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[jalteramore]

Hi everyone. I was PADI certified in 1976 when there was only one type of certification. I would dive intermittently over the years if I happened to be in the Caribbean on vacation with my wife (a non-diver.) Sometimes years would go by and I would discover two hose regulators were no longer being used. What's an integrated buoyancy compensator. Weights attached to your BCD? Last winter at the age of 71, I re-certified as an OWD. I now actually own a dive computer and as a retiree plan on doing a lot more diving while in Delray Beach, this winter.

 

[drrich2]

Welcome! Post us some trip reports if you will. It may help others who visit the area.

Richard

 

[jalteramore]

Thank you. I have a question but I am not sure where to post it. When I've been to tropical islands and most divers are tourists, operators typically divide up divers with different guides. I have found that in Florida where a lot of the divers are locals, they tend to go off on their own. I have been paired up with locals and that went fine. Guides on the boats were typically giving lessons although you could pay for a guide. Is this typical in Florida/US?

 

[drrich2]

Depends on where you are. An operator in Key Largo called Rainbow Reef Dive Center has free guide service, but some others don’t. When I dove with Jupiter Dive Center in 2014, they had a guide lead the group, but iirc that might not be so common in West Palm Beach or Boynton Beach; it’s been discussed in other threads.

California dive boats don’t tend to offer free guides from what I understand. I paid for one diving out of North Carolina, and the charge was quite cheap.

Places that do a lot of business with local divers, and have conditions that draw more advanced divers seem to have less hand holding at their default service level. That also applies to setting up your gear and tank swaps between dives.

 

[dive_blue]

Welcome, jalteramore! Agreed it'd be great to hear your trip reports. Recently moved to Fort Lauderdale.

 

[jalteramore]

Depends on where you are. An operator in Key Largo called Rainbow Reef Dive Center has free guide service, but some others don’t. When I dove with Jupiter Dive Center in 2014, they had a guide lead the group, but iirc that might not be so common in West Palm Beach or Boynton Beach; it’s been discussed in other threads.

California dive boats don’t tend to offer free guides from what I understand. I paid for one diving out of North Carolina, and the charge was quite cheap.

Places that do a lot of business with local divers, and have conditions that draw more advanced divers seem to have less hand holding at their default service level. That also applies to setting up your gear and tank swaps between dives.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[Tripp]

Welcome to ScubaBoard and Howdy! from Texas.

 

[NYCrecdiver]

I have found that in Florida where a lot of the divers are locals, they tend to go off on their own. I have been paired up with locals and that went fine. Guides on the boats were typically giving lessons although you could pay for a guide. Is this typical in Florida/US?

Hi @jalteramore ! Welcome to SB and have fun diving again!
Funny what you mentioned about diving in Florida. Last I was there, I did some diving and my wife was on the boat as a non-diver. She was horrified and in shock when she saw the operator just handed me my rented gear and told me to jump in. She later told me she was so very much relieved she had decided not to dive. She admitted she wouldn't even have remembered how to put the reg on the tank. It was at that moment I decided that I wanted to dive locally in NYC where I live. At that time I was only diving off and on during vacations but that's simply not good enough to stay proficient. It's also not good enough to comfortably dive (kind of) solo.

 

[NYCrecdiver]

Hi @jalteramore ! Welcome to SB and have fun diving again!
Funny what you mentioned about diving in Florida. Last I was there, I did some diving and my wife was on the boat as a non-diver. She was horrified and in shock when she saw the operator just handed me my rented gear and told me to jump in. She later told me she was so very much relieved she had decided not to dive. She admitted she wouldn't even have remembered how to put the reg on the tank. It was at that moment I decided that I wanted to dive locally in NYC where I live. At that time I was only diving off and on during vacations but that's simply not good enough to stay proficient. It's also not good enough to comfortably dive (kind of) solo.

And btw, this is not only in Florida, same goes where I dive around NYC. No guides on the boat and divers go on their own. Many operators require divers to have an alternate source of air because divers don't get buddied up and the wreck dive can be pretty deep.