Question about Mike Ball Spoilsport liveaboard trips

[bracko]

you need to be comfortable in open water with strong currents. if you're OK with the thought of bobbing up in open ocean for 10min while they get the tender out to you (when I say open water i mean proper blue water below you and you can't see any land) then that's probably the worst you'll experience. sometimes the currents were that strong that it was impossible to ascend at a safe rate vertically from the safety stop bar under the boat to the ladder to get back on board. you had to kick like crazy against the current to lose as little ground as possible and grab onto a safety line off the boat and drag yourself back in.

apart from that the diving is pretty straight forward. detailed brief, for the most part they corralled you into a certain area where staff could generally keep an eye on you, they generally put people in the water over a 10-15min interval so you're not too crowded, you dive with someone of reasonably similar ability. the weakest diver in our group went with a staff member most times. the wall diving was no-where near as difficult or dangerous as elsewhere.

I had probably 20 non course dives when I went on Mike Ball but 10+ of those were deeper than 18m.

I would say, if you're young, fit, confident in the water then you'll be OK. as a suggestion, if you can do your advanced before going on the boat it will make the trip better, you can take your time with the course, then enjoy the whole holiday.

perhaps if money allows, go on one of the outer reef "liveaboard" pontoons to do the AOW then get on mike ball for the real deal

 

[Shasta_man]

As for taking classes on the liveaboard, I recommend against doing so. Instead, spend your dives gaining experience, and enjoy the trip. Experience teaches a lot. You will be learning a lot of skills yourself. Between multiple dives, marveling with the other divers about what you saw on the last dive and preparing for the next dive, there isn't a lot of free time. You don't want to be rushing through the class and equally not rushing through the trip you spent a lot of money for. Even for a super student, the time for taking the class is not minor, and again you actually want to learn this stuff.

 

[snozberry]

you need to be comfortable in open water with strong currents. if you're OK with the thought of bobbing up in open ocean for 10min while they get the tender out to you (when I say open water i mean proper blue water below you and you can't see any land) then that's probably the worst you'll experience. sometimes the currents were that strong that it was impossible to ascend at a safe rate vertically from the safety stop bar under the boat to the ladder to get back on board. you had to kick like crazy against the current to lose as little ground as possible and grab onto a safety line off the boat and drag yourself back in.

apart from that the diving is pretty straight forward. detailed brief, for the most part they corralled you into a certain area where staff could generally keep an eye on you, they generally put people in the water over a 10-15min interval so you're not too crowded, you dive with someone of reasonably similar ability. the weakest diver in our group went with a staff member most times. the wall diving was no-where near as difficult or dangerous as elsewhere.

I had probably 20 non course dives when I went on Mike Ball but 10+ of those were deeper than 18m.

I would say, if you're young, fit, confident in the water then you'll be OK. as a suggestion, if you can do your advanced before going on the boat it will make the trip better, you can take your time with the course, then enjoy the whole holiday.

perhaps if money allows, go on one of the outer reef "liveaboard" pontoons to do the AOW then get on mike ball for the real deal

As for taking classes on the liveaboard, I recommend against doing so. Instead, spend your dives gaining experience, and enjoy the trip. Experience teaches a lot. You will be learning a lot of skills yourself. Between multiple dives, marveling with the other divers about what you saw on the last dive and preparing for the next dive, there isn't a lot of free time. You don't want to be rushing through the class and equally not rushing through the trip you spent a lot of money for. Even for a super student, the time for taking the class is not minor, and again you actually want to learn this stuff.

Thanks for the advice, I just completed my AOW Off an island north of Townsville with the RAD dive shop. It was great fun and learnt lots, glad I took that advice prior to going on the live aboard... still don't have much experience but I'll be working on it! Never done drift in strong currents/night diving before so it was beneficial at least to have a slight feeling for it.