Looking for information on diving Fiji

[Frosty]

changeagent-Ive done a fair bit of diving around Fiji and I have to say I could count on one hand the number of 30 minute dives Ive had.
In every case I was buddied with one of my kids or in just one case a real air hog. It was always by choice and with full knowledge this would likely happen.
Most dives have been 50-60 minutes. Often thumbed with plenty of gas but thinking of the dives ahead.
The thing is though that there are time limitations due to simple logistics.
-For example--8.30 start.-9.00 on site
One hour dive -10.00am
then one hour surface interval 11.00
then one hour dive -12.00
head back 12.30
Unload boat and reload with fresh gear/divers 1.00pm
Back out to a site 1.30
third dive 2.30
Hour surface 3.30
fourth dive 4.30
Back in 5.00pm
Dark at 5.30pm
So any/much more than an hour per dive and the whole schedule gets mucked up.
Resort diving does tend to throw you in with a mixture of divers and the only way to avoid that tends to be a Liveaboard (-Fiji Siren comes to mind) Then you'll spend a day on a good site and really control your own schedule.

On the subject of DM/Instructor crowding you. Once you have demonstrated you are a well competent diver the DM's tend to leave you alone.
Unfortunately there is something about resort diving that seems to bring out the BS and bravado.-Guys who claimed they were "all that" were truly terrible divers so words mean nothing. or to rephrase --"The bull**** stops when the BC drops."

 

[ChangeAgent]

Morning Frosty,

Thank you for your extensive heads-up. Appreciated. I did not realise they dived on such a tight schedule, which I think is partly due to it being dark so early.

However the 4 or 5 places I wrote to allowed for little or no diving. The maximum time allowed by the most generous place, I was told was 45 minutes. All told me I will need to follow the guide at all times. One even said we would not be allowed to dive if we did not follow their rules at all times (30 Minutes and 10 in a group, do not leave group ever).

I had to smile at your: "The bull**** stops when the BC drops." Trust me, I have seen it all. I used to manage a dive operation, spend years as a professional search and rescue diver bringing up the dead divers or looking for criminal evidence (corps pickers they called us), I am a 2* CMAS instructor, have a semi hardhead certificate, etc. I have had folk tell me they want to do a diver training to find out they could not swim. I have had guides run out of gas on me, or be abandoned by them and told later they left us because the current was to strong. Etc.

Back to our own diving. The Siren is an option, did many trips with them in Indonesia and the Philippines. I am scheduled for two trips over Christmas and Hogmanay in Raja Ampat. Unfortunately most trips are 7 days and we like to do longer. But such is life.

As Fiji is so far for us to get to, we want to spend about 30+ days diving there. So this is why land based diving becomes an (additional) option. Plus we liked the land based diving when we where there about 25+ years ago. Often diving in places with primitive setups as there was not too much diving going on at the time. We had several places where we where the only ones in the water with the guide and the sharks. Advantage was that we more or less determined the rhythm and places to dive. Hence your information on the timings is also helpful for me to understand the situation on the ground, as it is today.

Practical question if I may. So, whom did you dive with on your trips? Or maybe to ask differently, who would you recommend we dive with knowing we like to do as long as possible and be left alone by the guide.

Take care and I look forward to your reply.

 

[danvolker]

My wife Sandra and I stayed at the Beqa Lagoon Resort a few years back, and we were with 12 other Florida divers from a dive club. The resort gets a lot of divers that have absolutely no skills, and expect their gear taken off of them before they get back on the boat...and they expect to be led around. Our group, jumped into the water like penguins, and none of us would allow the crew to remove our gear in the water--we get back on the boat the way we do it in Florida. We had more air left on air checks at 30 minutes into a dive than the DM's...and by the end of day 1, the boat was taking us to the places the DM's enjoyed most themselves, and letting us do any profile we wanted.
When they saw me freedive down to the bottom of one of the 7 sister pinnacles--something they were not used to passengers being able to do, they invited me to go spearfishing with them at night....Point being, if you show clearly that you have skills, they embrace this...and end up enjoying the trip and the whole week--more like they are on vacation

And, Beqa Lagoon was an awesome Resort...We loved it.

 

[ChangeAgent]

Thanks danvolker

Great info! Yes that is how we dive. I also never allow anybody to touch any of my gear be it to rinse or put together or take apart. After all it is my life.

I have had this before too that the guides go 'fun diving' (as they call it), with us. That is when it gets real fun as you go, as you said, to the places they know are good.

Once again thanks for sharing, helpful information.

 

[Frosty]

Changeagent-For a start I agree 100% with the feedback from Dan.
If I could ask what is this vacation?Are you doing a dive vacation or a vacation with diving?
My reason for asking is that there are some pretty nice dive spots linked to really nice resorts.Its good relaxing diving.
But other than a LAB the best diving IMO is had based at more basic resorts up around the coast.
I think you could afford to mix it up a bit. Do a siren trip then either go "luxury" and have good but not spectacular dives or basic but diving that will have you very happy.

a bit of advice though mate --This is not a critique of you -EVERYBODY has the same issue to one extent or another.
PLEASE do yourself a favour and relax. If you don't I promise you that diving in Fiji will drive you mad.
The reason being that everything there is done on Fiji time.Things get done but its really REALLY laid back.
Id also expect one dive being babied especially if you go the "luxury" route. The dive resorts tend to be a lot better.
Another thought is to do a few private charters with dive Ops.That puts you in the position of doing your own thing.

 

[ChangeAgent]

Great Info Frosty. Thanks!

I go there to dive, 2 to 4 a day. As mentioned before I was there ±25 years ago so I know the layout. However reading some trip reports I got worried about the type of diving they seem to do theses days (follow guide, 30 to 40 minute dives, one even wrote they will disallow me to dive if I leave the group, etc.). When I was there we went down and dived till bottom time or gas supply made a assent necessary. All of the operates seemed very relaxed about it. There again most of the time my buddy and I where alone with the guide.

I think I mentioned that I want to make sure of having a good diving time in Fiji as I fly halfway across the planet to get there. That is also why I go there for about a month. FYI, I have at least 9000 hours underwater, am a 2* CMAS instructor, used to run a dive base and used to be a commercial search and rescue diver. Hence me wanting to avoid ending up in a group of beginners and liking at least 60 minute dives. I love current but can equally enjoy a good muck dive, or a coral reef structure. I like to dive slowly so hate groups in general where I have to keep up the speed because other divers do the buoyancy-through-finning system.

Comfort in the resort is nice, but not necessary. If the choice is comfort with OK dives, or les comfort but top dives, I go for the latter. When comfort and top dives is available I am for that too. I know about the Siren, but am presently in bit of a clinch with them because of our last two back-to-back trips in Indonesia.

So do you have any tips on where to go to do good (long) diving?

 

[makomako]

I dove in Fiji this past May with my daughter. We are both experienced divers. We stayed on Taveuni Island at the Garden Island Resort and dove with resorts dive operation and loved it. Other than the first dive, they use this to determine whether you can dive or are a spaz, we never had any time limits. On pretty much all of the dives, we dove with just a DM and no one else. We were always the first ones in and last out. The rest of the people on the boat dove with another DM as they were often less experienced. We like to dive without a guide but I was happy to have one here. The current can be strong and they don't have moorings or a gps so when the DM determines he is over the site you have to get in the water get down fast, this was all drift diving. If we didn't have the DM who really knew the area I think we would missed many of the sites. My daughter uses way less air than I so if I had to come up early she and the DM would keep diving and I would surface and get picked up. Bring a safety sausage because the boat can sometime be far away. They only do 2 morning dives each day unless you have at least 4 people that want to do more. I don't think many dive operations are going to tell you in a email that they will let you do what you are looking to do. They need to see you dive first, unless of course they already know you. Good luck!

 

[ChangeAgent]

makomako thank you!

Super detailed information! Much appreciated!

I understand about wanting to see a diver in the water. I used to run a school. However is it not funny that the industry does not trust its own licencing? Imagine hiring a car and having to go round the block with the agent, before they decide you can rent it?

Did any of the operators have ENOS or a Life Line on offer or for rent?

I started as a cold-water diver and would never ever dive anywhere without a sausage. I have come up in 3-meter waves or a rip current and you see only yourself, water and your buddy. Any help you can give the coxswain (and yourself) is appreciated. Anybody who does dive without a sausage is not safety oriented, in my mind. So often in the rescue services we picked up divers that where lost at sea (some for 48 hours) who reported having seen the boats and the helicopter loads of times looking for them, but where never seen by us. A sausage, a whistle and a mirror are cheap life insurances. I always have all of them in the ABLJ, no worries there.

Anyway thanks again for your reply.

 

[danvolker]

From what I heard when we were diving in Fiji, the worst novices from both New Zealand and Asia, go to Fiji....and expect to have many of the diving skills preformed for them by the dive masters. Any worse, and the DM's would just go down without them, and show them the video!

What do you say about an industry that provides certs based on whether the Credit Card works...not whether the person is really good enough to scuba dive ON THEIR OWN.
I saw many of these novices when we were there, on the other boats that Beqa Lagoon had....( they kept us separate from them). The few times we were at the same dive sites, the sight of these people was horrifying...horrifying that someone had certified them....and kind of horrifying to think that these DM's had to essentially be running this like DSD's for all the people on the boat.

 

[ChangeAgent]

Dan thanks.

Do not get me going! I used to have to look for those folk when I was a commercial rescue diver. How about the guy we found after a 2 hour search (the next day as the alarm was raised shortly before sundown), Irish Sea, 16 degrees centigrade, 3mm wetsuit, in a WW2 wreck, at 45 meters, with a 200 bar 12-littler Aluminium cylinder, (you know it is not even 12-liter you got in there), no guide lines set, no overhead training, went in alone as his buddy did not want to follow (buddy lived to raise alarm 40 minutes after he surfaced alone himself). Do your sums and work it out, kamikaze? Turned out he had 27 dives in tropical waters and did his certificate (open water) in Thailand. He must have had a credit card.

There you go, I always say; stay well away from them for your own safety. If they need help wait at a distance, till they calm down and look you in the eye or wait till they loos consciousness. After all you should be able to tell the story of what happened and not be killed like so many helpers where. Sound hard I know, but part of any serious training as a search and rescue diver: you go in you come out. I used to teach my students (sport diving) this time and again.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Back to the topic any more tips on Fiji diving?