View Full Version : Scuba divers, beginners tips?
So I know we've got people here who dive, whether it be in the military in a combat, UXO, or other job, as well as rec divers, and I'm sure some civilian jobs too. I'm heading up to northern Colombia in 2 days and will be getting my PADI OW and possibly my AOW (if the instructor is confident I have mastered all of the skills and am ready for the added risk and knowledge dump) over the next two weeks.
Anybody have any tips for a beginner, or just stories or pictures to share?
I've already determined that we will need a bigger boat.
Been diving in pools since I was 10 and certified open water diver through PADI at 12 (30 now). Number one tip, dont hold your breath...ever. Unless you are wreck diving the best and most colorful stuff is 30ft down and back up towards the surface so don't get wrapped around the axle with diving deep.
The first few times you put on all that gear and weight, it really sucks. Very cumbersome. Most people hate their first few dives because of all of this. Just stick with it. By around dive number five or six things really start to get better. By dive 10 or 12 it starts to all feel familiar and comfortable. If you have the choice, do boat dives for your first few.
When the time comes and you dive on your own, spend some time just sitting still. This is one of my favorite things to do. Most people hit the water and start swimming and don't stop until its time to get out. I like to drop down, find a good spot and sit still. You'll see a ton more stuff that way.
I prefer steel tanks to aluminums, by the way. Lets me carry a little less weight on the belt.
Lastly, buy yourself a secondary air source and carry it with you on every dive. I use a "Spare Air". My instructor shut my air off with out me knowing it during "don and ditch" drills at the bottom of the pool during my initial certification. You do NOT ever want to run out of air down there. I didn't panic, but I bought my Spare Air the very next day.
Have fun man. Its an amazing experience.
Focus on the fundamentals (as with anything). Develop good buoyancy control, proper trim ( not having gauges, straps and octos dangling everywhere but secure and streamlined), manage your breathing, stay calm and don't dive beyond your limits/training. The vast majority of mishaps in diving occur from people diving beyond their training/experience level. Last but not least, have fun and take pictures!
Been diving about 30 years total and taught scuba for 15 years full time not sure how many dives ? close to ten thousand maybe or more ? I have what they call a MSDT from PADI just a instructor who also taught specialties like photography and wreck etc..
Just listen to the instructor as I say if you can walk and breathe chances are you can swim and breathe :)
Being underwater is awesome :)
Its not about power but subtle movements think of it like Tai Chi slow movements and breathe gentle dont try to hold your breathe and dont try to skip breathe which is holding on to then a deep breathe and holding does not work !
If anything at first I told students to think of a drinking fountain and sipping the air
Clearing your mask is the only thing that takes a touch of practice really as I used to say just hold the top corner lightly look up blow out through the nose gently
Really those are the basics and instructor will teach ya :)
Ditto buoyancy is the key ? Remember air takes a moment to react so buoyancy is a add a touch wait add a touch wait
so dont worry its fun just have fun dont stress it super easy
Over that 15 years taught thousands to dive
My instructor rating is from PADI but Naui or SSI etc.. As long as its one of the main ones they are all good
Doing adv class is more about getting more comfy underwater with a instructor along and a fewolaces require open water to dive them but not to many so its worth getting
And is meant to go right after your regular class so good chance ya will be able to do that also :)
Rescue is more about handling folks in and out of the water
Divemaster or assistant DM is more about rating to work on some boats or to get your instructor eventually
For most folks who just want to be a rec diver adv is far enough :)
If you ever get the itch to become a instructor after a year or so of diving check out Utila in the Bay islands of Honduras
Used to teach on that island and we did a lot of people that were becoming instructors
Most all dive folks who live and teach are pretty cool mellow folks so often good to get a feel of other places to dive since some have worked all over the world
Focus on the fundamentals. Get in the best physical condition you can, especially cardio vascular. The better shape you are in, the more you will enjoy diving.
No matter what you encounter, relax and think your way through it.
1. Never dive alone
2. Abort if you cannot clear
3. Become a strong swimmer
4. Never hold your breath
5. It's OK to pee in your wetsuit
Get in shape.
Nobody likes to look at a fatass diver in form-fitting neoprene. Also, diving is not a cardiovascular exercise; don't treat diving as a weight loss plan.
Learn to use as little weight as possible and control buoyancy.
Don't hang every stupid stupid dive shop accessory off your D-rings.
You don't need rock climbing gear under water. Leave your carabeaners at home.
Situational awareness is key. Don't get focused on one thing (like the cute fish), or you will wind up smashing into other divers, braking coral, or stirring up the bottom.
Buy your regulators locally, the service performed on them will usually be cheaper and better. If you buy your regs online, a local dive shop will be sure to charge you well beyond all the money you saved buy using Leisure Pro.
Research Backplate and Wing combo's. Don't get hung up on the gigantic back inflate/vest style BC's. They are huge, more buoyant, and unnecessary. I use Oxycheq Mach V Extreme wings and they are badass and the most abrasion resistant wings on the market.
If you want to carry a snorkel, get the crushable type made by XS Scuba (you can keep it in a pocket).
Diving in current or ocean, get a DSMB at least 6' tall and a reel with at least 60' of line.
Don't buy mechanical fins! All that shit breaks. Do lots of research on fins. I like Force Fin Pro's with bungee straps.
Don't buy dive boots on the internet. Most are very narrow and have odd sizing.
Don't buy a mask with a purge valve, another stupid feature to get more of your money. I like the Atomic or Scubapro frameless masks.
You don't want a high-volume mask.
Don't leave your wetsuit folded unless traveling. Creases in Neoprene does not come out and cuts down on the thermal properties.
Don't buy a 7" dive knife. Useless. Shark fights only happen on TV.
Take extra O-rings with you.
Learn how to steamline yourself and your gear. You don't want to be labeled "the Christmas tree".
If cold weather diving, make sure you have regs that wont freeze up. Apex and Zeagle are good cold weather regs.
Feel free to PM me for clarification on any of that.
Good luck; don't hold your breath on the way up :eek:
I've been diving for about 15 years now and one of the best all around tips I can give is bouyancy control. Learn to become as neutrally bouyant as possible. When I first started diving I carried a good bit of weight on my belt. I eventually bought a BC that allowed me to carry weight on it. Now I carry about half the weight I used to and am much more neutral and comfortable. As others have said carry as little as possible on yourself. No need for all sorts of gadgets. Calm down, relax, breath and enjoy your surroundings. You will use much less air,
CarlosDJackal
02-26-13, 10:03
TIP #1 - Never tempt a creature that lives higher up the food chain than you do: :p
http://www.thethrillionaire.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/shark.jpg
1. Never dive alone
2. Abort if you cannot clear
3. Become a strong swimmer
4. Never hold your breath
5. It's OK to pee in your wetsuit
Peeing in your wetsuit is nasty !
For one its not good on the suit ?
And I dont pee on myself on land why on earth would I do it underwater ? Unless you like smelling like piss on the boat ?
Dont pee in your suit !
Whiskey_Bravo
02-26-13, 10:37
Don't buy mechanical fins! All that shit breaks. Do lots of research on fins. I like Force Fin Pro's with bungee straps.
What do you mean by mechanical fins?
What are your thoughts on split fins for leisure caribbean diving? I purchased some split fins(US Divers) and they seem to work well in the pool, but I don't have much to reference it on.
I am just getting into diving as well and am about to start my certification. I was hooked after diving in Belize recently.
Whiskey_Bravo
02-26-13, 10:38
Peeing in your wetsuit is nasty !
For one its not good on the suit ?
And I dont pee on myself on land why on earth would I do it underwater ? Unless you like smelling like piss on the boat ?
Dont pee in your suit !
I would assume it's better than ending your dive early because you need to take a piss really bad? Your dive partner would probably be pissed that you didn't piss.
Gear wise having your own mask and fins is going to be needed for class usually
having your own mask is important
IMHO for good fit I always liked Tusa masks or cressi sub
But a good low volume mask is important over larger
Someone mentioned avoid purge masks ! Agree
Also avoid side windows etc...
Slap straps are nice on masks !
Also the strap just holds the mask on your head but does not make the seal that is just water pressure so your mask can be strapped on lightly :)
If you come up with mask face chances are it was to tight :)
Fins I prefer foot pocket fins for warm water much better control and feel than bootie style fins ! But if beaches are nasty or in cold water you need booty style fins
So something to think about what where you are going to dive
Get good fins though :) you might get some fins then a year or so later after diving and trying out a bunch find ones you like better or a second pair ?
The creature thing is funny :)
My saying was dont touch it unless it touches you first :)
Minimal dive gear agree on the big dive knife avoid it ! Use a pair of emt sheers
Backwings are nice for adv diving I have some DUI stuff
But low profile regular BCD are nice for rec companies like Seaquest etc..
Dont rush into buying a bunch of stuff besides your mask fins and carry a spare strap !
Next gear is a set of regs
Get nice stuff wont go into it to much but spend the coin get nice stuff
Diving 6 days a week for a living I can say nice gear is worth every penny !
Just like shooting take your time renting some gear and using the boats gear at first is a good way to try out other stuff
Ditto the over gear load
Dont worry about what tech divers are wearing or try to look like one :) hahahaha
Used to see a lot of that when I worked in Chuuk would see some folks a bit to geared out !having a clip on gauges to keep tight is nice but small brass dog clipmor claw hook with zip ties and clipping to a ring is OK to keep from dangling butnleave it at that for now :)
Often told divers on my boat OK you dont need that you wont need this and this is bad cause of this
Diving should be fun and not a reason to go gear overboard :) simple and minimal is best
Depending on shape you are in freediving is where its at IMHO and worth checking out maybe
Nothing like it being able to dive in the 80-120 foot range and cruise around with no tanks or going down to 30 feet or so for 3 minutes or so is so so so fun
What are your thoughts on split fins for leisure caribbean diving? I purchased some split fins(US Divers) and they seem to work well in the pool, but I don't have much to reference it on.
I had some first gen ScubaPro split fins which absolutely sucked. Atomic Smoke fins are better, but I have gotten away form them. Any time you see some deceptive marketing along the lines of "move faster with less effort" run away. This is total bullshit. Less effort means less propulsion. Lazy divers like them, but that's because they don't require as much effort to kick. They usually require you to kick faster to catch someone with solid fins.
For our Caribbean travels, my wife and I bought Aqualung Full-Foot Express fins (http://www.aqualung.com/us/content/view/312/). These are lightweight, very controllable, and comfortable. You can wear a thin neo-sock with them if you think you might get a blister above your heel, but I never had an issue.
For Ice Diving, I use Cressi Reaction fins because they are wider and allow me to move wearing a a drysuit and over-boots.
All normal condition diving is done with Force Fin Pro's and 5mm boots w/ 3mm sock.
EDIT: By mechanical fins, I mean Omega Flip Fins or Aqualung Slingshot type fins. Anything that adds more possible failure points to ruin your dive or get you killed. Obviously not much of an issue if you only go 30ft. deep in the Caribbean.
I would assume it's better than ending your dive early because you need to take a piss really bad? Your dive partner would probably be pissed that you didn't piss.
I guess ? :)
Piss before hand :) most adults can piss before doing things or hold it ?
Most of my diving was in warm wetsuit climates when I had to piss I would unzip my suit and whip it out !
But that was rare and only on long dives like 4 hours total cause of deco stops etc..
Cold weather we dove in drysuits :) cant piss in those unless you tube up
We would also tell folks when borrowing suits :)
Dont piss in our suits and we wont piss on your clothes !
Again no reason to do this ? Its some stupid left over idiot thing that is still kicking around a bit
like wearing a huge knife on your ankle where it snags is hard to reach and justmgets in the way ?
Maybe I am different cause I taught for so long and dove 6 days a week for a living ?
Like shooting maybe watching some guy who was actually some spec ops guy gear up and watching a guy who has seen to many movies gear up for just going out to a range or shooting spot with some buds since most rec diving is just going out with some buds having fun not gong on some mission ?
I bet some snipers and othernsoldiers pissed their pants on a long mission cause they had no choice but I also bet most would try to whip it out but if I go shooting with my buddies I am not going to piss my pants to try to be cool :)
Those cressi reaction remind me of The mares avanti that I liked for open foot
Nice simple clean design :)
Agree with ya on simple fin designs some fins these days are just stupid !
Mares used to make these long plana avanti full foot
Not as long as my cressi garas but long
Loved those fins !
What are your thoughts on split fins for leisure caribbean diving?
I'm 5'11" 205.
My loadout:
Wing: Oxycheq Mach V Extreme 18lb. Travel wing (integral STA)
Backplate: Oxycheq Travel Plate (Fabric style)
Harness: Oxycheq Hog Harness (basic)
Wetsuit: Bare 1.5mm Full (size L)
Vest: Bare 2mm sport vest (not shown, under suit)
Mask: Atomic Frameless
Fins: Aqualung Express Full-foot
Regs: Zeagle ZX Flathead 7 (Yoke)
Octo: Zeagle Z Octopus (worn on silicon reg necklace)
LP Hoses: XS Scuba MiFlex (These are awesome)
HP Hose: Standard Rubber HP
Computer: Uwatec Aladin 2G Wrist Computer
Compass: Suunto SK7 Wrist mount
Pressure Gauge: HOG SPG 2"
Light: Intova Nova Torch
Weight: 10lbs on belt.
Tank: Aluminum 80
Not sure if I'm missing anything...
You don't need a 30lb. BC for Caribbean diving. Most places give you a huge BC and a shit-ton of weight; just more mass you have to move through the water.
My 18lb. wing is so small you can't see it on my back, even fully inflated.
I guess ? :)
Piss before hand :) most adults can piss before doing things or hold it ?
Most of my diving was in warm wetsuit climates when I had to piss I would unzip my suit and whip it out !
But that was rare and only on long dives like 4 hours total cause of deco stops etc..
Cold weather we dove in drysuits :) cant piss in those unless you tube up
We would also tell folks when borrowing suits :)
Dont piss in our suits and we wont piss on your clothes !
Again no reason to do this ? Its some stupid left over idiot thing that is still kicking around a bit
like wearing a huge knife on your ankle where it snags is hard to reach and justmgets in the way ?
Maybe I am different cause I taught for so long and dove 6 days a week for a living ?
Like shooting maybe watching some guy who was actually some spec ops guy gear up and watching a guy who has seen to many movies gear up for just going out to a range or shooting spot with some buds since most rec diving is just going out with some buds having fun not gong on some mission ?
I bet some snipers and othernsoldiers pissed their pants on a long mission cause they had no choice but I also bet most would try to whip it out but if I go shooting with my buddies I am not going to piss my pants to try to be cool :)
I was gonna say something, but I would come across as an asshole, so I'm not. Fine, don't pee your 'suit.
If temps are in 40s I am diving dry :)
Now being in the water on a small boat all day and having to take a dump is more a prediciment to be in :)
Oh you changed your post ?
Not ass hole to say what you think ?
Again if some folks like to piss on themselves ? I guess thats fine if the're into that thing :)
Move with all possible expediency after your OW cert towards DIR methods. Ascent from 20' to surface should be EXTREMELY slow. Horizontal body position isn't a suggestion, it should be the law. Old-school scubapro jets with spring straps are awesome. Apeks regulators are awesome and are easy to rebuild. Diving doubles is way safer than any spare air. Get a DUI drysuit...diving wet is icky. Make sure your drysuit has a "discharge valve". Urinating on yourself is icky, too. Check out VPM and RGBM. Buy extra doubles for longer dive trips. Buy stage bottles and deco bottles. Buy larger truck to fit more dive gear. Buy scooter. Get into caves, become cave junkie. End up 11,000 from air in a cave in FL on a double scooter, triple stage dive with a 5 hour run time. See really really cool stuff. Start exploring new caves and laying line. Move away from FL. Sell all your shit after you get married, since wife thinks you are insane and insurance considers underwater cave expoloration a "high risk behavior" or something like that.
Seriously, though...look into DIR methods. Some folks will give you some grief, but it's simpler, cleaner, safer, and easier. Plus, transitioning to more advanced or technical diving activities will be easier. Diving was like crack to me. I had to give it up to keep from being consumed. Still miss it, though.
Thanks for the advice so far. I did the PADI eLearning so I've done the classroom portion of open water. I got a 97% on the final test because I missed one of the advertising questions from the very last chapter. Apparently it is not up for discussion, it is a scientific FACT that divers have more fun. Regardless, it all pretty much seems like common sense. I would think that the never hold your breath thing would be obvious but I guess enough people don't think about it so they include it?
Anyway, I've already got the dive shop to set me up for Peak Performance Bouyancy, Nav, EAN, and Multilevel either as part of the AOW cert, or as fun dives even if I don't go for my AOW right now.
The idea is that I get this stuff out of the way so that I can do some fun stuff in Costa Rica and Mexico.
Also, is there gonna be a problem with my face armor? Will a mask seal around a beard or do I have to lose the mustache part? I can rock the chops but I'd rather maintain my sexy if at all possible.
I should also mention, I'm in South and Central America through the end of 2013 so if anybody feels the burning desire to hit up Colombia, Costa Rica, or Mexico and can use a place to stay and a dive buddy you're more than welcome.
Get good training. when an emergency happens you won't want to wish you gotten better.
Relax, have a knife ( you won't break fishing line with your hands when you get tangled in it ). Practice not sinking. Like someone said above the pretty stuff is in shallow water.
Don't ever ever ever lay your fins on the roof of your car or truck while you load up. they won't be there two hours later.
Things I've had happen or seen happen with beginners.
Me - got weight belt kicked off at about 50' because I swam too close to the guy in front of me and my suit had compressed which let my belt get loose. You go up pretty fast even if they are trying to grab you.
Me- mouthpiece came off of regulator at about 60'. the first breath I just got a little salt water. So I blew that out really hard and took a nice big breath.... which felt like sucking on a board because nothing happened... no water and no air.. then I grabbed my regulator and realized it wasn't there. I was not used to diving with an octopus and forgot I had it. I was at end on line so I blasted off with no air trying to get to the person in front of me to use their spare regulator. I had stopped swimming during this while they kept going. I made it in time but it was only then that I realized I had mine right next to my hand. I had trained before the octopus was normal. then got re certified quickly to go on vacation and not having any training with it was simply not in my mind to react with.
Friend - couldn't wait to "get to 100'"... he got narcosis or something and had to be escorted back up. I was not on that dive.
Classmate - Have seen a guy just start sinking because he couldn't manually inflate his vest fast enough ( not the push button from tank... just your breath ). so if you found yourself just hanging and unable to swim at least horizontal you can get in trouble.
Many- seen many people almost roast on the surface with wet suit in hot climate waiting for a group to get organized.
Practice with your mask blacked out because that's a strange sensation when you don't expect it.
I don't dive any more and never did much. All that was a long time ago but you can't over train and when something goes wrong you will be very happy you did. It's a lot of fun but you can forget what's going on with your actual safety. When you are under there it's like life is going in slow motion until something goes wrong and then it's like it's in super fast motion and you are still in slow motion... kinda like a dream ( or nightmare depending on whats happening ).
Take your training seriously and do it a lot.
again even as someone who has been a PADI Instructor for over 20 years
PADI = Put Another Dollar In
Naui = Not Another Underwater Instructor
SSI = Salesman Selling Instruction
and the joke list goes on :)
same as dive shops want to over spend your budget and gadget you out to look like a idiot so dont fall into that trap take it slow on gear :)
notice most of the dive instructors in these places are pretty minimalist or wear whats really needed and rig the best ways same as wreck guys cave guys etc..
and I wont wear a wreck rig on mellow reefs :) and vice versa
being into it for a living I can relate to getting into it like Duane said :) thats why I did it younger when I was single and free and nobody could tell me not to spend that amount of money on things and I could fall back on well its what I do for a living :) hahahhaha
wrecks were my thing though once you start do dive places like Micronesia you will be hooked and dump all life as you know it
Will a mask seal around a beard or do I have to lose the mustache part?
Sometime you can just trim right under your nose, like near the center. You really won't even notice it but it gives the mask a little line to seal to. Not like a pencil mustache just a little touch up.
JOIN DAN !!!!!!
http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/
their insurance is a good idea
I have seen a few folks carted off without proper insurance and hearing later it was not cheap for them !!!
When you go into the ocean you become part of the food chain and it's nothing personal.
Sometime you can just trim right under your nose, like near the center. You really won't even notice it but it gives the mask a little line to seal to. Not like a pencil mustache just a little touch up.
ditto this or some guys just push it down and become expert at clearing a tiny bit each breathe out
or put a tiny bit of food grade silicone on the hair :)
or shave the stache and just have a true goat :)
DAN is good. While I don't work 'for' them, I do work in hyperbarics and have to dive with sick people, and often work 'with' them. Having DAN insurance and access is nice.
To that end, it is a good idea to get first aid training and thoroughly understand the relationship between physics and medicine/the body.
My civvy cert is NAUI, my mil is, well, mil, but I haven't really seen much qualitative difference in divers trained by name-your-alfabet-agency.
My civvy cert is NAUI, my mil is, well, mil, but I haven't really seen much qualitative difference in divers trained by name-your-alfabet-agency.
I was trained at the YMCA and I can't recall which set of letters it was. We used a Jeppensen text book. That was maybe late 70's. Many years later I did a refresher for PADI and my wife did the whole course. What we had to do in that YMCA class was waaaay better than the modern classes.
I've lost my certification card. Haven't seen it for years. I was thinking about those little pony bottles for use in getting out of a house/car fire and realized I couldn't get it refilled. Not sure if they could look that up for me or not. I know what my address was when I got that PADI number.
best advice....
dont buy cheap equipment......
and become water confident....
what i mean by that is nothing should scare or distract u in the water.
if i punch you in the face and take your mask and regulator, you should be able to stay calm and work out the problem with intelligence, not panic.
Whiskey_Bravo
02-26-13, 16:41
best advice....
dont buy cheap equipment......
and become water confident....
what i mean by that is nothing should scare or distract u in the water.
if i punch you in the face and take your mask and regulator, you should be able to stay calm and work out the problem with intelligence, not panic.
Once I work out the problem, and am able to breath again we are probably going to have to work out the whole punching me in the face and stealing my shit issue.... :D
We used to call in for cert numbers with PADI NAUI SSI from our boat for folks tht forgot the C card back at the resort :)
So get ahold of them they usually want as much as they can
Instructors name, location your info of course and can issue you a new card :)
For travelers I say make a photocopy of your card and keep it in your bcd pocket incase you loose or misplace forget your card :)
The days of radical training are long gone :)
Stats have shown all of that did not make diving safer :)
My first course was about 1980 and was pretty tough compared with when I decided to become a instructor in 1991 and that was just ten years later
I was trained at the YMCA and I can't recall which set of letters it was. We used a Jeppensen text book. That was maybe late 70's. Many years later I did a refresher for PADI and my wife did the whole course. What we had to do in that YMCA class was waaaay better than the modern classes.
I've lost my certification card. Haven't seen it for years. I was thinking about those little pony bottles for use in getting out of a house/car fire and realized I couldn't get it refilled. Not sure if they could look that up for me or not. I know what my address was when I got that PADI number.
The days of radical training are long gone :)
Stats have shown all of that did not make diving safer :)
My first course was about 1980 and was pretty tough compared with when I decided to become a instructor in 1991 and that was just ten years later
Thanks, I think I remember the instructors name, I'll have to try that.
So do you mean the more robust training back in the 80's did not make it more safe? Or the new reduced training has made it less safe?
I remember my initial class everyone was pretty well squared away on test day. It was real organized and everyone just performed the tasks.... On that recert when others were getting their first cert test... I swear I would have thought some of them had never had a tank on before.
Hahahaahha
Wishful thinking :)
I agree and wish it could be like this but reality is ask any instructor who works full time on boats how many folks they have to save :)
And most often its the so called more advanced over confident ones !
I have had some divers try to act like they are some tech guy and burn through a tank in 30 minutes on a shallow dive flopping around kicking up the bottom the whole time :) hahahaha
I used to love it though when I would get good divers
Also love watching folks setup gear you can tell a lot about a diver from that alone :)
Kinda like watching a guy at the range trying to pull out the magazine and pressing the bolt catch :)
I do wish all divers could stand that test sadly most cant even achieve neutral buoyancy :(
Some cant even kick properly
I do think sadly to many pass folks just to pass them and not worry and say the divemaster will take care of you ! Yikes
A balance of old and new ! I would like to go back to the throw your gear in and put it on in the pool at least !
best advice....
dont buy cheap equipment......
and become water confident....
what i mean by that is nothing should scare or distract u in the water.
if i punch you in the face and take your mask and regulator, you should be able to stay calm and work out the problem with intelligence, not panic.
They say old training was not as safe ?
And newer training was safer ?
And I agree on what you saw !
Lucky I really taught my students well !
Not just enough to pass but enough to be comfortable doing the tasks
Now I take this safety stats with a grain of salt and think either folks are going to be safe divers and learn more on their own or not !
Lucky I think most on this forum would be great divers !
Gear has gotten safer and divemasters and boats are safer and more aware but PADI and NAUI are about making money and getting more folks certified ! Makes you wonder about their angle and stats :)
Just having integrated BCD devices since about 1980s have made diving safer having positive flotation built in and way more reserve style dive tables have helped
Computers bend more folks cause they can push you to the edge IMHO but are also safer cause you are aware of where you are the whole time
Diving is safe more folks got hurt doing the bike down Haleakala then on our boats :) on Maui :) according to some medic guys I knew
Thanks, I think I remember the instructors name, I'll have to try that.
So do you mean the more robust training back in the 80's did not make it more safe? Or the new reduced training has made it less safe?
I remember my initial class everyone was pretty well squared away on test day. It was real organized and everyone just performed the tasks.... On that recert when others were getting their first cert test... I swear I would have thought some of them had never had a tank on before.
So it seems that the DIR stuff is very strict in it's implementation, and seems like it's far more suited to dedicated teams that are always able to dive together. Being on the road it's not a possibility, but I do like some of the structure in terms of the mindset. I will have to investigate further as my skill improves.
I'm also interested in a very minimal setup like posted on the first page. So it's a wing BCD not a jacket correct? I like the low profile. I have enough mass on my own unfortunately right now so the idea of paring down to a minalist setup appeals to me. Is this something more advanced that I should wait to investigate or something that I can start checking out as soon as I'm comfortable with my abilities as an OW and AOW diver? Should I pursue rescue first so I have a more thorough understanding of what can and does go wrong before stepping into a setup with a lower margin for error?
Also any computer suggestions? For a while I plan on just diving the RDP until I feel ready for the more liberal profile of a computer, and certainly once I quit sucking air faster than my bottom time allows. However, since I would like to do Nitrox I'd like to eventually get a good computer that will do both. A couple co-workers have Suunto Vypers and have been pushing me to that. They think I should get on a computer right away, but I'm not so keen. You don't go from a 10/22 to a .338 Lapua, I feel like this might be a similar set of circumstances.
Would getting one of those HEED type bottles be a good idea once I get the basics down and the basic gear purchased? Not so minimal but more air has to always be better no? Although it seems like it would be far easier to bend yourself than buddy breathing with someone else helping keep you calm.
You guys are a wealth of info, I really appreciate it. Now tomorrow I get to find out with German efficiency (instructor is an ex-pay living in Taganga) how this all works outside the theoretical.
Also any computer suggestions? For a while I plan on just diving the RDP until I feel ready for the more liberal profile of a computer, and certainly once I quit sucking air faster than my bottom time allows. However, since I would like to do Nitrox I'd like to eventually get a good computer that will do both. A couple co-workers have Suunto Vypers and have been pushing me to that. They think I should get on a computer right away, but I'm not so keen. You don't go from a 10/22 to a .338 Lapua, I feel like this might be a similar set of circumstances.
I am going to be a heretic here....A dive computer is a great piece of gear, and I suppose every diver should have one. My recommendation is to learn with tables, then get a computer. You will have a better sense of the physics and learning the tables will make your confidence grow. Then, get a computer. Like a lot of this stuff this is my opinion...there's nothing wrong with getting one right off the bat.
I'm also interested in a very minimal setup like posted on the first page. So it's a wing BCD not a jacket correct?
It's actually a wing (http://www.caveadventurers.com/store/wings-oxycheq-wings-c-2_136.html)(air bladder), backplate (Steel (http://www.scubatoys.com/store/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=HOGSSBackPlate), aluminum (http://www.caveadventurers.com/store/hollis-aluminum-backplate-p-902.html), or fabric (http://www.scubatoys.com/store/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=OxyCheqUltraLiteBackPlate)), and a harness. If you are not using a wing with an integrated STA (Single Tank Adapter) (http://www.caveadventurers.com/store/oxycheq-lightweight-single-tank-adaptor-p-372.html) you will need one of those too. Some people use them regardless as they also act as more weight allowing you to carry less lead.
One nice thing about backplates is that a steel plate averages between 5-7lbs. This is weight you can take off your belt (or out of your pouches).
For travel you can change to an aluminum plate (average 2-2.5lbs.) or a fabric plate which weighs in the ounces; great for a carry-on.
Don't go crazy on a harness. Most of the higher end "tech" harnesses (http://www.caveadventurers.com/store/dive-rite-transplate-harness-p-71.html) are a waste of money unless you have pack you gear in through 3 miles of jungle to get to the Cenote. Although SCUBA webbing is rough and hard, when you are under water it doesn't need to be tight. Your wing will almost float the weight off your body just enough to not even notice the harness. Just stick with a standard Hogarthian Harness (http://www.caveadventurers.com/store/oxycheq-hogarthian-harness-system-p-143.html) that you weave yourself. You will also learn how to adjust it to your specific body.
That link to Cave Adventures is one of my fav websites for purchase. They are great for getting advice from and shipping is usually pretty fast. They will also do package deals on the phone and usually beat everyone's prices.
IMHO the jacket style BCD's suck because they are more buoyant, increase drag, cost more, take up too much luggage space, and take forever to dry.
Halcyon is an awesome brand (http://www.halcyon.net/) if you have unlimited funds.
I'm not 100% DIR Nazi, but I agree with most of their methodology and have been moving in that direction.
Once I work out the problem, and am able to breath again we are probably going to have to work out the whole punching me in the face and stealing my shit issue.... :D
you laugh but when you dive buddy kick you in the face youll understand... lol
Whiskey_Bravo
02-27-13, 16:29
you laugh but when you dive buddy kick you in the face youll understand... lol
That actually happened on my very first dive. My wife finned me in the face and almost knocked my mask off. I fortunately didn't panic and straightened it and then cleared it.
Moose-Knuckle
02-27-13, 16:40
A wealth of knowledge here guys, thanks. :cool:
Getting certified is on the list.
I do think with gear past your base stuff try things out a bit and see what you like after a bit more experience and also what you might be doing like if you live in FL near springs your gear is going to be dif than say living in the NW and diving up in cold water vs living working in the Caribbean etc..
even in warm water diving daily I always wore a full suit usually a 3/2 in winter a 5/3 sometimes or 3/2 with vest having a quality wet suit is so much nicer than borrowing something also !!!! being comfortable and warm on a dive is major IMHO ;)
not against any one thing but buying good gear is a expense and everyone has opinions like guns owning a M&P vs a Glock vs Sig is not just only one option kinda thing so I still say dont rush out and buy everything !!!!
fins mask suit ! 1st
2nd is your regs
3rd is your BCD wings or whatever
basically dont be in a hurry as you learn and dive you will discover what you like and have a better idea of what you want to buy !!!
some of my dive instructor buds hate wings and some love them some use certain brand of regs vs others ? again try them out rent them etc..
chances are you might end up with both ? or just love one style
I dont like integrated weight systems as much as a belt or distribution setup like has been mentioned :)
for one some weight on a belt allows you to trim yourself much better than all the weight in one area
getting in and out of certain areas is nice to take off a belt and hand it up etc..
for regs get the best dont skimp they will last for ever if taken care of short of replacing hoses and rebuilding so its a good long term investment and top end regs often breathe so much nicer than cheaper ones !!!!
I used to get custom mouth pieces just the warm in water types which are nice and not the strange long ones I had seen we used to get these nice shorter style ones ? when they are in your mouth daily and in some ways worth it ? but at first you might tend to chew your mouth piece :) remember its just has to sit in your mouth lightly you dont need to lock down on it to stay in :) that is a big thing beginners do is chew the tabs off :)
if you plan on doing diving around home a lot having your own tanks is nice if you plan on doing it on vacation no reason to own tanks
you dont need to pack lead or tanks :)
for night diving I like masks with black silicone sides vs clear which I like for the day ?
I swear by two lens ultra low profile masks and others like one piece glass ? again there is no right or wrong
I do think having two masks on a trip you like and fit is a good idea in case you break one etc..
when I was teaching full time I used what worked and held up to the rigors of daily use while many of us dive instructors can be sponsored none of the instructors I knew got overly bias on certain gear we were sponsored with but we tended to favor things for sure :)
all gear can fail so backup is key of course :) and being able to know you can get it serviced is important but maintaing it will keep failure down to a minimum like rebuilding your regs when needed not after something happens :)
tech diving multi tank stuff should be saved for another thread since its past beginner stuff of course :)
Your eustachian tubes are/can be flexible and when clearing/equalizing the more flexible the easier it is. If you do not dive all the time the eustachian tubes can be stiff and cause problems clearing and equalizing for a few days..... so if you start practicing "softly" clearing a couple of times a day (just a few minutes is all) for a couple of weeks before diving the eustachian tubes will be very flexible and your first couple of days diving will be more comfortable.
Well, pool dives done. Was a lot of fun. It took a few minutes to get a handle on my buoyancy. I was thinking slow and deep, only I was breathing way too deep to maintain position in the water. I was up and down quite a bit. I finally realized that if I took shallower breaths I could maintain my position far easier and had my buoyancy down well before the "buddha" exercise. My friend was having a bit more trouble and was up and down 3 meters at a time before he finally settled down a bit and sort of stabilized.
I'm definitely going to do Advanced right after this, and the instructor agreed that as long as I don't royally screw the pooch tomorrow I shouldn't have any problems. He said I did far better than most of his students so that was nice, although I definitely think I can do a lot better than today. After seeing how easily the instructor was maintaining body position I decided I've gotta do Peak Performance Buoyancy.
I was sucking air way too fast. We started the day at 200, and I was down to just over 50 by the end of all the exercises. I'm sure part of that was free-flowing regulator exercise and the amount I was dicking with my buoyancy at the start, but I was concerned at the end of the day. I think it was in large part due to my breathing at the beginning of class and hopefully tomorrow I will be consuming far less. I should have checked how much air the instructor used by I forgot about it until after we had taken everything off.
I'm excited, this is probably going to get expensive. Next on the list is skydiving, although not in the same day. Although I can get all the scuba gear I need for less than the cost of a new container so I think it'll take a while before I go full bore into jumping out of airplanes too.
One thing I wasn't too keen on was a lack of stability with my BCD. It seemed like, even in a currentless pool, one side of my BCD was more buoyant than the other and I would list to my left. Weights were evenly distributed and I don't think I'm fatter on one side than the other.
Overall even in a pool it was a blast and I'm stoked to hit the water tomorrow.
Your buoyancy will get better :) plus once you are actually diving and down around 30 feet its easier :)
Since most pressure change is in that last 10 feet or so buoyancy is actually tougher so sounds like your doing well :)
Some bcs dont do well with air and often take a few moments to move around inside :)
Biggest thing what ever way your head goes is which way you will go underwater :)
Heavy Metal
02-28-13, 18:38
So I know we've got people here who dive, whether it be in the military in a combat, UXO, or other job, as well as rec divers, and I'm sure some civilian jobs too. I'm heading up to northern Colombia in 2 days and will be getting my PADI OW and possibly my AOW (if the instructor is confident I have mastered all of the skills and am ready for the added risk and knowledge dump) over the next two weeks.
Anybody have any tips for a beginner, or just stories or pictures to share?
I've already determined that we will need a bigger boat.
If you have sinus problems or allergies, get a scrip for Flonase.
There is nothing worse than not being able to clear your ears.
I haven't been into diving for awhile, it sucks being a diver in a land locked state. We mud divers are a tuff bunch.
I've been through several complete outfits and found myself going for stronger and more heavy duty gear. I don't know if any of this gear is outdated today or not but here is some of my favs.
Zeagle Tech BC,
Streamlined, D rings, good balance and love the split saddle strap, really anchors the BC.
Poseidon Cyklon reg,
Strong reliable, easy breathing, cold water performance. I could not out breathe this reg not matter how hard I was working or tried to.
Mask,
I was very hard to fit for a mask and I see their styles have changed since I've been out of the water but the only two that have ever worked for me were Oceanic and Mares.
The best advice I can give is get to the point where you are comfortable in the water. I was not the strongest swimmer but I was very, very comfortable and relaxed in the water. More so than any dive partner I ever had. When you become comfortable you will become more confident and your breathing will improve. Of course your bottom time will depend a great deal on your depth but I went from an average of 30 minutes per tank to one hour and fifteen to an hour and a half per tank.
There has been a lot of good advice here, read it, understand it, and keep an open mind. Continue to learn with each dive. Like driving a car, never violate the rules and you will be a much safer diver. Diving often changes people's lives, enjoy and good luck.
thopkins22
03-01-13, 01:09
My advice is to stay calm and carry something metal that you can bang on your tank to get attention. There are very few RIGHT F-ING NOW type problems under water as long as you have the right knowledge and set yourself up for success in the manner that any reputable NAUI/PADI course will teach you(I prefer NAUI though.)
My dive buddy had some capillaries blow in his nose about at about 80ft. Looked like he was having trouble getting equalized on our way down and I was actually looking at him when it happened. Looked like a shotgun blast hit him inside of his mask. He cleared it, gave me the OK and signaled to go up. We reached the surface a few minutes later, all was fine. He took the rest of the day off and was diving the next day and has for years since.
The point is that you will almost always have time to take a breath(or hold your breath in the event of a serious problem...unless you're going up that is,) and address the problem.
We did start diving with the little noisemakers that you can pop against your tank for attention after that though. It's easy to get focused on the fish/coral/wreck/whatever and not check in on your dive buddy...something to grab his attention is a must in my book.
one thing about taking meds is reverse block !!!!
so if you are blocked up really know what you are getting into cause I have seen some reverse blocks where people come up with a mask full of blood and screaming in agony !!!
if you are sick skip it IMHO
also partial pressures can change some meds :)
for fun making noise underwater tank is good
I used to take my one hand make a open fist and smack the other hand down on it palm open makes a pretty darn loud sound !
our reasons were places like Molokini and popular dive spots to much tank banging :) ahhahh so ya got to make something unique !
for fun learn to blow bubble rings a bit later on very cool get two going and they kinda rotate around each other !
if you are sick skip it IMHO
also partial pressures can change some meds :)
Good gouge. If you can't clear, don't dive. Sinus prob? Don't dive. Afrin is good stuff, just use it by direction (twice a day no more than 3 days). I have been diving civvy and mil since the late-80s and I still use it before almost every dive.
I don't give a shit how sexist this sounds so....
If you are diving with a woman, carry a slate (http://www.divegearexpress.com/tools/slates.shtml#354) with you. This will do two things: provide clear communication when hand signals go to shit and calm her down by focusing on communicating rather than the "problem".
More gear advice:
Rather than bringing an extra mask strap (because silicon tears easily), buy one of these mask straps (http://www.divegearexpress.com/essentials/slapstrap.shtml) which is virtually indestructible. These are also awesome for the ladies since hair doesn't get tangled in these like on the stock silicon mask straps.
SMB (Signal Marker Buoys) and Lift Bags:
SMB's are awesome safety devices. They can be seen from long distances, act as a lift bag, and act as another means of flotation should your BC rupture. I take an 8ft. SMB (http://www.piranhadivemfg.com/item/8-Foot-High-Viz-Orange-SMB-Ocean-Model--2344) with me when ever I go into the ocean.
Lift Bags (http://www.piranhadivemfg.com/item/70Lb-Liftbag-wFlapper-valve-270)are also great. I use these for all freshwater diving. They also act like a signal, they can also be used as a secondary flotation device if your BC fails, but they can also lift treasure (or trash) off the bottom.
With either, you need a good quality finger spool and line (http://www.piranhadivemfg.com/category/Spools--Accessories-62), attached to your gear with a double-ender snaplink (http://www.piranhadivemfg.com/item/35-Stainless-Steel-Double-Ender-50).
One rule of thumb, whatever size spool you buy, strip off 20'. This will keep a tangled mess from happening when the wet line stretches. There are tons of youtube vids showing how to set up a SMB/Reel and also how to stow, attach, and deploy them.
Others have mentioned a spare mask. When I go into the ocean, limited vis (also night dives), and with diver's I don't know I always carry a spare mask. I carry one that fits both me and my wife.
I carry it in a Dive Rite Thigh Pocket (http://www.caveadventurers.com/store/dive-rite-thigh-pocket-with-daisy-chain-p-437.html). A mask and a slate fit perfectly an this pocket doesn't shift thanks to the rubberized ribs on the elastic. You can also research "Tech Shorts" which are neoprene shorts with cargo pockets that slide over your wetsuit. XS Scuba makes a nice pair. Or you can buy a pocket to glue on to your current wetsuit (very popular option due to no straps or hardware).
As far as computers go, I started with an air-integrated computer. These attache via HP hose to your first stage. The problem is that if it goes tits-up, you cannot trust any of the info it's giving you especially your remaining air. I never had a problem with my Aeris Atmos AI, but I ditched it before I did.
I've gone to a mechanical SPG (http://www.divegearexpress.com/regulators/spgsonly.shtml) and a wrist computer. I have both the Aeris Epic (http://www.diveaeris.com/epic/) and a Uwatec Aladin 2G (http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/CategoryID_1985/Context_954/Sort_Relevance/DescSort_0/Filter_brand%3dUwatec/Page_1/UTCA2GW.html). The Epic is nice because it's the size of a normal digital watch but I have flooded it. The seal cap is not as robust as I think it should be; it's hard to tell if you sealed it back up properly. The Uwatec Aladin is awesome. It's bulky-er but easier to read underwater and I also like the setup better.
Keep in mind:
- Wireless tank transmitters are a waste of money and require another battery.
- If you are going on a trip, take a spare battery for your computer. You wont find a battery on any Caribbean island.
- Tether your wrist computer via a secondary method besides the typical strap buckle it comes with. These can come loose. I prefer to use 1/8" shock cord. If your buckle comes loose, the shock cord keeps it from falling into the abyss.
Here's mine:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o309/laninga66/HMdivecam547a.jpg
- Some companies make a tech-style bungee cord mount (https://www.deepseasupply.com/index.php?product=1346) for specific computers and compasses. These are much smarter than the stock straps. You custom fit your own size with bungee cord secured by overhand knots. Even if one size somehow managed to be severed, your expensive computer is still held on by another bungee cord.
The wife and her Zoop:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o309/laninga66/HMdivecam71a.jpg
My Suunto Compass mount:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o309/laninga66/HMdivecam308a.jpg
*If you are diving in saltwater, do not use hose covers or hose "strain relief" gizmos (http://www.piranhadivemfg.com/item/Hose-Strain-Relief---Black-2943). These cover your fittings retaining the corrosive salt water, making it harder to visually inspect your gear. These are a bad idea no matter how you look at it. If you are worried about hose issues, get a Miflex hose (http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=XSSLPH&Sort=Relevance&DescSort=0&Filter=brand=XS%20Scuba&Page=1&Term=Hose&Hit=1) (for LP only, Miflex HP hoses have had a high failure rate).
If you carry an inflatable dive flag, get a BC Air Nozzle connecter (http://www.piranhadivemfg.com/item/BC-Air-Nozzle---Standard-Bc-Connector-Tip-1911). These will save your lungs.
If your BC has two cam buckle straps, do yourself a favor and make sure at least one of the cam buckles is stainless steel (http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=BrandItemDisplay&BrandName=Dive%20Rite&ProductID=DIV2035&Sort=Price&DescSort=0&Page=1). I don't travel without two SS cam buckle straps. You can get away with one, but you can save the day when someone cracks their shitty plastic buckle (http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/AQUTBS.html?&&).
Wear your Octo on a regulator necklace (http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=XSSSRN&Page=1&Term=regulator%20necklace&Hit=1). These are awesome because you can get to your safe-second
without using your hands. You can roll or invert to get the the mouth piece in. Get the smaller one so your reg is right under your chin.
Relax your jaw and dive in comfort with a custom-fitted mouthpiece (http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=AQUSHF&Page=1&Term=mouthpiece&Hit=1). These mold in boiling water just like the ones you used playing football.
Don't be a Dutch Bastard: Tip your dive leaders, they don't get paid well otherwise.
the pay thing is correct :)
I made $75 a day base and tips and that was considered high pay :)
when I worked on Lanai though I made $120 base and tips which was great :)
but I also had my money from photography and previous business so life was pretty good as a dive guy for me :)
I can say after teaching thousands of folks woman are easier to teach cause they listen better and don't have this I know whats going on attitude ! and of those that freaked out underwater on intro or OW classes I don't think I ever had a girl freak out but had lots of guys freak out !!!!!
woman might have a issue but they usually surface and ask how to solve it
I do like slates ! actually what I used to love was this cool multi page thing I got from a Japanese guy one time who said they were common over their as a thanks for the class
I could have pre made out things to say on dif pages ! and packed super small
one other cool tip you can do if you get your breathing under control is put your regulator up to the other persons head and then talk but try to do it without breathing out the bone transfer method :) you will hear them talk but if to many bubbles come out hard to understand !
or learn sign language
kinda do one word at a time ! its pretty cool when you can pull it off
or dive with some kinda full face and coms !!! that is fun
also scooters are fun to have on a dive
First 2 dives done, I hope people are enjoying this thread at least a little bit.
Thanks for the gear recommendations Dave L. First on the list is mask (with slapstrap for sure) and fins and booties and a wrist slate. I figure I can easily travel with those as they're all small and/or flat.
I think I'm going to end up getting the Suunto Vyper since a couple co-workers have the same and they can help with any learning curve. I had also considered the Mares Matrix but the instructor recommended the Suunto as well, but that'll be a few dives down the road in any case.
Those shorts look like a great idea and I think I'd like carrying an SMB and reel in one of those rather than on my BCD. I'm finding a BCD kind of annoying as is, I don't want it any bulkier than it already is. Any thoughts on using a snap shackle as opposed to a double-ended clip for stuff like the reel and SMB? I know it's an entirely different environment, but coming from working at heights, I've seen those clips fail in the dumbest of ways, and having a rigging drawer full of Wichard rigging gear, I feel like a small snap shackle would be more secure (I don't want to lose anything, ever) and of course dummy-corded until used. My friends have a Halcyon but I really can't see spending $300 on an SMB when the one you linked seems to be very similar.
Going further with the bungee cord stuff, has anyone tried sewing one of the plastic bungee panels into a top of hand mount like for underwater lights or the LBT GPS hand mount (http://lbtinc.com/pouches/gps-pouches/gps-palm-pouch-2687.html)? Maybe a skydiving altimeter strap is a better descriptor? It seems like it might be easier to use than the grab the elbow thing. I only ask because a friend of mine kept screwing up her nav stuff because she couldn't keep the lubber line correctly oriented because of the way her arms naturally position with the technique they taught. Regardless it's down the line a little bit.
The shop is run by a bunch of Bavarian dive hippes and some locals and they keep hinting that beers would be the best tip so I figure tomorrow I'm gonna show up with a case of Aguilas instead of cash.
Now that my gear thoughts are out there for you to correct me, onto the 2 dives!
First dive was entry into water without gear. BCD and weight belt went on in the water, pretty easy stuff, especially with the added buoyancy of the salt water. It took me by surprise a little bit. One thing that was far more enjoyable was that I was damn near neutrally buoyant at 9m with zero air in my BCD. Doing the fin tip exercise required nothing added to my BCD. Visibility was 8ish meters. Not great but easy to see my buddy and the instructor. We did the usual regulator/snorkel swap, buddy breathe exercise, basically all the stuff we did in the pool the day before only in salt water and most of it was at the bottom. Got in the water at about 175, up and safety stop at 50 with about 45 minutes in the water.
Surface interval'd on the beach, had a sandwich, enjoyed the break. Had about an hour total surface interval, with what we were doing there was no way we were running out of bottom time on either of the dives.
Second was very much of the same, more exercises, more work personally on trying to maintain my buoyancy. Both safety stops I had a little more difficulty maintaining position than I did yesterday in the pool. I royally blew the ascent from the safety stop. I completely forgot about 18m per minute and just swam on up. As soon as I broke the surface I was kicking myself in the ass, I definitely should have remembered but by then my mask was completely fogged and really starting to leak and I just spaced. Not good at all. I think if I had my own, better-fitting mask I would have had more fun. I was clearing my mask pretty regularly on both dives and it was definitely a distraction. Bottom time was around 40 minutes. We started dive 2 with me pushing my dive buddy in the tired dive exercise so when we first started I was sucking a little more air than the previous dive. I figure that contributed. The instructor was very happy though, he figured I'd get about half an hour out of the tank, "you have big lungs, you surprised me." Of course my dive buddy was a trapeze artist and generally in fantastic shape and she ended up with about 60 bar left so I wasn't too disappointed with my air consumption. It can only get better from here.
Overall, aside from the screw up on the ascent from the safety stop, I'm very happy with how I did. It was a ton of fun, got to see a stonefish, a couple jellyfish, some morays, and various others. A BIG ASS puffer fish (like 18" long). Stupid puffy fish, never do anything cool. And it's not like you can poke them and make them do something......dickheads.
I would not go over gear crazy at first :)
And not get to much clutter on you :)
Unless you are doing penetration dives in wrecks or unmarked caves that need specialized gear keep it simple :)
As far as nav goes many also tend to drift to the opposite side of their strong leg !
Having done some pretty intense wreck stuff in micronesia and places where they are true wrecks full of dangers less things to snag the better and compas nav work even diving in ultra low viz cold water thats something that can be done better later :)
I dont like the one arm out squared off if that is what they were doing ? Prefer the more triangle your arms in front close in tight thing or using a nav board if you want to be super accurate :)
Not saying dont learn basics but its like shooting one thing at a time :)
As far as lights you can look into what wreck divers and cave divers use lots of great options and setups but just to bring back color and do some night stuff in the future which are awesome fun as you should do in the adv class ! Quality good light not overkill :)
Most of all sounds like you are having fun and that is what counts :)
Moose-Knuckle
03-01-13, 15:55
. . . I hope people are enjoying this thread at least a little bit.
Hell yes I'm enjoying it as it is a metric ton of solid info. SCUBA is somthing that I really would like to get into (time/money pending).
I would not go over gear crazy at first :)
And not get to much clutter on you :)
That's what I'm trying to avoid. I noticed the instructors SMB pouch was just clipped off and hanging, it seemed inefficient, not to mention a drag hazard to coral. He was skilled enough to keep it from banging into stuff, but I know I'm not there yet, and want to avoid it at all costs. I would think putting it and a reel in a pair of those shorts would be great, and definitely keep my BCD from getting even bulkier. He mentioned that one-way boat dives it was super important to always throw up your sausage so I figure I should look into getting my own eventually.
I'm doing the nitrox so at some point I will need a computer. Although I'm going to go as long without one as I can.
After the second dive being super annoyed with my mask, I will definitely be purchasing my own. My desire for booties is that it bugs me knowing someone's nasty fungus feet may have been in them right before me. It's already a pain in the ass enough trying to keep from getting athlete's foot from work, the last think I want is some bacterial breeding ground chilling on my feet any more than I have to.
I figure everything else I can easily rent. I don't want to be the asshole that looks like the diver version of the internet commando, but I don't want to forego any safety gear unless it really is unnecessary, and the instructor seemed to think an SMB was very necessary, at least here in Taganga. The shorts would just be a way to carry it and a reel off my BCD.
Honestly if I could dive without a BCD I think I would do it.
Some smb that are small and compact would be a good idea depending where you are and what boats you are on and one of those cheap things that could be handy
Especially some boats that are lower that might not have as good site line like we used in the caribbean
Kinda like insurance to be picked up :)
If you dive warm water foot pocket fins are way more comfy to use than booty style IMHO
When you look at masks sure you heard put it up to your face and lightly breathe in see if it holds a seal
Often to tight a mask makes it leak more than to loose ! Again light pressure just enough to hold it next to your face water pressure does the rest :)
Get as many dives as ya can in and try some wings and other setups though before buying
Anyone taking pics ?
Also as someone who taught for 15 years instructors also tend to have their own setup ideas and they can get beat up pretty quick and we tend to get kinda used to whatever in the water since its a daily thing
Finding a good tech instructor and taking a course in that will also expose you to some other thoughts and ideas
Since I was a wreck guy more than a cave guy I always said to my students try to learn something from me then another person for a dif way of looking at things
i would like to take a shooting course from both LV and Chris Costa
So I could learn tips from both of them :)
Same thing with dive guys :)
I learned cave/wreck stuff from Harry Averill back in the day who was one of the pioneer dive guys for caving
Took my instructor from Alex brylske himself :) so also trying to find good instructors is worth it
Been lucky enough to teach quite a few folks myself about the coolest guy was Gene Hackman for the movie "The Firm"
Henry Winkler back in the day and got to laugh he was a great guy and when we did the hand signals for up and down he had the thumbs up nailed :) hahahah
On the clip thing with the smb might look strange but can see it being good
Most of my stuff was clipped on properly and it works :) easy on easy off easy to share etc...
No lanyards no cords just clips and rings :)
I think I'm going to end up getting the Suunto Vyper since a couple co-workers have the same and they can help with any learning curve.
Anything Suunto is solid kit. You can't go wrong with a Vyper and your buddies will be able to teach you how to you use it.
Those shorts look like a great idea and I think I'd like carrying an SMB and reel in one of those rather than on my BCD. I'm finding a BCD kind of annoying as is, I don't want it any bulkier than it already is. Any thoughts on using a snap shackle as opposed to a double-ended clip for stuff like the reel and SMB?
The only real limitations to a snap shackle are cost and using it with a 5-7mm glove. Really, all the cave divers/DIR types all recommended the standard snap links; they are simple, cheap, and all springs eventually rust. No reason to spend funds on a snap shackle to carry an SMB and reel. Also, as far as carrying the SMB on just a snap link, I do this all the time. There's no problem with it. I usually clip it to a D-ring I have on my weight belt directly at 6 o'clock, so it rides right under the tank and NEVER even has a chance to snag on anything.
Going further with the bungee cord stuff, has anyone tried sewing one of the plastic bungee panels into a top of hand mount like for underwater lights...
I bought a "light sock (http://www.scubatoys.com/store/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=OxyCheqRaiderLightSock)" for my light. It's basically a glove that mounts to your palm and holds the light in top back of your hand. These are especially nice because you maintain the ability to use both hands during the dive. I only use this when going on a night dive.
On SMB's. There's no reason to spend $100's dollars on one. The Piranha ones work just fine. You want to spend $100's on a device, buy a beacon.
There is literally a big difference between what people refer to as a "safety sausage" or signal tube (http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/AQUSMDS.html?&&) and a DSMB. The SS provides no real lift ability and is purely intended for current dives in calm seas. Most are only 3-4' tall and only 2-3" in diameter. People use these to have the boat locate them easily.
Don't waste money on a SS when you can spend the money on a DSMB that is only slightly larger but adds much more uses.
One note on color. You will notice most DSMB's come in Orange and Neon Yellow. Apparently some international locations recognize the Neon Yellow as an emergency signal to those on the surface. I could only really see this being an issue on a decompression dive where things are very high risk. So, just stick with orange unless you plan to carry two. Yes, I realize some people sell them with a yellow and orange side; again, pure yellow is the "help me I'm phuked" signal.
Some of the newer SMB's are coming with glint tape or reflective tape; same stuff on all your running shoes and clothing. This is a nice feature. There are also some out there with metallic fabric to be radar reflective but I'm not sure how well the would work.
One thing to look for in an SMB is a D-Ring or some sort of attachment on top. You can connect a strobe (also a good product to carry into the ocean) or a chem-light. A green chem-light can be seen at night through NOD's a long way off and they don't need batteries (also a good thing to carry into the ocean). It's a big advantage to have your night time signal device 8' above the water especially in a choppy sea.
With my 8' ocean model from Piranha, I removed the bottom plastic clip and put a stainless steel quick link (http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=DIV1014&Sort=Price&DescSort=0&Page=1&Term=stainless%20steel&Hit=1)in it's place. I attach my line to that metal link using a girth hitch secured by a double over-hand. Make sure the loop is big enough to slide the whole SMB through for easy separation if needed.
Also attached to the metal link is a waterproof signal mirror (keep a whistle attached to a shoulder strap D-ring).
Reels and line: Get it from Piranha, excellent prices. I usually get yellow or orange line. Reason is, so other dumbass divers don't swim into it and it's easier to see when you are narced ;)
Keep 'em coming man. This is getting me stoked to go diving this year.
*I wish I was home I could get you guys better pics of stuff.
I have to admit I am intrigued by all of the gear stuff. I am pretty minimalist, but I like that and it works for me.
I have to admit I am intrigued by all of the gear stuff. I am pretty minimalist, but I like that and it works for me.
coming at it from the instructor angle I look at guns in comparison :)
when I see pics of a LV class it seems he is pretty basic simple some of his students are pretty decked out compared to him
seems maybe over time you really have a chance to know what works for you and realize extra is often just that and gets in the way
I somehow think both guns diving climbing anything these days is over hyped with gear to some point
and the sales and sponsors and such know how to market more gear to seem to make it better safer and such ? to a point it is but also to a point its selling the stuff IMHO at least
often on dives at more closed locations like Molokini crater or Cathedrals etc.. I dove the main spots 5-6 days a week for years so know every rock and creature and even had some fish I named cause I saw them all the time :)
but I would get folks loading up with all this stuff and it was kinda like OK you wont need this or that and take those gloves off and leave that here to
and often that is what most folks do is dive on vacation with guides of some kind ?
now if you are off exploring your own and doing caves etc.. that is a whole other thing and support is critical but even some I think over gear for that and sometimes I do think that gear makes them one of two things
over confident or encumbered
having 10 dives vs 100 vs 1000 vs 10,000 after about 1000 dives things kinda flatten out with skills and learning but its amazing how much you learn up to that point and get better and often you are in enough situations you learn what is needed and how to use it
reminds me of Band of Brothers when they talked about that jump bag and how most lost their guns and such and the next jumps you saw them taking their rifles out out and what was needed by the old guys saying Ok do this do that leave that you wont need it etc....
Well, I'm certified! Couldn't help myself so I'm doing a night dive tonight to start on Advanced!
I'll have a full report later, but some of the more educational points, orally inflating my BCD made a world of difference in my ability to fine tune my buoyancy. Seriously, night and day how much faster it was to get neutral. Bottom time has been 43 on the short end, 47 on the long end for all my dives. The instructor was very happy considering I had never dived before and I have pretty big lungs. As much as people say that navigation is difficult and it's night and day different, I actually found it remarkably easy. After 100 kick cycles I made it back with 5 feet of the instructor. Having the ability to navigate on land was a huge help. My buddy did 20 kick cycles and ended up 40 feet away. The instructor didn't teach the squared arm technique, more the center of your body that Honu mentioned in an earlier post. It's not rocket surgery, you just have to pay attention to the orientation between the compass and your body. It was easy to correct course headings, and I'm looking forward to the actual nav class.
More later after my night dive. Also, grouper get ****ING HUGE!!!!
CONGRATS !!!!
and post back about the night dive !! I love night diving something so cool about being so focused on what you are seeing and sometimes you feel like you are really exploring a new world out in the dark of space when doing so :)
chances are again if you are here on this forum your nav skills might be a bit more up than some folks ? general observation of course :)
glad he taught the more centered approach :)
wait till you get the rare chance to have a humpack whale come up to you those are HUGE !!!!
Alright, post-cert & night dive AAR time!!!!
So, final 2 dives to finish the cert were pretty standard. I was really trying to concentrate on my buoyancy and I did pretty well. My SAC rate was pretty much in line with how it's been so I was pleased. Generally the skills were all pretty easy. Nailed the buddha at 12m because of the orally inflated BCD I mentioned earlier. Wore a 5mm suit for both dives today as I got a couple chills the other day. BIG MISTAKE. Had to add more weight and the extra thickness was far more limiting than the 3mm I had worn the day before. I was concerned as the book mentioned being cold, but I realized as I was fighting the wetsuit that it wasn't really enough that I had to swap suits.
Safety stop was far better both dives than prior. Started ascent by dumping my BCD with the overflow valve and I think that probably helped prevent a more runaway ascent. It's a little disconcerting sticking around for 3 minutes surrounded by jellyfish however.
That was about it, pretty standard last 2 dives. Saw lots of fish, morays, lionfish and stonefish, etc.
One thing I neglected to mention before, and something I hadn't considered until it made my life a pain, snorkels with crappy purge valves suck balls, specifically salt watery balls right into your lungs when you're doing the surface swim. Boat pitched us off and we had to swim to shore. Halfway I had to stop and tread water while I recovered as the purge valve purged the wrong way and I sucked salt water big time. No harm no foul, but if you're gonna use a snorkel, don't use a crappy one.
More gear talk then onto the rest. I was supposed to dive with a computer for the night dive. I did not. The other two divers had done two deep dives earlier in the day and had computers, the instructor did as well. Despite the course calling for it, because I had done only Open Water, a course in which a computer was not provided, we made the decision that, due to the other divers already under more nitrogen load than myself, and of course diving off the most conservative computer, whomever that might be, I was well within safety margins as far as executing the dive sans computer. Considering that my lack of computer during the first two dives of the day (albeit with an 8 hour surface interval in between last OW and the night) any computer I would wear would have incorrect deco limits anyway as it was not used for the first two dives. Ultimately it was my decision to ok the dive as far as I was personally concerned, I weighed the risks and felt they were well within reason so I went ahead, despite the small deviation from the course requirement. No more gear talk, aside from the torch nothing else changed.
By far the best experience so far has been the night dive. They needed one more person to fill the minimum to do a night dive and since I'm doing advanced right away, it worked out that I could do the night dive as my first. They tell you it's stressful, but I really didn't have any trouble with anxiety. I figure if I'm gonna get eaten by something big and hungry it's probably best not to see it as it bites me in half so I just went with it.
First thing was adjusting to paying attention to your buoyancy. Personally I think the night dive helped me as I was able to focus on my buoyancy and my torch and that was it. I was able to divide my attention to both well enough that I could easily control my body position and still see stuff. I'm not sure the other buddy pair was as focused on this as I was as the one younger kid was all over the place, and while I tried to maintain my position about 1m up and 1m right of the guide, I was constantly fighting not to kick the kid in the face. I maintained my position relative to the instructor but on more than one occasion I felt my fin hit something of his, and several times he'd either ascend right into my legs or descend on top of me. It was frustrating but fortunately didn't distract from the dive in any big way.
Wildlife at night is a whole other deal. Saw a lobster darting about, would have liked to have caught it, it looked delicious. Saw quite a few other little critters, shrimp, tiny fish, etc. The instructor snuck up behind a sleeping puffer fish and hit his tank banger and the fish got all puffy so that was fun to see. I doubt it's anyway in line with PADI guidelines but it was entertaining nonetheless. One of the highlights was playing with an octopus, or rather, it playing with us. Instructor spotted it and pointed with his light. The two guys who were off behind were jockeying for position to see so I stuck my finger out to point. Well, the octopus grabbed right on and played around for a bit before hopping onto a piece of coral and changing color to camouflage itself.
There are also some pretty stupid fish. I don't remember the name but it was swimming away and I happened to turn my light on it. It turned directly to face me, only instead of darting away, it apparently blinded itself as it ran straight into my face no less than three times before I managed to move my head. There's no telling how many times it would have played battering ram with my mask had I not moved. Interesting experience to say the least.
Another cool visual was watching how one of the eels hunts. The thing was buried in the sand with nothing but it's head poking out. The instructor pointed it out and at first it was hard to tell what it was, from where I was at it just looked like a shell, until he poked the sand about 2 feet back and a meter and a half long eel shot out of the sand and swam up the face of the coral and out of sight. It really was pretty amazing to see how different species interact on the bottom.
The only exercise we did was an out and back night navigation. Again I did very well and it was pretty easy and took all of about a minute.
I'm saving the best for last because it's still sort of hard for me to put into words. I can describe what I saw, but it doesn't really capture the feeling of what was going on and what it was like to be in the middle of it.
We kneeled down on the bottom at about 9m. We turned off our flashlights, at this point I figured the instructor was going to mess with us a bit, but au contraire mon frere! He started waving his hands then got us to join in. What we saw was like visual sex beamed right into your eyeballs. MILLIONS of bioluminescent plankton were EVERYWHERE, all around us, sparkling in and out with blue light. It was like being in a starfield, except they were moving and swirling about all around us. At one point we all just sort of paused our breathing and it was absolutely dead quiet with nothing but blue stars everywhere you could see.
This is as close a representation as I could find online, but down at 9m it isn't a wave, it's literally surrounding you. It really is breathtaking, and if I could have laid down on the bottom and not had to wave my arms to see it I would have spent the entire time just laying there watching it.
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/501/overrides/glowing-waves-bioluminescent-ocean-life-explained-close-up_50149_600x450.jpg
After that we were out of bottom time and had to ascend. Again I was far more in control of my buoyancy during the night dive, I think again because I was so focused on it without any distractions.
Here's a picture right before our ascent on our final OW dive. My coworker is doing what she's supposed to, I however, am clearly having more fun.
http://i.imgur.com/pWkqEUd.jpg
And last, it seems one critter migrated south from the Jersey Shore. I swear I heard it yelling "COME AT ME BRO!!!!"
http://i.imgur.com/IDdTTJY.jpg
The thing you said about your crappie snorkel....
Remember my first post.....
"don't buy cheap gear".........
Tried to warn you. Lol...
sounds like you are having fun :)
bio luminescence life is fun :) we had a time off the tip of black rock actually totally mellow popular spot on Maui we did a lot of beach entry night dives at
anyway we go out have all the divers turn off their light and watch the glow and wave our arms around etc.. then about 70 feet off toward the deep a HUGE glow goes past us I was kinda like OK that was big got out of the water and they were all asking what was that thing ?
shark :) hahahaha turns out about a 12 foot tiger shark was cruising as some other group saw it pass them that night close enough they got a good look at it !
one thing I say about diving though you are this big bubble blowing cyclops thing making all kinds of awkward movements and noise
as I say imagine if you saw this thing flopping toward you on a trail even if it was smaller than you with some contraptions on spewing water and making strange noises ! chances are you would stay clear and just kinda watch it !
when I was working on a cattle boat and we would take out 24 divers we would tag them with two color glow sticks to mark our divers over the others
and then we would watch all the chaos from a distance :) hahahah was funny
this was when I was in FL for a short while working on the wrecks off Ft Lauderdale
one of those have to be their kinda things :)
And last, it seems one critter migrated south from the Jersey Shore. I swear I heard it yelling "COME AT ME BRO!!!!"
You probably did. See Nitrogen Narcosis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_narcosis).
The thing you said about your crappie snorkel....
Remember my first post.....
"don't buy cheap gear".........
Tried to warn you. Lol...
I didn't. It's all the dive shops rental gear.
I don't buy cheap shit. I may buy inexpensive shit from time to time, but it is never "cheap"
You probably did. See Nitrogen Narcosis.
I'm gonna get to learn all about nitrogen narcosis. I do Deep and Nitrox this week as well. I suck at math on land, I'm sure trying to do math at 30m is gonna be so much fun.
On a not so fun note, I came up here with 2 other coworkers to do the OW cert. One in the picture above was my buddy throughout the OW dives, she did fine, and is now certified. The other, her unfortunate boyfriend, got sick the first day and didn't even make the boat. Where it gets really sucky is that he came back the second day, ended up diving with a different instructor to make up the first two, and perforated his ear drum. He had been having trouble with equalizing all throughout even the pool, but didn't want to look like a pussy in front of his gf. Second dive of the day he couldn't sort out his buoyancy at all and was refusing to let the instructor intervene. He should have called the dive, he didn't, so now not only is he not certified, he spent the night in a Colombian hospital, he's out of work for a week, and he potentially may never dive again, depending on the severity. It's far easier to abort one dive and come back to finish, than hurt yourself and maybe never have the opportunity again.
in all my dives only been narced once ?
was kinda like being on nitrous at the dentist office ?
we were up all night at a party and had to work the next day and it was a deep wreck dive over 100 feet and I knew what was going on so just tried to enjoy it :) but went away pretty quick also was early on in my diving not sure if that had anything to do with it or not ?
funny as some people get narced all the time
and I have only had it once even at 200 on air (not smart) never got narced again
ditto the ear thing
funny story
one of the other dive guys when we were getting our instructor rating was this Brazilian guy he was hilarious and had this super thick accent of course and good but not great English
anyway he hurt his ear and he showed up after doc visit to the hangout and points to his ear says in his broken thick accent
Doctor say not so good I have rupture ear drum !
ahhhhh its OK I dive tomorrow !
dude finished out his instructor glass with a ruptured ear drum !!!!!
healed OK and he kept diving
thopkins22
03-03-13, 14:32
I'm gonna get to learn all about nitrogen narcosis. I do Deep and Nitrox this week as well. I suck at math on land, I'm sure trying to do math at 30m is gonna be so much fun.
I think this is one of the differences of PADI vs. NAUI. I almost completed a PADI course when I was getting started and had to move, and then got certified via NAUI.
In the PADI course, I found that they were much more focused on how to do something as opposed to the why. Nitrogen narcosis was covered in depth in my basic NAUI, whereas it was only briefly mentioned in PADI.
Things like buoyancy control were very different as well. In PADI the course was focused on how to achieve neutral buoyancy, in NAUI it included a couple of hours on Boyle's Law and the Archimedes principle.
I also found that as I progressed in my own training and in talking to other divers that the organization mattered less than the instructor him or herself.
This isn't meant to knock PADI and promote NAUI, they both seem to get divers to a place of competence and safety, but they do seem to go about it in slightly different ways.
I think this is one of the differences of PADI vs. NAUI. I almost completed a PADI course when I was getting started and had to move, and then got certified via NAUI.
In the PADI course, I found that they were much more focused on how to do something as opposed to the why. Nitrogen narcosis was covered in depth in my basic NAUI, whereas it was only briefly mentioned in PADI.
Things like buoyancy control were very different as well. In PADI the course was focused on how to achieve neutral buoyancy, in NAUI it included a couple of hours on Boyle's Law and the Archimedes principle.
I also found that as I progressed in my own training and in talking to other divers that the organization mattered less than the instructor him or herself.
This isn't meant to knock PADI and promote NAUI, they both seem to get divers to a place of competence and safety, but they do seem to go about it in slightly different ways.
I was certified in PADI, and we covered these items in depth (no pun intended). I am certified in OW, Advanced OW, Deep and Rescue Diver. The more I progressed the more work it became and less enjoyable so I dropped my ambition to become a Dive Master and Instructor and went back to the enjoyable side of things.
With that said, it was a totally different world when I was certified. Today and for the last decade or two they are pushing the weekend certifications. When I was first certified our manual was, if I remember correctly, six chapters long. We had a class once a week that covered each chapter. Each class was two hours of class room work and two hours of pool work. When I compare this training to the training several of my later dive buddies did years later, well, there is no comparison. I was so much better trained than the weekenders that there really is no comparison. I realize they are making the cert classes easier and faster to draw more people in but the level of training sucks compared to my class, and IMO the safety level is diminished as well.
On a side note, I was such a "natural" at it that the instructors took me on my first OW dive (which was also a night dive) after only three classes or half way through our training. I will not divulge any names as they said it could cost them their permits if this was discovered. I'm not sure it would matter at this point though as I think they have since retired.
My point of this is, I feel safety and a higher level of training have been sacrificied to pump up the volume of divers. It has, in a sense, become commericalized.
My old shop used to really push these new divers to hook up with us experienced divers for them to pick up their skill levels before striking out on their own, so to speak.
I'd like to here what you guys think of this based on your own personnel experiences. Is this better, worse or what? Are my conclusions accurate or off base?
I'm gonna get to learn all about nitrogen narcosis. I do Deep and Nitrox this week as well. I suck at math on land, I'm sure trying to do math at 30m is gonna be so much fun.
I have narced a couple times, both in a chamber. Easy to fix, fun to experience...there, in a chamber. Not so much in the briny depth. Learn solid math skills so you can do them at depth should something go bad...
Diving is a combination of situational awareness, physics in action, and being ahead of the curve. Not hard to master with experience.
Lion fish ceviche was on the menu tonight. Apparently if there are no afternoon dives a couple of the instructors go lion fish hunting as they are an invasive species around here. It was delicious and does a little bit to help the local ecosystem. Normally I have an aversion to scuba spearfishing, I feel like it's sort of cheating, but I don't mind this.
Anyway, I've been invited along later this week to join so we'll see how that goes after my Deep, Nav, EANx, and Peak Performance Buoyancy.
After that I'll do MultiLevel, but I'll still have time after so I'm not quite sure what else I want to do development wise, so I may just do a couple fun dives. Not sure what else they offer but I figure until I go for Rescue Diver later on after a couple hundred dives, I'll just do random cool stuff.
In the evolution of gear discussion, Dave L has provided some great advice so far. At the end of this little adventure I'm going to make a list of all the recommendations people have provided to help me decide both what I need and what I don't, but also preferred brands that can narrow down my choices. Anyway, a couple gear questions that might be more pertinent to my immediate upcoming dives.
Anyone have any recommendations for compasses? Features? Direct or Indirect? Suunto? Oceanic? Does anybody make a backlit compass for scuba use? I never hike without a compass as a backup to my GPS, I feel like underwater the same should apply.
Slates, I like the idea of a multi-page wrist slate. Worthwhile? I really like the idea of having any pertinent info readily available. I figure it's not nearly as obtrusive as a regular slate and I'd really only use it for pertinent information. It would have been nice to take some notes about stuff during the dives, I think I'd like to do that from now on. Especially trying to remember some of the fish, navigational info, or details about certain exercises that I'd like to improve on in the future, etc. I also would have liked to have asked questions, or remembered questions to ask later, and if I had the ability it would have been helpful. If anyone has better recommendations than the wrist slates I'd love to hear them. Underwater bluetooth ipad communications anybody?
Dive knives!!!! What's the best dive knife to fend off an underwater shark attack? I can always get a bigger boat, but that doesn't solve the problem of being face-to-face with an angry maneater, out for blood and with a taste of human flesh, just waiting to use it's rows of razor sharp teeth to tear my flesh from my bones!!!!.......Or what's the best place to put a set of EMT shears? Do most people just throw a set in their BCD or shorts? It seems like they'd be far more useful for entanglement hazards and the like than waving around a pig sticker 18m down. These are down on the list but I figured with how cheap they are it's worth considering pickup up a dedicated pair sooner rather than later. The combination knives/shears look like a silly gimmick. Does anybody really use those? They seem like a failure waiting to happen, not to mention potentially dangerous if you're lacking manual dexterity for whatever reason.
I really don't want to get weighed down by gear, and would definitely like to take a minimalist approach, but at some point I will no longer be diving with an instructor, and would like at least the minimums that will safely allow me to keep requisite information, and safely help myself or my buddy in any situation that might arise. I doubt every guide is necessarily as well trained as an instructor.
So, my grandiose idea, I figured computer or watch (for use with a table'd dive), compass, slate, and shears would be a good minimalist setup to cover my bases. This would be after my own mask since thus far that seems to be my biggest issue with the rental stuff. Feel free to tell me if even that is overkill. Obviously up until now I haven't used any of the sort, but the instructors seem to have these as a minimum, except at times the compass which I feel comes more from familiarity with the local dive sites, and that they'd have them if they were diving in a less familiar place.
I think this is one of the differences of PADI vs. NAUI. I almost completed a PADI course when I was getting started and had to move, and then got certified via NAUI.
In the PADI course, I found that they were much more focused on how to do something as opposed to the why. Nitrogen narcosis was covered in depth in my basic NAUI, whereas it was only briefly mentioned in PADI.
Things like buoyancy control were very different as well. In PADI the course was focused on how to achieve neutral buoyancy, in NAUI it included a couple of hours on Boyle's Law and the Archimedes principle.
I also found that as I progressed in my own training and in talking to other divers that the organization mattered less than the instructor him or herself.
This isn't meant to knock PADI and promote NAUI, they both seem to get divers to a place of competence and safety, but they do seem to go about it in slightly different ways.
I think part of the idea, like in the post below yours, is that PADI is really pushing for the weekend certification-type divers from a commercial standpoint. They, for the most part will do shallow dives off a cattle boat doing touristy things. Those types of people will be far less concerned with the why than the how, and for them it probably doesn't matter much. At an assembly plant, all the dude has to know is to tighten the bolt to 30 ft. lbs. He doesn't need to know why that torque value is specified, or really even what it's purpose it, just that he has to do it this way because that's what's called for. For most of those weekender divers, that's probably adequate to keep them safe.
For the other group of divers, those interested in more than just hopping in, looking at some pretty fish, and getting out to drink some mojitos, the NAUI course of instruction is probably far better. Those people who want to understand the why, and in that understanding, while the how might come with a little more difficulty, the overall understanding will far exceed the other group of divers.
I agree with the instructor aspect more than the course of materials. Knowledge and experience trumps curriculum hands down.
Emt shears in nylon case mount with a velcor cover ? Depends on you gear really where to mount it tight on the main strap is handy ? In a pocket out of the way is also ?
In Hawaii fishing line is a huge mess I used mine to keep the reefs clean mostly nobody really gets tangled :)
The Shark thing I hope was a joke if its going to get you it will
Watch a true shark attack on seals
Diving they leave you alone surfing or snokeling you look like a seal
And if anything they are curious and dont have arms ! But honestly its a non issue
Emt shears are best for all things you come across that can entangle you which is usualy fishing line or nets
on wrecks you can bring a pry bar ? If its something you think you need ?
I used to carry a small spyderco covered in silicone as a backup
Only time I used a knife is when a new crew left a dock line in the water and it got packed into the shaft and packing box area n the boat and I then used my sailing knife not a dive knife
If we came across a massive tangle we would come back and get it
With something like a filet knife that is razor sharp ;)
Also emt shears are handy to shorten a weight belt fix things on your gear where a knife sucks etc..
Create a spare parts kit get some good nylon thread and some sail needles and a pair of needle nose pliers ( miner were vise grip ones) some spare belt clips and any clips your gear uses if you get a good slap strap put your stock strap into your kit ! O-ring tool can be handy you can learn to pop them out with air though to replace leaky ones on your tank
You can use the pliers or sail needles to help get stuff out of your skin like urchin spines :)
Pliers handy for everything including holding a sail needle to sew heavy material
Buy two masks IMHO busted lens are rare but can happen
Medical kit besides basics some bandaids and tape and such is tincture of benzoin ! this is a must have to make band aids and tape stick to your skin !
Only time I use a small sharp knife is spear fishing :) to brain the fish :) carry on weight belt but this was more free diving than on tanks ! Google up blue water hunting !
Compas suunto charge it with your light they are super glowy :)
Slates are good also for new dive spots to make some maps
Also when diving new spots look back so you know what its like coming back :)
One page with grid is handy if you want to map new spots
In the Puget Sound I used a compass a lot but also knowing your depth and course is equal level when exploring and looking back knowing what the return looks like
Best dive watch I owned was my citizen gave me depth gauge backup great timers and such to my computer
A watch is a must have and know your times if your computer dies you want to know whats going on !
Still prefer 3 console style gauge setup pressure gauge depth gauge and compass on wrist computer and watch
I never wore a snorkel unless free diving sometimes
If I was shore diving might stuff one in my pocket though just in case
Most instructors I hung out with were good divers some though were idiots and doing it as a short term thing to try those types dont last long
Working on boats is fun but being puked on cleaning heads and all the tank schlepping and maintaing dive gear gets old !
Like most things people do shooting, diving, golf what ever
if you do it for a living day in day out you can get very good after a few years many instructors get into diving and dove a lot of things and do it daily all year long all weather all seasons and get a wealth of knowledge
Many do PADI cause of the job opportunities it has over other ? But that is going away some
Haha definitely joking about the underwater shark fight! I've got a friend that is convinced he's going to have to fight off a shark one day and bought a ridiculous Bowie looking knife. He refuses to believe that he looks like an idiot. It's all very entertaining, at least until he sticks himself doing something stupid. I think I'll be more than fine with a set of shears. Aside from the instructor using his knife to gently lift a conch, I haven't seen a single situation here within the scope of what I've been doing that would require a knife.
I hadn't thought about a grid slate, that sounds like a really intelligent idea for mapping new sites!
I'm definitely looking to put together a spare parts kit, but I figure that will evolve more as I get my own gear to fit my personal needs.
Thanks for the watch recommendation. I never wear one at work because of snag hazards so I'll need to do some more research since it's been so long since I've worn one.
Dives cancelled today. Too much chop and visibility what shite, we could see how crappy the conditions were from the boat, didn't even bother getting wet.
The saga towards Advanced Open Water continues tomorrow.....hopefully.
Sorry I have nothing cool to report.
Ok glad it was a joke :)
Honestly it would amaze me half of my group every day was afraid of sharks !
My common replies were close your eyes :)
Or the old you have twice the chance of being struck by lightning :)
One day two guys busted out laughing at that ? Asked why he said I have been struck twice while playing golf !
Reply :) awesome we are going to see a guy get attacked by a shark this dive folks or maybe on the 2nd dive :)
Yeah lifting things moving things a tool can be handy
Not sure why he used that to lift a conch ?
Even for ling spined urchin we just used our hands carefully :)
For me the watch I had tags and casios and times and the citizen was nice forgot model now ? But one of their dive ones so again basic backup on it depth timers and such plus knowing the time is handy when working since boats leave spots at certain times etc... Working with tides and such a watch is important to me at least :)
I never wore it off work much though ? Snagging and such as you say
My wetsuit kinda covered my watch most the time
Story
Two guys go out free diving they hear a strange smashing sound one guy says its freaky the other guy wants to see
So one swims in one swims toward it he gets about 70 feet and sees a tiger shark thrashing about and half a large turtle !
Almost instantly the shark was on him he thought enough to straighten up and not put his hands out the shark hit him mid section and pushed him back the guy managed to put his hands in the sharks nose shark goes back to turtle the guynpulls out his pear fishing knife starts swimming backwards watching the shark out of the blue the shark comes flying he does the same thing he straightens up and manages to hit the shark in the eye ! Shark takes off
Pretty wild and lucky
The base med kit and some tincture is a huge thing and cheap to make it can be in a tiny pelican type case but worth having keep the large sewing needles like sail repair size and the nylon thread in your med kit as a start :) also extra zip ties all my flashlight or any accessory like wreck reel etc.. so all clips clips were held on with a couple zip ties for the reason you can quickly cut through a zip tie if your light or whatever gets hung up on something chances are you can pull hard enough to rip free if it was some solid stainless ring it could be life threatening !
I took my advanced open water 22 years ago. It was awsome but a small helpful piece of advice.
To make a long story short, do not get drunk as hell tonight. You will enjoy tommorow so much more.
Be safe and have a blast...
... do not get drunk as hell tonight. You will enjoy tommorow so much more....
That's what NITROX is for ;)
Hahahahaha! Wish I would have known back then. My mouth was so dry, I coughed(not a great idea underwater). Dry air reg, early ninties, i had no idea. Lost my regulator at 40' and tapped my SSI instructor on the shoulder and pointed up. He tried to grab me but I have very strong legs. When we got to the surface he asked am I ok. As I'm lung puking water, I thumbsed up him, and he said did I hit my bc? No I said, I was drowning and that was incentive enough.
It took half a bag of peppermint, but my throat finally chilled and all was well.
Moral of the story was the short version, don't get shitfaced because your dive got cancelled and expect a happy ending(unless in Vegas, maybe). The next day was so much sweeter, without the bars and strip joints.
Wow, never thought I would say or think that, but diving is a different animal.
Life of most dive instructors is ironic considering agencies say
After a dive avoid strenuous activities, sex, hot tubs, drinking etc...
After bounce diving to set moorings and then has to clean the boat schlep all the tanks fix clean all gear
He then goes back out diving to get some fish cleans em throw on bbq grab a drink or ten and go chill in the hot tub often hooking up with the new tourist hottie gets up the next morning and does it all again !
Damn Honu, should have had you as DI. Sounds much better than mine.
Keep safe...
Damn Honu, should have had you as DI. Sounds much better than mine.
Keep safe...
Hahaha we had good classes !
Huge bbq pretty much every night fresh fish and lobster and other folks would bring down everything else including fresh deer meat sometimes :) and chuckers and pheasant some of the wives would bring down cakes and such beer chips etc....
Fun times
Now your just making me jealous...
I might think of recert if if is still like that, lol
Slightly off-topic but best hangover cure is IV LR and 100% O2 in a chamber, topped by ibuprofen. Thanks Uncle Sam!
This thread makes me miss recreational diving. I may have to get back at it.
I miss Utila in some ways the whole island is about diving :)
Having a good time going dancing at night hanging out with buddies good food good diving
Maui was a mix but a lot of it all revolves around the ocean surfing diving fishing etc... And those kinda places just seem so much happier about life :)
Slightly off-topic but best hangover cure is IV LR and 100% O2 in a chamber, topped by ibuprofen. Thanks Uncle Sam!
This thread makes me miss recreational diving. I may have to get back at it.
When you live on a island with no chamber you just go diving and hope for the best :)
Never been in a chamber would be fun
Well almost done with advanced. Finally got to dive again.
Did Underwater Nav and Peak Performance Buoyancy. Nav was stupid easy. Not sure why it's included as a required dive when Peak Performance Buoyancy is far more useful in my mind. Anyway, it took all of 3 minutes to do the Nav evolutions then the rest of the dive. Not really much new on this one but did see a seahorse finally.
Peak Performance Buoyancy kicked my ass. My buoyancy is pretty good when I'm diving, even my instructors have commented on how good it is for such a new diver. However, the finite control is effing difficult!!! Part of the problem was my legs are more negatively buoyant so while I could do the buddha and the vertical positioning without any trouble, doing the horizontal positioning 6" off the deck just wasn't happening. I tried it probably 4 or 5 times and I'd do fine for 15 seconds then my feet would sink.
We did some other evolutions, swimming through progressively smaller boxes. My buoyancy was fine for those but I kept forgetting that my tank adds a foot above me. I could easily maintain my distance off the bottom, but that distance was too high the first couple times. Adding weights to my hand wasn't difficult, typical add air to BCD stuff.
Overall it was fun, felt good to be back in the water. I think PPB would have been easier if I had been able to dive the past few days.
Tomorrow I do Deep and Multilevel, both with Nitrox. PADI lets you do Nitrox in conjunction with any of the adventure dives so I can kill two birds with one stone. Analyzed and signed for my tanks today before I left. I'm sort of disappointed I didn't get to do Deep on air, as I feel I should probably get narc'd at least once so I know how it feels. While the book says there's no difference between air and EANx, the instructors seem to feel like there's definitely a lower possibility on EANx than air. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.
Nitrox is not for deep diving really :)
It can be used but partial pressures of more oxygen can get you into more trouble for oxygen toxicity since rec limits EAN is safe though
For fun since seems you are eager to learn
Read up on partial pressures and oxygen toxicity :)
Going deep over 200 is just something to do unless you are trying to see certain things like wrecks
Narcosis is not always halted by diving EAN mixes but I do think its less chance :) upside I like the feeling of not being quite as tired often more refreshed after nitrox diving
Again for me only been narced once in around 10,000 dives
So don't worry if it is going to happen it will its not like 100 feet all get narced :)
Chances you are hooked on diving :) so it might happen in the future :)
Its more a extended bottom time mid to shallow diving mix that does allow you to feel a bit less tired :)
Nitrox is not for deep diving really :)
It can be used but partial pressures of more oxygen can get you into more trouble for oxygen toxicity since rec limits EAN is safe though
For fun since seems you are eager to learn
Read up on partial pressures and oxygen toxicity :)
Going deep over 200 is just something to do unless you are trying to see certain things like wrecks
Narcosis is not always halted by diving EAN mixes but I do think its less chance :) upside I like the feeling of not being quite as tired often more refreshed after nitrox diving
Again for me only been narced once in around 10,000 dives
So don't worry if it is going to happen it will its not like 100 feet all get narced :)
Chances you are hooked on diving :) so it might happen in the future :)
Its more a extended bottom time mid to shallow diving mix that does allow you to feel a bit less tired :)
Calculated max for our EANx32 is 33.9 meters so the "Deep" is really only going to be to 30m in order to prevent O2 toxicity. This is based off of 1.4 ata PO2 with 1.6 ata contingency so I doubt we'll get close to true max depth.
I'm excited more for the "less tired" aspect than anything. I'm certainly not exerting myself, but I do feel drained sometimes back at the shop so I'm interested to see the difference at the end of the day. The extended bottom time on the multilevel will be nice though. The shop also showed me and walked me through their whole fill station and their procedure so that was cool. Analysis was dead nuts on 32%, I'm convinced it's that teutonic attention to detail from these guys.
I think if I ever have a desire to go deeper or dive wrecks I think I'll end up doing tec rec first. The idea of "touch-and-go" or stretching the no deco limits appeal to me less than spending the time to be well within safety limits. Maybe after I have more dives I'll feel differently, but right now I want to dive as conservatively as possible while still having fun.
Yeah no worries as they say its for rec diving safe diving
But often they mistake the idea its for deep when its not really :)
When it started being popular a few cases of folks thinking they could go over 150 and thought it was for deep ?
For me its a extend bottom time feel better gas :)
Finished my Advanced today. Was a lot of fun going deep. I guessed the tomato on the second guess. It was pretty amazing how little color there is at 30m. EANx32 for both dives with 1.4 bar PO2. We played with an egg yolk and did the bottle crushed at 30m, almost bursting after filling with air on the bottom and taking it to the surface.
The second dive we ended a little early. A couple joined the instructor and I for the dives, she was feeling a little sea sick before the first one, and the second one I guess she wasn't feeling well either. She ended up being cold at about 12m (second was the "Multilevel" even though we've been diving a multilevel profile since day 1) so we safety stopped and surfaced. I think she should have called the dive before she got in but I'm sort of a HTFU kind of guy, so if it's that bad you need to abort from the get go. Didn't lose too much bottom time but it would have been nice to have stayed down for another 15 minutes. Jerk. Her husband was apologetic though, even if he had shit buoyancy and was all over the place.
Dive slate came in handy. Even though I was diving with a computer I wrote max and contingency depth for 1.4 and 1.6 bar in big letters just to be extra careful. When the chick couldn't figure out how to use her computer and the instructor had to mess with it a little bit having the wrist slate for more complex communications was very nice, although I did have to sit there for a minute with my arm stuck out while they wrote back and forth. It was sort of cool to see the change in buoyancy at depth since I was using the velcro strap and as we descended it kept getting looser as the wetsuit compressed. I swapped the strap out for two bungees already. Having it on my wrist was a lot nicer than having it hanging down or stuck in a pocket, even though the surface is smaller I liked the utility better than the clipboard style I had carried on a previous dive.
Anyway, here are some pics. I wish I had one of the shrimp cleaning out the moray's mouth. It was neat to see symbiosis at work.
http://i.imgur.com/SXUfdcg.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SsZsYzq.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/bBSaZxp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/guqfvjD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/OpvrINw.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IYhx5ti.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/tvhEQz1.jpg
and last, dead on the surface.
http://i.imgur.com/IYJJqSU.jpg
Had my first real issue yesterday as a diver, and I'm happy to say that I did the right thing, even though part of the solution was incorrect..
A co-worker happened to be in a neighboring town, so I got a hold of her via the BookFace to see if she wanted to grab lunch or something. As it turns out she has her OW ticket so she decided to spend a day in the water.
I'll start off saying the second dive was fine. Despite her dicking with her BCD the whole time because she was using it for her buoyancy instead of her lungs, it was fine and she had fun. The first dive though, was another story.
So we descend as normal after I basically did a quick refresher of the whole open water procedures with her. She seemed to remember ok. However, that's pretty much where the good stuff ends. She suited up ok and the entry was fine, although it seemed like she was having some equalization problems to begin with. She sorted those quickly with a little reminder from me.
Visibility was pretty shitty during the first dive and it was pretty much the leading cause of our problems. She's also tiny, like 5'1" 85lbs. She had the smallest gear the dive shop had and it was still a little big on her. She's also kind of a hippy dippy type from Vermont, and doesn't just stop to smell the flowers, she stops to smell every single flower. Well apparently it's the same with fish as she was barely swimming, and very shortly the group started to spread out. I tried coaxing her as best as I could underwater, but she just didn't equate the flighty behavior with causing a potentially dangerous situation. We drifted a bit deeper, but still within sight of the group, and when she went to equalize, she pinched her nose wrong and the mask flooded. Well then it all went downhill. She started to panic a little but I was able to grab her and pull her to me and maintain our position in the water as she was starting to kick and scull and tried to inflate her BCD and generally made a mess of things. Because of all this, visibility dropped to nothing. I got her calm and worked through clearing her mask, establishing something close to neutral buoyancy, and getting her back to regular breathing again. The problem is that now we were lost. We weren't too deep, only 16m of water, but couldn't see crap, and I got all turned around trying to get her to calm down and fix her issues. We swam in the general direction a little bit to see if we could see bubbles or get out of the cloud of crap now floating, but 5m of visibility just wasn't enough. I signaled to go up, and after a second for the realization that we were lost sunk in, we started up. I kept having to pull her down as she was trying to swim straight to the surface. She finally realized that we needed to slow down.
Now, here's where I screwed up. We searched for a minute then headed up, my computer started yelling at me to make a safety stop. So we did. I had to hold her at 5m while my damn computer counted down, and then we surfaced. I realized after my head broke we should have ascended right away. We were probably 15 or 20 meters from the rest of the group. On a normal day it would have been more than enough to see where they were. The guide wasn't thrilled that we got lost, and he wasn't happy that it took so long to ascend, but he did say that while making the safety stop was the wrong choice, that I did it because you do it every dive isn't a bad habit, just inappropriate for this situation.
Anyway, the chick felt bad about panicking and for getting how to sort herself out, but we went back down and finished the dive. Afterwards she apologized profusely to everyone in the group and the second dive she made sure she was very close the entire time.
Me, on the boat: "If there is anything that you can't communicate and you absolutely need to, grab me and write it down."
Her, 10m down: "Umm, is water in my ears ok it feels kind of funny but it doesn't hurt or anything just feels weird but I just want to make sure that it's not going to do anything bad to my ears." The word concise is apparently not part of her vocabulary.
http://i.imgur.com/yFb60xt.jpg
dont worry about the dive guy :)
when I lead dives we did it two ways you stay with me I lead the dive all responsibility on me to guide and make people keep up but the briefing top side covers this very very very well in a super nice way :)
or you are on your own I go down and kinda keep tabs with a few who want to see things since I know where ever critter is and the dive spot
but if you want to separate I say OK you have to surface at the boat come up the line most boats I worked on all have ascent lines and also say what time why I watch is nice :)
I would never yell at a guy for doing a safety stop ever !
if you did not come up the ascent line I might say hey next time please its for your safety cause of boat traffic but 20 meters is nothing :) its when they pop up waving their arms 200 meters that used to freak me out then its a rescue haahah had a few of those
live boat is a whole other game about coming up and live boat dives we always lead to keep the group together since its often a long wall drift dive or something
those are fun :) we used to do one on our own for fun in a area with about 5 knot current wwwhhhhhheeeeeee
lesson learned know your dive partner and pre plan what your signals are and how you want to dive
if the dive guide never says anything about times on boat where to ascend etc..
maybe its more a Caribbean or Hawaii thing to be more relaxed as a dive guide :) hahahaha
dont worry about the dive guy :)
when I lead dives we did it two ways you stay with me I lead the dive all responsibility on me to guide and make people keep up but the briefing top side covers this very very very well in a super nice way :)
or you are on your own I go down and kinda keep tabs with a few who want to see things since I know where ever critter is and the dive spot
but if you want to separate I say OK you have to surface at the boat come up the line most boats I worked on all have ascent lines and also say what time why I watch is nice :)
I would never yell at a guy for doing a safety stop ever !
if you did not come up the ascent line I might say hey next time please its for your safety cause of boat traffic but 20 meters is nothing :) its when they pop up waving their arms 200 meters that used to freak me out then its a rescue haahah had a few of those
live boat is a whole other game about coming up and live boat dives we always lead to keep the group together since its often a long wall drift dive or something
those are fun :) we used to do one on our own for fun in a area with about 5 knot current wwwhhhhhheeeeeee
lesson learned know your dive partner and pre plan what your signals are and how you want to dive
if the dive guide never says anything about times on boat where to ascend etc..
maybe its more a Caribbean or Hawaii thing to be more relaxed as a dive guide :) hahahaha
We did brief all of that, and it was our responsibility to stay with the guide, with the poor visibility the short duration it took to sort out my buddy coupled with the fact that she was too busy looking at a stupid fish to notice that everyone else was doing what they were supposed to, not dick around. We screwed up, or I guess I should say I did, because I probably should have grabbed her and just pulled her along.
We did cover communication at the surface, and she assured me that she got it all and would be fine, and before we got in I made sure I quizzed her on the important stuff, I think she's just way too flighty to want to dive with again. She has absolutely zero situational awareness.
No ascent line, live boat dive every time. If they need an ascent or descent line for the course exercise a buoy gets tossed over the side so unfortunately no visual reference there.
And the dude didn't yell at me, he just told me that in that situation, since I knew all the factors, knew how short we had been down and how shallow it was, with that shitty visibility the correct thing to do would be delete the safety stop on the ascent.
She finally got it that she had to be aware of where everyone in the group was on the second dive. One of those kids whose parents smoked way too much weed while she was pregnant. I wasn't super ken on diving with her in the first place, I just didn't want to be a dick about it, but I think if she asks any more I'm going to find something else I have to do.
Sounds like ya did everything right :)
Still say no worries things happen and was not your fault hers
Helping her sticking with her was safest bet :)
Dude your description of her cracks me up :) hahahahah
Yeah I had a few folks in my past I never dove with after a few dives with them when starting
Hard to say but dive guy should have held up the group till all together puts pressure on the lagger
I have had some folks who were doing stupid stuff brought them up top said can you stay up or not ? If not have the boat pick them up :)
Once more into the breech!!!!
Snuck a double dark and hopped up to Cartagena for a couple days. 5 dives over 2 days including a night dive.
This was a little different than diving straight from the locale. Hop a boat for an hour across the bay to a little island around Rosarios? The dive shop was ok, but one of the apparent things with having a remote site to setup all your gear is that it's a royal pain in the ass if they don't fit you for stuff at the shop prior. I had no problems, but one of my co-workers spent probably 10 minutes trying to find the right size fins.
Water was warm, 26-19 C during the day. We all wore a shorty 3mm although it wasn't necessary as far as the water temp, more a throw back to how we were taught about the suit protecting the reef from you and you from the reef. My tan looks like an idiot though.
I'm not sure if the gear was just in a poorer state of repair or a function of the Mares design of most of it, but I wasn't real happy. I can't remember the name of the second stage but it kept pulling against the right side of my mouth like it was going to fall out. Also, any time I'd flip vertically in a head down, the reg would fill with water and I'd have to breathe around it then purge. More of an annoyance than anything else but something that never happened with the stuff I did my courses with. One of the other divers had a problem with the mouthpiece being all goofy, but I didn't get the whole story from her. On both tanks the first day I had to insist on new O-rings, they were in horrible shape. I think more than anything I was spoiled by my first shop. All 3 masks I tried sucked and leaked, but of course since there was this remote island storage locker and no other masks available I had to make due.
I'm not really happy with the full-foot fins we had, but I'm willing to give them another shot if I get to fit them prior. These sucked and gave me blisters, were torn and in general crap shape. They were also WAAAAAYYYYY too flippy. Sure they're easier to fin with, but you don't go anywhere with them. I ended up having to work harder because they'd just fold out of the way in the water instead of actually moving me.
The last thing that irked me was that the guides wouldn't quit effing touching everything! "Oh shrimp, let's pick it up!" "Oh coral, let's just push that out of the way so you can see more coral." Geez man, at one point I looked at my 2 buddies and all 3 of us were just shaking our heads at the same time. I'm not totally averse to some interaction with the maritime environment, but this was ridiculous. I actually had a little schadenfreude moment when the dickhead cut his hand on some coral.
Anyway, enough of the negative, because overall it was a pretty good time.
The dive sites were pretty much rife with coral, much more so than in northern Colombia. The visibility was also a lot better, and it's pretty crazy when the GoPro footage looks even better than what we could see with our eyes. However, there were far fewer fish here than in Taganga. We did get some great shots of some ENORMOUS crab on the night dive, and some very large lionfish. I think they do less culling of the lionfish population there so they get pretty big.
Got to dive on a tiny little wreck, maybe 20 feet long. It was pretty neat although I didn't go inside. I just wasn't sure I was ready for an overhead situation so I just flipped upside down and dropped my head in for a minute. Lots of cool little marine life hanging around.
I was very happy with my SAC rate compared to previous dives, running around an hours worth of bottom time. It was an issue the first dive when the guide called us all up at 40 minutes when we had another 20 minutes worth of air left. The dudes response was, "well you should have asked when you booked how long you'd have." Sorry, but I feel like if you're going to get everyone out of the water before they're out of air it shouldn't be on us to ask. After the 3 of us showed him 1k psi on the surface he let us dive longer the subsequent dives. It also helped that the second day the owner of the shop was diving with us and was a lot more accommodating.
My buoyancy was very good the entire time, having not been in the water for a few weeks I was slightly concerned but it wasn't an issue. The first dive sucked until I popped a weight off my belt then it was a lot easier and I didn't have to constantly think about it.
Overall it was a good trip, although I think it would have been much better had the shop been a little more professional. It was nice being dropped off at the resort island for the surface interval to have an off-gassing beer. I'm sure the shop wouldn't have been too happy if they had seen us but none of us felt that one beer would cause any problems.
Next up is Rescue, which I think I'll do after we close Bogota in a month. I've got a friend coming from the States to dive in Taganga in a couple weeks so hopefully she'll be bringing some stuff.
I picked up the SMB that Dave L recommended on the first page as well as those overshorts. I hate carrying shit around in my BCD and they were cheap enough that I figured I'd give it a shot carrying my SMB and reel in some cargo pockets. My friend will hopefully be bringing me a computer as well. I've got it down to either the Suunto Vyper which has been recommended by a ton of friends, or the Oceanic VT 4.1, also recommended by friends but none of the guides were using one so I haven't gotten hands on at all. I'm leaning heavily towards the Suunto but not sure if I should pick up the Oceanic since it has deep stop capability, which I don't think the Suunto has. I'm not really sure that it's something I need now, and I'm not sure about justifying it for the future. I kind of think that by the time I'm at that point it'll be time to buy another one anyway.
So yeah, back to top! Any more advice or stories? Let's keep this thread going!
Glad to hear you are still diving :)
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