What are your dive goals / dreams for 2024?

[SurteesDiver]

I have booked 3 days liveaboard diving the Poor Knights and 1 day on HMNZS Canterbury with my son at Easter. Really looking forward to it and keeping fingers crossed for decent weather.

 

[MB NZ]

Low expectations here. To continue diving, or more to the point, to keep wanting to dive.

 

[Centrals]

That's about the same number as me, one or two 3 dive days is my limit now, I need a nap after 2 dives some days.
This getting old is not for the timid, but still we 'battle on', beats the alternative.

I also need a break after 3 days of diving. I have to look after my lower back. Climbing up the ladder with full kit is NO fun at all.
One of the reason why I kept returning to Philippines because the crew can take the gear off me while I am on the surface.

Cheers.

 

[Sebs]

I’d spend more on non-diving trips and less on the diving trips in 2024 as I have spent too much time on diving trips in the past 3 years (9 in 2021, 13 in 2022, 8 in 2023) So next year my diving trip plan are only 3:
1. In February to Raja Ampat for 10th time
2. In June to Tubbataha & Anilao for 1st time
3. In August to Komodo for 6th time

I got too many unedited video clips backlog & filling up my laptop hard drive. It’s time to edit them, upload them to my YouTube channel and clear up my laptop memory.

I feel like you're living every person's scuba dream. 10 trips a year. 10th time in raja ampat. How do you even fit that in?!

 

[Wibble]

2023 was a lot of deeper diving and was amazing. Very happy with the CCR although hanging around for 2 hours at deco is a bit boring!

For 2024 the objective is to do more warm water diving, especially caves. Looking like trips to France and Spain are on the cards. Really want a return to Florida -- that is simply amazing. Also Mexico.

Only big challenge is getting budgetary approval. It's hard to explain to a non-diving spouse why I should spend a small fortune on me!

 

[Micko1974]

Raja Ampat. Did my first Indonesia trip with 45 dives this past summer and I was completely blown away. Everyone at the resorts said - oh, if you like this, you HAVE to check out Raja Ampat! As if I could just hop over there from the east coast of the US... But, if it's even better than where I was in Indonesia, that is my goal. 2024, or maybe later. We'll see.

Yes, Raja is on my list for 2024 also. I live in the Philippine, so it's a little easier to get to than from the East Coast of the US.

 

[Dan]

I feel like you're living every person's scuba dream. 10 trips a year. 10th time in raja ampat. How do you even fit that in?!

I started diving in 2005. So the previous 9 times in Raja Ampat were spread over 18 years. When I was still working, I went on one or two diving trips / year. Then I retired in 2020. So I got time to dive, checking off my bucket list diving destinations, so to speak, while my body still allows me to do.

Now my diving bucket list is dwindling (still a few of dive destinations like Grouper Spawning in French Polynesia, Sardine Run in South Africa, etc. that I haven’t find the right time to do it, yet) I start to do non diving trip like visiting Antarctica in November 2024.

 

[Six Feet Under]

Dive Catalina Island (in the works as far as planning)
Dive the Oriskany
Dive more caves, period, including some new ones (Telford is one I've wanted to hit for years)
Dive in South Florida whenever the opportunity arises

Get my Full Cave cert
Get Cave DPV cert

Perhaps start looking toward saving for & buying a rebreather and training for that. I doubt I'll mess with trimix training until then, just not worth the gas costs to take the class or do OC trimix to me.

 

[Wibble]

Dive Catalina Island (in the works as far as planning)
Dive the Oriskany
Dive more caves, period, including some new ones (Telford is one I've wanted to hit for years)
Dive in South Florida whenever the opportunity arises

Get my Full Cave cert
Get Cave DPV cert

Perhaps start looking toward saving for & buying a rebreather and training for that. I doubt I'll mess with trimix training until then, just not worth the gas costs to take the class or do OC trimix to me.

If moving to CCR then you should (IMHO) ensure that you put CCR as the only thing you dive. It needs full concentration (in my experience) and getting the hours and ascents in.

You could then look at doing Full Cave on CCR once you've a couple of hundred hours on the unit and are very happy with it. CCR and cave really do work well -- imagine having virtually unlimited gas and time available to resolve problems...

 

[Six Feet Under]

If moving to CCR then you should (IMHO) ensure that you put CCR as the only thing you dive. It needs full concentration (in my experience) and getting the hours and ascents in.

You could then look at doing Full Cave on CCR once you've a couple of hundred hours on the unit and are very happy with it. CCR and cave really do work well -- imagine having virtually unlimited gas and time available to resolve problems...

It's going to take too long to save for the unit + classes that I need in order to dive it in the first place, before I can spend the time on the unit to be able to take CCR Cave. I'd be cutting myself out of probably two years of cave diving by doing that, and I'm tired of:

A. not being able to dive alone
B. being limited in dive sites
C. not being able to use this DPV I bought last year in anything but open water, when there is no open water diving worth doing within 100 miles of my house which isn't also in a state park where DPVs are prohibited (really didn't think that $3k or so purchase through very well before I did it)

Once I switch to CCR, that will be all that I dive. I just have some debt and a piece of property I just bought to pay off before I spend the money on a $6-8k unit and several thousand more in training classes and materials. Cave diving is honestly the reason I want a CCR to begin with, for exactly the reason you stated.