The anchor chain clatters and engines drone down and sputter silent; you’ve arrived. You and your buddy help each other gear up with anticipation; this dive promises to be great. For this dive, there’s no long surface swim or entries through surf because you’re only 15 meters from the dive site – 15 metres above it. You enter the water, and in moments you and your buddy descend to the site.

Experiences like these attract divers to boat diving; in fact, virtually all divers end up diving from a boat sooner or later, whether it’s a skiff or a giant live-aboard sailboat. Yet surprisingly, some divers learn to dive and makes dozens of dives before they ever set foot on a dive boat; others learn to dive from one type of boat, but have little experience diving from others. If you fit in either group, the Boat Adventure Dive will speed your transition to diving from boats or boats you’re not familiar with.

Diving and boats make an obvious match, though there’s lot of diving from shore. Even where you can shore dive, divers often prefer to go by boat to enjoy several practical advantages and because it adds to the fun. Boat diving is fun because it puts you with others, who share your love of adventure and the diving lifestyle, giving you the opportunity to become friends, dive with them and learn from their experiences. Finally, one of the best reasons for diving from a  boat is that boating, like diving is a fun recreation and a great way to spend time near the water.

Considering the Maldives dive trip is on a live-aboard, this would be a great time to take up this speciality. Not only will you learn something about the boat that you are in, you get to experienece the thrill and ease of diving off a boat.