What makes a good charter?

[DirtyWaterIL]

I'm curious what other peopel think makes for a good charter. The dive conditions ect cannot be controlled by the charter operator so lets leave theese things out. Heres what i think.....

1. Friendly, helpful, knowlegable about the type of diving you are going to be doing.


2. Knows quite a bit about local diving and is familiar with alternate dive sites in case something isn't going to work out at the site you had planned on diving


3. Provides food/drinks ect on the surface (nothing fancy, water and fruit or cookies work fine for me


4. decent sized boat with plenty of room that doesn't take forever to get to the site

5. offers as much or as little help as you want. Some people want their hand held from the time they step on the boat to the second they leave including gear assembly, entry, a tour underwater, help exiting ect. Others just want somone to drive the boat to the dive site and keep their hands off.

[PlatypusMan]

No bottom-time limitations that are unreasonable with regard to the type of diving/divers on board the vessel.

If I'm on a boat with a lot of relatively new divers, then I expect to be required to come up earlier than I normally would; OTOH, if most of the divers are fairly experienced with good SAC profiles, let's let them stay down a bit longer than the newer folks, eh?

[MEL-DC Diver]

Don't operate the cattle boats and don't provide tanks with short fills.

[Dive-aholic]

No bottom time limits - if I want to do one long dive while everyone else does 2, I'm happy. I'll plan my dive and bring the required gasses.

No cattle boats - I hate crowds.

No lame sites - then again, I sign up for a specific site, not just to dive.

[dmdoss]

A boat? j/k The crew

[Black-Gorrilla]

good crew... no a**hole captain... no **** spots and no rushing everyone off the boat either.

[picxie]

I think everyone's said it all really. A good crew makes a huge difference. Friendly, helpful, not rushing you, etc. They're in the service industry - they need to be 'people' people. I like someone who doesn't look down on me for not having as much experience as them and who is patient when I ask questions.

[CompuDude]

Membrane Nitrox system with the ability to give good solid HP fills... quickly... and for a reasonable price (all-day flat fee is often best)!

Good gear storage locations for each diver. A table in a central area (by the gear) so you have a place to work on camera equipment, etc.

I also prefer a recessed ledge and bungee system for tank retention rather than the individual plastic round slots for individual tanks, due to variations in tank size (7.25/8.0", plus boots, not to mention those who attach their ponys to the tank). Doubles-friendly is a plus.

A charging station inside with places to charge your lights, cameras, scooters, etc. between dives.

Hooks to hang towels and boat coats.

A hot tub a great addition to boats that have room for one, especially on cold winter days!

[mike_s]

how about "Provide the customer what they paid for" (unless there is a valid reason not to).

(sorry... .. sour from my last charter trip).

[jlwest63]

Just max my dive time and let me do my thing. Have a DM go down and the people that want to stick with them fine let the other people do there own thing. That is big for me since I don't like hanging with the group and like for me and my buddy to go off on our own.