Expectations on a dive boat

[hroark2112]

I like when a crew member looks at me and realizes I don't need help, or just gives me a quick "Need a hand with anything?" One boat captain who I really like diving with is straight-up with me when I'm getting ready to jump off...he says "I have no clue what's supposed to be on or off on that thing...you got everything ready??"

I can respect that. A hand grabbing my fins as I take them off is appreciated, as is a hand to my seat on a rocking boat. Beyond that, help the new kids and don't bitch at me for being the last one out of the water because I'm diving a CCR.

 

[muzikbiz22]

I want to dive on a happy boat. I don't need to hear how the owner/coworker is a jerk. I don't need to hear how the boat is crap. I certainly don't need to hear your tales of daring do on a previous job. I want you to be happy to see me, to answer my questions with compassion and lend assistance if I need it. I need you to do the same for my friends and students too.

In return, I'll be the most flexible customer you've ever met. I'll listen to your briefing and follow the boat's rules to the best of my abilities. What's more, I'll be telling the world about your service and why they should beat your doors down to get on your boat. Tip? You bet, and even more importantly, I'll be asking the others to give generous tips as well.

Wind and waves may rock the boat...
but only YOU can tip the crew!
​

Pete, I honestly think that you have summed it up best !! It is about the "bedside manner" of the crew/boat/op. So many don't get this simplest of concepts. Taking it a step further, this is applicable to ones business, and even further, life in general. I see boats/crews struggle with this, dive instructors, dive shops, etc. In my professional world, it is all about the business RELATIONSHIP, and not the technical prowess or superior quality of my product, or my last vacation, the chick I dragged home from the bar last night, or why "my life is better than yours".

 

[GrimSleeper]

It's very simple, I call ahead to see what their policies are. Maybe even long before that. Like when I book my trip. If they have a policy of setting up gear for customers I thank them for their time and book with someone else. If that is the overall custom in that area I simply will not go there. I was just told about certain areas in the Philippines where it seemed to offend the crew when my customer asked them to allow him to set up his own gear. And after asking they still insisted on doing it. As a result that location is off my list. In the Keys they don't mess with your gear. Or in Monterrey, Puerto Rico, Bonaire, and when I was in Jamaica. It should not be necessary with proper planning to have to tell the crew. I just don't book with any op that has this as SOP.

Since I am not in a position to just take off on a whim and go some place to dive, other than locally, any trip involves planning. Part of the dive plan itself is finding this stuff out ahead of time. If I were able to do this and did not have time to find out in advance I'd ask before I paid any money for the boat. If they said tell the crew then I'd do that before I even got on the boat. From that point on I'd watch my gear to make sure it was not touched. If they did try I'd politely have to tell them that if they want to insure they don't get a tip then go ahead and touch it. I'm guessing they'd leave it alone after that.

We offer to set up customers' gear, as most seem to expect that when on holiday in the tropics. We ask if they'd rather do it themselves, though, and are more than happy if people don't want us to touch their gear the entire time they're here. It's one less thing for us to do.

Have you really experienced ops who were annoyed you wouldn't let them touch your gear? I find it hard to believe.

On a more general note, sure, please don't touch the 'breather. It's a complicated and temperamental piece of kit that's trying quite hard to kill me at the best of times. Mixed-gas technical diving? It's easier if I do it myself and don't have to re-check every valve. But open circuit recreational kit? What could anyone possibly do to your gear that you wouldn't pick up on a pre-dive check? This whole 'keep your hands off my kit' thing is, in recreational diving and in my opinion, macho nonsense.

 

[KeithG]

I’ve read tons of threads about tipping and I don’t want to start a conservation about how much $$ to tip, but rather what do you expect as a standard/baseline service from the dive operator and crew on a dive boat? And at what point would you consider service over and above from the crew? I’m a some-what new diver I trying to form an expectation of what I should receive from the crew as standard and or over-the-top service. And then I’ll feel good about how I’m tipping.

Thanks

2 things to consider:
a) where are you from? what is your tipping expectations
b) where are you diving? what is their tip expectations?
And make sure that you separate service expectations from tipping expectations. North America tips, the most of the rest of the world does not. Service varys...Europe sucks, Indonesian excels, Caribbean is random...

As a warm water Caribbean vacation diver I expect the boat crew to have enough (full) tanks on the boat with several spares. This does not always happen. More than once, the boat has had to go back to the dock to get more tanks...Tip == $0.

There should be a useful dive briefing giving me at least a rough idea of the dive site and the intend dive plan. NOTE: I no longer use operators who do group dives so I could care less about the DM's performance. UNLESS they decide to move the boat in the middle of a night dive (this happened once, the week's tip == $0).

We (as Canucks) tip like crazy on liveaboards. This is based upon the level of service provided. Caribbean day boats, not so much, almost nothing.

On liveaboards the crew does more than fill tanks. Great dive briefings, always available to answer any kind of questions including obscure critter questions and willing to help deal with any equipment issues. They make it personal and check on us continually and make sure our trip is fun. We do not use the DM underwater, but the above sea level attention is awesome (T&C Explorer, Saba Explorer, Belize Dancer!)

For us, day boat diving is now limited to Bonaire afternoons @ the Divi. Well oiled impersonal machine. Great boat orientation. I schelp all of OUR gear. Great dive briefing. The boat is where I expect it after the dive. It meets, but in no way exceeds my expectations. Tip? meh! A couple bucks in the cats box works for me.

 

[TMHeimer]

As pointed out, there are too many variables to say what is beyond normal service or not. A lot depends on what you expect. Obviously I need no help gearing up, but sometimes a DM will offer (maybe they notice my age???). I just tip the standard--$10 per tank--this is what I've heard is standard in the U.S. anyway. I mention to the dive op my only interest is shell collecting. I suppose I would tip a DM more if he/she offered to guide me to the best spots. Hasn't happened yet.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

From the first Scuba Snobs' Etiquette book we offer the following:
PLEASE TIP

Do it. Tip something. Tip in local currency if you can. Always tip in cash. If you are clueless as to what is appropriate, then tip five to ten dollars per tank per diver. That’s a fair range. The tip can be on the lower end if the services provided are minimal, more if someone set up your gear for you, changed out your tank, gave you a beverage and/or snack and/or lunch. You should tip more if the divemaster retrieved the piece of gear you dropped overboard, or saved your life, or did something else special like that. Some boats have a tip jar. We make a habit of asking if there is one, and usually ask loud enough so other people will hear us ask and hopefully tip. If there is a tip jar, put your entire tip in it. If there is none, tip the divemaster and captain separately. Also, tip every day since the crew and dive masters may change daily. But TIP.

DivemasterDennis

 

[freewillie]

The usual and customary services on a dive boat is going to vary from region to region. In California for example the dive boat generally acts more like a taxi service. The pick you up at the dock and take you to the dive site. Once there you will get a dive briefing on the site, conditions, currents, etc., and when they expect you back on board. You are responsible for all of your own gear and your own personal safety. (Jim's kinda boat). There are no guides or Dive Masters in the water with you.

All of my vacation dives to either the Caribbean or Hawaii involve full service boats. You generally set up your own gear but in between dives the staff usually switches out your gear to fresh tanks for you. I have had one or two boats that took your gear from you at the dock and then set it up for you on the boat. Because of the locations and local rules and regulations all of my vacation dives come with guides. You are not allowed to dive off from the group on your own. (I'm sure Jim would not like these boats.) But diving with the local guides has it's own advantages besides just leading me around the reef and back to the boat. Most know the local fish much better and are very good at spotting some of the harder to find fish hiding on the reef. One of the most interesting one's I've seen was a Titan rock fish in Lanai. I never would have seen it on my own and was very excited to see the guide pointing to what looked like a rock at first.

Personally I don't see what the big fuss is letting someone take your gear and then to help set it up for you. For all those diver's saying that the gear is your life support underwater and only you can set it up correctly does that mean the rest of us vacation divers can't tell the difference from the first stage and the second stage? I wouldn't notice that the BC was mounted on the tank upside down? Seriously, we are all supposed to be that lame? As a diver it is my responsibility to double check and ensure that the gear was mounted correctly. First stage is on the tank properly and not upside down. Even when they assemble the kit the tanks are not turned on until we reach the dive site so it's ultimately my responsibility to turn on my own tank anyways and then buddy check to make sure my buddy's is on too. You are supposed to check your primary and secondary regs that they are working as well. None of that changes because someone else put the gear on the tank for you. Except if you want to take my 40 lbs. dive bag with all my gear off my hands at the dock be my guest. After all, I'm on vacation. And by the way, if you do so with a smile and provide a great experience I'm going to tip well.

And let's look at it from the boat's perspective. They sign up all these divers sight unseen with just an expectation that they actually do have diver training. A diver can show up with all the proper certification cards but be an absolute nightmare in the water. And whether or not the boat is a no frills California style boat or a full service fancy vacation boat either way they have some degree of responsibility to take you to the dive site and bring you back again. You show up as a complete stranger and act like a curmudgeon. Don't touch my stuff. I can dive on my own. I don't need a guide. How do they actually know you are as accomplished as you say you are? You might talk the talk and walk the walk, but can you dive the dive? You may not know as the boat until the diver is actually in the water. Personally I prefer to be a good customer. Follow the dive operator rules without raising a fuss. And if I have a good time show them my appreciation with a generous tip.

But seriously, you wouldn't dive in Hawaii or some other place just because you don't want to follow a guide or have someone touch your gear? To each their own.

 

[RJP]

From the first Scuba Snobs' Etiquette book we offer the following:
PLEASE TIP

If you are clueless as to what is appropriate, then tip five to ten dollars per tank per diver. That’s a fair range.

I really don't want to get into the whole tipping argument, but I do find it interesting that this has been touted as "the fair range" for the past 15yrs. A quick search finds threads going back to the year 2000 (remember that?) touting "the average" tip as being $5-10 per tank.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...usive-tipping-note-boats-dms-instructors.html

While the cost of everything else in the world has gone up nearly 50-100% in price during that same timeframe... the $5-per-tank tip guidance has remained frozen in time. For a point of reference a gallon of gas was $1.47 in 2000, the average cost of groceries in the US has increased 111% since 2000 and the overall US Consumer Price index shows a 40% increase in the overall cost of living since 2000.

As someone who spent 6 years crewing on a dive boat I can tell you that $10 per dive is the average tip in 2014. Around here for sure, and seems to be most other places to which I've traveled where tipping is the norm.

So, purely in terms of mathematics, if you want to be a "below average" tipper... stick with $5 tank.

 

[Shasta_man]

Consider that, on a liveaboard, the tip covers more than just the DM. There are lots of people you may see little of that are also working hard for you. That's not to say that a huge tip is required but just that more than the DM not treating you right is involved. Consider the whole boat experience.

Don't get the "touch my gear and die" deal on normal dive gear either, but that's because I expect it to be minor checks, or turning my air on (off) which I check anyway during my self and then buddy checks. Going through all my gear and taking weight pockets out would be an example of a "do not touch" thing though.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

So $10 a tank is what I have given to the DM and the one setting the anchor to the wreck - yet I have never thought to tip a captain...
Isn't the captain getting my money on the ride out and back? Hmmmnnnn.... Maybe it is a NJ thing or was I being cheap?