oldschoolto
Contributor
More reasons to shore dive and or dive your own boat...
Jim..
Jim..
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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.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!
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.
Depends upon where you dive: deep vs shallow makes a big difference. Swimming like a Phelps also changes things.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.