Hi
Rest assured Hard boats are much easier to dive from than RHB's. The only difference is you giant stride to get in
Getting out is worth thinking about. Watch out for the dive platform or ladder going up and down and hitting you hard on the way down and stay well back from the diver before you getting out in case he she falls of the ladder.
The most critical piece of advice is don't feel intimidated on the strange boat with strange divers. Do your own thing in your own time as you would normally do because to do otherwise is to make mistakes.
Try and pre organize a buddy of similar experience or at least with similar dive goals. Its no use turning up and saying you only want to do a 15min bottom time when every one else is doing 30 and similarly its no use doing a 60min bottom time when the others are doing 30.
On non team dives i tend to totally ignore the rest of the boat. I ask the skipper for an in the water time and I decide what time I need to start getting ready. I discuss the dive plan with my buddy and ensure that our plan for shot or SMB ascent and our run time is acceptable to the skipper.
There may or may not be a general vote on an up the shot ascent or a SMB ascent dependent on conditions.
If I turn up on a boat without a buddy I take the risk of having to alter my dive to suit my buddy or diving alone. I am happy to do either I sometimes dive as a three if there are people i particularly want to share the dive with.
If your not happy with this then I strongly suggest pre arranging a buddy even if its someone you haven't dived before. If its a YD gig ask on the net for a buddy giving them your details in terms of experience and planned bottom time /gas etc.
Chose some dives well within your experience to start with just to get a feel for it all.
Once you have got into a comfort zone its very liberating. You are able to dive on the stuff ideally suited to you rather than have to follow the club.
If like me you use the same boats often. Then you will find you meet the same divers over and over again.
ATB
Mark Chase