Well as long as you do briefings you should not pay full price. A serious operation would not put you in that situation. Do they even have O2 on board?
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OP
Well, I would hardly call this operation serious to be honest, more of a sideline for the owner and he does not depend on it for his livelihood unlike some of the other dive ops.
I don't mind passing on information on the dive sites to new divers who have not dived here before in particular about the marine life that most divers will never notice .... I get quite passionate about nudibranchs
There should be O2 on board, I don't always personally check, but I have noticed it on occasions.
Most of the divers here are regulars and know the dive sites, plus some independent instructors use the boat from time to time, in which case I will use another op should the instructor be doing OW unless I want to dive an easy site. However I frequently get to call dibs on what site to dive, not that there is a lot of variety here, but they are only one of two ops that dive Car Cemetery.
I don't mind passing on information on the dive sites to new divers who have not dived here before in particular about the marine life that most divers will never notice .... I get quite passionate about nudibranchs
There should be O2 on board, I don't always personally check, but I have noticed it on occasions.
Most of the divers here are regulars and know the dive sites, plus some independent instructors use the boat from time to time, in which case I will use another op should the instructor be doing OW unless I want to dive an easy site. However I frequently get to call dibs on what site to dive, not that there is a lot of variety here, but they are only one of two ops that dive Car Cemetery.
divetheplanet
Registered
I think it really depends on the diver and the relationship with the dive op. From your previous post it seems that you get a bit of prefrencial treatment. For me I wouldn't mind helping them out as well occasionally.
I had an arrangement with a dive shop that if they needed me to guide it was no problem. If there was enough paid staff then I could dive solo. If the boat was full of tourists, I was added as crew. I was paying a club membership of US$600 per year, but I feel that I came out ahead as I was doing more than 100 dives a year.
I had an arrangement with a dive shop that if they needed me to guide it was no problem. If there was enough paid staff then I could dive solo. If the boat was full of tourists, I was added as crew. I was paying a club membership of US$600 per year, but I feel that I came out ahead as I was doing more than 100 dives a year.
In my opinion, a paying customer should never be asked to be a guide unless it's an offer of employment, meaning that instead of paying for the trip, you get paid. Since I travel alone, and never know before boarding the boat if there will be another single to buddy with, I make sure there will be a DM who I can hang with. The sort of diving I do, there always is.
I am a better snorkeler than diver. Once on a week-long stay at a place with a variety of organized water activities, the guide put me with a person who had never snorkeled before, was not especially comfortable in the water, and was not physically fit, and basically ordered me to take responsibility for her. I did it, but I resented it, because I was paying to be there, not being paid to work, I have no rescue training, and being assigned to baby-sit an inexperienced person meant I could not do what I wanted to, which was get some exercise by swimming faster than she was able and do some shallow freediving. Several times, the guide came over and said "Where's your buddy?" as if to say that he did not trust me to keep an eye on her after I had reluctantly agreed to do so. (She was following immediately behind me, and I knew exactly where she was and what she was doing as I was keeping a careful eye on her.)
When you pay to dive (or snorkel) I think you have a right to enjoy yourself, and should not be asked to baby-sit someone whose skill level prevents you from engaging in the activities you had planned.
In the OP's case, I think the owner had an obligation to tell the clients, at the time of booking, that there would be no DM and they would be on their own in the water, and that if they wanted a guide they should book with an operator who provides a DM.
I am a better snorkeler than diver. Once on a week-long stay at a place with a variety of organized water activities, the guide put me with a person who had never snorkeled before, was not especially comfortable in the water, and was not physically fit, and basically ordered me to take responsibility for her. I did it, but I resented it, because I was paying to be there, not being paid to work, I have no rescue training, and being assigned to baby-sit an inexperienced person meant I could not do what I wanted to, which was get some exercise by swimming faster than she was able and do some shallow freediving. Several times, the guide came over and said "Where's your buddy?" as if to say that he did not trust me to keep an eye on her after I had reluctantly agreed to do so. (She was following immediately behind me, and I knew exactly where she was and what she was doing as I was keeping a careful eye on her.)
When you pay to dive (or snorkel) I think you have a right to enjoy yourself, and should not be asked to baby-sit someone whose skill level prevents you from engaging in the activities you had planned.
In the OP's case, I think the owner had an obligation to tell the clients, at the time of booking, that there would be no DM and they would be on their own in the water, and that if they wanted a guide they should book with an operator who provides a DM.
Carol202
Contributor
The situation is just as bad or worse when you are on vacation with an operation that doesn't know you or the additional diver. My husband and I have run into this problem. We have PADI Instructor and Divemaster certifications, and when the boat operator sees that some automatically assume we will be willing to take on a third diver. What they don't know is we haven't been active in teaching for 15 years and no longer maintain our insurance. Also, we both do photography and are the most boring people in the world to dive with. If I find an interesting macro subject, I may spend the majority of the dive in one spot while my husband circles around me doing his wide angle. If he finds a good wide-angle subject, I can circle around him and find lots of subjects to focus on while he gets his shot.
On a recent trip to the Florida Keys, we did accept a third dive buddy on a trip to a shallow reef (35 ft) who was also doing photography. We felt like the conditions were safe enough for us to do our photography and still keep an eye on him. But later in the trip, when doing a deeper dive on the Thunderbolt, I had to explain to the captain why it was not a good idea to pair up a third diver with us. I politely explained that we were too focused on our photography to safely watch another diver on a deep dive with possible strong currents and they paired the single diver up with the divemaster (I don't know why that wasn't their first option). I didn't tell the captain the many other reasons I did not want to be paired up with a third diver. Would the diver have the patience to hang with two photographers that weren't interested in circling the entire ship and exploring every nook and cranny? Would he stir up silt and ruin a good shot? But most important, would the other diver shorten our dive time by being an air hog or having a more conservative computer? My husband and I paid over $100 each to do this trip, and we wanted to spend every minute we could on the wreck.
I believe that if you are paying to go on a dive boat, there needs to be an agreement before you leave the dock if the captain expects you to pair up with another diver. I am not saying we wouldn't take on the responsibility if there was no other option. But I would like the operation to know that we do not expect to pay full price for a dive if we have to shorten our bottom time because they paired us with an air hog or someone diving air when we are doing nitrox. The third diver also needs to know that we may not be the most fun people to dive with so they can opt out of the trip if they don't want to hang with us.
On a recent trip to the Florida Keys, we did accept a third dive buddy on a trip to a shallow reef (35 ft) who was also doing photography. We felt like the conditions were safe enough for us to do our photography and still keep an eye on him. But later in the trip, when doing a deeper dive on the Thunderbolt, I had to explain to the captain why it was not a good idea to pair up a third diver with us. I politely explained that we were too focused on our photography to safely watch another diver on a deep dive with possible strong currents and they paired the single diver up with the divemaster (I don't know why that wasn't their first option). I didn't tell the captain the many other reasons I did not want to be paired up with a third diver. Would the diver have the patience to hang with two photographers that weren't interested in circling the entire ship and exploring every nook and cranny? Would he stir up silt and ruin a good shot? But most important, would the other diver shorten our dive time by being an air hog or having a more conservative computer? My husband and I paid over $100 each to do this trip, and we wanted to spend every minute we could on the wreck.
I believe that if you are paying to go on a dive boat, there needs to be an agreement before you leave the dock if the captain expects you to pair up with another diver. I am not saying we wouldn't take on the responsibility if there was no other option. But I would like the operation to know that we do not expect to pay full price for a dive if we have to shorten our bottom time because they paired us with an air hog or someone diving air when we are doing nitrox. The third diver also needs to know that we may not be the most fun people to dive with so they can opt out of the trip if they don't want to hang with us.
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