Dive Op’s Limiting bottom time

[oldschoolto]

More reasons to shore dive and or dive your own boat...

Jim..

 

[Wingy]

I Don't like it but I understand why a lot of OPs do it...economics and staffing. It's a bit like getting hired to play a 2 hour gig and then being hammered because people didn't want to stop dancing - fun for us is work for them.

 

[Scared Silly]

While in Belize we ran into that issue. We were coming up with over 1000psi of gas after 45 min. of bottom time. Which was the dive guides experience, 45 minutes was when the first person would be low on air so everyone had to come up. The dive guide wanted to be in complete control of everyone and wanted everyone to come up together as they were pseudo drift dives (i.e. no currents but one way down the wall to be picked up). Rather pick people up as they came to the surface which is the norm for these conditions.

That really did not fly with us. Even after talking with them about it and going out with another diver with good air consumption we agreement was at 45 minutes there would be an air check and if enough gas we would continue the dive. At 45 minutes 1000psi left, good for another 10-15 minutes. 5 minutes later the dive guide signaled time to go up. We later talked with some other divers who felt the dive guides were way too controlling.

That was Seahorse Dive Shop in Placencia. In the end we paid our bill but left zero tip as we had other issues with their dive guides. That was a decade ago.

Now here is the opposite. Was in Honduras, the DM asked for us to do the first dive with him - lots of newbies on Utila so a check out dive. He saw our skills and said okay you do what you want. He went so far as to make sure were we first in the water as we were typically last out. Worked out great. He got a good tip.

 

[KeithG]

I am trying to comprehend why a dive op would limit bottom time (within reason). One of my lsd’s has a 45 minute max bottom time on one of the double dive charters ( costs over $100). That is ridiculous. I would spend way more time checking/packing/driving and washing my gear that actually diving. If the schedule is tight, start earlier (often best conditions early) If I look for a dive op and there website says unlimited dive time I will sign up every time. A lesson to any dive operators let the people dive their tank!

I agree that 45 minutes is short, but You need to define "within reason". There is a big difference between squeezing an extra 10 minutes and letting everyone breathe their tank down to 500PSI.

All of the boat dive ops I use place a well advertised time limit on dives (even the LOBs) since they are multi tank operations (minimum of 3 tanks per day) and they do need to keep a schedule. We make sure we know ahead of time how much bottom time they allow.

One of the resorts we use does a pair of 45 minute dives on the morning boat. 45 minutes is too short for me. While they are gone I do a single 90 minute shore dive.

Do you think it would be "reasonable" for the rest of the boat to sit around waiting for me to finish a 90 minute dive?

 

[dbnewton]

While in Belize we ran into that issue. We were coming up with over 1000psi of gas after 45 min. of bottom time. Which was the dive guides experience, 45 minutes was when the first person would be low on air so everyone had to come up. The dive guide wanted to be in complete control of everyone and wanted everyone to come up together as they were pseudo drift dives (i.e. no currents but one way down the wall to be picked up). Rather pick people up as they came to the surface which is the norm for these conditions.

That really did not fly with us. Even after talking with them about it and going out with another diver with good air consumption we agreement was at 45 minutes there would be an air check and if enough gas we would continue the dive. At 45 minutes 1000psi left, good for another 10-15 minutes. 5 minutes later the dive guide signaled time to go up. We later talked with some other divers who felt the dive guides were way too controlling.

That was Seahorse Dive Shop in Placencia. In the end we paid our bill but left zero tip as we had other issues with their dive guides. That was a decade ago.

Now here is the opposite. Was in Honduras, the DM asked for us to do the first dive with him - lots of newbies on Utila so a check out dive. He saw our skills and said okay you do what you want. He went so far as to make sure were we first in the water as we were typically last out. Worked out great. He got a good tip.

I ran into the same 45 minute limit in St Lucia. I took the same approach: find another operator. I first complained to the dive operations manager and she claimed no one had ever voiced any complaint (obvious BS indicating my complaint was falling on death ears). I was not even the only one complaining that day.

What I think was going on was that operation catered to new/novice divers.

So my answer to OP is find a different operation that caters to your needs.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I'm going to plug a business in the Vancouver BC: Marc Palay's New World Diving. Absolutely no time limits. He does one boat per day, and he gives his customers all the time they want underwater (I'm assuming that people are reasonable).

This is an important question to ask dive ops before signing up, something I forget to do on occassion.

 

[BertStevens]

Diving in Playa del Carmen I’ve been out with both types. Planned group max time of 45-50 minutes or first to hit 700 psi. Everyone comes up.

Then there was the op that took me out with just the owner/dm. First dive was him checking me out. Then we went to areas he doesn’t usually take groups. But it was just us and we dove the tank.

Guess which one I prefer?!?!

 

[KentB]

The local charter here is 1hr time limit no deco unless it’s a tech dive site in which case no Ow or AOW divers are there

I’m OK with the 1 hour time limit most sites here are deep so even with a big single tank I don’t want to be in the boat for hours while a few people are draining twin 120/130s
I’d be a little upset with 45 min though

 

[TMHeimer]

We don't seem to be talking about depths, Nitrox, Air, etc. On pretty much all of the charters I've taken I've never had an issue. All have been 2 tank dives. All on 80s. Typical would be first one to 80' (30 min. limit on air, so I'm on my way up around 25 mins.). Hour SI--lunch, etc., move to another wreck. Maybe a 50-60' 2nd dive. Maybe 45 mins., depending on length of SI, what computer/tables say. I can't recall any of the maybe 20-30 boats I've been on actually setting a time limit. What works for them seems to work for me and others aboard. Maybe I've just been lucky.

 

[KeithG]

We don't seem to be talking about depths, Nitrox, Air, etc. On pretty much all of the charters I've taken I've never had an issue. All have been 2 tank dives. All on 80s. Typical would be first one to 80' (30 min. limit on air, so I'm on my way up around 25 mins.). Hour SI--lunch, etc., move to another wreck. Maybe a 50-60' 2nd dive. Maybe 45 mins., depending on length of SI, what computer/tables say. I can't recall any of the maybe 20-30 boats I've been on actually setting a time limit. What works for them seems to work for me and others aboard. Maybe I've just been lucky.

Depends upon where you dive: deep vs shallow makes a big difference. Swimming like a Phelps also changes things.

Choose your dive destination for the type of diving you desire.

For us, we consider the T&C as "deep" since the wall dropoff mostly starts at 50 feet and below - so our minimum depth is 50 feet or greater. For Belize we think 35 foot drop off (screw the blue hole - that is nap time). For Bonaire we think 20 feet. Being able to spend the last half of your Bonaire dive in 15 to 20 feet makes a huge difference on NDL and gas consumption.

If I can not easily get 60 minutes then I am not gearing up. I am a lot lazy.