no din in bonaire.......?

[cbrich]

So, apparently they have finally gotten some doubles, and since last Fall. What size cylinders do they have? They have been saying for several years they wanted to offer some tec gear.

How much ya wanna bet they're doubled AL 80's ? Steels are too expensive for most rental situations, and they just can't survive the abuse and salt water exposure like AL can.

Buddy's only has AL80s for doubles. If you want Helium better call them well in advance of your dive trip, I was told something like 3 months, and don't forget your Trimix Analyzer.

 

[Gilldiver]

Why do many Caribbean destinations have Yoke vs. Din
Here are some things to think about:
Yoke has been around much longer than DIN so there are just more of them
The avg money making diver for me (tourist) doesn’t care about the DIN vs. Yoke thing, so why should I care about the 2-5% of tech divers that come through my shop/resort on Yoke vs. DIN?
You can’t convert a yoke reg to a din on site easily = disgruntled customer
Din can be converted to Yoke easily = diver in the water
On avg Yoke valves tend to be cheaper than DIN. This is important when you have Xx100 tanks in rental
Many places in the Islands don’t have hydro facilities and scrap the tanks at 5 years. Well some will, ever check the hydro date on your rentals? I’v seen tanks 10 years out of date – this is the islands Mon….. If I scrap 100 tanks per year but the valves are still good, can I save about $20 per tank by bulk order without valves and reuse the valves I have. I save $2000 for the order which should pay for shipping, tax, duties, bribes, etc. or goes into my pocket.

Don’t make this more difficult than it is, it is all about making the majority of diver happy at the lowest cost.

 

[mala]

Why do many Caribbean destinations have Yoke vs. Din
Here are some things to think about:
Yoke has been around much longer than DIN so there are just more of them
The avg money making diver for me (tourist) doesn’t care about the DIN vs. Yoke thing, so why should I care about the 2-5% of tech divers that come through my shop/resort on Yoke vs. DIN?
You can’t convert a yoke reg to a din on site easily = disgruntled customer
Din can be converted to Yoke easily = diver in the water
On avg Yoke valves tend to be cheaper than DIN. This is important when you have Xx100 tanks in rental
Many places in the Islands don’t have hydro facilities and scrap the tanks at 5 years. Well some will, ever check the hydro date on your rentals? I’v seen tanks 10 years out of date – this is the islands Mon….. If I scrap 100 tanks per year but the valves are still good, can I save about $20 per tank by bulk order without valves and reuse the valves I have. I save $2000 for the order which should pay for shipping, tax, duties, bribes, etc. or goes into my pocket.

Don’t make this more difficult than it is, it is all about making the majority of diver happy at the lowest cost.

yokes have been about longer than din-i agree.
horses have been about longer than cars.

a din valve will take both yoke and din so you dont need the customer to worry about what reg he has.
a yoke valve will only take yoke so the din customer has to buy/rent a downgrade part for his kit.

as for the money-yes it will cost the dive operation some cash to upgrade to the safer din set-up.

its called progress .


anyway i just got back from diving with a yoke for 2 weeks.

yes i'm alive
and yes they leaked on most dives .

 

[cbrich]

a din valve will take both yoke and din so you dont need the customer to worry about what reg he has.
a yoke valve will only take yoke so the din customer has to buy/rent a downgrade part for his kit.

as for the money-yes it will cost the dive operation some cash to upgrade to the safer din set-up.

its called progress .


anyway i just got back from diving with a yoke for 2 weeks.

yes i'm alive
and yes they leaked on most dives .

Sounds like your 2 week vacation absolutely sucked bro, sorry to hear about it.

When I went to Bonaire, I had a blast, did not even care about the type of valve on they had on their tanks. I was glad Nitrox tanks were available anytime I needed them.

 

[oceancurrent]

You don't need to compromise with Yoke on your cylinders. Tropical Divers have all steel DIN cylinders. Yay!

 

[Aguablanco1]

its difficult to have spare cash when you dont buy cheap kit

I think I see the problem. I don't see tip money as spare cash, just part of the total cost of diving. Most of the people on the boats live on tips. BTW, I don't have cheap gear either, and I don't expect dive professionals to subsidize my purchases with the money I should be leaving for good service.
RichH

 

[drrich2]

An all-yoke tank fleet is interchangeable. Putting tanks out at different locations, and for boat dives vs. shore dives, any tank equals any other.

Convert 5 - 10% of your tank fleet to DIN. Now you've got 5 - 10% of your tanks incompatible with most people's reg.s, and a lot of vacation divers don't even know what DIN is. That means tossing tanks in the back of the truck, heading out to dive, finding out they can't, unhappy customer. Take Buddy Dive Resort, Drive Friends Bonaire or WannaDive; now they need to consider if each of their tank locations have enough of each type of tank, and that the boat trips have the right numbers of each kind of tank loaded...

So, some DIN users don't want to use a DIN-to-Yoke convertor? Well, the dive shop probably rents reg.s if it bothers you that bad. Which turns a profit for the shop, rather than adding to their costs.

As others have pointed out, the majority of the customer base hitting Bonaire are bringing yoke regulators, yoke works just fine for the overwhelming majority of diving done in Bonaire, DIN has disadvantages for the op. with a large rental fleet (others explained those), and the advantages of DIN are irrelevant to the overwhelming majority of diving done in Bonaire.

DIN would be a solution looking for a problem for most Bonaire diving. And even if some people think it's a good solution, what good is that if there is no significant problem?

Richard.

 

[dfx]

Convert 5 - 10% of your tank fleet to DIN. Now you've got 5 - 10% of your tanks incompatible with most people's reg.s, and a lot of vacation divers don't even know what DIN is. That means tossing tanks in the back of the truck, heading out to dive, finding out they can't, unhappy customer.

That's why you would put convertible valves on the tanks. DIN customers gained, nothing lost. And if you're a German diver visiting this corner of the world for the first time, you probably wouldn't know what yoke was.

 

[t4e]

this is a 2 year old thread, things have changed

 

[Max Speed]

Put your regs in your bag. Then put two pro valves with inserts and an Allen wrench on top. Change valves on rental tanks. Use inserts for fills. Everybody happy.