Dive booking software that runs your dive center on autopilot.

Scuba diving booking software is a platform that manages every part of a dive or snorkel operation — online bookings, trip schedules, tank and gear inventory, certification and medical capture, waivers, dive manifests, payments, service tickets and diver comms — in one place. Modern systems like EquipDash replace the spreadsheet-and-clipboard setup most dive shops grew up on and add AI agents that handle the repetitive admin (weather reschedules, unsigned-waiver chasers, cert-expiry reminders, review requests) automatically.

A 2-tank boat dive is the standard half-day dive trip: the boat departs the dock, divers do a first dive on a full cylinder, take a surface interval back on board, then drop for a second dive on a fresh tank. It’s the backbone of most dive-center schedules. In EquipDash a 2-tank trip is one bookable trip type with its own departure time, tank count on the manifest, guide assignment and per-diver rental-gear list.

The common progression runs Open Water Diver (the entry certification, typically max 18m), Advanced Open Water (deeper dives and specialties), Rescue Diver, then Divemaster (the first professional rating). Agencies like PADI and SSI issue these; a card from one is generally recognised by the others. Dive operators capture the diver’s agency, level and cert number at booking so the trip roster matches each diver to dives within their qualification.

Discover Scuba Diving is an introductory experience for people with no certification — a short briefing, basic skills in confined or shallow water, then a guided dive under close instructor supervision. It’s the try-dive that turns snorkellers into future students. In EquipDash a DSD is a trip type that skips the cert requirement but still collects the medical questionnaire and waiver, so non-certified guests book alongside certified divers on the same schedule.

A gear deposit is a pre-authorisation hold placed on the diver’s card at booking when they rent kit — typically $150 for a mask/fins/snorkel set up to $500 for a full BCD-and-regulator package. The hold sits on the card without being charged; if the gear checks back in clean, it’s released automatically (Stripe voids the auth and the hold drops off the statement in 2-7 days). If a regulator needs service or a weight belt is missing, a rate-card charge is applied against the hold and the balance released. Cleaner than billing a “card on file” after the fact.

A dive manifest is the roster for a trip — every diver on board, their certification level, assigned buddy pair, tank and weight, and rental-gear list. It’s what the boat crew works from at the dock and what safety procedure relies on for a headcount in and out of the water. In EquipDash the manifest builds itself from the bookings: staff run it on a tablet, tick each diver as checked-in, and the trip can’t move to “departed” until every diver is accounted for.

Best practice is to set explicit thresholds (wind speed, swell height, surface visibility, small-craft conditions), watch the marine forecast the evening before each trip, and proactively text every booked diver the night before — not the morning of — with a one-tap reschedule offer to the next safe departure. EquipDash automates this with the Weather Cancellation agent: the forecast hits your threshold, every booked diver gets a personalized text, deposit holds roll forward to the new slot, and refunds inside policy are self-serve. Decide evening-before, not morning-of: divers are often already driving to the marina by sunrise.

A safety stop is a short pause — usually three minutes at around five metres — near the end of a dive to off-gas nitrogen before surfacing. No-fly time is the interval a diver must wait after diving before flying, to avoid decompression sickness (commonly 12 hours after a single dive, 18+ after repetitive dives). Neither is software, but both shape trip scheduling: a dive operator building the day’s roster keeps surface intervals and last-dive-before-flight windows in mind, and EquipDash makes the diver’s last-dive date and trip times easy to see when planning departures.

A single-site operation works from one dock or shore-entry point — one schedule, one boat, one tank inventory. A multi-site operation runs trips from multiple locations (a harbour dock plus a shore-dive site, or a home base plus a seasonal satellite) with separate schedules, gear and staff at each. Multi-site shops need software that tracks trips and inventory per site so a blown-out day at one location doesn’t black out the others. EquipDash handles both single and multi-site with no extra add-on.

Rental regulators, BCDs and cylinders run on service schedules — regulators serviced annually, cylinders visually inspected each year and hydrostatically tested on a longer cycle. Miss an interval and the gear is out of spec and unsafe to rent. EquipDash tracks service dates per item and the Equipment Service-Due agent auto-creates a service ticket ahead of any reg or cylinder hitting its interval, so the kit goes to the bench instead of onto a diver. A return flagged for service (a free-flowing reg, a sticky inflator) can raise a ticket the moment it’s logged.

Most dive centers send four touchpoints by SMS: a departure reminder with dock, time and what to bring (the night before), a waiver-and-medical chase (12 hours before, if unsigned), a no-show follow-up (past departure time, with a rebook offer), and a review request (an hour after the boat ties up). Each is a small touch, but stacked together they cut no-shows, recover lost seats, and lift your rating. EquipDash ships these as pre-built Dash Agents — no scripts to write, no SMS provider to wire up.

Certification verification is confirming a diver actually holds the qualification a trip requires before they get in the water. Operators capture the agency (PADI, SSI), the level (Open Water, Advanced), the cert number and often the last-dive date at booking, then a guide reviews the manifest before departure. EquipDash collects all of this on the booking form and flags obvious gaps — a missing cert, an expired medical, a level that doesn’t match the dive — so your staff make an informed go/no-go call rather than sorting paperwork at the tank fill.