First boat dive.....

[CT-Rich]

Thanks CT-Rich....You're absolutely right, and I know that. I am super comfortable with "what I know", which thus far, is shore dives only.....
Diver0001- Just nervous about getting carried away from the boat.

what about my stipulation that there be someone onboard who can operate the boat?? He says there is, and his name is "anchor"....LOL

I would say do the dive. If you are concerned about having some one on the boat, ask if you can bring a friend (Few men complain about a pretty girl...) I am not there so I am only giving you an opinion, my guess is that when you plan the dive you will cover issues like current. swim up current on the first half of the dive down current on the return leg. You will be lucky if your Prodiving buddy with a boat wants to dive with you. My opinion is that this is a very cool opportunity and if agonize over it enough, you will kill it. Then you can kick yourself about having let a chance to get a lot of good diving pass you by. Diving with this guy sound much better than shore diving with insta-buddy or a DM led tour.

Say yes, be conscientous about what you are doing and understanding the dive profile, but this is a great opportunity to get a rock solid dive partner and to really learn about diving. He is going to tell you a lot of practical stuff. I think he knows you are nervous, so I doubt he is going to let you get in a bad spot.

Diving is about adventure. This is one of them. Go for it....

---------- Post Merged at 10:16 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:01 PM ----------

A friendly word of advise.If this is your first boat diving experience,take plenty of drinking water & eat a hearty breakfast BUT watch what you eat(NO greasy food & take it easy on the dairy products).If your unused to being on a boat & conditions aren't perfect,seasickness can kill a boat dive before you even have a chance to get wet!
Enjoy!

If you feel a little queezy, get to the bottom fast, away from the motion... I always felt bad for the guys that would bag the dive and then have to wait on a hot rolling boat for all the divers to get back on board....

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medical/articles/Motion_Sickness

 

[tenover]

I'm sticking to my guns in regards to having someone responsible ON the boat while we dive....If he can do that, I'm game. Thanks for the replies.

 

[freewillie]

For any boat dive you should have nondiving partner minding the boat while you are in the water. I can't remember where I read a safety article about a pair of divers surfacing to find their boat missing. Turns out the boat somehow came loose from the anchor mooring. Luckily they survived. I think it was in Scuba magazine Lessons for Life section but not sure.

As for boat diving, I generally prefer boats to shores. The trickiest part about private boats is how to get out of the water. At least on commercial dive charters they have ladders for you to climb up after the dive. If your buddy dive of his boat often then I don't see this as big issue.

If you are prone to motion sickness then consider Bonine or something similar. Try it before since can make you a little sleepy. I recently discovered ginger pills for sea sickness. I use them now on all boat dives. May be more placebo for me since don't normally get sea sick but I like having them in my dive bag.

 

[CT-Rich]

the nice thing about about boat diving is you get to see the anchor placement at the beginning of the dive. Losing a boat is about seamanship. Can't cure stupid.... Still, eye candy topside is never a bad thing.

The trickiest part of a boat dive is finding a friend with a boat.

 

[Meggie66]

Agree with everyone's advice, especially the necessity of having someone on the boat. One other thing to think about is what kind of entry you'll be doing. If it's a giant stride, for example, you might want to see if your LDS has a nice deep pool (at least 2.5-3 metres, sorry not sure what that is in feet) and ask if they'll let you practice a few giant strides into the pool just so you're comfortable with doing it off a boat (however make sure they already use the pool for this purpose, so you know it's deep enough not to hurt yourself). Hope you have a great dive - the fantastic thing about boat diving is there are no long slogs up the beach with heavy equipment!

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Thanks.....That's exactly what I told him. His response was "I know exactly how to get to the nearest recompression chamber and the SEAL base quicker than anything else that could help us"......My response was "Yeah, but if something happens underwater, someone on a boat could get to us a lot quicker when we surface, call 911, and be ON it faster than we could get to the boat...". Paranoid? maybe.....but I'm fine with that.

Stick to your guns!! accidents usually happen with someone that's done it a thousand times before, all it takes is one time! I was just watching I survived a couple of weeks ago, about a couple who were in the gulf, surfaced and could see their boat, but because of surface conditions, they couldn't get to it. They had been to that spot many times before, but all it takes is one time. They got lucky that someone spotted them the next day, but I'm sure that there are some that haven't been as fortunate.

 

[TSandM]

The two issues with an unattended boat are, will the boat still be there when you get back, and can you GET back to the boat?

I am pretty risk-averse, and I'm not real fond of diving off an unattended boat. I will do it if the boat is tied to a permanent mooring, or if the site is very sheltered and shallow, so it's likely an anchor will hold. I will NOT do it if there is any likelihood of significant current.

If you know this fellow diver and have dived with him before, and has struck you as a thoughtful person who knows your level of inexperience, this may be a reasonable dive. For example, we have some dives here in Seattle that are boat dives, but if everything went sideways, they would be a safe, if onerous swim to shore.

I don't think it's unreasonable to request a boat-tender, but I can say from personal experience that it isn't always easy to find someone who wants to go out and just sit in a boat for an hour. This has limited our boat usage for diving.

 

[spectrum]

If you know this fellow diver and have dived with him before, and has struck you as a thoughtful person who knows your level of inexperience, this may be a reasonable dive. For example, we have some dives here in Seattle that are boat dives, but if everything went sideways, they would be a safe, if onerous swim to shore.

My understanding from the original post is that they have not been diving together prior.

You do not want to assume that experience translates into mentor-ship. I know the boat diving specialty get blown off as a fluff elective but I know enough about shore diving to know there is at least as much special knowledge you want to have for boat diving. None of it is rocket science but sometimes it is nice not to learn the hard way.

I would make sure you have a good briefing about expectations, roles and responsibilities......... You get me back safe, I buy chow afterwards. Free food is a great motivator.

Pete

 

[Kitty_Kat]

The currents aren't too bad in the point loma kelp beds! They do exist from time to time, but as long as you have a decent anchor you'll be fine. I agree with everyones suggestions to have someone on the boat the whole time, but you guys can also think about mooring close to the spots where the local charters will drop anchor.

All of the charter companies have good kelp sites marked in their GPS so if you're anchoring near them there will be plenty to see, plus it might be added comfort for you to have more boats around since the area off Point Loma feels pretty exposed!