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Posted by divedude on May 11, 2008 at 09:20:23:
In Reply to: Re: Re: May12 Open Boat posted by gonphishing on May 10, 2008 at 23:43:20:
Hi Richard and gonphishing,
You are both correct, it did happen to you and some others, including myself. The owners do not know much about divers (they are getting it more now), but lots about fishing and boating. I have been on the Sunfish quite a few times since they started. I had to try hard to get enough people to get the trips to go, but then I am the dive coordinator for a local club. The main things that kept me going back is they will go and do (like drift diving) what most of the other boats will not do and the Sunfish is a great boat for 20 or less. Slowly, myself and others have been giving our input and the owners are listening and making changes.
I have been diving for 30 years and have had my Divemaster for 15 years without using it. I seen a real need for some changes and now I am a Divemaster on the Sunfish. We have a fresh new attitude, new crew (still working on it), new logo and new motto “Striving for Different Diving”. I have also put together a new dive schedule which will slowly be changing. Our Website is now getting a facelift with new up to date information and the reservations will be getting better. Were not setup yet for credit cards, but that should happen soon.
As far as the crew all the deckhands are divers and the Divemaster’s (except for 1), are all tech trained (including myself). There are a few changes that will be happening to the boat to accommodate divers a bit better. We plan on catering to all divers. We have new docks and a marine center next to the boat. We do have 2 compressors filling to 3500psi. The new crew will being doing there best to do full fills; I don’t like to be shorted when I go diving. We looked into putting in nitrox, but it is too costly at this time.
Now, I know everyone is wondering about the food and believe me it was like a brown bag lunch, but that has changed. There are bagels and the like in the morning, after the 1st dive there is 2 kinds of soup, chowder, or chili. For lunch, there is a quality deli platter so you can make your own sandwiches. There is soda, water, coffee and juice. Also, fresh fruit with some goodies put out between dives. The galley seats 14 as long as everyone does not pile their stuff on the seats; there is dry storage up front.
The last thing is the cancelled trips of which there were many. We do have it were we can run with 10 or more now. The cost of fuel will not let us go with less, but this is a norm for most boats. We have a lower charter rate then before and weekdays are even a bit less. If we don’t have enough for a trip and have divers signed up we will do our best to get them moved to another day. There are some interesting dives planned. I have been diving the islands for the past 20 years and know of some great dive spots. We like the islands, wrecks, rigs, coastal areas and exploring. Also, the owner has been fishing all his life and knows of some cool spots.
If anyone has any other comments or suggestions, please email us at sunfishdives@yahoo.com .
Also please check out the website (it is not updated yet) at www.socaldive.com .
Keep diving, Ken K.
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