What's a "two tank dive"? (german girl asking)

Hello,

I'm not a diver, i'm a translator. And I have problems with the translation of a guidebook ("Florida") because several times they write "two tank/two location dive trips" and "three tank/three location dive trips". I'm absolutely not sure what that means. Whether it means you get three oxygen bottles and you dive on three different sites or it just means that you'll dive on three different sites or something else. Can you please help me and explain? Thanks in advance! :10:

Ok... first off - the tanks are filled with Air - not Oxygen... so make sure you don't make that mistake in translating it.

Now for the dives. A single dive lasts about 45 minutes, and you will have one tank on your back. So boats will have extra tanks on board and go out to one dive site and you do the dive. Then you come back on the boat and have your surface interval (time to just hang out for an hour or so that way the excess nitrogen you absorbed can start to leave your body).

After that hour, either in the same spot, if it seems like a good spot to do multiple dives like a big ship wreck etc, or a new spot - the boat moves during the surface interval - you hop in for dive 2 (a 2 tank dive then) and after that dive, wait an hour or so, move to a new spot and dive again: thus a 3 tank dive.

So you are not wearing 2 or 3 tanks - they just mean the boat will go out and has extra tanks on it, and you will do the 2 or 3 dives. By the time you do a 2 tank dive, you are probably spending about 3.5 - 4 hours on the boat. So it better be a pretty comfy boat, refreshments, etc.

Hope that helps!

they will provide 2 tanks, good for 2 dives. 1 tank per dive site.

and larry's right, it's air not oxygen hehehe

Thanks, you helped me a lot! Enjoy your next dives!