Dive Op Deal Breakers

[SoSiouxme]

This thread is in response to recent trip report from Roatan.

This is a quote that came from a thread and a response to that thread.

"This is where you lost me, though: 'However, even though I was on the boat with the advanced divers, usually I ended my dives with 1000 - 1200 psi. in my tank. All dives were led by a divemaster, and everyone was expected to end their dive at the same time.'

That's one dive op to cross off my list..." (Emphasis added.)

The dive op being discussed was Coconut Tree Divers - which I love.

Here's the background though: I was first certified in 2003 in Phuket. The first dive trip I went on after being certified through AOW in Phuket was to Roatan in 2004 and I dove with Coconut Tree Divers. At the time, their policies worked with my diving experience and comfort level.

I dove with them again in 2005 and again, for the most part, their policies worked for me, although I routinely came up with excess air.

I've racked up a few more dives since then and my SAC rate has improved dramatically. I went on a liveaboard in Thailand in March of 2007 and their policy was dive time was 60 min or when you hit 500 bar - I had one dive thatwas 73 minutes. I always came up with more than 500 bar. I'm just good on air.On this liveaboard, the DM was my buddy so I never had the problem of calling a dive because my buddy ran out of air. My dive times were usually about 60 minutes +/- a few minutes.

I went through my old dive logs and in Roatan, my average dive time was, well, less. Usually, by at least 10 minutes.

So, I'm due to go Roatan again in November. I'm thinking I want to use Nitrox, but if they are going to limit me to 45 min. or when the first "Hoover" has to surface, Nitrox doesn't make sense. Frankly, when put in those terms, my favorite dive op doesn't make much sense.

When I asked the videographer (she summers in the Red Sea and winters in Thailand) on the liveaboard in Thailand about the average industry standard of dive time, she said, "A dive is 60 minutes." I liked this response.

So, I guess my question is, "What is a proper dive?" When you are paying for a dive, at what point do you feel you get your money's worth. And what are the things you resent if a dive op, through policies or through poor dive planning prevent you from getting that "complete dive" in?

I'm just trying to get a feel for the average diver out there. Should I get my drawers in a wad if I'm limited to 45-50 minutes if I come up with 1/3 of my tank? Should I re-think my dive op in Roatan - or anywhere - if they have similar policies? </DIV>

Bring it on!

--Sioux

[thesmoothdome]

With the exception of my first warm water dive trip to Cozumel back in the early 90's, I've never had a dive operator put any restrictions on my dive time or profiles. It could be that because I've always stayed at dive resorts which operated their own boats this hasn't been an issue. Outside of requesting that we stay within the realms of recreational diving and avoid decompression diving, I'd be really upset if a dive operation limited my diving in any way.

[jawfish]

I too haven't much experience dive ops limiting my time. Of course, I have always researched heavily and went with an op that was setup this way. I agree that a dive op that limits you on time often is really only trying to "get done" quicker and move on. These types of cattle operations simply do not interest me.

Research, make a quick phone call or send an email for clarity when choosing your op!! It could mean 2+ more hours of diving over a 5-day dive schedule.