DivemasterDennis-

On an Eastern Carribean liveaboard with Explorer Ventures, Debbie and I learned the best way to end a night dive.
We were pleasantly surprised after our first night dive of the trip to find that upon returning to the boat a crew member was there, and poured warm water down the back of each diver’s wet suit right after removing the scuba unit. Now that is something you have to experience in order to understand how absolutely wonderful it feels! After the warm water bath we were each handed a hot chocolate and were draped with a thick warm towel right out of the dryer. It was perfect. Based on this experience, we decided that there should be a rule for night diving that should apply to all liveaboards. It’s not a bad idea for any night dive, actually. Suggest it to your next liveaboard crew, night boat run captain, or to your “shore guys” on your next night dive. Our proposed rule is this: If you are aboard the boat, or standing by as the “shore guy” for a night dive, then you are responsible for the pampering of the divers as they emerge after their dive. As noted above, two primary tools for pampering night divers are warm towels and hot beverages. If you are on a remote beach, the warm towels may be a problem, but even then you should at least have an abundance of dry towels and drape each diver as soon as they remove their gear. Warm beverages can include hot chocolate, hot tea, hot coffee, Irish coffee, heated brandy, hot spiced wine, hot spiced cider, or any other hot beverage chosen by a diver in advance to give you a chance to put it together. Warm beverages can be made ahead of time and put in a thermos. But don’t forget paper cups or plastic glasses. Everyone must have their own drinking goblet.
So, live aboard crew, night dive boat operators, and night shore dive people, take notice. A little pampering leads to big tipping. At least from us!
DivemasterDennis