sorry to be late to the proceedings but would just like to mention many of the DM's working on the boats are infact customers the same as you guys just we are interns therefore even less well regarded. When I am a DM on the boat I try my best to make sure that we have as many dive leaders as possible to individualise your diving experiences as best as I can so that you ultimately have a days diving limited only by your own abilities and our safety limits. I do put customers with DMT's and at a push Rescue divers and MSD's as I am forced by my own standards for quality and the number of customers the shop assigns to us.
1 member of senior staff (truly employed shop staff is normally on a boat for the day) however the intern is expected to prep the majority of items for the boat, kit up customers, ensure there kit is loaded onto the boat, give the briefings, check customers are teamed up and happy, do the role calls, dive again leading customers (I have been forced to dive lead even though I wanted to study on the boat quietly), check customers back, wash and check rental kit, load the bus, unload the bus and get customers home, wash the rental kit and put away and finally check which boat they want me on tomorrow to do the whole thing again. I am a paying customer as well and paying infinitely more then you are for my courses but still try and make it as comfortable as possible for you guys as I can with the resources available to me. The senior staff members in my eyes are very helpful but more there to delegate and supervise then to directly look after customers.
If you dive with mermaids again I would recommend you go on Mermaids 3 it is normally the boat most interns go on and the best organised as it is the smaller boat. This very reason is why mermaids 1&4 are sometimes lacking in dive leaders and thus your experiences may be faulted. If you would like to try with mermaids again pm your booking to me and I will try and get on the same boat and happily discuss this with you as a third party whom also has dislikes against the store but also sees the benefits to their system.
We abide by safety limits to ensure that there is standardised measures of safety so that our emergency action plans can be utilised effectively. I know experienced divers may be able to dive for 1.5 hours on a coral dive with 200 bar however what if a dive group is unable to and becomes tangled at 50 minutes into the dive that leaves 40 minutes before the boat even thinks about trying to find them. For our deep dives 30 minute limit is that on the RDP thus your dive computers will allow your NDLs to go further however those on tables who neglected to inform us are not.
1 member of senior staff (truly employed shop staff is normally on a boat for the day) however the intern is expected to prep the majority of items for the boat, kit up customers, ensure there kit is loaded onto the boat, give the briefings, check customers are teamed up and happy, do the role calls, dive again leading customers (I have been forced to dive lead even though I wanted to study on the boat quietly), check customers back, wash and check rental kit, load the bus, unload the bus and get customers home, wash the rental kit and put away and finally check which boat they want me on tomorrow to do the whole thing again. I am a paying customer as well and paying infinitely more then you are for my courses but still try and make it as comfortable as possible for you guys as I can with the resources available to me. The senior staff members in my eyes are very helpful but more there to delegate and supervise then to directly look after customers.
If you dive with mermaids again I would recommend you go on Mermaids 3 it is normally the boat most interns go on and the best organised as it is the smaller boat. This very reason is why mermaids 1&4 are sometimes lacking in dive leaders and thus your experiences may be faulted. If you would like to try with mermaids again pm your booking to me and I will try and get on the same boat and happily discuss this with you as a third party whom also has dislikes against the store but also sees the benefits to their system.
We abide by safety limits to ensure that there is standardised measures of safety so that our emergency action plans can be utilised effectively. I know experienced divers may be able to dive for 1.5 hours on a coral dive with 200 bar however what if a dive group is unable to and becomes tangled at 50 minutes into the dive that leaves 40 minutes before the boat even thinks about trying to find them. For our deep dives 30 minute limit is that on the RDP thus your dive computers will allow your NDLs to go further however those on tables who neglected to inform us are not.