Take this post as “a whole”. Don’t latch on to one phrase and go all bull-goose looney. That’s too easy. Don’t get distracted by Dunning Krueger. With perspective comes perspective.
This post is all about marketing. When it’s done right, we don’t know it’s happening. The dive industry does not have the skills of CocaCola or even Buick. They are ham handed, but who doesn’t like bacon..
First we must assume you want a dive vacation, not a vacation with diving. What do you really want? Be honest. Land based: Club Dread with comely GOs vs Dive Camp. Or Liveaboard (LOB) schooner full of grog filled buccaneer Diver men...or a floating horizontal metal hotel with Julie and Gopher?
Land based, you can venture outside the fence and get an education. LOB you can understand projectile vomiting. Each has its attractions.
A liveaboard’s greatest utility is to take you to dive sites unreachable by land based. Most LOB offerings no longer provide this.
When LOBs first began widespread use, in the 1970’s, we used them to see and explore those far-flung exotic places like the Nassau and Grand Bahama. Then, newly invented land based competition from UNEXSO forced the liveaboards to move further afield.The exotica of Nassau town faded. James Bond notwithstanding, they still are selling that and the Famous Stewey’s Reef Canned Shark Rodeo. Let’s see the Bahamas out islands. (An excellent use of a liveaboard, still!)
In 1972, know that Cayman was pretty exotic, just short of Kathmandu or Timbuk3.
We dove (the 80s) with the Hughes Antares III off of Los Roques VZ. It opened these crazy good Caribbean dive sites by the simple act of providing access as there was no land based dive infrastructure. Unfortunately at their home port base of ops, the supply line was stretched unmanageably thin. No comestibles, no mechanical components. Boats require “stuff”. There was no supply train, no logistic chain. Even the air connections were dubious. Great diving, it failed.
The NEKTON wanted to invade Roatan in the late 80’s but the ongoing chain-of-supply continuity issues were a deal breaker. They went to Belize instead. LOBs can either try to maintain a physical standard in “the boonies”, or move closer “to town”.
Dive travelers have overall lost their sense of adventure. The internet encourages commentary and nothing demonstrates how suave and wise that you are than well reasoned experiential basis. In the early years we reveled in the parts of the storied trip where things went horribly wrong. Now we turn to Yelp.
Belize is the Caribbean shining example of LOB superiority if you came to dive. LOB’s present no bashing about in dive boats, expansive access to otherwise the highly localized “same reef structure” that each local land based does repeatedly. You even get the Blue Hole, bless your heart.
I look at the Roatan LOB in a similar light as the ships that plied Grenada and Tobago. If I can get the same specific dive sites at land based pricing...why would I spend a week on a converted oil rig crew boat? They’re all deep vee refits, the one Caribe exception is the Aqua Cat which has its own physical limitations. A boat is a boat. You may well notice it moving to some degree.
On Grenada, you dove the exact same sites as land based. There is phenomenal diving on the NE shore, but the LOB stayed hovering by civilization (SW) and sea condition safety. On Tobago, they picked you up in town and stayed just off shore of my grass shack, land-based adventurous-looking diving. Many times I have carried tanks thru the Speyside surf seeing a LOB bobbing offshore. Poor devils.
Are not LOBs the ultimate AI? You don’t have to worry about any pesky natives, insects, or pesky natives. Cruise Ships and LOBs, “splendid isolation” (thank you Warren Zevon)
The Roatan history of LOB attempts is very telling and indicative of operational difficulty. The supply chain was essentially non existent until recently. Now that this has been resolved, a business must deal with the crippling machinations of “taxation” (outright larceny) by every level of Honduran government and extant power structure.
The big draw for Roatan LOB has always been (the promise of) increased opportunity of access to far flung and diverse dive sites. (Different reef architecture) The bugaboo has always been weather and fuel cost (if you now got past food and machine parts). To dive anything other than Roatan’s protected South side is simply not guaranteed. Utila, maybe. Cayos Cochinos, less than maybe. What’s the holy grail? Cisne/Swan. It’s a long steam across open ocean. Then the taxation (usery & graft) fees kick in- it’s only been reached by LOB once.
It is widely accepted the the first Caribbean LOB was the Isla Mia running out of Roatan. Finding your way to Roatan in 1979 aside, now your getting on a wooden boat-shaped thing out even further away from dirt...much less pavement. This might have been the last great adventure, you and Neil Armstrong.
Liveaboards can really open up a zone to diving. When they chose to operate from a port that guarantees reliable provisioning, their value in “exploration” has come to an end. The world has arrived, it’s time to move on...or invent a different sales model.
The modified SCUBA travel sales presentation utilizes the featuring of hollow nutrition candy bars. Yummy sugar but really not much. In the Belize example, you can not find an advert that doesn’t feature the Blue Hole...with a photo from 5,ooo feet above in a plane. Thrilling image, but it’s simply not what you’re going to experience. LOB is the single best way to dive the Belize Blue Hoke. You “can’t not go”, but likely it’s one-and-done. I was there shooting film (real film, to give you an idea of the era), and I can not express how meh it was. Never been back, no thanks.
Roatan’s version of this? Mary’s Place. SDM tells me it’s in the Top 1 List of Dives on Roatan. It’s draw: It is a dark deep narrow crack in the reef structure that looks way different than any other thing on Roatan. Not dissimilar to fascination with “wreck” dives...oooh...a shape, and one that I recognize! Mary’s Place is a wonderful dive site, but for many reasons, 99/100 divers will simply not get to see “the cool stuff”.
Like the Blue Hole in Belize, Roatan’s Mary’s Place...they sell. Hollow calories.
Starting in the 70’s I dove a place we called Truk. Kimeo Isaac in a rowboat. Went inside the Shinohara Maru. Then in the 80’s I did a LOB to Chuk, kept safe by good idea new rules....there to watch some fellow diver (was going to say “idiot”, but I didn’t) he was grinding his wrist Mount in the sand under the steamroller to get that maximum depth reading. You know that place? Got what he wanted.
Some people have a different view of the reason (need, value) of a dive. Is the LOB going to allow me the imprimatur log book card, been-there-dove-that ticket punch? Have whatever you need, but admit and realize that you were sold it with the offer of a Happy Meal.
It is even observable in the land based environment. The definition of a “dive vacation” has changed inarguably over the years since 1980 when it started booming. On Roatan, most visitors stay and dive West End. Of those who dive, most do about 6, even if they bought a 10 dive ticket. Some get them all, not many. My favorite, CCV, lures with the promise of unlimited diving. I still do 27/wk, but not many do more than 17. Yet they are lured by different things, the West End visitors and CCV divers. The psychology is varied. How dare you say I am not a Hondo Diver?
The afterglow from a dive vacation is palpable. The corona from a LOB is quite expected. Best thing ever. Always are. Can’t miss. Perfect. Check back with me after you’ve been around, many and far flung.
I am so ________ that I prefer the Galapagos as land based. After five LOBs and ten land based, what’s the word in that blank? Jaded? Experienced? Deluded? Dunning-Kruegered?
