.... alone, to dive-dive-dive....relatively cheap-cheap-cheap.... good nutrition to fuel the diving.... spartan digs will do.... Don't party... do want: comfortable, fast dive boat, large volume cylinders w/ N2O2, co-divers of significant experience with a co-desire to stay long & venture far enough to see the epitome of Roatan's diving.
You will dive with whoever shows up to a dive operation, unless you charter the boat yourself with divers of "significant experience". They will have set rules that will limit you to X B.T. or X P.S.I. They will motor you to their standard dive sites.
You may, in one or two weeks, manage to see most of the West and NorthWest portions of Roatan by diving out of West End operations. This is simply not "the epitome of Roatan's diving". To see what is truly unique on Roatan (compared to the rest of the Craibbean), you'll have to dive off of the shallower South coast, where there are four viable dive ops: BFK, FI, CCV, and RHR. Search here for more info.
As cost conscious as you fancy yourself to be,
you are very much-more focused on getting a lot of diving. Do not be penny wise and pound foolish. Start totaling up the costs for diving 4x a day at any day-dive operation that seems to be a bargain- all of a sudden you're at $110 to $120/day. Want a night dive? That's once a week plus a fee. Take a serious look at AI operations where that is part of the combined package.
....large volume cylinders w/ N2O2...
If by "large volume cylinders" you mean over the standard 80's,
what exactly were you looking for?
And, I'll bite.... what were you needing
N2
O2 for? I had no idea what Nitrous Dioxide is used for- been a long time since I heard that reference.
Methinks you're an "old" Instructor!
To other reading along, my rant: Some youngsters call that
nitrox... but they usually use a capitol N. Well,
that's going to bump up the costs for your diving. You can dive Roatan using
EAN32 (air) 5x a day- if you dive it shallow (where the critters are) and if you dive it gently. EAN gas is a tool that used to be known as "geezer gas" or "devil gas". If there is no need for it on certain specific dive profiles and you can get past the internalized marketing hype, you can actually save some money. It does however, require some analysis and understanding past the lowest common denominator of what we are taught.
IF you are really, and truly diving 4-5x a day, no matter how shallow- it couldn't hurt.
Except for the comfortable, fast dive boat and the "large" cylinders", well....
Thought of starting a new thread, but why let this one die?
You ask a new questions based on different circumstances. That would be a great reason. :sblogo: uses electrons and bandwidth like a drunken sailor spends money.
But the overarching truth is- your question is a tad vague but has nevertheless been answered many times over the years.
It really depends upon what exact amt you want to spend after paying the airlines. You can sleep in a hammock for (what used to be) $5, you can find places to quickly obtain a plate of rice and beans 4x a day for pennies. 4x dives a day- You can buy a dive package of ten dives at a a time for $30/each (air). Maybe, what... $140-160/day?
Do the math.
Or AI, where there's clean sheets, AC (maybe it will be hot, maybe?), food put in front of you on schedule, unlimited (4-5x/day) diving and tanks... for $150-200/day?
