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I got a chance to dive the USS Vandenburg wreck out of Key West a few weeks ago. It was a 2-tank dive with a 45 min surface interval. My max depth was 97' with an average bottom time of about 17 min. Lot's of colorful fish(sorry, didn't pay attention in my water naturalist course) and some barracudas hanging out in the shadows. The best part of this wreck is that the first deck or so are open and easy to navigate. It was my first time penetrating a wreck and it was a great experience. If anyone is ever in the Keys I'd definitely recommend it.
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Apr 12, 2012 06:40
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Someone was talking about Big Blue diving a few pages back and I'm done in Korea in August, might spend a few weeks in Koh Tao doing some diving before coming home Especially as they have a deal on Advanced/Nitrox/Wreck diver courses and those are the 3 I want.
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Apr 12, 2012 06:41
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rockcity posted:Can't say I've done that, but I'm signed up for DiveQuest and I'm pretty excited about it. That sucks that your dive was cancelled. They gave me a phone number of someone in HR that I could talk to to tell them about my experience. I have a feeling that, because it's Disney, I probably could have called and said how disappointed I was and probably have gotten some sort of ridiculous return trip or something, but I lost the phone number 
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Apr 12, 2012 15:09
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SgtScruffy posted:They gave me a phone number of someone in HR that I could talk to to tell them about my experience. I have a feeling that, because it's Disney, I probably could have called and said how disappointed I was and probably have gotten some sort of ridiculous return trip or something, but I lost the phone number That sucks, as an annual passholder for a few years now, I can tell you that they're pretty good on making things right. I'm not sure they would have gone overboard, but they'd probably have given you a huge discount to you if you signed up again or maybe just let you do it for free if you told them that DiveQuest was your main reason for coming.
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Apr 12, 2012 15:13
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Tuff Ghost posted:I got a chance to dive the USS Vandenburg wreck out of Key West a few weeks ago. It was a 2-tank dive with a 45 min surface interval. My max depth was 97' with an average bottom time of about 17 min. Lot's of colorful fish(sorry, didn't pay attention in my water naturalist course) and some barracudas hanging out in the shadows. The best part of this wreck is that the first deck or so are open and easy to navigate. It was my first time penetrating a wreck and it was a great experience. If anyone is ever in the Keys I'd definitely recommend it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU_IF20t2R8
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Apr 12, 2012 20:15
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Moar Boars, Welcome to Molokini Island Hawaii Scrawled Filefish  Whitetip Reef Shark  Cleaning Station with Cleaner Wrasse  Ornate Butterflyfish  Bubblers  Mempachi  Milletseed Butterfly Fish  Ornate Buttefly and Fisher Angelfish  Ulua [Giant Trevally]  From 115ft/35m Clarity of water is Unsurpassed  Here is the complete album for your viewing fapturbation. http://imgur.com/a/8tNLE
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Apr 13, 2012 20:00
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That's probably your best set yet. I'm a sucker for nice juxtaposition between a strobed subject and a nice blue ocean background. It just makes the photos pop so much more. Just finished rigging up my new camera to take out with me tomorrow on my dives in Jupiter, FL. I had a Nikonos V which flooded, so I kept the strobes and found someone selling an Olympus SP-350 with a TTL adapter for my Nikons strobes. Also picked up an Inon 105 degree wide angle lens as well. Had to modify the mounting plate on the bottom to be able to fit both strobes. I still need to do some tweaking because it's making getting to the zoom switch a bit difficult.  Edit: Well crap, the dive coordinator for tomorrow just called and said they had to cancel the dive because the seas are expected to be 5-7 feet. rockcity fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 20:42
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rockcity posted:That's probably your best set yet. I'm a sucker for nice juxtaposition between a strobed subject and a nice blue ocean background. It just makes the photos pop so much more. Thanks for the compliments. Here is cropped and 2560x1600 wallpapers size images. If you like them enough you can grab them in the dropbox link without molestation. http://imgur.com/a/f09yk http://dl.dropbox.com/u/73216722/Molokini%20Wallpapers.zip That is lame well if they canceled here for that.. I wouldn't dive often LOL
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Apr 14, 2012 04:18
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SlicerDicer, your photographs are awesome. Keep 'em coming  MA-Horus posted:Someone was talking about Big Blue diving a few pages back and I'm done in Korea in August, might spend a few weeks in Koh Tao doing some diving before coming home That was me! I'll be there in August, too - I'm going to spend three months at Big Blue doing a dive controller course, so I guess I'll see you there. The first beer is on me!
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Apr 14, 2012 05:51
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SlicerDicer posted:
Yeah, it varies by dive charter whether or not they'll dive in those big of swells. Some of it depends on how big the boat is too. I think they just don't want to do with people getting sick mostly. I'm hoping to go out to one of the springs here and do some cavern diving next weekend instead.
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Apr 14, 2012 16:28
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In south Florida a lot of shops will cancel trips for 5-7s. The commercial boat I use in Key Largo will take its tech trips out unless the boat is in literal danger of sinking. Ok that's not quite true because you need near perfect conditions for some of the deeper wrecks. What's funny is the hardcore cave divers who get seasick because they rarely ocean dive.  rockcity, Bishop's dive boat of doom goes out in anything less than a category 4 hurricane. In all honesty though I just got this boat last summer and compared to ones I've had in the past it handles rough seas like a dream (heavy, sharp bow, 27 feet), so if I cancel on you it's definitely for a good reason. Bishop fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Apr 14, 2012 |
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Apr 14, 2012 16:41
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Bishop posted:In south Florida a lot of shops will cancel trips for 5-7s. The commercial boat I use in Key Largo will take its tech trips out unless the boat is in literal danger of sinking. Ok that's not quite true because you need near perfect conditions for some of the deeper wrecks. What's funny is the hardcore cave divers who get seasick because they rarely ocean dive. That is why jesus made lengths of rope and buckets. Tie to face of hardcore cave divers! And yeah I mean really the problem is passenger comfort I think over safety with most dive boats.
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Apr 14, 2012 17:37
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Bishop posted:In south Florida a lot of shops will cancel trips for 5-7s. The commercial boat I use in Key Largo will take its tech trips out unless the boat is in literal danger of sinking. Ok that's not quite true because you need near perfect conditions for some of the deeper wrecks. What's funny is the hardcore cave divers who get seasick because they rarely ocean dive. Deal! I'd have been fine in those seas, but I've seen people get seasick a few times in pretty mild waves so I can see why they cancelled.
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Apr 14, 2012 17:38
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SlicerDicer posted:Moar Boars, Welcome to Molokini Island Hawaii Is this on the back side? I used to live on Maui (Kihei) but only snorkeled the crater as I didn't have my cert then.
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Apr 15, 2012 01:36
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Tuff Ghost posted:Is this on the back side? I used to live on Maui (Kihei) but only snorkeled the crater as I didn't have my cert then. Nope this was in the crater ranging from 120-30ft All shot over a period of about 2 hours. Ulua, few fish shot in the Reef's End side. Garden Eels, The Whitetip, Beach Bunny, Urchin and Cucumbers are in Sand Channel the rest was in spot called Aquarium. I do want to shoot different sites next time maybe go over to Enenue. 
SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 08:44 on Apr 24, 2012 |
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Apr 15, 2012 04:01
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SlicerDicer posted:Nope this was in the crater ranging from 120-30ft All shot over a period of about 2 hours. Ulua, few fish shot in the Reef's End side. Garden Eels, The Whitetip, Beach Bunny, Urchin and Cucumbers are in Sand Channel the rest was in spot called Aquarium. I do want to shoot different sites next time maybe go over to Enenui.  Goddamn that place looks gorgeous.
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Apr 15, 2012 07:10
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Has anyone here dived in Okinawa? Any recommendations for sites? I may be going mid September for a short stint, and I want to make the most of me time there.
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Apr 16, 2012 01:48
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MA-Horus posted:
Alot of people do not really understand the true beauty imo.. There is so much crazy life there the level is well over 9000. I have seen things at Molokini Crater I have seen nowhere else. That being said there is reefs with more "Life" elsewhere in less accessible places due to waves/wind and not damaged by human hands. But for mellow dives as far as they go Molokini rocks. Never discount the coast of Maui either though I have also seen very rare stuff there and its in shallow water. 30ish feet. That means some 90-120 mins on OC to explore vs some 45 mins at 80ft? This is assuming you dive a ton or are in extremely good shape. Edit: So tomorrow is a Go for Molokini, I am going to be going again. My plan is to swim over from the Sand Channel where normal mooring happens to Enenue and photograph from there and between. I have no idea if I will make it over there and back in 2 hours? Enenui is pretty radical boulders and the lot its beautiful on a whole new level and not for beginners. The depth goes crazy deep just WHAMMO your at 140.. Also if not careful you can get sucked in current around the backwall. So here is Enenue, Sadly I did a stupid thing and set camera to Manual Focus thus busting the first hour of my dive...           I no longer use Imgur for my images given their 4/10/12 update to Terms they can blow that clean out their rear end. SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 00:31 on May 3, 2012 |
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Apr 16, 2012 20:25
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I just wanted to give you guys the latest update on my buddy who got burned. HE'S HOME! 6 and 1/2 weeks after the incident he was released from the hospital. The doctors were amazed at how fast he recovered considering the amount of burns he had. He's still pretty banged up and will be recovering for a long time, but the fact that after that severe of burns, he's home before two months. Modern medicine is loving amazing.
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Apr 26, 2012 18:19
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That's good to hear, bet he's happy to see some new scenery too after so long in there.
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Apr 29, 2012 13:54
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If you had to choose between diving on the Exmouth Navy Pier, or on ningaloo reef itself, which would you choose? Dont have time to do both, and this is the most pleasant problem I have had to face in a while. http://www.ningaloodreaming.com Thinking of going with those guys. Im getting all excited. Driving from Perth to Exmouth and going snorkling with the whale sharks, then diving on their the reef or the pier. Im really leaning towards reef.
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May 2, 2012 04:50
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Enjoy        There was multiple groups seen over a total of 140 min dive done at Moku Ho'oniki Rock Molokai.
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May 2, 2012 19:33
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We're going to be in Turks and Caicos Memorial Day week and have been looking at some of the packages available online. Anyone have any specific site or shop recommendations? We just rented a condo / townhome type of place, so it isn't like we're bound to a specific resort or anything. I will be sure to post my pathetic attempts at underwater photography to show the contrast between someone with skill like SlicerDicer and a relatively new diver with a point and shoot and waterproof housing... E: if it matters for recommendations, we are going to do either a 5 or 6 day 2 tank package, so we should be able to hit a lot of sites.
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May 2, 2012 20:47
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jackyl posted:We're going to be in Turks and Caicos Memorial Day week and have been looking at some of the packages available online. Anyone have any specific site or shop recommendations? We just rented a condo / townhome type of place, so it isn't like we're bound to a specific resort or anything. I dove with Caicos Adventures and enjoyed it immensely. They were helpful without being pushy and were willing to let us carry sling bottles and wander off on our own.
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May 3, 2012 04:55
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Crunkjuice, that's great news about your friend. Glad to hear he's doing well. My quarter life crisis move to Thailand is coming together nicely. My regs have arrived and will be put together once the correct lube arrives (I just need to attach the SPG and inflator hose), I've ordered a GoPro Hero2 with BackScatter housing and filters, the paperwork for a 12 month multiple entry education visa has been submitted, plane tickets are booked, shoulder surgery is scheduled for this time next week and the surgeon doesn't see a need to change the early August departure date. Great success!
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May 4, 2012 01:48
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Well no new pictures this week, 1) brutalizing myself by doing IDC.. Wana buy some poo poo? Here buy this BCD and while you do that why not take my peak performance buoyancy class! Standard Met! 2) My rebreather decided to have total of 3 out of 5 of my cells fail thus not enough for voting logic. I cannot dive till I get new cells or rectify what I am going to do. Its entirely possible I will not use the same cells as I do not want my rebreather to get wise ideas to kill me.
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May 8, 2012 19:09
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Does anyone have any dive light recommendations? I'm going to be taking a cavern class soon and my buddy who is going to be the instructor told me I should get three lights, two smaller clip on style lights and one brighter wrist mounted one. I've only used a couple lights before, one was a pistol style light I used over a decade ago for general night dive use and the other was a small Intova that I borrowed from said instructor buddy for diving through a hole in a reef. Heading down to Venice, FL this weekend to do a shark teeth dive, I better not get washed out by waves again. In the past month I've had two dives scrubbed because of big waves.
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May 9, 2012 04:41
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rockcity posted:Does anyone have any dive light recommendations? I'm going to be taking a cavern class soon and my buddy who is going to be the instructor told me I should get three lights, two smaller clip on style lights and one brighter wrist mounted one. I've only used a couple lights before, one was a pistol style light I used over a decade ago for general night dive use and the other was a small Intova that I borrowed from said instructor buddy for diving through a hole in a reef. I do know that many people prefer clip on lights of the twist on style vs the switched style because of the durability and simplicity of the twist ones. Wind and waves have been absolute poo poo here too. Atleast on days im not working. Was trying to go down to the keys for a weekend filled with birthday diving, but now the forecast is calling for crap conditions cause of the front.  SlicerDicer, I think I have the same reaction to your re-breather stories as non aquatic people do to my freediving stories.  
IM FROM THE FUTURE fucked around with this message at 13:23 on May 9, 2012 |
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May 9, 2012 13:01
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rockcity posted:Does anyone have any dive light recommendations? I'm going to be taking a cavern class soon and my buddy who is going to be the instructor told me I should get three lights, two smaller clip on style lights and one brighter wrist mounted one. I've only used a couple lights before, one was a pistol style light I used over a decade ago for general night dive use and the other was a small Intova that I borrowed from said instructor buddy for diving through a hole in a reef. For cavern, im sure any primary dive light will suffice since you have to stay within the light zone. For cave however, you need a big ol bitch of a light. Something like 10-30 watt HID canister light retailing from between 700-1000 dollars easily. The wrist mounted light i use is pretty good for a primary light if you've got the scratch to drop for one. http://www.scubatoys.com/store/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=Sola1200DiveLight
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May 9, 2012 17:55
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rockcity posted:Does anyone have any dive light recommendations? I'm going to be taking a cavern class soon and my buddy who is going to be the instructor told me I should get three lights, two smaller clip on style lights and one brighter wrist mounted one. I've only used a couple lights before, one was a pistol style light I used over a decade ago for general night dive use and the other was a small Intova that I borrowed from said instructor buddy for diving through a hole in a reef. Could always ask Phyllis at Add Helium, they have always gone above the call of duty for me and are fantastic. Any product they have told me of that is good and works does just that. Me personally for the diving I do? I want Keldans or Hartenburgers. IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:
There is quite a bit that I do not talk about as I do not want to be flamewar on some of the things that happen... I mean slamming into the reef and breaking it (my camera lens impacted the reef) among other things then having to lash yourself down with a reef hook to do your deco stop otherwise in the time it takes to do deco stop... If you didn't in the basic current that we are in? Fly some 1200+ ft when the entire dive site is 1800ft long.. thats long ways. As you can see things would get very real, if people are truly interested in seeing footage I might consider sharing it I am not sure... I get flamed on very hard for things like that video
SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 21:23 on May 9, 2012 |
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May 9, 2012 19:12
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Crunkjuice posted:For cavern, im sure any primary dive light will suffice since you have to stay within the light zone. For cave however, you need a big ol bitch of a light. Something like 10-30 watt HID canister light retailing from between 700-1000 dollars easily. The wrist mounted light i use is pretty good for a primary light if you've got the scratch to drop for one. http://www.scubatoys.com/store/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=Sola1200DiveLight Yeah, right now I don't have the kind of money for an HID canister style. My buddy said there's no need to get that crazy with lights for right now. I just plan to do some caverning for right now, though my buddy is big into caving and tech diving, so I'm guessing he's eventually going to try to get me into full on caving, but I'm a bit hesitant at the moment. For right now I'd say I'm looking more for the $200-300 range for the set of lights. From my research, the ones that people seem to go to for backups, Intovas and Dorcels seem to be about $40-60 each. The primary is more of what I've seen a boatload of recommendations on. The main thing I'm not sure of is what style of beam I'd want. It sounds like generally the caverns here in Florida have pretty excellent visibility as long as people aren't stirring the crap out of the silt at the bottom. Given the good vis, I'd probably want something wider and less focused right?
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May 9, 2012 20:37
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rockcity posted:Yeah, right now I don't have the kind of money for an HID canister style. My buddy said there's no need to get that crazy with lights for right now. I just plan to do some caverning for right now, though my buddy is big into caving and tech diving, so I'm guessing he's eventually going to try to get me into full on caving, but I'm a bit hesitant at the moment. For right now I'd say I'm looking more for the $200-300 range for the set of lights. From my research, the ones that people seem to go to for backups, Intovas and Dorcels seem to be about $40-60 each. The primary is more of what I've seen a boatload of recommendations on. The main thing I'm not sure of is what style of beam I'd want. It sounds like generally the caverns here in Florida have pretty excellent visibility as long as people aren't stirring the crap out of the silt at the bottom. Given the good vis, I'd probably want something wider and less focused right? Yeah, in good vis you don't need a cutting beal. Still, the more powerful the light, the brighter the wide beam will be. The dorcie backup light is really good, a LOT of tech people use it as their backup light around here. http://www.amazon.com/Dorcy-41-1467-Lumen-Super-Submersible/dp/B0023RSXSO Its a little underpowered for a primary, but its a good backup for any level of diving. Until i got the Sola 1200 new for 180 bucks i used this.http://www.dealextreme.com/p/diving-cree-ssc-p7-c-sxo-3-mode-900-lumen-led-flashlight-kit-2-18650-4-cr123a-4-16340-29069?item=28 Its a badass flashlight for 75 bucks, and puts out light comparable to something 4-5x the price. I put it through 80 dives with no floods, down to 130 feet. It doesn't put out 900 lumens, but is brighter than 500 for sure. It cuts through lake travis muck really well and is like a sun in clear water. Crunkjuice fucked around with this message at 21:26 on May 9, 2012 |
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May 9, 2012 21:23
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Crunkjuice posted:Yeah, in good vis you don't need a cutting beal. Still, the more powerful the light, the brighter the wide beam will be. That things looks pretty rad. I need something with a small cutting beam for bad viz and looking in holes deep holes. I just bought a new dinky led light and its usuless with a too-wide wide beam. Is the beam on that light you posted thin?
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May 9, 2012 23:42
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IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:That things looks pretty rad. The both lights i linked (the dorcie/deal extreme dive light) have a powerful main beam that floods out. I would say the dorcie has a more focused main beam than the dx light, but since the dx is way more powerful, it evens out. Heres the DX light doing some tech diving http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OvKmh7Pow8c Heres the dorcy out of water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxCs6VhVC8w (a great backup light) Daylight test of the Sola 1200 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN7HbGatkGw Night dive with a Sola 1200 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r9trVicVJg&feature=relmfu Crunkjuice fucked around with this message at 22:50 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 22:43
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Titanium Rebreather Case.   
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May 11, 2012 09:31
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That is badass looking. Color me jealous. On a bad note, I can not find my mask. I went snorkeling a month or so ago while on a business trip and I went to check the bag I took my gear in and it wasn't there. It must have fallen out or something on my way back to the car. I'm going out for a dive tomorrow and I have an old really crappy mask that I can use, but I'm really bummed I left my good mask somewhere.
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May 11, 2012 21:07
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Frogmanv2 posted:If you had to choose between diving on the Exmouth Navy Pier, or on ningaloo reef itself, which would you choose? Dont have time to do both, and this is the most pleasant problem I have had to face in a while. I heard from an instructor who works at a dive shop in Exmouth that the Navy might be heavily restricting access to the pier at some point in the near future, so on that basis I would go for that. I've heard it's awesome, I'm jealous, have a blast! I had a horrible dive in the Swan river yesterday - freezing, pitch black, nearly zero vis and a strong current at 21 metres!!
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May 13, 2012 10:04
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Tomberforce posted:I heard from an instructor who works at a dive shop in Exmouth that the Navy might be heavily restricting access to the pier at some point in the near future, so on that basis I would go for that. I've heard it's awesome, I'm jealous, have a blast! It was not a horrible dive, you survived without injury Thats the way I look at things anyway. It was just unpleasant and not wish to repeat. However it was a learning experience that will help you equip for future madness.
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May 13, 2012 16:35
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My shark tooth dive yesterday was pretty underwhelming as well. I only found 3 teeth and none of them were very large at all and one was broken. Beyond that, the visibility in Venice is god awful or at least it was yesterday. Visibility was maybe only a couple feet as far as clear goes and you could maybe see the outline of someone 5-8 feet away. Every now and then these silt clouds would drift by and then you could barely even see your hand in front of you. I was just happy to get back in the water though, it had been a few months.
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May 13, 2012 20:42
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Heading to Belize on Saturday....have been really excited about it until I saw the weather forecast. For a place that barely has rain during the month of May, there is sure a lot of rain and thunderstorms in the forecast. Hoping swells and viz stay good so I can still get some diving in.
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May 14, 2012 22:36
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