First Boat Dive

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kidspot

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
4,854
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12
Location
Moses Lake, Washington
# of dives
500 - 999
I just got back from my first boat dive. What a great day. A friend had invited me on a trip to Molokini aboard the Maui Diamond II, he had 2 free tickets . . . I was not going to pass that up! They treated us so well I figured I'd share the trip with everyone in the Hawaii Ohana.

My buddy picked me up at 5:30am and by 6:30 we were getting onboard. This being my first boat dive I had no clue what to expect. I was pleased that they let me use my own tanks (I use DIN).

There were 15 of us onboard, 5 scuba divers, 5 intro scuba/snorklers and 5 crewmembers. They call themselves a "valet" dive service, so they do everything for you. Loaded all my gear, unpacked for me and brought me my gear. Seth, our Divemaster, set up my gear (which I checked afterwards) but if I had asked I'm sure he would have let me do it myself.

The Boat itself I'm guessing was about 35ft. and probably had enough room for several more passengers. I was relieved (bad pun I know) to see there was a head onboard. And lots of benches to sit on. We travelled at a consistent 18knots, and the trip took about 60-70 minutes each way.

Diving a Hogarthian (nearly DIR) rig I expected some comments/questions, especially being such a new diver. While there were a lot of questions, which I did my best to answer, no one called me a "tech wannabe" or any such thing, and I never got the impression that they thought so either, they treated me (and each of the other passengers) with professionalism, respect and with an air of friendliness.

I explained that I had chosen a gear configuration which I could use no matter what type of diving I eventually got into and was very comfortable with the bp/wing and long hose configuration. I explained that it was my first boat dive, so Seth went over the procedures very carefully with me about entries and exits. He set the turn point at 1500psi with a max depth of 85ft. He also went over hand signals that he used and a great deal of other "safety" and "legal" type stuff in a humorous manner.

The Dive itself began with us sitting on the edge of the transom, the crew put our "BC's" on us, which gave me a bit of difficulty since I'm used to donning/doffing my gear alone and have my own "system" that I'm comfortable with, but I tried doing things their way and just laughed at the trouble I had being helped. My first giant stride later and I was in the water. We all decended to the bottome at about 35ft. together (the average depth of the first dive was 41ft.) Seth had a nice balance of keeping us together and showing us the sights vs. leave them alone to explore. He led us down a sloping "wall" (more a slope than a cliff) to 85 ft where a "school" (herd, flock or whatever) of white tip and gray sharks were. Well over a dozen of them, all juvenile, several nice morray eels, and lots of reef.

We worked back up the slope, ascended, did a 3 min. safety stop at 15ft. then surfaced. After waiting for my turn I handed my weightbelt up (took a bit of work to get it off, since it was under my crotch strap) then the crew took all of my gear, except fins (mental note: remember to remove bungeed backup from neck before giving anyone your bc) and I climbed up the ladder.

After a 30 minute SI we went back in (I would have been more comfortable with a 1 hr. SI, which is about my only complaint of the day) At 70ft we watched a large group of garden eels. Seth had us "sneak" up on them and keep our distance so that we did not scare them away. We watched another shark under a ledge, which shortly thereafter came out and got close enough to reach out and touch. We ascended, did a safety stop (we had pushed NDL's on the computer to within 1 minute) and then surfaced. After my "practice" earlier the weight belt was a bit easier to doff and this time I remembered to take the backup reg off before handing up my gear.

The water on the return trip had gotten a little choppy, making for a few bumps with seas about 1-3 ft., but it was only a 1 hour trip back to Maalaeia harbor. Deli Sandwiches, soda and chips were a nice light lunch on the ride back. Once back at the harbor the crew unloaded our gear, put it into the van for us and my buddy and I headed back to Lahaina.

My buddy tells me that on his scale of 1-10 he gave our DM a 9.3 and that he was the second best DM he had dove with. I have nothing to compare it to, just lots learned, and much more to go. So in my book it was a great day - not even a hint of seasickness! (note: taking motion sickness medicine the night before really works well)

Aloha my fellow ScubaBoarders, and thanks for letting me share with ya' all. (did you actually read this whole thing? . . . why??? - j/k) I think it ended up sounding like a commercial, but I was really happy with the day.

Tim
 
Hi Tim,

That sounds exactly like the dives I did with them about 2.5 years ago.

Having done a few more boat dives and diving in general, my only complaint about the process is the removal of gear before getting firmly onboard.

If the conditions were excellent (i.e. the boat was not moving at all), that's fine, but back in May when I was there last, I did some dives on days where the only real diving was boat diving due to the water conditions. This mean that the boat was moving pretty significantly due to the waves... so I'm glad that ERDA's policy was *not* to have gear passed up before you were out of the water.

The reason for that is that I slipped off the ladder once, and even with the BC well inflated, you go under for a few seconds... having the reg in your mouth helps that one not be as panicky as it might be otherwise.

Besides... there's much less chance of dropping your weightbelt in the drink if it doesn't come off until you're onboard. :)

Good to hear you had fun, though!!!
 
The only boat dives I have done, I kept my weight belt on until I was back on the boat, too, FWIW.

But mostly I posted to say thanks a lot for the post! As a new diver, I really enjoy reading these sort of posts. It's like getting a little bit of virtual vicarious experience myself. I know when you're posting, you may wonder if anyone is interested in your personal story. Well, in my case, and I imagine a lot of others, very much so! Thanks for the great detail!

And, you bet I read the whole thing. :)

Gregg
 
Sounds like you had a great couple of dives!

On all of the boat dives I've done - except one - we got back on the boat with all of our equipment on. Usually we hand up our fins as we're climbing the ladder, but sometimes I've had to loop them over my arm.

When everything falls into place - great weather, calm seas, great vis, lots of sea life and no seasickness - it's amazing.
 
Hey, free boat dive!? To Molokini? The only thing that'd stop me would be if I had to row the boat out there -- both ways.

Good story. The boat procedures you describe is fairly typical; they help you in regardless (almost always giant stride, and rarely, backslips off the sides, and then only if they're sure about you) and on the exit, it's weightbelt first and sometimes fins next (although I stow mine on my rig) and then it's up the ladder or over the motor mounts. And they're sure going to let you use and rig your own stuff if you're using DIN fittings. I assume that you're reviewing that little tangle with your weightbelt and crotch strap, even it did go ok on the 2nd dive; wouldn't want that recurring at a "bad" time. And I know what you mean about forgetting about that bungee necklace, having the reg snap back into my throat a couple of times before I got a clue (I don't go DIR strictly and use the bungee to secure my primary for long surface swims and penetrating surf rather than DIR which bungees the secondary).

Do you use a hard-core DIR rig (i.e. doubles, emergency upline, doubled manifolds and regs, etc.)? Geez, that must be a bear to handle on a shore dive. Not to mention $$$$...

Boat dives are always nice except when the seas are really frisky. It beats humping the gear to the water and back. And you can get to really good spots.
 
Sounds like you had a pretty good experience, thanks for sharing :D already looking for the next boat dive?
 
Justleesa,

actually I can't decide which I would rather do boat or shore - I like both, the convenience of shore diving and it's spontenaity or the clear water and locations a boat dive affords . . . tomorrow is a shore dive before I head off to work (Mala Warf) it may be a little fun with the surf being up. I think it also takes more air because of the long surface swims (gotta catch my breath a bit after a 200 yd swim in gear). I did notice my SAC was down to .47 during the boat dives, it's around .63 on shore dives - perhaps more of a workout.

But I definitely would go on another boat dive given the chance.

Tim
 
bluemagoo:
Do you use a hard-core DIR rig (i.e. doubles, emergency upline, doubled manifolds and regs, etc.)? Geez, that must be a bear to handle on a shore dive. Not to mention $$$$...
Actually it's a DIR singles rig (except for the ball which I have to remove on the rear dump and a second stage swivel - I'm about to remove both since I've already had both cause trouble) I have studied DIR philosophy, like it, but don't know how much of it I will adopt yet or even what kind of diving I'm going to be doing in the future (which was what caused me to adopt their gear configuration to begin with - I like it's versatility). I am looking forward to DIR-F as soon as a class is offered on Maui or Oahu (anyone else interested?)

I tried a traditional rig during part of my BOW course, and hope I do not have to go back. The Hogarthian rig (adopted by DIR) is so much more comfortable to me. I just get some strange looks at the LDS and from other divers. That's ok - I'm new, learning and figure I'd get some strange looks no matter what I do.

Also I chose to use modular valves on two of my tanks (both tanks sporting brand new scubaboard stickers) so that I can switch to doubles if I choose to in the future. But for now I just want to get to the point where I can enjoy the dive and not worry about bouancy, breathing etc. - I wonder how many dives before that stuff becomes second nature?

Tim
 
Hey Humu,

I think next time I'll see about keeping my gear on - it doesn't really weigh all that much anyway (I'm 260, so another 40lbs is nothing)

Glad you and the others enjoyed my day too -

Aloha,Tim
 
kidspot:
....I just get some strange looks at the LDS and from other divers. That's ok - I'm new, learning and figure I'd get some strange looks no matter what I do.

.... But for now I just want to get to the point where I can enjoy the dive and not worry about bouancy, breathing etc. - I wonder how many dives before that stuff becomes second nature?
Tim

Yes, unfortunately newer divers are hampered with learning to get comfortable with all the new equipment, environment, and experiences, all at the same time. The trick is to sort things out and so it might be worth taking a step back and giving yourself lessons about yourself -- just like pool classes except you're your own "instructor". For example, minimize the distractions of the environment and "doing the dive" by picking a shallow (no more than just overhead), safe, quiet spot and working on your buoyancy in various gear configurations (including tank pressures). Be scientific about it and record your results; also, be cognizant of what to expect in real diving conditions (surge, depth, etc.). Of course, you'll blowoff a tank of air doing this, maybe feel you're "wasting" a good day, and get really weird looks from people on the beach ("why is this guy using scuba where I can stand up?"), but I think you'll find it useful in the end. Oh, and most important, have someone with you; maybe not all tanked up, but definitely someone who is a capable safety diver.
 
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