Diving Practicalities – The Difference in Boat, Shore and Live-Aboard Diving

The most popular way of diving is the boat diving as majority of dive locations are accessible by boat only. There are a whole range of boats, from little kayaks to large vessels that browse the ocean.

You see clear benefits of a boat. It not only allows you to easily access places that are too far from the shore but also acts as a self-sufficient diving and lodging unit allowing to track drifting divers, so it is easier to deploy and recover divers. Usually diving operators possess their own units, and diving vessels could be chartered independently.

Despite the fact that diving can be done from practically any floating vessel, the boat should be properly and safely equipped, and special procedures should be paid attention to.

There should be first-aid kit, signaling devices and flares, as well as other optional communication and safety equipment. You have to spare enough oxygen to handle a casualty until the decompression chamber is reached.

Life rafts should be able to accommodate all people on board, and well maintained. To deploy and recover divers you need something like a diving platform. Skipper should provide full safety information in a comprehensive briefing on a boat.

This type of diving is a nice way to get familiar with scuba diving for beginners. You access the diving site directly from the shore. Usually there is no need for boat support as you can go as a buddy pair, without excessive costs and complexities or boat support.

Divers can take use of the fact that most of marine life aggregates near the shore. For sea creatures shallow water and firm substrate near sunrays creates busy reefs, and they draw even larger species from the ocean.

For your coastal diving take into consideration the following points:

Pay attention to the timings of tides and currents in this diving spot. Some places can by accessible in low tides only. Every time you dive, have a backup plan for an exit as the main one may be out of reach. Do not forget that pollution is usually higher near the coast, and it affects visibility level due to suspended particles in the water.

Live-aboard vessel is a kind of a small cruise liner. It is a hotel, a diving center, and a safety supporting vessel combined in one unit. For a diver it is a convenient place where entry point to a diving site is not more than a vessel’s length. It offers intense diving experience for a diver, such as long-range trips and non-stop diving throughout the trip. Many ships of this kind offer mixed-gas diving and rebreather equipment, and even gear for filming and photography.

For an enjoyable and safe live-aboard experience please carefully check diving operator credentials and services before signing up. This type of diving requires a higher level of self-sufficiency and equipment.

The necessity is not in high level medical equipment only, but also in a qualified staff and top notch communication facilities. By their nature, live-aboard vessels go far beyond the reach of shore-based operators, and are usually above competition in reaching remote wrecks and reef or discovering rare marine wildlife.

Do not save on safety equipment that should be in sufficient stock for all the people on board. The standards of service and care in this kind of vessel should be about the same as of a small cruise liner.