Palm Beach Dive Thread
- Thread starter Divin'Papaw
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What would turn you off from a dive operator?
Ok I'll say it... Having passengers that whine about what they don't like about the Captain the crew or the vessel. Solution is easy of course.... Yeah customers aren't allowed to complain about poor service, canceled dives or illegal fishing off of a charter boat. They should just keep their...
CosbySweater
Contributor
Lol stay in Europe. Why are you even commenting in the Florida section?
That operator has done some other questionable things including posting pics on Facebook of spearfish clients holding illegally caught fish. That’s enough for me to not dive with them. Never have and never will. Too many other good options to even consider them.
How about you stop worrying about us in Florida, troll.
CosbySweater
Contributor
Corrected. Move along troll.
Pura Vida for the win on Monday!
Can't say enough positive stuff about Captain Dean (co-owner), Nicole, Amber, Julie and Mike. What a great crew! Excellent communicators one and all - super high performance individuals with crisp standards but relaxed and happy people. Very proud of the work environment Dean, Shana and Jason are providing for the young, super talented dive leaders Pura Vida hires and trains to be standard bearers, IMO.
Dreary skies and raining with 4ft waves.
Amber got in touch with her inner track star and shot like a rocket from the v-berth to amidships to secure a loose tank on the deck. Never a pleasant sound when a tank falls from the rack and starts rolling. I don't think it even registered in the customer's mind that she (the customer) was negligent.
Mid-reef for the first dive. Saw several lobsters and two healthy green moray eels. Love our great Atlantic current in Florida for drift dives over the healthy reefs. Great practice for other parts of the world.
Second dive was the wreck corridor - Ana Cecilia, Mizpah, the Rock Pile and Amaryllis. The Ana C is a deceptive wreck. While there are some pleasant swim throughs for the Advanced OW crowd, there are some holds whose penetration turns the dive into a technical one. Rock pile was great - I hadn't paid too much attention in the past but I lingered a little longer this time and found tons of sea life in the cracks and holes. Amaryllis is pretty played out but still worthwhile. I had enough gas to keep going while Amber took the last few folks up to the SS so I shot my DSMB and flew over a stretch of long, structural columns that looked like a gigantic form of Pick Up Sticks. Having done the Ana C quite a few times now, I'm interested in skipping over it and the subsequent wrecks to save some gas so I can explore further north. But that's a dive objective to coordinate with the Captain - I don't want to be a complicating customer that's split off by a mile from the main group. It's a recreational dive after all and PVD runs technical dives if I need to really stretch my legs (like buying the boat for the day for a group of twinset divers to do a two-three hour drift).
Can't say enough positive stuff about Captain Dean (co-owner), Nicole, Amber, Julie and Mike. What a great crew! Excellent communicators one and all - super high performance individuals with crisp standards but relaxed and happy people. Very proud of the work environment Dean, Shana and Jason are providing for the young, super talented dive leaders Pura Vida hires and trains to be standard bearers, IMO.
Dreary skies and raining with 4ft waves.
Amber got in touch with her inner track star and shot like a rocket from the v-berth to amidships to secure a loose tank on the deck. Never a pleasant sound when a tank falls from the rack and starts rolling. I don't think it even registered in the customer's mind that she (the customer) was negligent.
Mid-reef for the first dive. Saw several lobsters and two healthy green moray eels. Love our great Atlantic current in Florida for drift dives over the healthy reefs. Great practice for other parts of the world.
Second dive was the wreck corridor - Ana Cecilia, Mizpah, the Rock Pile and Amaryllis. The Ana C is a deceptive wreck. While there are some pleasant swim throughs for the Advanced OW crowd, there are some holds whose penetration turns the dive into a technical one. Rock pile was great - I hadn't paid too much attention in the past but I lingered a little longer this time and found tons of sea life in the cracks and holes. Amaryllis is pretty played out but still worthwhile. I had enough gas to keep going while Amber took the last few folks up to the SS so I shot my DSMB and flew over a stretch of long, structural columns that looked like a gigantic form of Pick Up Sticks. Having done the Ana C quite a few times now, I'm interested in skipping over it and the subsequent wrecks to save some gas so I can explore further north. But that's a dive objective to coordinate with the Captain - I don't want to be a complicating customer that's split off by a mile from the main group. It's a recreational dive after all and PVD runs technical dives if I need to really stretch my legs (like buying the boat for the day for a group of twinset divers to do a two-three hour drift).
Not the best filtration and editing but you get the idea.
OP
That stretch to the north is fun. I frequently see sharks, GG, turtles or rays. Good for big stuff. I believe they call that Brazilian Docks I think, but I'm not 100% sure. It's just north of China Barge if memory serves me. I've even made it to the Danny before when current is up while on ascent. Sounds like a fun dive!!
ADDITION: I also really like that part because all of the other divers except the most experienced are pretty much gone by then. They've typically blown through their air and are on the surface by then. It is a super peaceful, enjoyable end to the dive.
I've only made it past the barge while using my DPV. I can't recall if I saw the Brazilian Docks, but I recall running into more rock piles.
Yep, that's it! Brazilian Docks is what I remember Mike from Kyalami (PVD alumnus) telling me about.
I just called PVD to talk with them about the possibility of scheduling the boat for a long drift dive with twinset. I'm expecting a call back from Justin who schedules their technical dives. I'm diving Paradise Springs this weekend otherwise I'd be back with PVD to talk with Dean or Jason directly.
The two-three hour drift dive I mentioned above isn't really feasible without expanding beyond a plain vanilla AL80 twinset. I ran a hypothetical profile of 18m / 54ft with 36% backgas. I picked 18m because that's just deep enough to see everything even if the bottom drops to 24-28m. That gas and depth profile yields a few minutes shy of 90 minutes without a deco obligation with the AL80 twinset. Not very much a technical dive - really just an advanced drift dive but a super fun profile nonetheless! That's a pretty good stretch of sightseeing as long as the terrain is promising.
I just called PVD to talk with them about the possibility of scheduling the boat for a long drift dive with twinset. I'm expecting a call back from Justin who schedules their technical dives. I'm diving Paradise Springs this weekend otherwise I'd be back with PVD to talk with Dean or Jason directly.
The two-three hour drift dive I mentioned above isn't really feasible without expanding beyond a plain vanilla AL80 twinset. I ran a hypothetical profile of 18m / 54ft with 36% backgas. I picked 18m because that's just deep enough to see everything even if the bottom drops to 24-28m. That gas and depth profile yields a few minutes shy of 90 minutes without a deco obligation with the AL80 twinset. Not very much a technical dive - really just an advanced drift dive but a super fun profile nonetheless! That's a pretty good stretch of sightseeing as long as the terrain is promising.
Further news regarding the PBS incident.
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