Weight harness and water exit

[RICHinNC]

I dont think there are any "givens" in either boat entry or exit. In all of the NC boats I have dove you approach the ladder from a tag line, take off your fins (there are a few boats with fin friendly ladders) and time the ladder with the swells and make a grab and ride it up with all your gear on. If you try to hand up a bunch of gear in two and three foot swells the ladder will beat you to death.
When I dove in St. Thomas, the crew MADE you fully inflate your bcd at the back of the boat, take it off, use it kind of like a raft...approach the back of the boat with fins and mask on.
A crew member would grab your bcd and pull it aboard while you thrust up with your fins and did a belly flop onto a platform at water level at the back of the boat. There was no ladder. Not right or wrong.....just different.

So there are no givens in my book and being flexible and practicing as many "skills" as you can will make you a safer diver.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I agree with some of the above posts and agree overall that you need to be flexible.

In general, don't take anything off when exiting unless you have to. It is usually easier and safer in the long run to bring it all aboard with you if the boat has a proper ladder.

If you have to use gear lines, clip the item to the line before you remove it if possible. It keeps the item from possibly being lost and it often prevents you from drifting away from the boat while you are getting out of the item.

If you have problems getting you and your gear aboard all at once, or frequently have to dive from a small boat with no ladder or a one or 2 step ski ladder, reconfigure your gear for less total weight. An AL 80 for example is 3-4 lbs heavier than a comparable steel tank and requires another 4 pounds of weight to keep you neutral at the end of the dive. So changing to a tank with better bouyancy traits can reduce the amount you haul aboard by 7-8 lbs. Many divers are also over weighted and can afford to drop a few to several pounds off their weight belts - something that makes deep water boat entries much easier.

 

[Dyno Bill]

Lots of good ideas, flexibility being the most important overall. I have to say that here in So Cal most all of the charter dive boats have relatively large swim platforms that are hinged at the transom and when set in place go beneath the surface well enough to allow you to sort of kick up on to it, remove your fins and climb the lader with relative ease. There are commonly 2 ladders allowing 2 at a time to exit.
Bill