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I'm all booked in at Big Blue on Koh Tao, advanced open water with deep water and wreck specialties, plus nitrox. Late August 2012!
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May 15, 2012 02:02
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MA-Horus posted:I'm all booked in at Big Blue on Koh Tao, advanced open water with deep water and wreck specialties, plus nitrox. Late August 2012! I'll see you there - the first beer is on me. I get there in early August and will stay until February or longer. Finch! fucked around with this message at 03:16 on May 15, 2012 |
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May 15, 2012 03:05
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IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:That things looks pretty rad. http://www.scubastore.com/scuba-diving/scubapro-nova-light-230/6962/p?utm_source=google_products&utm_medium=merchant Bishop fucked around with this message at 23:57 on May 15, 2012 |
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May 15, 2012 23:48
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*I say the halcyon scouts are more indestructible because of their design. In the attached picture I've taken apart both lights. The Halcyon comes completely apart. If the battery compartment floods nothing really happens. as you can see even the light housing and electrical spring comes apart. The scubapro (which is a longer light despite what the picture shows), uses a double o-ring and is made of metal instead of plastic. The metal needs more maintenance. Also the light housing can not be separated from the battery compartment like on the halcyon model. All that said, I'm just sperging about backup lights so if you are looking for a light with good penetration and a tight beam go for the scubapro one. e: wait Rockcity: , you said you're going cavern and he wants a primary and two backups. Buy the two lights I just posted as backups, apply the bolt snaps for them, then buy a Halcyon, Light Monkey, or Salvo 21 watt HID can light. by "wrist mounted" he means "goodman handle". Sorry about your checkbook. If you're backing off of doing much cave then ignore this, but light is serious business. I have the Halcyon LED can light but if I had it to do over again I'd go with the HID. I'm not unhappy with my primary but it does not have the same beam tightness as the HIDs. Having good beam tightness cuts through silt but is also VERY important for signaling. It sounds simple in theory but below the surface it is not. Drawing a big "O" within the line of sight of the diver in front of you is saying that you are OK and asking if they are. They respond with the same. A slow back and forth movement in their line of sight is asking for attention. A fast one is signaling an emergency. One of my things that my instructor always hounded me on was that I moved my light around too much, making people in front of me think there might be a problem. Bishop fucked around with this message at 01:28 on May 16, 2012 |
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May 15, 2012 23:59
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Bishop posted:e: wait Rockcity: , you said you're going cavern and he wants a primary and two backups. Buy the two lights I just posted as backups, apply the bolt snaps for them, then buy a Halcyon, Light Monkey, or Salvo 21 watt HID can light. by "wrist mounted" he means "goodman handle". Sorry about your checkbook. If you're backing off of doing much cave then ignore this, but light is serious business. I have the Halcyon LED can light but if I had it to do over again I'd go with the HID. I'm not unhappy with my primary but it does not have the same beam tightness as the HIDs. Having good beam tightness cuts through silt but is also VERY important for signaling. It sounds simple in theory but below the surface it is not. Drawing a big "O" within the line of sight of the diver in front of you is saying that you are OK and asking if they are. They respond with the same. A slow back and forth movement in their line of sight is asking for attention. A fast one is signaling an emergency. One of my things that my instructor always hounded me on was that I moved my light around too much, making people in front of me think there might be a problem. As of right now, I don't have any real intentions of doing actual cave diving, just cavern diving right now. When he said wrist mounted, he meant the soft neoprene style holder for a smaller light. He mentioned Intova as a company to take a look at. I've borrowed one of their standard small torch lights from him and it was pretty solid and he said he'd seen a slightly bigger one that you can get a wrist strap for online for around $80 or so. I think he was referencing their wide angle torch.
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May 16, 2012 04:09
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That's cool then. I personally don't like the wrist straps for smaller lights because if you do move into deeper overhead diving, you aren't going to have them if you need to deploy a backup light. It's good practice to handle a small light without a strap. On the other hand it's far easier to lose one without a strap so buy the light that you are diving for 
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May 16, 2012 06:47
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MA-Horus posted:I'm all booked in at Big Blue on Koh Tao, advanced open water with deep water and wreck specialties, plus nitrox. Late August 2012! After you get the advanced, head to Koh Phangan and go to Sail Rock. It's awesome. It's about midway between Koh Tao and Phangan, but I think only dive shops on Phangan go. I jumped in off the boat, looked down... to a whale shark swimming right directly below me. Swam to the rock, saw the biggest friggin Moray Eel in existance, went down a chimney, etc etc... anyway it's an awesome dive and since you'll be in the area, it's worth it.
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May 16, 2012 13:32
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stratdax posted:After you get the advanced, head to Koh Phangan and go to Sail Rock. It's awesome. It's about midway between Koh Tao and Phangan, but I think only dive shops on Phangan go. I jumped in off the boat, looked down... to a whale shark swimming right directly below me. Swam to the rock, saw the biggest friggin Moray Eel in existance, went down a chimney, etc etc... anyway it's an awesome dive and since you'll be in the area, it's worth it. Plenty of dive shops on Koh Tao head to Sail Rock - Big Blue go once or twice a week Sail Rock is undoubtedly the best site in the Gulf of Thailand.
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May 16, 2012 13:44
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So here is something that one of my good friends has been working on. I donated some of my time and boat to help shoot the deep shots. This is going to be one hell of a story for sure! Black Coral http://www.titanarts.com/black-coral/ Here is one of my most recent videos too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqy5_ft_uA SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 08:51 on May 17, 2012 |
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May 16, 2012 19:48
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Well I am reading of massive helium shortages.. Can anybody confirm? I am going to make some calls tonight 
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May 23, 2012 08:27
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SlicerDicer posted:Well I am reading of massive helium shortages.. Can anybody confirm? I am going to make some calls tonight People are quickly using up all the helium we have on earth. Any shortages we see now are just early indicators of our bleak heliumless future. 
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May 23, 2012 14:14
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All children's birthday parties are henceforth banned from balloon decorations.
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May 23, 2012 18:05
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Pretty sure its based on some bizarre law in America thats been around since WW2, where you have to get rid of any helium stockpiles so the nazis cant use it. Of course, this is still in effect today, because America.
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May 24, 2012 01:13
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Haven't they been testing neon as a helium substitute? Maybe that's just wild speculation but I swear I heard someone talking about using neon in a mixed gas for diving.
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May 24, 2012 01:46
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DeadlyMuffin posted: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. I know I'm quoting this from way the hell back on the last page, but we're leaving Saturday and are booked with Fifi at Caicos adventures. Thanks for the recommendation and I'll post a trip report and some substandard pictures when I get back or from there if we have wifi and we aren't out somewhere! E: also met ZoCrowes this week and he owns
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May 24, 2012 01:51
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jackyl posted:I know I'm quoting this from way the hell back on the last page, but we're leaving Saturday and are booked with Fifi at Caicos adventures. Thanks for the recommendation and I'll post a trip report and some substandard pictures when I get back or from there if we have wifi and we aren't out somewhere! Fifi is a character, I liked him. I hope you see tons of spotted eagle rays, that was one of my favorite parts of that trip!
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May 24, 2012 04:59
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Well I got some UHP it was not cheap 0_o J tank was 600$ Good thing I breathe then rebreathe! At that cost.. it would not take many OC dives to hit the cost of the Rebreather. 
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May 25, 2012 21:01
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Just got back from diving in Belize (Ambergris Caye). If you are ever around those parts, I highly recommend Chuck and Robbies. Their dive operation was great!
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May 27, 2012 01:26
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IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:People are quickly using up all the helium we have on earth. Any shortages we see now are just early indicators of our bleak heliumless future. Helium costs so much god drat money. I try and block it out but on deeper long open circuit dives I'm approaching $150 dollars on helium alone. A rebreather burns through less helium but still. Ban all Macy's thanksgiving day parades, all children's birthday parties, and using helium for anything else beyond scientific or diving applications. sheri posted:Just got back from diving in Belize (Ambergris Caye). If you are ever around those parts, I highly recommend Chuck and Robbies. Their dive operation was great!
Bishop fucked around with this message at 03:59 on May 27, 2012 |
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May 27, 2012 03:53
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Those are some really nice photos. I was wondering if you could give some basics on underwater photography? I looked at Wetpixel, but it seems like a magazine for people with some basic knowledge already and I'm kind of looking for a "Underwater Photography for Dummies" thing.
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May 27, 2012 04:55
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Bishop posted:
It is all boat diving-- the barrier reef is too far offshore to swim to comfortably. Belize has something for everyone really. There are sections that have deeper reefs with walls, there are some parts of the reef that are incredibly shallow and have a ton of things to look at, and everything in between. If you are looking for good wall diving, I'd suggest going out to Turneffe Atoll. I've also heard that the dives on Lighthouse Reef are spectactular, but those are usually combined into a three dive day with one stop being the Blue Hole and I've never had any interest in diving there. We just dove in the Belize Barrier reef, we were in the 50-80 foot range for all of our dives and we saw (for larger things), lots of nurse sharks, spotted eagle rays, turtles, dolphins, a remora that hung around us for pretty much an entire dive, grouper, barracuda and all of your other 'usual suspects' when it comes to Caribbean reef fish. We saw a couple of squids too at a shallower spot on a reef. You could also snorkel or scuba in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, and that is like an aquarium. I snorkeled the shallower parts of it, and I lost track of how many different species of fish I saw. I'd like to go back just to dive/snorkel in Hol Chan again. Edit: One of our dive masters also found a Spotted Drum on one of our dives, which he was pretty excited about. sheri fucked around with this message at 05:57 on May 27, 2012 |
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May 27, 2012 05:54
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Bishop posted:My thoughts on this: Well just remember, I will use about 10$ in Helium per dive. That would be a deep dive too. I could quickly offset my costs of the rebreather/training in the helium costs. That single tank will get me about 60 Rebreather dives. I am just getting started in trimix too. Arbitrary Coin posted:Those are some really nice photos. I was wondering if you could give some basics on underwater photography? I looked at Wetpixel, but it seems like a magazine for people with some basic knowledge already and I'm kind of looking for a "Underwater Photography for Dummies" thing. You asking me? 1) Can you set your camera to manual? 2) Can you control F-Stop underwater? 3) Set ISO to 100-250 depending what your doing. Less light set up to 400 I never need higher. 4) Set F-Stop to about 8-?? Depends what your shooting 5) Play with ISO and F-Stop numbers. 6) Get some strobes and diffuse the light even underwater. 7) Always run strobes at full power TTL is not srs bidness. 8) Most of my adjustments once I set ISO for any given area are f-stop based. Also learning histograms helps, learning how to just dial in your camera and you will do just fine. And remember I shot over 200 photos today. About 90 were usable. Even less do I post online. I will also note that I have used a G12 underwater and thats what provided some of the shots that were great before I went to the DSLR. AF35 Strobes are decent and I shot a ton with just 1 strobe. I will gladly give you more terrible advice for photos I half the time have no idea what I am doing. I just can seem to replicate good shots LOL.. I suppose thats what matters?     This is Me 
SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 07:54 on May 27, 2012 |
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May 27, 2012 07:48
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Underwater photography is hard, I believe. I do know for a fact, though, that it is even harder when you are a rank rear end amateur with 12 dives since your open water certification and you are using a point and shoot in a case. But, gently caress that, its still fun! Sometimes you see a lobster and realize that they have redeye problems like people too, only not red.  Sometimes you see a shark and actually get a good picture. Well, except for the fact that the point and shoot flash does nothing for loss of color at depth and the spots on the inside off the camera housing that I keep meaning to clean off and forgetting to follow up on. Except for those things, you sometimes get one you are happy with.  Sometimes you see something cool, like a barracuda with its mouth open and then you are too much of a slow uncoordinated idiot to capture it in time, so you get an out of focus closed mouth shot.  You may try to make up for it by getting close enough that it opens its mouth again (or just partially close, use zoom, and hope to get stupid lucky).  But, photography challenges notwithstanding, diving the wall off of West Caicos has be awesome. I find it quite inspirational! And my wife's having fun diving too, so there will be at least four more chances for me to take terrible pictures. Also, we're about to go out drinking and eating jerk chicken with a live reggae band. I only have one reaction to that!  TCI is awesome, dive here. And Caicos Adventures has been great so far, except I have a feeling all of our dives will be near West Caicos. That's okay, though, the wall owns.
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May 31, 2012 00:21
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jackyl posted:Underwater photography is hard, I believe. I do know for a fact, though, that it is even harder when you are a rank rear end amateur with 12 dives since your open water certification and you are using a point and shoot in a case. But, gently caress that, its still fun! Cool pics. Welcome to your new money drain/obsession. A quick and dirty secret I personally love for badly lit underwater photos is using the "auto tone" option in photoshop. It really un-does a lot of the blue filtering you get. I did it to two of your photos as an example.  
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May 31, 2012 00:31
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With some very basic Photoshop skills you can turn a drab photo into a semi-decent one. If you have one with a lot of color, you can make it really pop by upping saturation levels as well. I did this in less than 3 minutes using nothing more than the levels slider and the "auto color" option.
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May 31, 2012 03:35
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I don't care if it was a crude drawing in your wet notes (that's the best I could do I have enough expensive diving stuff without touching photography), that is one sweet rear end shark to see when you're still just entering your teens of logged dives. Awesome! e: don't worry about barracuda. You will get plenty of chances to take pictures of them They'll also always freak you, ok at least me, out though.
Bishop fucked around with this message at 16:03 on May 31, 2012 |
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May 31, 2012 12:37
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[quote="SlicerDicer" post=""404028154"] [/quote]This is simply fantastic. Keep shooting away. One day I'm going to stop being lazy and update the OP with you and other goons personal photography. As an aside, tell that dude that looks like he is standing on the reef to learn some buoyancy and trim control before I.... *gets dragged to wherever overhead/GUE crazies need to go* Bishop fucked around with this message at 12:54 on May 31, 2012 |
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May 31, 2012 12:51
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Bishop posted:This is simply fantastic. Keep shooting away. One day I'm going to stop being lazy and update the OP with you and other goons personal photography. As an aside, tell that dude that looks like he is standing on the reef to learn some buoyancy and trim control before I.... *gets dragged to wherever overhead/GUE crazies need to go* He was standing on sand no worries. I will post a few more pics later and a video of me and him screwing around at our 75ft deco stop. jackyl posted:Underwater photography is hard, I believe. I do know for a fact, though, that it is even harder when you are a rank rear end amateur with 12 dives since your open water certification and you are using a point and shoot in a case. But, gently caress that, its still fun! The advices, Turn off your internal flash you are getting mean backscatter ruining perfectly good images... Run camera in full manual mode if possible I am sure its possible on most. Learn how to set your aperture and iso settings. Set the ISO to as low as you can and aperture above 8 if possible to open field of view. What camera you using and I will gladly explain how to do it. Also remember a slightly underexposed image can always be lit back up but a overexposed image explodes color and is trash. Underwater photography is a art for sure. Some Reefs  
SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Jun 1, 2012 |
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Jun 1, 2012 02:28
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My wife and I will start the open water certification next week. We won't be doing the actual open water for a few more weeks. Is a dive computer something we should get for that or can we wait until we do our first dive? Also, how is this for a "beginner" computer? http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/MRSPWC.html?&& We have masks, boots, fins, and snorkels. What else is a "must get" before our first dive?
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Jun 4, 2012 17:53
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Kaddish posted:My wife and I will start the open water certification next week. We won't be doing the actual open water for a few more weeks. Is a dive computer something we should get for that or can we wait until we do our first dive? I'd hold off on getting a computer until you are more familiar with what you want out of a computer, where you plan on doing most of your diving, and if you even like diving after trying it out "for real" a few times.
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Jun 4, 2012 18:44
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Agreed. A dive computer is nice but not necessary. Many people get really interested in the sport and buy all the gear, only to realize later that they don't really go diving very often. The basics are nice to have around because they're really just snorkeling gear.
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Jun 4, 2012 19:01
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Isn't it a huge pain in the rear end not having a computer though? I'm just now reading through the class books and it seems like it would be a hassle having to plan dives manually. Even if only diving once a year.
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Jun 4, 2012 19:05
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Kaddish posted:Isn't it a huge pain in the rear end not having a computer though? I'm just now reading through the class books and it seems like it would be a hassle having to plan dives manually. Even if only diving once a year. It's really not that difficult to do, but if it sets your mind at ease then and seems affordable then go for it.
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Jun 4, 2012 19:09
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Kaddish posted:Isn't it a huge pain in the rear end not having a computer though? I'm just now reading through the class books and it seems like it would be a hassle having to plan dives manually. Even if only diving once a year. It can be, but it isn't too bad. You can even rent computers from most dive shops if you are worried about it being a hassle to plan dives manually. I use a computer when I dive, but since I dive only a few times a year I just rent them from my local dive shop. They are nice computers and I am familiar with them and the guys that owns the place gives me a good deal. I still plan my dives manually and reference the tables though-- keeps me more aware of what I am doing and keeps me in practice for knowing how to use the charts and manually plan dives in the future if I ever need to. I'd get a couple dives under your belt first before you decide to start looking for expensive gear. Honestly, the first couple of times I dove after being certified I had a computer and didn't even look at it-- I was way more focused on air consumption, controlling my buoyancy, and following the guide.
sheri fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Jun 4, 2012 |
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Jun 4, 2012 22:46
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In Australia every dive company I've gone out with won't let you dive without a computer and they all hire them out as part of the reg set. I've only got the basic fins/masks/snorkel but am considering buying a computer and regs. So I've got 30+ dives under my belt with still just the basic snorkelling gear. I only go out 5 times a year or something so I'm just not that motivated to spend much on equipment.
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Jun 5, 2012 02:01
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IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:"auto tone" option in photoshop. Trivia posted:With some very basic Photoshop skills... the "auto color" option. I'm detecting a theme here! I am going to play around with the online Express Editor and Gimp to see how that works before shelling out for Photoshop, too. Hopefully those will get me close enough - thanks for the tips! SlicerDicer posted:The advices, Turn off your internal flash you are getting mean backscatter ruining perfectly good images... Run camera in full manual mode if possible I am sure its possible on most. Learn how to set your aperture and iso settings. Set the ISO to as low as you can and aperture above 8 if possible to open field of view. Your pictures are awesome, thanks for the advice! I am currently using a Canon Powershot SD 1300. We bought it because it had an underwater mode, had a Canon made underwater housing and was relatively cheap, so we were okay with using it to replace our out of date point and shoot even if it didn't end up great underwater. I've been happy with it as a complete rookie, though, so I'm going to stick with it for a bit. Your advice is great, though - I was just sticking it in underwater mode and using the diffuser on the housing. I know I can set ISO (won't lower require a steadier hand though?), but need to look into aperture. Disabling flash wasn't something I even considered as an option, seeing as how all the impressive camera setups I saw had massive strobes, etc - I take it poor flash is worse than no flash? To finish up the trip report, we ended up diving two more two tank dives after my post last week and they were great too. We saw a lot pretty much every day, including more sharks, a large sea turtle and a somewhat confused grouper that would follow dive groups around and want its chin scratched. The only thing was that we ended up diving off West Caicos for all 8 dives since the conditions weren't great at some of the other sites. Not a big deal, there are a lot of dive sites there and diving the wall was awesome, but it would have been cool to see a bit more variance. We're now up to 17 post OW cert dives and still loving it! Buoyancy control and consumption improved over the week and seem better based on logs, although we went deeper this week than we had prior, so that impacts consumption too. Can't wait to go out again - hopefully we can get some local dives in over the next couple of months. If not, we're going to Key West for a long weekend to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in August and will probably dive one or twice there. let it mellow fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Jun 5, 2012 |
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Jun 5, 2012 22:33
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Kaal posted:Agreed. A dive computer is nice but not necessary. Many people get really interested in the sport and buy all the gear, only to realize later that they don't really go diving very often. The basics are nice to have around because they're really just snorkeling gear. You can rent them easy too. Just learn to use it please when renting. I cannot tell you how many people have gone into deco.
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Jun 6, 2012 00:05
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jackyl posted:Your pictures are awesome, thanks for the advice! I am currently using a Canon Powershot SD 1300. We bought it because it had an underwater mode, had a Canon made underwater housing and was relatively cheap, so we were okay with using it to replace our out of date point and shoot even if it didn't end up great underwater. I've been happy with it as a complete rookie, though, so I'm going to stick with it for a bit. Yes I have huge strobes but if they are not aimed right? Backscatter is HORRIBLE... So what happens? the light is fired straight forward and the camera sees the particles in the water, those particles that are illuminated by the flash then are grabbed by the sensor. This results in images that have spots all over them. Now say I have my 16+8 inch arms attached? I can then position my strobes FAR away from the camera 2 feet on each side to be precise. This allows angling of the strobes so the light hits the particles at off angles.. then you can do this! Original Image zero backscatter http://stealthwater.smugmug.com/Underwater/Molokini-26th-May/i-WgwR7vx/0/O/IMG5916.png So anyway run it in manual if possible but for sure turn off flash and make sure your at 1/160 usually thats key on the capture and prevent blur underwater. Best thing play with the camera underwater and dont be afraid of messing with settings you will make great or horrible images. The ratio of horrible to great gets better If you want a decent strobe that is not crazy expensive... http://www.ikelite.com/af35/autoflash.html I used that strobe (Note was single strobe with diffuser) to take these pics. I used a canon G12 for that.   
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Jun 6, 2012 00:34
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jackyl posted:a somewhat confused grouper that would follow dive groups around and want its chin scratched. The only thing was that we ended up diving off West Caicos for all 8 dives since the conditions weren't great at some of the other sites. Not a big deal, there are a lot of dive sites there and diving the wall was awesome, but it would have been cool to see a bit more variance. That grouper sounds like he owned. Also if you get a dive where perhaps it is somewhere you've seen before or the visuals aren't great, its a good time to practice your diving technique and style. For example when I was acting as rear guard for a dive group on a site that I'd dived many times before, I would take the opportunity to do things like concentrate on my breathing ratio (how many seconds breathing in vs how many breathing out), counting kick cycles, or just observing other divers or the lead DM/instructor for habits both good or bad. Of course some things like buoyancy and stuff you try and practice on every dive, but putting even more concentration into them when you have the opportunity can pay dividends. It sounds like you're already both off to a great start, so the best thing you can do is keep that momentum going whenever you can. A bunch of dives close together will certainly net you more gain than the same amount spread out, but every dive is valuable experience. Edit: still lovin your pics slicer and especially your advice. Could be worth getting a section in the OP with some of that. Azzip fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Jun 6, 2012 |
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Jun 6, 2012 00:49
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Kaddish posted:My wife and I will start the open water certification next week. We won't be doing the actual open water for a few more weeks. Is a dive computer something we should get for that or can we wait until we do our first dive? My advice would be to do open water on tables then rent a computer. Computers are much nicer to use and give you credit for your depth profile rather than just your max profile but working with tables gives you a better understanding of how pressure effects you.
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Jun 6, 2012 08:15
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