Question about Galapagos

[DavidHickey]

I just paid a deposit to try to get onto a full Galapagos trip in July 2007 hoping they may have a couple back out closer to the trip. I've read the Galapagos are not a good site for new divers. Presently I have 20 dives and the trip is almost 2 years down the road. By then I should have at least 75 to 100 dives. Mainly in cool ohio quarries and some in the Caribbean. By then do you think I will be ready for diving like this? Sounds like the main concern is currents and I would think strong currents could be tough for both new and old divers. Probably won't matter because I have a feeling they won't have any dropouts, but who knows I may get lucky!!!!
Also one more dumb question. The 1st day of the itinarery says we will do checkout dives. DOes this mean you have to get in the water and demonstrate skills and have the captain check you out to make sure he feels you have the proper experience or is the purpose to just get all of your equipment on and check it out prior to departing on the live aboard???
David

 

[docmartin]

when we went to the galapagos there were several divers with 50-100 dives. the currents are challenging but you should be able to handle it with some more dives under your belt. the checkout dives served to check-out that all equipment was working, the weighting was right etc.
i hope you can get a space and that the ecuadorian government gets serious about protecting the sharks. it was clearly the best (dive) trip i have ever been on and i have been to a lot of places.

 

[cfenton]

You should be fine in two years. Keep in mind that the cold water dives that you are doing are far more challenging than the equivilant profile in the tropics. Of course you are going to want to get experience in currents before you head off, and I'm not sure how easy that will be for you.

When I first started diving 2 years ago I did the same thing; I signed up for a live aboard trip that was 2+ years down the road and I knew I wasn't ready for. Two years and 225+ dives later I can hardly wait.

Cheers

 

[goldcountrydiver]

My wife and I just got back from the Galapagos on the Sky Dancer. Fabulous trip which I'm sure you'll enjoy tremendously. We had just under 100 dives each before the trip, and we didn't have much trouble at all. The currents can get pretty fast, but since you are able (and in fact instructed) to grab onto the rocks and hold on, it wasn't really a problem for us. Make sure to bring good gloves.

Because of the cool water, we bought new equipment for the trip, and we decided to do our own check out dives in Monterey a month before we left to South America. We were very happy we did. Cold water and lots of extra neoprene make for very different diving than in the tropics.

Finally, the check out dive at the beginning of the trip is no big deal. Just go down, check out your equipment and your buoyancy. Look at the sea lions that are divebombing you. Obviously, if you are having trouble with your equipment or buoyancy, the DMs will help out (as well as make a mental note to keep an eye on you). However, there are no proficiency tests or anything like that. Have fun!

 

[alijtaylor]

Hi David
I learned to dive because I was going to South America and wanted to dive the Galapagos. 18 month and 90 dives later I was there and had a ball. More experience would have extended my bottom time, I was amongst the least expienced and first up after most dives, but not by much.

Get a bit of exposure to current if you can, I dive in reasonably currenty local conditions but it still took me a few dives at Woolf and Darwin to be really comfortable. GO for it and dive as much as you can between now and then. The checkout dives are to check the equipment and so the dive masters can form a view of who to keep a closer eye on.

Alison

 

[Barracuda2]

A good location to get acquainted with currents is Cozumel and Tobago. Also, since you're a buckeye, Port Huron and the St. Clair River might offer you some experience. However, I think I would first do the currents in the tropics then try the St. Clair. I've never been to the G Islands yet, but have read and heard much about them, and I think you could easily be ready for that type of diving after you tried the above locations.

 

[DougK]

General question here: Is there a long waiting list/long lead time for these trips or do pick the trip to give you time to gain experience?

 

[goldcountrydiver]

Because we wanted to go to the Galapagos in September (prime whale shark season), we initially were told there was over a two-year wait. We signed up, but were later told of a cancellation in 2005, thus we only waited a bit over a year. That being said, several people on our boat had booked only months in advance, filling others' cancelled spots.

 

[DavidHickey]

General question here: Is there a long waiting list/long lead time for these trips or do pick the trip to give you time to gain experience?

The dive shop that is sponsoring the trip to the Galapagos said that July of 2007 is the soonest they could get a reservation. Matter of fact they are not even sure at this point the exact week in July they are going. And to top that the entire trip is filled with deposits of 300.00 per person and they do not even know the cost of the trip yet since the airlines will not set a ticket price that far in advance. So I'm actually on a waiting list "with 600.00 deposit for myself and fiancee" hoping someone else cancels before next July when the next installment payment is do.
David

 

[GalapagosDiveOperator]

You can usually find space on a Galapagos dive trip if you know where to look and you understand how things work.
First a little about me. I'm a Galapagos dive tour operator. I am one of the "pioneers" of the dive industry in Galapagos and have been sending divers down to Galapagos since the early 1990's. This was many years before Galapagos was even listed as a dive destination. My company Galapagos Adventures represents all of the dive yachts in Galapagos and many of the local dive shops down there.
One of the questions I get a lot is "how can all the dive yachts in Galapagos be completely sold out for every single trip two years in advance ? ". The answer to this question is - they're not. So the next question is "Well if they are not sold out, why can't I find space ?" The answer to this has to do with the way the business works. All of the dive yachts prefer booking charters rather than individual space so they sell entire charters to the various dive operators / shops from around the world. These dive operators then resell the space to their clients. Therefore even though it appears that a particular week on a particular yacht is completely sold out, the dive operator that has the charter reserved that week might have plenty of unsold spaces left. Some of the dive operators can easily sell all the spaces on their charter but many can not. Therefore as the travel date approaches, they being to release space back to the yachts. This space then becomes available to other people such as yourself. This usually happens about 4 months prior to departure. For example, as I am positing this comment in October of 2005, if you were to contact me today and ask for space for let's say in April of 2006, there is a good chance that no space would show as being available because that date is 6 months from now. However if you were to contact me again in December, a number of spaces may have been released and therefore they would be available for you to book.
Whenever ANY space on any of the dive yachts is released, the yachts notify me and I post that space on my web site at http://www.galapagosadventures.com/page8.html
I also book a number of charters for my company each year and that space is also posted there.
I hope this helps. You'll have a super time in Galapagos regardless of when you go !
Ken