Best ways to look for and book dives for small groups

[Crisspy Fiver]

I normally dive with just one of my mates. Towards the end of last year there was a group of us together and it looked as though we would be booking whole boats but due to some of these being friends of friends and those friends of mine now diving for a few months on the other side of the world its back down to the two of us.

I find it really difficult trying to secure spaces on dive charters for a small number of people at short notice. Well when i say short notice i mean about 1 month in advance. I suppose that is short considering some weekends are booked two+ years in advance. But with other commitments its the best we can do. I had the same problem about the middle of last year trying to get groups of between 2 - 5 on boats. In fact when ever I have tried to book small groups onto boats its been a nightmare for weekend bookings. By weekends I mean either one or both days.

Charters like Swanage diver are not normally a problem but Swanage is not always close enough to travel to and the wrecks and drifts would soon get boring if I dived the same ones every trip.

Breakwater is also great and I wish that more dive charters had nice simple to follow web sites like this one. Appreciated that not every ones business is as big and they may not have the time but Dive Eclipse has a nice site and with no offence meant towards Skipper would not consider this charter operation as big in employee power as Breakwater dive centre. Both these sites mentioned show how many spaces are available and you can either book there and then online as with Dive Eclipse or call Breakwater and book. The sites show the dives the divers will be doing are display depths and time of departure. Simple and easy for us divers to book. I like it thumbs up.

I find it frustrating having to either email skippers the usual "Please can yo confirm Dives and availability on the following" I consider calling even worse. You firstly have to find your buddies preferred dates, then call the skipper. Then call back the buddy. Then call back the skipper. I personally like to email my requests. That then means I can print of the emails and have everything in plain English in front of me to work out whats going to be the best option. My buddy will either be there as well to look over the dives or at the end of an email.

The other week to be able to book two days of consecutive diving we had to book one boat in Brighton then one in Eastbourne. Does any one ever have to do that at weekends from here? maybe on the Saturday the wrecks listed are within your qualifications but maybe the Sunday is to deep or fully booked. There normally the reasons we have to book two separate charter for two consecutive days.

Is this just something that I simply have to put up with. Its part of diving just like the weather is. Or do you have a simple method of booking small groups of people onto dive boats that I have not thought about? What resources do you use to look for these dive boats. I appreciate that the business cant afford to advertise on every web site or publication but its often hard to find these charters in the first place. Today I found a really good new site that has listed lots of boats I never before even new existed. So what steps do you take to book those odd days or weekend here and there at short notice with a fussy attitude as t what you will be diving and from what. ?


Maybe of interest to some is the link of the web site I found.

Jamie

[dry suit diver]

Good comments, agre with a lot of it, couldnt see a link though.

[Crisspy Fiver]

http://www.deepsea.co.uk/boats/diving.htm?ML=D_B

ops!

[warmwaterdiver]

good and valid comments, hence the reason I/we book with Breakwater because it makes life a lot easier for the organiser (ie me)

as for booking other boats in other areas, I use either shared knowledge of other people to help out, such as diving St Abbs & The Farnes as we (a group of 6) did last year, knowledge that tells of good and bad skippers/boats

the other thing I would add is that I do book weekends up well in advance (3/4 months or more) if I want a weekends diving with a good and busy boat, I tend to find that the better they are, the busier they are, although if theres only 2 of you sometimes you can jump on someones weekend if they have chartered but not filled the boat up

the phone is still the best means of comms even in this day and age

[David Wallace]

Hi Jamie,
thanks for the compliment that was in there somewhere

Interesting that you should mention Breakwater. I have a company called Turtle Technology Ltd which owns the rights to one line booking system used on the Dive Eclipse site. Turtle tec has recently agreed a package breakwater which will expand their web facility to include real time on line booking / payment and confirmations without the need to make phone calls. This system will be up and running at breakwater in about 6 weeks time .

as for anywhere else........... keep the comments coming and encourage your local charter operation to get in touch with me and get on line with the turtletec system

regards

[aquaholic]

Hi Jamie,


Your situation is not unusual. I subscribe to the ndg list ( see http://lists.drogon.net/scuba-uk-ndg/) which can be used to advertise spaces, and to say you are looking for spaces.

I found it a good way to get some diving done at short notice by just making up spaces on other group trips.

Equally, the Places to fill pages here and on divernet fulfill a similar rule.

Hope you get enough diving booked ths season.

Anke

[TerryH]

Bit of advice if you are booking for small groups.

If you fill over half the boat at a time then you will obvioulsy be sharing with
individuals who are also looking for spaces.

If these "strangers" are ok and not dive muppets, get there email address
and add them to an email list. As it builds you have a group which can be
used to fill last minute spaces or even your own cancellations.

Internet and fora dive clubs are fine, but unless you've dived with them
you can never be sure what they are like. At least this way you've been on
a boat with them already.

TerryH

[Hazel W]

the web is great ... but i find it easiest still if people just pick up the phone to discuss teir needs ..... that way i can get a feel for what they would like to do ... and hopefully be able to help .

*shrug *

Hazel

[BertieB]

Originally Posted by TerryH

Bit of advice if you are booking for small groups.

If you fill over half the boat at a time then you will obvioulsy be sharing with
individuals who are also looking for spaces.

If these "strangers" are ok and not dive muppets, get there email address
and add them to an email list. As it builds you have a group which can be
used to fill last minute spaces or even your own cancellations.

Internet and fora dive clubs are fine, but unless you've dived with them
you can never be sure what they are like. At least this way you've been on
a boat with them already.

TerryH

That is exactly what we've done, and it works. On our list we have five skippers and over 100 divers interested in doing similar stuff to us.

BertieB

[Crisspy Fiver]

Terry sounds like you dived with some of the people I dived with. The one who springs to mind was nicknamed VR3Man. Him and his buddy took two hours in the morning to plan a dive then ended up running out of air, losing an smb and bending the computer!. Now that is a dive muppet. I didnt take or give that group my email. I did mention to one of them though that if they continued to dive like that they probably wouldn't be diving for very long. The only time iv ever stuck my nose in someone else business. They were extremely dangerous though.

Saying that no one has ever asked for my email so maybe im a dive muppet to