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LOVE YOU ELBERT! What a great dive briefing. After that information I wouldn't care if I saw one or not but at least if I did I would know what I was looking at and be able to understand their behavior. I was also taught to not bother them for too long a time as it stresses them out. I have even had them nip at my dive mask if I get too close.

I'm as guilty of asking that question as any new tourist. Actually, what I usually want to know is are we going north or south. You have taught me a valuabe lesson. Never too old to learn!

Thanks
I think the dive-masters can be educators and getting an educational experience is worth the price of the ticket.

I had a guest a while back, one of the most experienced divers in the world, who did around seven or eight days of diving, every dive at the same spot. I asked him early on what sort of site he waned to go to next, and he simply said he'd rather stay here as there was so much to see. That spot was Tuffy.

Nice ideology and I agree, when I dived the Galapagos we dove Darwins Arch 16 times in 4 days fantastic saw something different every dive and no complaints from the 15 other divers.

Unfortunately its not the norm and the majority of vacationing divers will complain if they dive the same site twice.

Gaz

That is my point. We as diving professionals need to offer them more of interest at the sites so they aren't just checking it of the list as having been there done that. Lets make them want to go again and again by educating them as to what they are seeing.
The number of sites shouldn't be what were marketing because that has a ceiling. Lets go back to the same spot because its breeding season, spawning or any of the cycles of bio diversity.
Don't misunderstand me Gary, I like what you've done here with the survey of 10 most popular sites. Its all good.

No argument here Elbert I am totally in agreement with your philosophy.

Gaz

I like what is being said here and seldom complain about diving but here goes: Why do so many guides treat a dive like a road race hurrying to get from point A to point Z in 35 minutes???

As a photographer I like to spend time at one bommie (or coral head) and watch the behavior of the creatures there. Most folks miss watchting a Spotted Drum long enough for him to finish his figure eight path and re-emerge. I spent about 10 minutes one time filming a family of Rock Beauties guarding a nest and ended up with the largest one making faces right in my lens. When I raised my head the group was long gone (and sad to say) never came back and looked for me. I had enough sense to find my way back to the mooring line and surface.

I wish the guides would give a briefing more like Elbert did above then take us down to where we can watch that. I've often thought that a dive shop that advertised and specialized in photography would be a good thing here.

My snobbish u/w photo friends who make long expensive trips to the South Pacific to shoot strange creatures have no idea how fascinating our usual critters can be if studied long enough.

I agree with you entirely Harriette. But it depends very much on the divers in the group.

Elbert, you are getting so cranky.

I don´t generally care where I´m taken. But tourists that do dive trips once or twice a year, want to make sure that they see a different site each time and have read or heard from other divers, where they think they will encounter the large turtle, blah, blah, blah.

When I was diving Mabul, there was a cement weight with some heavy gage steel? wire attached. Frankly, it was a human garbage site after a drilling operation. But once I overlooked that, I realized that almost everything one might want to see in the Celebes Sea was within 1 foot or less of the spot, I didn´t really want to move. It was the dive master and the other divers that forced me to carry on. If I hadn´t known it before from other experiences, I most certainly would have learned then . . .the love of diving has absolutely nothing to do with making sure you log ��number of sites<´. <it has to do with the zen of your own personal diving moments.

None of that takes away from what the paying customer wants Elbert. I do so love Pillar Corals, and could probably happily dive it every day. But if you were to try and make sure I had a well rounded experience, I wouldn´t dislike you for it. That said, as a tourist diver, if you were to only take me to the same spot every day, I might resent you for it.

Smiley face. The customer is always right. All you have to do is make them happy, whether it is the right thing to do or not. LOL, if you don´t want to do that anymore . . .it is time to turn in your tour guide fins and put back on your �"I´m a diving fool" fins.

I probably have a lot more to add on this subject, but fortunately for the readers, I´m drinking Malbec, it´s raining and �´m tired and need to go to bed before catching my LAN flight in the A.M. Have fun you guys.

Though I am not a diver our friend who liked here for a while and has since moved to mexico had the complaint that the dive boats ( and she went out a fair bit and has dove world wide) always went to the same sites here and she got tired of it.

I like your idea Elbert of making people want to see the same sites again based on time of year and what is happening in a particular area.