Family Diving Costs

[Keith Blair]

Good day to all. I'm looking for feedback from people who dive with their significant others and children.

When I got certified a while back I remember it was expensive to get into scuba with classes, gear and such but once you were 'in', the actual diving part wasn't too bad. We weren't anywhere near wealthy and yet after we got certified we did 100+ dives our first year alone, went to a bunch of classes, got my AOWI certification and a job at a dive shop. Fast forward a number of years, I changed the spouse and added two kids, got them certified, watched them fall in love with diving and now we're looking for places to go diving..

Holy bajeezus, how do families afford to go diving together these days? For a charter here in the Gulf, a family of four is looking at $400-$600 a trip. For the springs I used to love, it's nearly $200 for a day of diving for four. None of this includes the costs of tank rentals so add another $120. We all have our own gear so thankfully we don't have to worry about the costs of renting that too. I understand inflation and I understand it costs more for 4 people to dive than it did when it was just 2 people, but wow.

In the past I never even considered buying my own tanks because rentals seemed like a barely noticeable expense. Now that I'm looking at the costs of renting tanks for a family of four, it seems like it's the wiser choice. Assuming we dove 20 times a year, at the lowest possible rental prices in our area, they'd pay for themselves in under 2 years (that's taking into account purchase, fills, vip and hydro). For that matter, it also almost seems a better choice to buy our own boat. At the better part of a thousand bucks a trip, how many trips until we could have bought our own boat and gas?

So for any of you that dive with your family, what have you found and/or how do you do it? Did you buy your own tanks? Did you buy your own boat? If so, what kind for being able to go 5-10 miles out in the Gulf with 4 people and gear safely? Are we stuck doing shore dives in Bradenton and Venice if we can't afford $300+ for diving every weekend?

 

[Dhickman13]

Man, I sympathize with you. I'm facing the same dilemma. Similar story, I've not been diving for a long time, due to parenting and living in a location that was not as dive-friendly as what I grew up with. Now that my family is back in Florida, and my son is recently certified, we are diving as a family as well. And yeah, it is much more expensive than what I was used to. No advice to offer, interested to hear what other's say.

 

[kelemvor]

Howdy, neighbor!

I dive with my wife and daughter. Your prices are about right for boat dives. Yes, it's expensive. I guess that's all I've known as I've been diving less than a decade.

I did buy my own tanks. If you're diving in FL, it just makes good financial sense to buy your own tanks. Fills (even nitrox) are cheap at places like Sunshine Scuba. If you're buying tanks to save money, it's a good time to consider steel tanks. They're better than aluminum in pretty much every way, but slightly more expensive. I like to use low pressure tanks and have the shop overfill them so I get much longer dives from one tank. In an LP108, I can get about 150cuft of gas. Not quite two aluminum 80's in there but close. I've done two dives on one fill of my lp108's many times.

Boat charters are expensive around here. That's because boats have to go 10+ miles out into the gulf to get to any reasonable depth so there's a big fuel cost. From what I've heard, gas mileage can be as bad as 2mpg on older boats.

If you can live with sharing, it's much cheaper to get a seat on a shared boat vs chartering your own. Typically $60-80 for a two-tank trip, so $320 for your family of four vs a private charter that's $400-600. Around here, seats run closer to that $80 mark. On the east coast or the keys it will be closer to the $60 mark.

Another "shore dive" option is fresh water. Ginnie Spring, Rainbow River, blue grotto, devil's den. There's an entrance fee for all of those, but it's far cheaper than paying for a seat on a boat. Well, technically you need to pay for a seat on a boat to do rainbow, but it's only about $5. All of those will require you to own your own tank or rent one from a shop - probably for two days because it can be tough to pickup tank, drive to site, dive, drive back before a shop closes.

As for buying your own boat. Don't you know that BOAT is really an acronym for Bust Out Another Thousand? I used to own a jetski until i broke my neck on it.. cost me at least a thousand bucks a year in maintenance and that was just a jetski. See my comment above about fuel costs. You'll have to pay for the boat, pay for maintenance on the boat, and pay for fuel. I haven't done the math to figure out how many trips you'd need to take to reach break even point on a boat. Of course that all depends on how much you spend as well.

An option my wife and I have been talking about for 3 years now are "boat clubs". You pay a few hundred a month and then you can use any boat the club owns. You still have to pay for fuel. From what I've read, getting onto the schedule to get a boat when you want it can require planning a good deal in advance. We haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I think that's in our future. In this area there are MANY clubs to choose from.

 

[arew+4]

We are a family of five, near the shores of the cold dark mid Atlantic east coast. A dive day up here is 4 hours of driving, 4 hours of boating, 1.5 hours of actual diving and another hour of sitting around between dives. Assuming you get both in. Mostly it's cold dark and deep. 3 out of the five have zero interest in diving up here and it's just as well. Boat ride and tanks is 100-120 a person with to and travel and a meal on the road your at $150 per person, $750 for two dives. Two years ago Roatan was $30 bucks a tank or $300 for two dives for each of us. Eight days of diving saved us $3200 well not really, the VRBO was about 2k for ten nights, air was 450 per person.
Not really all that bad

Curacao and Bonaire are even better, at about $12 a dive, they are practically paying you to dive there.

 

[drrich2]

If I were you, I'd look at cost containment for a small group. Some ideas...

1.) Hotel room prices are often based on single occupancy, without much up-charge for extra people, and you can often fit 4 to a room. This is not true for 'dive resort' rooms, which often assume double occupancy and may have a 'single supplement' penalty. A fairly cheap hotel may serve you well.

2.) Some dive destinations let you pack in the dives. Back in 2013 diving with Rainbow Reef Dive Center in Key Largo, I had 20 dives in 5 days.

3.) You may have to resort to some shorter trips, but 'experience' trips can be valuable. For example, lemon shark aggregation dives (or Goliath grouper aggregation dives) out of Jupiter, FL, could offer you a lot in a 3 day trip (even if the total dive count isn't high).

4.) Shore diving Bonaire can offer a low average trip 'cost/dive' ratio...but airfare on a Bonaire trip can eat you alive.

Cheap is not an option for 4...but there are different levels of expensive.

 

[Russjstewart]

There are numerous threads about owning your own boat but a summary of the main .pain points as I see them are:
Where do you keep it, Home -free, Marina or hardstand $$$
If you keep it at home or on a hardstand, what are you going to tow it with and how bad are the boat ramps where you want to go diving.
Boat maintenance costs, trailer maintenance costs,
Insurance, registration,something else to clean at the end of the day.
Another problem is do you trust the anchor and dive as a family, and hope everything goes right, or do you dive two up two down or nominate a driver for the day so there is always a competent person on board. By competent I think that at a minimum they should be able to
Recover the anchor or let it go
Manoeuvre the boat if needed to recover divers in the water that can’t get back to the boat
Know when and how to call for help.

 

[Keith Blair]

If you're buying tanks to save money, it's a good time to consider steel tanks. They're better than aluminum in pretty much every way, but slightly more expensive.

Steel tanks are definitely much nicer to have but when buying for 4 people at an extra $80 or $120 each tank, it's harder to explain to the wife why the extra $640 to $960 is worth it. "Trust me honey" doesn't seem to work past a certain dollar amount. *shrug*

If you can live with sharing, it's much cheaper to get a seat on a shared boat vs chartering your own.

I'm not sure what you mean by a shared boat vs chartering unless you thought I was talking about prices for a private (just for my family) type of charter. I haven't really looked into that actually. The prices I mentioned were what we've seen for joining a trip that someone else (charter or a dive shop) was planning/running. I'll admit I haven't done extensive research into the local charters yet, so perhaps I haven't seen those that offer trips for $60-$80 a person. Most I've seen here in the Tampa Bay area were $100-$150 each. And boy do they all seem to like going to the Circle of Heroes site..

I used to do West Palm Beach fairly often and I know it's less expensive due to the sites being closer to shore, so I also need to look into costs on the other coast.

Another "shore dive" option is fresh water. Ginnie Spring, Rainbow River, blue grotto, devil's den. There's an entrance fee for all of those, but it's far cheaper than paying for a seat on a boat. Well, technically you need to pay for a seat on a boat to do rainbow, but it's only about $5.

I love springs and a large number of my dives are in springs. Blue Grotto ($48), Devil's Den ($38) and Ginnie Springs ($32) are definitely nice places to go. Hudson Grotto ($20) is also an affordable option. For Rainbow River/KP Hole, it's $15 to get into the park and the 'Water Taxi' is only $10. It was super crazy crowded a few weekends ago but for an easy drift dive it's an affordable option. Only downside is that it's a one way, single tank trip.

I suspect we'll be exploring more of the springs out of financial necessity. I don't mind personally, I'd dive a mud puddle, but I want to keep the rest of the family excited too so we'll see how it goes. I've also been doing a lot of research on the artificial reef programs and there seems to be a decent number of locations that appear to be potential shore dives. Exploration is half the fun right?

A word of warning on the boat clubs.. not only do your research, but try and talk to people that are or were members. Aside from being expensive, every person I've talked to that was or had been a member of a boat club said the same thing - unless you're booking way in advance, it can be really hard to get a boat. This is just second hand, so perhaps there are good boat clubs out there which don't have this problem.

Curacao and Bonaire are even better, at about $12 a dive, they are practically paying you to dive there.

Diving Bonaire was the single greatest diving experience I've ever had. A couple days ago I was looking at a trip back to Captain Don's but the COVID testing requirements for travel seem like a hassle. Perhaps if you use a travel agency they would help arrange it all so it's easy. But yes please. I'd go back to Bonaire anytime for any reason or no reason at all.

Another problem is do you trust the anchor and dive as a family, and hope everything goes right, or do you dive two up two down

Assuming we had a boat (own, rental, etc) I would never leave my only ride back to shore unattended. We'd definitely be doing two up two down with either myself or my wife on the boat. I've owned a boat so I totally agree it can be expensive. It's a bit harder to compare the costs of owning a boat vs paying charters but it's just one of those ideas that's come up.


Thanks for the responses so far.

 

[arew+4]

If you like Bonaire, you will like Curacao too. Cheaper air fare, more to do on off gas days. Some very reasonable VRBO properties. Beach clubs where you dive from the beach tent tanks there instead of hauling them around. Morning dive, chill on the beach, have lunch at the restaurant or snack bar, serving l second dive opposite direction. Dinner, couple of beers, watch sunset. Repeat.

 

[CanadaDan]

I hear you! Certified my step-kids last summer. I now have an enclosed dive trailer full of gear and tanks (the trailer and contents is worth more than the vehicle towing it at this point). Took my entire unused 2021 vacation budget just to outfit them. Buying tanks was a necessity here as the LDS's have enough to run courses but rarely casual rentals. For this summer the shop is spotting me the same number of tanks as I have on order since we can't teach (so no students needing tanks) and the HP80's are still on backorder.

For now we dive local so costs is low at just van and cylinder fills (no site fees up here.. nothing worth charging for lol). Lots of shore diving and lakes to explore so no boat needed.

For trips we're starting with Blackbeards out of Nassau. USD$1045 each for accommodations, food, beverages and up to 19 dives each is a hard price to beat. It's their spring break 2022/grad/sweet 16 present rolled up into one.

 

[Scraps]

I don't have any tips on how to dive more cheaply in our area.

However, I can affirm that if you can find the right activity you can do as a family, it is worth what you spend.

I keep a ski/wakeboard boat at a lake that we visit every year for family vacation. No matter where we were stationed, we always went to the same lake, rented a house, and ran the boat hard for two weeks. In some ways, that lake was more of a constant than any home we lived in.

We've done that for more than twenty years. The kids are grown and flown and have busy lives and families of their own. Nevertheless, each winter, they start asking when we're going to the lake so they can get it on their calendars.

If I were to figure the cost per operating hour of that boat--purchase price, fuel, winterizing, storage, insurance, maintenance, water toys to drag behind it--I'd probably discover that I could have rented a jet for less money.

But the memories it created and the way it still draws the grown kids back each year, and the smiles on the grandkids faces when they get up on skis for the first time make it worth every penny.

We couldn't really afford all those lake vacations, but we made it work, and I'm glad we made the investment in family. I hope diving does the same thing for your family.

Best wishes,