Posted by California Beach Diver on September 20, 2004 at 09:46:36:
Ken, your fingers are tap tap tapping so you must be lying. You have never gone to the tip jar and counted the tips after a trip.
Its not allowed. How do you know how much the crew made in tips? Are you telling me that that is what Kenny Hess told you after the trip? He's just trying to get you to book more trips. You know, those one day trips to SC that are a 19 hour work day for the crew.
Fact is that Kenny Hess takes a percentage of the tips from the crew. Thats why no one wants to work for him. That and the ENCORE does strictly kiddie pool diving.. thats why I don't use that boat if i decide to throw away money on a boat trip.
I do know this however, your DMs are great but overall your groups have a reputation among the boats as highly mediocre tippers. My rule of tipping is first to find out how many crewmembers are working and then 5 dollars a day per crew member per day thats usually 20-25 dollars So for a three day trip I/ll leave about 75 to 80 REGARDLESS of dive conditions.