Planning A Scuba Dive

Posted by Bruce Iliff Jan 23, 2009

In relation to my article on planning a scuba dive, I once had a dive that reminds me of the need to seek local knowledge when planning a scuba dive.

I was on a dive trip to the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia with about ten other divers. We were on a boat dive on a reef and my buddy and I were last off the dive boat. The other divers had geared up and were into the water soon after the dive boat stopped.

Just before I rolled over the side, I asked the divemaster what was around. He said go to the left, the opposite way to the rest of the party. We followed his instructions and had a huge blowhole all to ourselves. We didn’t see one other diver as we swam through it again and again.

On return to the boat, the rest of the diving party complained that it was just an ordinary dive site, while we were ecstatic over our dive. Even today many of them still believe we were joking about the blowhole!

You might ask about the divemaster’s responsibility in this story. By rights he should have informed the entire party about the best site, but while he was busy securing the boat and putting out safety lines the majority of the party was gearing up and getting into the water.

In many cases the onus is on the diver to find out the best place to dive. Ask the divemaster, pick his or her brain; they have dived the site before and would be willing to impart their knowledge. Just make sure they have finished their divemaster duties first.