Cheap scuba trip?

Hey,

My friend and I are trying to figure out how we can do a scuba trip over the summer. The issue is that we are both college students and college students aren't known for being loaded, even if we got the state to pay our tuition. I think we could each probably stand to spend about 1000 dollars. We are willing to rough it quite a bit in terms of eating like **** and sleeping in my friends car, but we can't really find a way to get good diving.

Neither of us have much experience, so I'm wondering if you guys could help me find out if it's realistic to get a "good" trip. All we care about is seeing good things underwater, and staying as long as possible. I define good as sharks. I like seeing other nice fish and reefs and ****, but sharks are really what we want to see. Whales and dolphins are also awesome, but mostly sharks.

We want somewhere within a two day's drive of Boston. We're gonna rent motar boats to dive off of because we can't afford organized trips and we want to stay out at 8-10 days, making for a 10-12 day trip total. Do you guys know of a place within a two days drive where shark spots are just a quick boat ride away?

More shark infested spots are the best spots, but do any of you guys know anything about Maine, MA, or Jersey in particular?

Thank you

So you two are going to rent a boat and just go for it? For real?

Your limited experience aside, you two don't know where any dive sites are, how the surface conditions change through the day, underwater currents & conditions, water temperatures, or anything else! This really makes me advise you to ask yourself how much your life or your friend's life is worth. Your plan, as I read it, is a recipe for disaster.

I'd probably suggest you head down to Florida and do some shore diving with some locals, and pay for a charter out to some wrecks within your experience and training.

Drive to North Carolina, stay in a dorm, go out with a charter.

Best of luck, good diving, Craig

Alright... Which part of renting a boat and just going for it it will leave us dead? It doesn't seem that complicated. We can just google for dive sites right?

If you can stretch your budget a bit to say $1500, you could probably manage to do a Blackbeards liveaboard in the Bahamas. It's a step up from sleeping in your car and you WILL see sharks. My friend and I did it in August last year for about $1700 each, but we both had to rent gear and we stayed a night in a hotel before getting on the boat.

Good luck.

Have you looked at the Scubaboard Invades Cozumel trip. With Air it will be a little above your budget.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/invade-cozumel-2012/396102-invade-cozumel-2012-package-deal.html

Porkfried:

Hey,

More shark infested spots are the best spots

All we care about is seeing good things underwater, and staying as long as possible. I define good as sharks. I like seeing other nice fish and reefs and ****, but sharks are really what we want to see. Whales and dolphins are also awesome, but mostly sharks.

Click to expand...

Yes, Sharks are really some ****ing awesome ****. Infestations are something to see! Whales and Dolphins are not as ****ing cool ****, but okay, too.

If you want to stay as long as possible, use NitrOx in your oxygen tanks.

Put your college boy brains to use, follow up on the google part, and by google, I mean reading. Including rereading your diving textbooks. You are nowhere at the experience level to dive new sites alone. You are lacking the maturity to estimate conditions to enter and exit at the appropriate time. That can be learned. What you need to adjust is your attitude. You will not figure diving out at this point, on your own.

Lots of cheap flights will take you to excellent locations within your budget. Just accept that you will need a guide.
And to give you an example of proper attitude in dive planning -"I have identified a new wreck site within 500 feet of a current dive site I have dived 5 times. I know that the new undived site close by gets a lot more overhead traffic. Furthermore, heavy commercial boat traffic might affect visibility and current. I will survey the site with sonar, have a surface support person on site, trained for it, manning my lifeline as i draw a guideline to the new wreck. Dive Flags. Signal horns. Flares. Emergency Oxygen. Defibrilator. My diving partner is in charge of weather reports, communication with the local marina and dock, and fellow divers for relevant information"

i could skip all of this by diving with a reputable operation with a local guide, picked by me for their professionalism. But in this case, it is me who is preparing the dive.

Are ya sure google will tell you about tides, vis, dangers, exit plan? will google have emergency oxygen for ya? how about med emergency evac plan? and who the hell is manning your boat while you two city slickers are overboard?

You remind me of a couple we saw crabbing in OR in their rental boat. Unfortunately they had no clue about much of anything, and came back in with the boat full of dead crabs, small crabs. They got a hefty fine and what they could keep was worthless as dead crabs quickly go bad unless cooked. Fortunately they were in the Bay.

The Ocean is a powerful thing. You sound like the type who may end up losing your row boat and drowning. A real boat is going to be MORE not less. We rented a boat for the day, I want to say $400 a day. That's for a small but fast boat (18 ft).

I recommend shore diving at Lauderdale by the Sea (Florida). It will cost you a tank of air and is somewhat safe. That, or taking charters. Charters are about $80 for a two tank trip. Yeah diving is not a poor mans hobby, at least not in the states. But for $1000 you can likely do three to five days two tanks a day.

Look at Cozumel. I've seen a few trips for around $1000 including diving.