DIVERSIONS by Kat Patton
Fall is time for dive community to catch its breath
E-Mail this story
Print this story
tool name
close
tool goes here
Posted - Thursday, September 17, 2009 12:38 PM EDT
They’re closing down the hangout, The air is turnin’ cool… They’re shuttin’ off the superslide, The kids are back in school. The tourist traps are empty, Vacancies abound… Almost like it used to be, Before the circus came to town.
– Jimmy Buffett, “When The Coast Is Clear”
At the end of the holiday weekend we watched as a steady stream of cars headed north on U.S. 1. In my mind, I could hear the words to Buffett’s tune “When The Coast Is Clear” playing in the background.
The passing of Labor Day weekend had unofficially marked the end of the summer season in Key Largo.
For dive operators, that means the end of the busy season. We’ll still run trips this fall, and we’ll have some busy days — particularly weekends — but we won’t have as many divers and students as we did over the summer months. Business will pick up significantly during the holidays, but the next couple of months will be a little slow.
In the dive business our “season” starts with Memorial Day weekend and ends with Labor Day weekend. For divers, summertime offers the best conditions on — and under — the water. The coming of fall also marks the high point of storm season, and divers often shy away from making plans this time of year for fear of getting “blown out.” So, as the last of the weekenders head up the stretch, it’s time for us to get to work. There’s still plenty to do…we’re just going to shift gears a little.
Folks in the dive business usually take their vacations in the fall. We can afford to leave for a week or two without fear of missing out on a lot of business. We’ll have to readjust our budget when we get back, though.
Tips aren’t rolling in the way they do in the summertime and paychecks can be irregular in the fall. We’ll get our personal gear checked and serviced now, since we probably won’t need it every single day, and we’ll drag out the heavy wetsuits (or drysuits) to see if they need to be serviced before it’s time to put them to use. We might take a class or two ourselves, or get around to some of those projects we’ve been neglecting…like the laundry.
Instructors and boat crew tend to “resurface” among friends and families during the fall. Now that we have a little free time on our hands, we’ll take this opportunity to reconnect with certain people in our lives via telephone, e-mail, or even surprise visits.
Many dive operators will turn their attention to their boats and their rental gear, taking the time to replace and repair as needed. Dive shops and resorts often get overhauled in the fall and dive instructors occasionally find themselves cleaning out gear cages, restocking rental equipment, even adding a coat of fresh paint to the dive shop. Typically most dive operators run two dive trips a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This time of year it’s not uncommon for us to try to consolidate the morning and afternoon trips into one, rather than run two very small trips.
Depending on how many divers we have signed up for a trip, we might start calling neighboring shops to see if they have enough folks to run a trip. Sometimes we manage to put together a single trip between two or even three dive shops…then we just take turns running it.
Divers who visit us in the fall deserve as much care and attention as those here during the busy season. Even if we don’t have enough paying customers to cover the cost of running a trip, we’ll do everything we can to see those folks don’t miss out on their dive.
We’ll see more of our local divers — regulars who prefer to avoid the summertime crowds — and we’ll see more of our south Florida divers. They can gauge the weather and make a last-minute decision about a weekend trip to the Keys.
Hotel rooms are cheap and the traffic is light. Small groups of divers are often tickled to find they practically have the entire boat to themselves. The water’s still warm way into the fall, and the reef is alive with activity.
So we’ll catch our breaths for a moment, now that the coast is clear. We’ll enjoy the quiet time on our island with our friends. And of course, we’ll go diving.
