Diving Liberia

[fireguy]

Help!!!!
May be going to Liberia, working out of Monrovia. Does anyone have contact information for a dive operator there???? Lots of internet searching comes up with no hits...

FG - Have Laptop, Will Travel

 

[In10se]

Liberia eh. Lol ... good luck on that one. One of the worst countries on the planet neighboring the ones higher up the list. What is up that has you diving Liberia?

 

[livewire]

Whoever you choose, make sure the dive op you choose has a .50 cal mounted on the bow of the boat. Helps with piracy.

 

[fireguy]

It could be worse. Have been working in Baghdad, Kabul, Kandahar, and Darfur. At least there's a beach on this job...
I started diving in East Timor during the UN mission there. Lot's of opportunities to dive and discover new dive sites.
The main thing is safety - very very conservative dive profiles. If you mess up your're toast as the closest chamber is usually too far away to do you any good.
Next is knowing the situation in the area you're diving in. We'd make friends with the local village and hire them for security...

 

[Apollo]

Fireguy, East Timor has at least two dive outfits for tourists, Liberia has none. And the Liberian beaches are used as public toilets and trash basket.

 

[fireguy]

I' ve been diving with both of the current dive operators in ET - I knew the Dive Timor folks before they started the shop, and learned to dive with Wayne and Ann from Free Flow.

Just came back from a week long orientation and training class for Liberia. You're totally correct about the "beaches are toilets" around Monrovia. One picture of the apartment I'll be living in has a guy taking a dump in the background... ;(
Guess I'll take the camera, housing, and snorkel gear and hope to find a clean beach outside the city...

 

[cyprinus]

Hey Fireguy,

Did you get to Liberia? Any diving opportunities?
I'm going to be out in Monrovia for a couple of weeks in June 09 and was wondering if it was worth taking the regs?

 

[UnderwaterEngineer]

Fireguy,

Have any luck diving in Monrovia? I could use any info on what you found for diving resources, i.e. air, tanks, etc. I'm working on a proposal to inspect the Gabriel Tucker Bridge and Saint Paul River Bridge and am trying to plan my resources. I'll ship my own small gear: harnesses, full face masks, regs, suits, fins, tools, etc. but would like to not have to ship a portable HP compressor.

Any info you have would be helpful. By the way, some of your earlier posts have already helped me to decide to go drysuit instead of wet.

Thanks!
UnderwaterEngineer

 

[fireguy]

For An Update:
UnderwaterEngineer - you've got a private message...

For The Rest of the World - I'm still here in Liberia but have not found a place / way to dive. Partly my fault as work is consuming all the days of the week...

So - if you are coming to Liberia and need information, please let me know - I'll update you on current conditions and possible solutions to what you think are simple problems...

But -
Overall, the country has improved. There are streetlights on in some areas, and recovery is visible throughout most of the country.
As for diving - I've not seen nor heard of anyone opening a dive shop - probably because we don't really have any known safe dive sites and there are few tourists...

 

[demonspawn]

Perhaps if enough of us go there to work, we'll end up abandoning enough equipment as we leave to establish a small dive operation in Monrovia. It seems obvious that there isn't any place to get a couple of tanks filled there today.

So, if I ship a compressor and a couple of tanks, the equipment costs will bust my budget for bringing a safety diver with me. Just how busy are you, Fireguy?