G'day from Melbourne

[dkatchalov]

My experiences with DV have never been anything but good. They are as very professional, safety oriented mob. I've never heard of any DV crew limiting run time to 45 mins or whatever. If the boat is running late, it's running late. You give your own run time and the crew just monitor that.

amc10/Saspotato - if you are looking for buddies, I do two boat dives with DV every fortnight - Sat or Sun. Ping me a PM if you want to come along and we'll organise something.

 

[stiebs]

dk, I certainly won't disagree with you - DV are a professional and safe mob. Just with some of the aspects of the way they run their charters, I prefer some of the smaller operators. My pet peeves are 1, not running double dives. Every single dive goes back to the pier, even if the two sites are near to each other. I do understand the reasons behind this, but at least offer _some_ double dives. And 2, all the Queenscliff pickups. Put them together, and two dive two spots in a day, I board at portsea, to a pickup at QC, dive, dropoff at QC, back to Portsea, pickup at QC, dive, back to QC, and return to Portsea. Anyway, I digress

dk/sas/amc, I'm happy to buddy up for a dive; boat or shore. There's reasonable diving in Brighton just off the end of South Rd, and also at Rickett's Point. Both are only 4-5m deep. Rickett's point is a marine sanctuary, and there's quite a large reef there. At South Rd its a bit tricky to find the reef, and its not as good as Rickett's but its usually still worth getting wet for.

And of course with a bit more of a drive Mornington pier never disappoints, and nor does Blairgowrie.

 

[almitywife]

.... My pet peeves are 1, not running double dives. Every single dive goes back to the pier, even if the two sites are near to each other........

my kind of dive op!!!!!!!!!!!!

for those of us out there that suffer sea sickness, we need dive ops like this

im such a

 

[dkatchalov]

Cool, thanks froop. I hate that DV don't do double dives too. It's easy to do two spots on the lonsdale wall for example. I think some of it may have to do with the SI. Given that even when you do Lonsdale Wall shallow (12m) there are plenty of guys on the boat in doubles & with deco bottles doing 50m dives. So if the boat was to pack up and go to another spot straight away it may encourage people to cut their SI short and jump back in the water after only 30 mins or so.

 

[stiebs]

for those of us out there that suffer sea sickness, we need dive ops like this

That's just the reason I don't like dive ops like this! For us that don't get seasick, we look to the hurlers to bring the fish! Nothing beats jumping into a dive site after a SI in 2m swell and half the boat blowing chunks over the side

I think some of it may have to do with the SI

I think its more to do with dive site choice. For example, J4 followed by castle rock is a perfect double dive. (or J1/J4, or Coogee/J4. You get the picture). But for the divers that want to dive only one site, and not the other, they have to pay for a site they don't necessarily want to dive on.

As I said before, I agree that DV are a good and professional operator and I have dived with them many times before, and will dive with them many times again. Their business requires them to run their op a certain way which doesn't suit the way I prefer a charter to run.

Now.. about this diving...

 

[dkatchalov]

I think its more to do with dive site choice. For example, J4 followed by castle rock is a perfect double dive. (or J1/J4, or Coogee/J4. You get the picture)

Do you mean J1 followed by J4 / Coogee followed by J4 as double dives? I'm only a noob but won't the SI be too short in those scenarios?

J1 is about 39m, J4 is 25m and Coogee is 33m. Given that J4 and Coogee are very close, I don't think the SIs will be nearly long enough (likely to be < 1 hour).

Then again, I may be wrong due to: a) noob; b) misread your post.

 

[dkatchalov]

I wonder what sort of profit DV are making though on their charter business. They are either raking it in or just getting by. I mean $50 a dive isn't a small amount to pay for one dive.

 

[stiebs]

J1 is about 39m, J4 is 25m and Coogee is 33m. Given that J4 and Coogee are very close, I don't think the SIs will be nearly long enough (likely to be < 1 hour).

An hour for SI goes by pretty quick. Surface interval starts as soon as you break the surface from Coogee. Assuming an open water ascent, by the time the boat has collected all the divers, you're already a good 15-20 mins into SI. Have a bikky and a cup of cordial (soup or milo in winter), log your details, argue about who saw the best stuff. Another 15 minutes. Gather the shot, motor over to the J4, another 15 minutes. Drop the shot, seal up drysuits, gear up again, another 5-10 minutes. There's your hour SI. Add an extra delay or two here and there, and it's pretty easy to get yourself a 70-80min SI.

And... back onto diving

I'm most likely heading down to Rye on either Sat/Sun with a workmate to do some scalloping. If that doesn't go ahead, I'm up for a dive with any of you lot. Shore or boat, I don't mind. I'm happy to pick up and drive those that are vehicularly challenged.

 

[dkatchalov]

Hehe cool

Not this wknd for me, but def. next saturday. Might post in this thread again to see if anyone's interested then

Btw Coogee is a great dive.. J4 is overrated IMHO. Did it for the first time last wknd... maybe penetration is fun?

 

[stiebs]

J4 is not the best wreck dive in Melb, but at a max 27m it's a great depth for AOW divers. Although there's not a huge amount to see inside, its a very cruisey pen, and with lots of space and tie off points its a perfect for wreck courses too.