Rodale’s Scuba Diving

Live-Aboard Diving: Now’s the Time

If you haven’t tried live-aboard diving, now is the time. If you’ve already experienced this great form of dive travel, isn’t it time you plan another live-aboard adventure?

Since gaining your open water certification, you’ve probably tried several land-based dive destinations and enjoyed them all. But, like pursuing additional advanced certification courses, there comes a time when you want to expand your dive travel experiences to include live-aboard opportunities. That time is now.

Whether you’re considering you’re first live-aboard experience or you’re a floating dive resort veteran, there’s never been a better time to plan a live-aboard getaway. The number of choices through dive travel specialists, live-aboard operators and boats, and destinations served make it the best time in scuba diving history to get aboard and follow in my wake.

Why a Live-Aboard Adventure?

Of course, land-based dive resorts are great and will always hold a place in the hearts of every diver. But, if you love diving and dive travel, live-aboards offer many appeals as well.

Some of the many draws to live-aboard diving include: cost; only unpacking once (this includes clothes and dive gear); more dives each day, if desired; more diving flexibility; generally smaller dive groups; less-explored diving, wrecks, and other dives; onboard photography and video services; and advanced certification courses and other educational programs.

Like taking a cruise, the ‘all-inclusive’ cost of a live-aboard trip can generally more economical than a land-based dive vacation. If you compare costs, the savings can (but won’t always) include expenses for diving, food, beverages, and more.

Many people don’t think they’ll like cruises, but one of several reasons cruise travel has grown in popularity is because you only have to unpack once, even though you’re visiting many places. For live-aboards, this means you can take your clothes and dive gear out of your bag once and not have to repack until the end of your trip. You also don’t have to lug your dive gear around each time you’re going diving. That’s often not the case on a land-based dive trip.

Quite simply, live-aboards also offer more diving each day. The average is typically four or five dives a day, but it’s really up to the individual diver (given proper surface intervals, of course). If you really want to dive during your precious vacation time, the sheer quantity can be an advantage (however, don’t forget many land-based dive resorts with great shore diving can also offer this advantage).

There’s also great flexibility when it comes to live-aboard diving. If the conditions aren’t good on one site, the ship simply changes locations. If the group tends to like diving on wrecks, that’s where the live-aboard’s diving can lean.

The diving off live-aboards tends to be in smaller groups as well. This can be just because the boat doesn’t carry many divers or it can be because they stagger divers, giving everyone a chance to explore dive sites with just a few others (sometimes just a dive buddy).

Live-aboards also tend to offer less-explored diving. This is thanks to their ability to go (and stay) where land-based dive boats simply can’t reach in reasonable times. I want to go where few (if any divers) have ever been.

Many divers also looking to learn or expand photography and video skills. Live-aboards typically offer full service to shooters, allowing participants of all skill levels to see their work and apply lessons to future dives (sometimes that same afternoon). There’s also typically instructional opportunities or programs available for passengers willing and able to learn other underwater skills.

In addition, on the learning front, advanced certification courses and other educational programs make live-aboards floating classrooms. It seems like the perfect environment to learn if, like many divers, you’re ready to go back to school.

Of course, there are many other reasons for planning your first live-aboard trip. These include, but aren’t limited to: more enjoyable surface intervals (you’re on a floating resort); lack of tropical insects (they’re generally not nearly as bad at sea as on land); better reef conditions (lots of divers damage reefs); the like-minded company of passionate divers; and generally more adventure above and below the surface.

Planning Your Trip

In exploring your first (or any) live-aboard adventure, you should seek expert advice (along with reading this article and checking out the various possibilities on the pages following it!). This could start with a visit to your local dive shop for advice and any books they may have

There are two excellent books about live-aboard diving: Live-Aboard Dive Travel--The Essential Guide (Astrid White and Capt. Casey Mahaney) and Live-Aboards of the World (Lynn Laymon and Linda Lee Walden).

Both books can be invaluable in planning a trip, with lots of specific tips about what to expect, operators, destinations, and more. They’ll surely whet your appetite for live-aboard diving.

Live-Aboard Dive Travel begins with an hilarious history of live-aboards written by Stan Waterman. Waterman says the industry basically started with a converted WWII mine sweeper renamed the Cayman Diver. Diving legend (and fish ID icon) Paul Humann, owned, fitted, and operated this initial live-aboard attempt.

Of his first live-aboard experience, Waterman humorously writes, “It was so damp that all dunnage was clothed with a fur coat of mold in a day.” But he also recalls, “We logged more diving in one week than others at resorts could compound in a month.”

Of course, live-aboard diving has changed immensely since Humann’s pioneering efforts and this book provides a great overview of the current options and how to make the most of any live-aboard experience. Highlights include: live-aboard advantages (many highlighted above); mothership diving and advanced skills; tender and drift diving; the buddy system; dive equipment considerations; packing; reef conservation and marine life; underwater photography; live-aboard etiquette; dining; seasickness; and an excellent overview of the most popular live-aboard destinations (for instance, they recommend that new divers and first-timers generally stay in the Western Hemisphere’s better conditions).

Ironically, Live-Aboards of the World starts with a foreword on live-aboard history by none other than Paul Humann. His stories about the Cayman Diver are just as funny and he ends, similarly, by saying, “Live-aboards are the best way to dive.”

This book took a similarly comprehensive approach to covering the live-aboard experience, with informative chapters on the types of live-aboard vessels, food, cabins, diving protocol, evaluating if a live-aboard vacation is the way to go at all, a great chapter on the process of planning, booking, and packing, and specific live-aboard overviews at the time of printing, and geographic coverage (this book covers only The Bahamas, the Caribbean, and Central and South America).

Book It

After perusing these books and salivating saltwater at the possibilities, you should then take your research online and on the phone. It’s easy to check out a wide variety of websites run by both dive travel operators and specific live-aboard companies.

Like the live-aboard industry, these websites have generally come a long way since the internet was just a glimmer on Bill Gates’ computer screen. The books will give you the knowledge to look for the perfect trip for your parameters. When you can’t find an answer online, a simple email or phone call will surely solve it.

This process of research will easily lead you to an ideal live-aboard vacation. Isn’t it time for you to live the live-aboard life?

A Live-Aboard Packing List

Both books mentioned in this feature provide lists of things to pack for your live-aboard adventure, including:

--Equipment: mask, snorkel, fins, booties, regulator, BCD, alternate air source, dive computer, exposure suit(s), dive light, and gear bag. Additional gear possibilities include: backup dive computer, compass, dive knife, gloves, weight belt, dive slate, log book, photography equipment, spare batteries, and film or video tapes. You might also want to include manuals for any complicated or new equipment, as well as fish ID materials (many live-aboards have these).

--Paperwork: airline tickets, passport, reservations with live-aboard, c-card, medical insurance proof, cash (don’t forget crew tips, when appropriate!), and an international calling card.

--Clothing and personal items: appropriate medicines (possibly including seasickness tablets), casual clothing appropriate to the conditions, several swimsuits, appropriate footwear, beach towel, and sun protection.