Max Dives Per Dollar

[Mr Carcharodon]

The first couple years of diving I did was local shore dives. That was inexpensive and really valuable. There is really no substitute to getting a dive or two in most weeks. And if you can do that for the price of a fill that is awesome. Depending on what you are interested in you will not get bored. There is a site a mile from where I live that for many might be a muck dive. But look around. It is different almost every time. It is amazing out there.

 

[uncfnp]

Scuba is an expensive hobby, there's really no way around that. Fortunately it's totally worth it, but that doesn't stop me from (trying to) be stingy.

I've done a handful of boat charters with the folks I got my cert with, and a few more shore dives on my own with my fiancee. Personally I have a bit of an issue slinging out $65 + 20 for tanks (per person x 2) for a two tank dive. Just about every charter in my area is the same price or higher, so it's easy to blow $200 a weekend for two hours bottom time (not incl rental gear).

As I'm buying gear I can't help but think I'm stuck spending in the triple digits a month on charters alone!

My question to you guys is how do you get your bottom time in a fiscally efficient way? Mostly shore dives, occasional charter, liveaboards, vacations, clubs, etc? Is there some secret way all you guys with 100-200 dives are getting your bottom time cheaply, or do I just need to quit whining and open up my wallet?

I'm fortunate enough to live about five minutes away from one of the best shore dives in the US (or so I'm told), the Blue Heron Bridge, so it is a staple for me. I'm just slightly concerned it might lose it's magic after 20+ dives there. So can any shore divers chime in on getting bored diving the same spots?

Thanks everyone

Mix it up, some shore dives sprinkled with boat. Diverse enough to maintain almost any new divers interest.

But specifically to cheaper charters, I know of at least two charters that if you dive frequently you can get a discount or free dives. Talk to the captains. If I recall, JDC has a discount card that if you buy a certain number of dives you get a free one. For us, we spend our entire trip usually 9 to 10 days diving with the same boat and get a nice discount because its a lot of dives in a short time, we are pretty low maintance, in fact will jump in to help whenever we can and 2) he knows we will be back, usually several times a year.

But as someone said, get the card and be a DM for the boats. Cheapest option of them all.

 

[BRT]

I bought my own boat.

Now there is a money saver!

 

[NYCNaiad]

Totally agree with Steve_C re: adding in photography, fish id & the hunt for special fish/creatures when you're doing the same dive sites over & over again. I also start to really work on specific improvements like trim, buoyancy or breathing as well as repeating some of the skills learned in classes long ago to continuously better my diving (e.g., taking off your mask, manually inflating my BC, etc.). I start to add these in if I find myself thinking a dive is very mundane. It's nice to have options though in my opinion every dive is different & a good dive even when it's on the same site.

Re: traveling: I recently wrote an article on how to save money doing this which was published on a travel blog. I'm able to travel all over the world at least 3x a year because I pay 25-75% less than most by knowing how to work the system: How to Save BIG Money on Your Vacation • LL World Tour

 

[Oldbear]

I am blesssed that I have a job on a tropical island in the Pacific. We dive thru a local club who maintains the tanks for us. It cost us $10 per month (an extra $4 if you want nitrox) and you can use as many tanks as you want to. I usually dive about 30-50 tanks per month. We have some really nice shore dives and if you use a DPV you can increase the number of wrecks to about 20+. We also can rent boats for about $25-45 for a 4.5 hour trip. This gives us access to another 70+ wrecks. Today I will literally get off work at 4:30 and be diving a ship wreck by 5:30.

 

[northernone]

I am blesssed that I have a job on a tropical island in the Pacific. We dive thru a local club who maintains the tanks for us. snip .

Can a foreigner join this club, also care to be a little more specific on the island. You've hit on a rare location.

My dive method is locally owning my tanks and diving anything wet where boat traffic won't chum me. Always something interesting to see in any water and if it really is just muck I practice drills. Also, discount boat dives with a dive club (1200km away from home) occasionally for some nice wreck dives.

Otherwise, I get somewhere warm when possible, rent a room and shore dive with rental tanks, using my own gear.

 

[Oldbear]

I dive in the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands; sorry to join the club you have to live in the Atoll and have access to Kwajalein Island. So it is not open to the general public.

 

[northernone]

Gla

I dive in the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands; sorry to join the club you have to live in the Atoll and have access to Kwajalein Island. So it is not open to the general public.

Glad the diving compensates somewhat for your service. USAKA appears fantastic diving!

Regards,
Cameron

 

[Oldbear]

Yeppers...it's pretty cool

 

[Lorenzoid]

I had no idea that Atlanta to Bon was that much!!!!! Sorry
I always figured you guys would be cheaper than us up north. That sucks.

It has nothing to do with distance. It's a time-honored tactic for an airline to charge more for a flight departing from its hub city to a destination to which there is minimal competition from other airlines than for a flight that connects through that hub city to the same destination. Everyone who connects through Atlanta on Delta's Bonaire flight pays less (often hundreds less) than Delta asks Atlantans to pay. I just checked Google Flights, and my belief appears to be correct that the ATL-BON flight remains priced all year round in the neighborhood of $950-$1,050.