21 replies to this topic

[Dantheengineer]

And....?
How did it go?
Did you do the shark dive?
Was the weather all good? (S'been crap last week!....not that fish get rained on...)
Did you SC or BD?

[Sharklover]

Currently Kamala, i'm still involved in "interesting times". Someone's gonna break. I'm confident it wont be me. {but then....aren't we all}.
I am, however, certain that i'll have some .......shall we call it......more "time"........VERY soon!

Even if it's my boss in the morgue. And me .....at her majesty's pleasure!

Either way. If you guy's haven't. Then you should check out Turks and Caicos!

Bahamas (north) is a little weak by comparison. Diving with Hump backed whales was a first.....

Oh! and SSSSHH!!! I dont think it's a well known thing!

"Interesting times" abound all over. Good luck. I'm surprised I haven't broken yet.

Pretty please do tell where and when you got to dive with Humpback whales. I love love love diving with big animals. We get our fill of sharks here in NC, and I have had occasion to be underwater with mantas, whalesharks, and dolphins. But never a humpback whale!

I did a liveboard in the Turks and Caicos a few years back. I think the conditions surprised a few folks as it is in the Atlantic Ocean, not a still tropical one. My favorite spot to the south is still Little Cayman.

[lv2dive70]

And....?
How did it go?
Did you do the shark dive?
Was the weather all good? (S'been crap last week!....not that fish get rained on...)
Did you SC or BD?

Apologies, still trying to get caught up!

I dove one day, Saturday, with Stuart Cove. The weather topside was gorgeous... I think in-water it was mid-70's and if i had really realized that ahead of time, I would have brought my drysuit. I am turning into Kamala! We did a wreck and a reef in the morning and a wreck and wall in the afternoon. It was interesting to get back to salt water! :-) There is not a lot to tell, nothing extraordinary happened, nice dives. I was chomping at the bit to to go IN the wrecks but I did behave.

Overall I thought SC did a nice job. It ended up costing me $215 for four dives with Nitrox not including tip. Was it worth ~$60/dive? It seems a bit steep esp. compared to what I usually get for that amount, but I did get to dive! There were two things that kept me from coming back later in the week, which had been my original plan. One of those things is really more "my" issue while the other is something that several people were irritated with.

• I realized before I went on this trip that I may be challenged by the instabuddy thing, and I was - I haven't done a true instabuddy dive on a big commercial boat since 2009, before I started diving with singledivers. I really appreciate diving with buddies/teammates I know, or that are handpicked by Wreckwench! And this trip just reiterated that for me! (see* for more details) (and this has nothing to do with SC, I own this, it's "my issue")
• After the afternoon dive, before we could get a ride back to the hotel, we had to wait for the people from the shark dive to get back, select their pictures, etc. When I say wait, I don't mean wait five-ten minutes, I mean wait an hour. If I had known it was going to be an hour, i would have taken a cab. SC knew how long it was going to be and could have done a better job with communication. And the shuttle was so packed they had to send a little cart behind us with our gear bags. They could have just sent two shuttles, one with the earlier group and one with the later group. The shuttle was advertised to leave at 430 - when the initial group was ready - it left at 530 - when the shark dive group was ready. (this was an issue a *lot* of people had)

Dantheengineer, thanks so much for your tips. I appreciate your help and I enjoyed my day of diving in Nassau.

Probably my next Bahamas diving will be on Andros or the Abacos. Blue holes and caves, oh my!



*As mentioned this was the first time I have been completely buddy-less on a large commercial boat since 2009 when I started diving with Single Divers (I've been buddyless on a six-pack in NC but that's not the same). Anyway I wasn't super-comfortable with the instabuddy thing. The first two dives I got paired up with two guys, one was a really good buddy but I spent most of the first dive stressed about where the second guy was. By the time the second dive rolled around I had accepted the second guy was just a same-ocean guy and didn't worry about him - I had a solid buddy and if the same ocean guy wasn't going to stress about us, I wasn't going to stress about him. For the afternoon dives, there was there was one other single diver, but he was a photographer and was pretty clear that he didn't want a buddy. There were two other groups on the boat - two women who dive together a lot, who were on the morning dive with me, and a family of three (a 13 year old and his parents who had all just gotten certified). The DM wanted me to dive with the family to have "even teams" (that way there could "two teams of two" in that group) but I was pretty sure that the family would be pretty task loaded with being focused on each other other and being new to diving, so asked the women if I could dive with them and they graciously agreed. So in the end, both sets of dives ended up fine but they both had the potential to not be that way, and I just didn't want to risk it another day.

[Sharklover]

I understand how you feel about instabuddies. I rarely do it myself, especially here at home. The conditions are too challenging at times to dive with a completely unknown entity.

My first night dive, when I had maybe 16 dives under my belt, I paired with a couple of guys who were shooting photos. My regular buddy that trip was sitting out. Conditions were very NC like (it was the Turks and Caicos, same Atlantic at times). Vis was not great, I lost sight of them a number of times when they went speeding off to chase some critter, and I spent the whole dive chasing them. I was pretty frazzled by the end of the dive. Then I got to do the ladder dance of all ladder dances at the end but I was already an old pro at that.

But my next instabuddy experience ended up being my favorite dive buddy yet. She was someone I met in Discovery diving's parking lot in Beaufort, NC. I was to dive with two guys who were practicing shooting photos. She was booked for a one tank charter and I talked her into coming with us on our two tank as I had guessed that buddying with two guys who were practicing photos wasn't going to be that much fun. We were very well matched in the water and topside and continued diving together until she moved to NY last summer.

But I have had a couple of doozies too. My buddy for an entire group trip once was one of them. She had as many dives as I did, but all of them were with a DM, She was very insecure with her skills, and even more insecure with acknowledging her insecurities and planning for them. Bad combo.

Some risk must be taken to find good buddies. There is a first time diving with any of them. But as to how to vet them as being good buddies up front, I am not sure. I usually depend on topside chat to make sure that we are going to be compatible in the water. And I am very observant as to their behavior and conversation. Here at home particularly.

[dive_sail_etc]

Kate aka Kate P, I and many others share fond memories of the T&C liveaboard trip you mention. What an amazing journey I've been privileged to follow since; congratulations on the giant strides (pun intended) you have made in dive skills, specialties and milestone accomplishments! Please continue to keep us informed and inspired as you press ever farther and deeper, whether into the deep blue or exploring those crazy caves you've come to love...

Leslie aka Sharklover, thank you for sharing your own interesting experiences (good and bad) with pot-luck dive buddies. Not to blow our own horn (okay, just a little) but your stories offer a great opportunity for us to highlight to new members to our forums one of the strongest benefits to SingleDivers.com, to wit, the ability to discover and size up potential dive buddies across a broad spectrum of dive experience before even boarding a plane to join Kamala in amazing dive destinations! *whew* Please pardon the rambling run-on sentence, got a little carried away there...

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

Brad is a bit verbose, but he is right! We try very hard to match people up as dive buddies on each trip....but the best part is, if it isn't working for you just tell us. We can make changes to the pairings so your week isn't stressful over a buddy issue.

[lv2dive70]

The funny thing is, one of my best dive buddies is someone I met as an instabuddy on a NC dive charter. So "never say never" but I don't see myself going to one of those larger ops and just buddying up with some random person any time in the near future.

Much easier to a) dive with someone you know, b) dive with someone who you know OF (through mutual connections or other qualifications), or c) utilize DIVE BUDDY "matching services" on trips, like with singledivers <G>

PS - Brad - as always - you are so sweet!

Edited by Kate P, 21 March 2012 - 05:03 AM.