Taking a liveaboard is one of the best adventures you can have as a diver. Not only is it the best way to get in a large number of dives in a short period of time. Liveaboards are also great if not the only, way to experience the world's best diving. When you think of the world's best dive destinations, like Raja Ampat, the Galapagos, and Socorro, amongst others, the one thing they share in common is that they are all virtually only accessible via liveaboard.
While most modern boats are relatively luxurious, the only downside of a liveaboard is that you share a relatively confined space with many other divers. That is why excellent liveaboard diving etiquette and practices are crucial to you being a great guest and ensuring everyone has fun on the trip.
Proper Preparation
Preparing for a liveaboard trip is key to a safe, fun adventure. The first thing you need to make sure of is that all your gear is ready to go. Test your gear in ample time before the trip and make sure that it is all serviced and in good working order. Nothing is worse than having a major equipment failure on a boat in the middle of the ocean. While you will probably be able to pay generously to rent another piece of gear. You will end up diving in unfamiliar kit, which will reduce your fun and adventure.
Make sure your diving cobwebs are dusted off. If you haven’t dived for a while, you are best served doing a couple of local dives or even a skills refresh with a local instructor. Being sharp and refreshed can make a huge difference to your state of mind on a liveaboard, especially If you are not a massively experienced diver and the conditions are challenging. Comfort and confidence in the water are key to a great time and lots of fun!
Preparing also includes being aware and knowing what to expect from your liveaboard diving trip. If there is lots of drift diving, do you need an SMB (see below) or reef hook? Be prepared for the type of diving you will be doing, whether it be deep, drift, or photography and muck diving.
You also want to take a small spares bag, otherwise known as a “Save a Dive” kit. It should have various small items that get you out of trouble in a pinch. The kit should include items like a spare fin strap, mask strap, O-rings, and other items important for your equipment working.
Stay Hydrated
On a liveaboard, drink plenty of water, especially in a hot tropical environment, when doing 4 or 5 dives daily. Drinking lots of water makes you kind to your body and considerate of other people's vacation time.
By far, the biggest culprit in decompression events in tropical destinations is dehydration. While you may be doing a couple of dives per day plus the odd night dive when shore-based, the situation is different from a liveaboard. When liveaboard diving, you can easily do 4 dives or more in a day for multiple days.
This level of exposure soon adds up, and if you are dehydrated, you can easily take a DCS hit. So make sure to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated. Your fellow divers will thank you since no one wants to turn the boat around because of an easily preventable incident.
Get Nitrox Certified
While this may seem glaringly obvious, if you are not Nitrox certified and are taking a liveaboard trip, then you need to get certified ASAP. When embarking on multiple dives per day over several days, Nitrox is your friend. While historically, Nitrox used to be relatively expensive on liveaboards, with the proliferation of membrane compressors, Nitrox is now relatively cheap on most good boats and provides you with a good safety margin, especially if you are diving on air limits.
One thing to also keep in mind is that using Nitrox reduces post-dive fatigue, which is very useful when doing 4 or 5 dives daily. Being less tiered also means you can enjoy the social aspect of your trip and spend your evening sharing dive stories and anecdotes!
The Dive Deck Belongs To Everyone
Arguably the worst thing any diver can do on a liveaboard is treating the spacious dive deck like your personal locker room and liberally scatter your gear around the deck. Leaving your gear everywhere is the fastest way to annoy and alienate the rest of the people on the boat.
Aside from irritating everyone as you go around the deck trying to find your gear before every dive. Not to mention that people may not notice or be as careful with gear that is not theirs and are not expecting it. You can easily find a piece of your equipment being knocked around or worse.
Getting into the habit of keeping your gear compact make you a great liveaboard guest. The smaller the footprint you have on the divedeck, the more other guests will appreciate you. Not to mention that it becomes much easier to retrieve your gear before every dive, making your overall experience easier and more fun!
Learn To Use an SMB/DSMB
Drift diving and Liveaboards go hand in hand. Long reefs are some of the best dive sites in the world, where you are dropped off at one end by a diving tender and then picked up at the other. For two reasons, learning to use and being proficient with a (Delayed) Surface Marker Buoy (SMB) is a must when liveaboard diving.
First is your safety; you don’t want to get lost or left by the boat in the open sea. It is much easier to spot a large 5ft/1.5m bright orange object sticking out of the water in the distance than two small divers’ heads in a black neoprene bobbing up and down on the surface. Needless to say, getting lost will ruin the trip for you as well as everyone else onboard.
Second, using an SMB makes the crews' life easier. When the sun is low in the late afternoon or early morning, it can be difficult to spot you from a diving tender. Using an SMB makes it easier for the crew to see and locate you, which makes you a better guest.
Photographers
If you are a keen photographer, you can do a few things that will make you a great guest. The first step is to check out your boat before departure. Ensure that it has a good spacious charging station with plenty of outlets where you can keep your gear together and charge all your batteries. Nothing is worse than trying to compete for a very limited number of outlets where other guests may want to charge phones, computers, and such. Also, choosing a boat with a dedicated charging station means your gear will stay compact and safe. It won’t be scattered around your stateroom or saloon as it charges.
In the water, if you are diving with a group and a guide, remember that not everyone has a camera or as good air consumption as you. The guide has to get the entire group from point A to point B in a given amount of time. If every time you find an exciting pinnacle, the whole group is delayed while you snap away won’t make any friends. If you really want to have slow photo dives, choose a boat that lets you dive independently or has specific photo guides. A good liveaboard experience requires some compromise for everyone to enjoy it.
Tip Generously
Culturally tipping can be controversial, depending on where you come from in the world. While in the US, tipping is almost a given with set societal norms, it is virtually unheard of in other parts of the world. However, in the diving Industry, tipping when on a liveaboard trip is almost universally expected worldwide. In Some destinations, most of the crew (excluding the Captain, engineer, and guides) are not paid a wage! They make their living from tips, so a great guest who has a fantastic experience should tip generously!
When it comes to how much to tip, you will need to do your research since the expected percentage varies by destination. Typically, you should expect to tip anywhere between 10%-20% of the cost of the trip (excluding marine park fees, taxes, and such). Simply put, great guests tip; bad guests don’t!
