DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA FEB 2025 ISSUE 410

The fact that someone is introduced as your “dive master” does not necessarily mean that they have a pro fessional qualification or that this is even their usual job. Divers pay to be guided and looked after by an expert, but a corner-cutting operator may hand the task instead to somebody unqualified who has little diving experience. You won’t know what is going on unless the subject comes up in an unguarded moment of conversation or your guide’s poor skill set raises your suspicions. Another thing that some operators do to reduce costs and enable them to offer lower prices, is charter what could best be described as a “taxi boat”, instead of a pro fessional dive boat. The taxi boat’s only function is to get the divers out to the sites and back to shore again. The dive operator is expected to supply the fuel for the trip and the amount they have to bring depends on which dive sites they want to visit and the captain’s assessment of how much fuel is needed. The operator then delivers only exactly the quantity of fuel requested, not a drop more. If something unex pected happens, such as the guests insisting on visiting different sites instead - sites that they were previously promised – the boat runs out of fuel.

The taxi boat captain and crew may even be wearing the dive operator’s T-shirts, so they look like a dive boat team, but this is just a device on the part of the operator to make you think you are getting professional service. The truth is revealed by what the crew does. A knowl edgeable dive boat crew will hand out weights, help set up cylinders, stow away gear properly, help the divers with entry and exit, and watch the ocean for passing boat traffic or divers surfacing early. On a taxi boat, either the divemaster will do all these things, or nobody will be doing them. Takeaways In locations with good diving, a glut of dive operators and no official oversight, expect intense competition to pro duce corner-cutting and be wary. Trust that, if several well-known, well-reviewed (and highly recommended) dive operators offer a similar price for a dive trip, then, although you think it’s expensive, that is probably the right price. Know that cheaper prices always involve corner-cutting, even if you can’t see it, and that this corner-cutting is likely to be prejudicial to your safety.

DIVE LOG Australasia #410 - February‘25 69

www.divelog.net.au