New Diver - Liveaboard - Guide or No Guide

[FinnMom]

What others are telling you is true, but I want to add a voice from the "guided dives can offer a lot to good divers too" -camp. I'm not incompetent & I love having a guide (admittedly I've never had a pushy guide). Yes, It is important that you don't need a DM. You need to be competent in your diving skills and capable of independently taking responsibility for yourself. And you should never dive w/o some local knowledge. That's a basic rule & theme from Ange's Diver Down, and too many incident reports to count. The local knowledge should be in your head after doing your homework.

That said, you can get a lot more out of many dives if someone with local knowledge & experience is diving with you. I enjoy diving w/ a local guide because they can spot so much and maybe tell me later what that critter was, maybe even what it was doing & why. I also have no hope of remembering the map of a dive site as well as the guide. I need to know how to navigate my way to where I'm going, but the guide is more likely to succeed every time in finding all the special stops that might have been on the map: the feeding station on one particular coral pinnacle, that neat cave at 16m, the place with the really big gorgonians, etc. So if you can do it for the right reasons, hiring a guide or DM and enjoying their input doesn't make you a lesser diver. It might however make you someone who got a lot more out of their dives, and someone much more capable of spotting critters for themselves in the future.

 

[DanMont]

If the company that you are looking at that doesn't provide dive guides is Pro Dive then I would absolutely recommend them. When I went to the GBR earlier this year I too had very little experience (less than 10 dives since certification). IMO the sites you go to are very benign and shallow (most we visited had a hard bottom less than 60ft in most areas). All the dives are conducted from the liveaboard - no transferring to a tender. There was very little current, good vis and low swell once on the site. The briefings are very informative and give you a good description of the best ways to navigate each site and key areas you don't want to miss. I really believe diving with a buddy and no DM on my trip out benefited my diving as a whole and I am now a better and more confident diver because of it. Bear in mind as well that most liveaboards out of cairns have new divers getting certified so the first sites are often 'easier' than the sites on day two/three.

However this is only my experience from diving on the outer reefs around cairns. If you were looking at going on a liveaboard up to the ribbon reefs or the coral sea (Spoilsport/Mike Ball) you would need some input from someone else. I have heard that the sites are a lot more challenging, especially the coral sea and maybe not suited for new divers due to current and depth.

I also went on a day trip out from Port Douglas before my liveaboard with a company (Poseidon) that did supply a DM for every dive. This was very useful to be able to adjust to the new conditions and i would recommend doing something similar if you opted for a non DM liveaboard (Just to point out as well you can hire a DM if you wanted to on these liveaboards).

In the end it is all up to you, do you feel confident in conducted a dive with just yourself and a buddy or do you feel you would enjoy the experience more having the additional security and knowledge of a DM.

Hope this helps

Dan

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I think you will be fine on the trip. All quality boats provide options for all levels of divers, and factor in each divers prior experience on the sites or in similar conditions. A moored boat is easy to dive from, and with a few days and a few dives your comfort level will go up plenty. Just talk to the liveaboard operator about their requirements and services and the nature of the diving. Also, you will meet and end up diving with others on the boat who may have an experience level and willingness to dive with you that you will comfortable with. Talk to the operator, and have a great trip.
DivemasterDennis

 

[terri717]

The unguided liveaboard that I'm considering does have dive masters onboard, it's actually the most popular certification liveaboard in Cairns. That being said, I've heard they spend most of their time with the students. They do provide dive briefing before the dive, lay out where you should go, what you should expect to see, how long you'll be out, etc. They do offer a guide for the first dive and for the 2 night dives.

The guided tour I'm looking at had some bad reviews - that it visits the same reef sites and they were just "meh".

I'm sure it will all be amazing! But since this will likely be our only trip to the GBR, at least for many years, I don't want to miss out on a truly great experience from being "scared". But, if it's unsafe or impractical for newbie divers to pick such a tour, then safety comes first They say they cater to all levels, but I fear that might be part of the sales pitch.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I too got certified because planning a trip to Australia and the Cairns and north Queensland area was already in the works. My very first dive after completing the OW class was on a day boat out of Port Douglas, and after a day there we spent a few days in Cairns. If I recall, for my first post-cert dive they did not insist on a DM accompanying me but rather put me on a boat with a lot of snorkelers and dropped me and some other inexperienced scuba divers in 20 feet of water, over the most beautiful reef I could imagine at the time.

If a liveaboard is in your budget and if you are certain you like the idea of diving several times a day for several days on end, then go for it. My impression from diving in Cairns and Port Douglas was that, compared with American dive ops, Australian dive ops were more conscious of not pushing a diver beyond his training and experience. If you tell them you are inexperienced, I suspect they will tailor the dives to suit you. If they suggest hiring a private DM, then I would follow their suggestion.

 

[terri717]

There is a scenario. Imagine you and your husband are diving alone and all of a sudden, your husband started convulsing underwater. His reg fell out of his mouth. He is also losing his buoyancy and started an uncontrolled descend. You have 10 seconds to figure out what to do and implement your plan. GO!

Just curious....what's the answer?



---------- Post added December 6th, 2013 at 09:56 AM ----------

If the company that you are looking at that doesn't provide dive guides is Pro Dive then I would absolutely recommend them.

Yup, the one we're looking at is Pro Dive! I've heard they're the best 3D/2N liveaboard out of Cairns. What time of year did you go? Did you do the night dives? That's another thing that I'm scared (but maybe excited) for!

 

[billt4sf]

Imagine you and your husband are diving alone and all of a sudden, your husband started convulsing underwater. His reg fell out of his mouth. He is also losing his buoyancy and started an uncontrolled descend. You have 10 seconds to figure out what to do and implement your plan. GO!

I am not a rescue diver but I would be trying to 1) keep the reg in his mouth, stick it in and hold it in if I had to; 2) Grab ahold of a strap on his BC; 3) quickly but safely ascend, trying to make sure we both breathe, do any required decompression stops but skip the safety stop; 4) inflate both BCs on the surface 4) get help.

Am I close?

- Bill

 

[lostcajun]

OMGosh, go with a guide....... (and) practice your navigation whilst doing so!!!!!!!! You don't know better than he or she the riches of the reef. sheeesh....

 

[Lorenzoid]

As far as night dives are concerned, I know some people have learned to night dive just by jumping in and figuring it out, but if it were my first night dive, I would sure as hell want a guide for that. Night diving isn't rocket science, but there are a few things to know. Better yet, take AOW before the trip and learn something about night diving. My first night dive was part of my AOW course.

 

[RJP]

I am not a rescue diver but I would be trying to 1) keep the reg in his mouth, stick it in and hold it in if I had to; 2) Grab ahold of a strap on his BC; 3) quickly but safely ascend, trying to make sure we both breathe, do any required decompression stops but skip the safety stop; 4) inflate both BCs on the surface 4) get help.

Am I close?

- Bill

Pretty good. I'd add the following...

1.) Only use one BCD to control ascent. If you don't vent buddy's BCD you risk a runaway ascent, and managing two BCDs not really good idea. I would dump my BCD and use the buddy's for buoyancy control during ascent, inflate his BCD at surface first, then your own.

2.) There's pros/cons (if not controversy) to trying to put the reg back in his mouth. If he's not breathing, trying to put it back in and keep it in is going to task load you, slow down the rescue, and not do any good. (He's not breathing.) It could also potentially cause you to inadvertently restrict/close his airway. If the reg is in his mouth, keep it in. If it's out, leave it out

3.) Either way (reg in or out) do what you can to tilt the injured diver's head back during ascent to help keep his airway open in order to avoid a lung overexpansion injury or embolism.

If it were me, I'd get diver from behind. Dump my BCD, and with my left hand I'd reach over his left shoulder for his LPI and use it just as if it were mine. With right hand I would hold his reg in IF IT WAS IN and tilt his chin up. This gives me the best shot at managing bouyancy and reducing risk of injury.