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Bob Loblaw posted:I wanted to ask, has anyone on here besides me gotten bent? Finch! posted:How do you carry it? I'm not entirely sure where it's going to go - the only place I can think of is between two loops of surgical tube at the bottom of my backplate. It's huge even when rolled - too large for any pocket I have. E: In-water recompression is serious business and a terrible idea unless there are no other good options. I was asymptomatic, far from a chamber and had a buddy with enough pure o2 left that it seemed like a good option. We went to 15-20 feet and I breathed off of his o2 bottle. Had I developed symptoms, we would have surfaced and called the coast guard. Bishop fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Jun 17, 2012 |
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Jun 17, 2012 21:40
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Would you guys suggest DAN insurance? It seems like a pretty good deal, 75 bucks a year or so. I borrowed a friend's PADI "Adventures in Diving" textbook and started reading up on the deep water diving...I'll admit it has me a little spooked.
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Jun 18, 2012 02:20
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MA-Horus posted:Would you guys suggest DAN insurance? It seems like a pretty good deal, 75 bucks a year or so. I borrowed a friend's PADI "Adventures in Diving" textbook and started reading up on the deep water diving...I'll admit it has me a little spooked. 1000 yes's if you do any kind of diving pretty much.
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Jun 18, 2012 02:32
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SlicerDicer posted:acehardware they have velcro straps + brass clips.. dont you have spare d rings? Sausage Envy is important find a way I guess I could clip to either the front or back crotch strap D ring, since I'll never use a scooter. It's kinda large and I don't want it dangling about on my chest, and don't want to clip it to my only waist D ring 'cause that's where I clip my SPG. That pouch looks like the kind of thing I'm after. Unfortunately shipping to Australia is ridiculous - fifty bucks! Must be made from lead or something. Bishop posted:At least for me, big rear end SMBs go behind your backplate. I carry 2... a 3 foot surface marker which fits in one of my hip pockets and a 60 pound lift bag which goes behind my back plate. I should carry a taller surface marker and I'll probably break down and buy a 6 foot one soon. How do you hold it behind the backplate? I've made two loops of surgical tube through holes in the bottom of the backplate and cable tied the ends together, but it's not a very elegant solution and I want the loops gone. Edit: This is the Internet. I can Google 
Finch! fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Jun 18, 2012 |
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Jun 18, 2012 02:43
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MA-Horus posted:Would you guys suggest DAN insurance? It seems like a pretty good deal, 75 bucks a year or so. I borrowed a friend's PADI "Adventures in Diving" textbook and started reading up on the deep water diving...I'll admit it has me a little spooked. Great googly moogly yes. Any diving injury is 99% not going to be covered by health insurance since they consider it an extreme activity. If you dive regularly, its an absolute necessity in case of an emergency.
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Jun 18, 2012 03:13
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Bueno. I'll get right on that, then.
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Jun 18, 2012 08:19
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DAN insurance purchased, seems like the best decision. Now another question, for any baldies. What do you wear to keep from getting horribly sunburned? I got fried in Thailand earlier this year, and I'm looking for something to wear in the water to keep that from happening. Bandanna? skull-cap? Neoprene beanie?
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Jun 20, 2012 01:38
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Hair.  Haha I kid. This is never a problem for the folks diving out here in the Northwest since everyone wears a full hood (and there's never any sun anyway), but I know that some of the guys like wearing bandannas to keep their hair under control and it seems to work pretty well.
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Jun 20, 2012 01:44
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MA-Horus posted:Would you guys suggest DAN insurance? It seems like a pretty good deal, 75 bucks a year or so. I borrowed a friend's PADI "Adventures in Diving" textbook and started reading up on the deep water diving...I'll admit it has me a little spooked. I'm surprised I didn't get dropped after taking advantage of it, but yes! In the end, most of what they covered were the deductibles and some other small things that my primary care provider didn't pick up, but if you don't have any insurance, or even if you do, I highly recommend it. Diving is generally a safe sport, but if something goes wrong, it can be very expensive. I don't have my bills with me, but I think it cost me $8000 on my two hospital visits, not including follow up doctor visits. Also, if anyone hasn't read it yet, may I recommend Diver Down? http://www.amazon.com/Diver-Down-Real-World-SCUBA-Accidents/dp/0071445722 It may leave you a little more freaked out, but it really nails home the importance of knowing your limits and taking care of your gear. (edit)Sorry, missed that you got it, hope you got the full blown coverage. I didn't, but will be upgrading it this time around.
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Jun 20, 2012 20:04
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If you need to poop underwater, remember that your feces is positively buoyant. Therefore you need to be able to maintain neutral buoyancy while inverted. For wiping, use your alternate secondary in purge mode - not the reg itself. This is important. I will be in Seoul South Korea for a year. Any opinions on the Dive Shops in that area? I am particularly interested on Aquatic Frontiers, 45km South of Seoul on the Osan Air Force Base. (They do the IDC). http://aquaticfrontier.com/?page_id=268 Has anyone had a good experience with custom wetsuit manufacturers that they would like to share? When I first started diving, I had a grey RipCurl surfing suit. It was good, but not very visible. I would like to get a new one made - ideally using phosphorescent dyes like they sell at United Nuclear. http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=28_45&products_id=383
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Jun 22, 2012 16:34
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Spent a good 2.5 hours pool diving today to volunteer at a Marine Advanced Technology Education competition assisting with setup and judging their underwater robotics event. Diving it was cool, but man I wanted to drive one of those things. One of them looked like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit which was awesome.
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Jun 23, 2012 19:53
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I just have my final dive class for Open Water tomorrow and they've been pushing the advanced open water class for an extra 200 bucks if you sign up by the end of the class. Is there really much bigger of a deal from going from 60 to 100 feet? I'm considering doing it, considering the fact that for 200 bucks, that's only an extra 50 bucks considering you get like 5 dives out of it for free.
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Jun 25, 2012 13:07
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TLG James posted:I just have my final dive class for Open Water tomorrow and they've been pushing the advanced open water class for an extra 200 bucks if you sign up by the end of the class. Is there really much bigger of a deal from going from 60 to 100 feet? I'm going to sound like a big baby here to the rest of the board I'm sure, but I would recommend against it. Honestly, while I have talked to some dive instructors who say to go ahead and go for it, I have talked to a few that recommend at least 30 normal dives before going for advanced. Make sure you have your basics covered, perfect your buoyancy, practice your skills, etc, during those first 30-50 dives before going on to deeper and more challenging environments. 40 feet may not sound like much, but it is but it is an extra g in pressure, your safety/deco stops become much more important, and you will have some comfort and experience under your belt should anything go wrong. You can probably cisa from 30 feet if you had to, but from 90 feet, no way.
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Jun 25, 2012 13:52
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Bob Loblaw posted:I'm going to sound like a big baby here to the rest of the board I'm sure, but I would recommend against it. I'm going to take the opposite viewpoint and say go ahead and take your Advanced. The Advanced Course is something of a misnomer*. Taking the Advanced Course does not make you an advanced diver it just means that you have been exposed to more challenging diving situations while under the guidance of an instructor. Most Advanced Courses are designed for new divers. It does not mean that as soon as your Advanced Course is over and you have around 12 dives that you should be out diving to 100 feet on your own. No course is a substitute for experience but it can greatly expand your knowledge and skills set. *NAUI's Advanced Course used to be called Openwater II and it's course curriculum reflects that. It's geared more towards newer divers with less than 10 dives than divers with 50+ dives.
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Jun 25, 2012 14:14
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When I got my open water cert I had asked about advanced and they had told me there was no reason I couldn't take the advanced class immediately after. They said that they actually had some people who hadn't done any dives between the two even. Advanced also doesn't have a standard way of teaching it like open water does either, you just need to complete five of the however many specific dives, i.e. night, deep water, nitrox, etc. My friend is an instructor and although I don't have my advanced yet, we're checking off the dives as I dive with him. I only need one more and he can give me my advanced. He said that when he teaches me cavern that he can classify that as a night dive and give me both certs.
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Jun 25, 2012 15:31
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I thought there was classroom element to PADI nitrox? My understanding is the diving itself is pretty much the same as with regular air but you need to learn new tables.
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Jun 25, 2012 16:05
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Kaddish posted:I thought there was classroom element to PADI nitrox? My understanding is the diving itself is pretty much the same as with regular air but you need to learn new tables. It's only a classroom element. Technically there is no diving necessary for it. My buddy just gave me the study materials and had me take the test and then he graded it and $30 later I was good to go. You can however use a nitrox dive as one of your skills for the advanced class.
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Jun 25, 2012 18:21
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Bob Loblaw posted:I'm going to sound like a big baby here to the rest of the board I'm sure, but I would recommend against it. ZoCrowes posted:I'm going to take the opposite viewpoint and say go ahead and take your Advanced. The Advanced Course is something of a misnomer*. Taking the Advanced Course does not make you an advanced diver it just means that you have been exposed to more challenging diving situations while under the guidance of an instructor. I'd say that you both have very valid perspectives. The advanced course isn't particularly advanced, and it is something that is quite doable by someone fresh from OW1. But if you aren't feeling relatively comfortable in the water by the end of your Open Water training, I'd hesitate about attempting a deep dive. I think that the advanced course is great at turning a middling newbie diver into a more experienced and confident one. They say that most dive accidents occur within your first 10 dives, and performing those dives under the watchful eye of a Divemaster seems like a good idea to me. But if you're still experiencing anxiety or having difficulty performing CESAs and other required techniques, then it might be better to do some more dives with an experienced buddy that can give you their full attention.
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Jun 25, 2012 19:18
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I've been told I can't get advanced certified until I have AT LEAST 15 dives under my belt, but they prefer 20 or more. Although my instructor did say that the conditions we dived in for our four open water dives for the open water PADI cert were highly advanced. During my first open water dive the visibility was less than one foot and my group lost me. 
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Jun 26, 2012 01:13
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Does anyone have any recommendations about diving on Kauai? We're going there next month and both have an impressive 18 dives under our belts, so I'm hoping we can improve our skills and level of comfort. It looks like there are a few established operations so if anyone has any experience with any of them it would be great to hear. One of the shops says 5mm wetsuit... is it really that cold? We used our 3/2s in Bonaire down to 70 feet and didn't have any temperature issues until the end of the second dive of the day.
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Jun 26, 2012 02:27
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Cold is relative. Everyone has different comfort levels with temperature in the water just like they do on land. I've been on boats with people diving in board shorts and a rash guard next to a guy in a 5mm with a chest warmer and a hood. I'd look up water temps and go by that since it's an objective statistic.
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Jun 26, 2012 03:10
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My god, I can actually contribute something! I was on Kauai in February, did 2 dives with Seasport Divers. Bought my snorkel and mask from them, actually. Pretty professional operation, good safety briefs, friendly divemasters. One actually commented on my predive checks because I smelled the air coming from my regulator, he said nobody does that anymore, but it's nice to see. There was about 15 people diving in total. Dive sites called Stonehouse, which was OK, but not all that impressive, and Sheraton Caverns. Sheraton Caverns is a series of blown-out extinct lava-tubes, which are habitats for green sea turtles, an absolutely incredible dive, by far the coolest thing I've done diving. I was wearing a 3mm shorty wetsuit in February and was fine water-temp wise, but I'm a big(fat) dude, some people in full 6mm wetsuits were pretty cold. YMMV. There's lots of dive operations on the island but Seasport came the most highly recommended. Excellent choice on Kauai by the way. It's a stunningly beautiful island. My family was there for 3 days before they started looking at real estate (don't do this it's hellaciously expensive).
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Jun 26, 2012 10:02
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We had 16 degrees C last Sunday in Perth. I was starting to get pretty cold by about 40 mins wearing my 5-4-3mm suit. Gonna be going back to the UK to get some dives in around October, I'm going to pick up a drysuit there and use it in Winter here in Australia. Before the UK I'm off to Peru though, anyone know anything about shore diving off Lima?
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Jun 26, 2012 13:21
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Kaal posted:I'd say that you both have very valid perspectives. The advanced course isn't particularly advanced, and it is something that is quite doable by someone fresh from OW1. But if you aren't feeling relatively comfortable in the water by the end of your Open Water training, I'd hesitate about attempting a deep dive. I think that the advanced course is great at turning a middling newbie diver into a more experienced and confident one. They say that most dive accidents occur within your first 10 dives, and performing those dives under the watchful eye of a Divemaster seems like a good idea to me. But if you're still experiencing anxiety or having difficulty performing CESAs and other required techniques, then it might be better to do some more dives with an experienced buddy that can give you their full attention. I think I'll end up signing up, if for nothing more than the free dives out of it. I live in the middle of the country normally, so who knows when I'll get another work trip to somewhere I can scuba for months.
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Jun 26, 2012 14:07
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MA-Horus posted:One actually commented on my predive checks because I smelled the air coming from my regulator, he said nobody does that anymore, but it's nice to see. He'd probably know better than me whether people are practicing that, but it's definitely an important check that you should perform. You're sniffing the air to check for gasoline fumes, and then you should breath it in as a secondary test. You don't want to wait to find out that you're huffing carbon monoxide during your dive. Probably not an issue in Hawaii, but many areas off the beaten track still use the old gasoline engine air compressors.
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Jun 26, 2012 17:17
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I did my Advanced Open Water right after my Open Water and I'm glad I did because I was traveling onward to places where I wanted to dive but training would've been expensive, but I think it's a bad idea to sign up for the AOW before you've even had your first dive. I agree that there's nothing special about the skills you learn in the AOW course, but there's a very slight chance you might be one of those people who freak the gently caress out underwater, or maybe you can't equalize worth poo poo, or whatever. It'd be a bummer to lose the AOW course money if it turns out that you aren't cut out to be a diver.
eviljelly fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jun 26, 2012 |
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Jun 26, 2012 17:45
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eviljelly posted:I did my Advanced Open Water right after my Open Water and I'm glad I did because I was traveling onward to places where I wanted to dive but training would've been expensive, but I think it's a bad idea to sign up for the AOW before you've even had your first dive. I agree that there's nothing special about the skills you learn in the AOW course, but there's a very slight chance you might be one of those people who freak the gently caress out underwater, or maybe you can't equalize worth poo poo, or whatever. It'd be a bummer to lose the AOW course money if it turns out that you aren't cut out to be a diver. The place I'm going though doesn't make you pay till you do your final dive. It's pretty drat nice.
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Jun 26, 2012 18:55
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Kaal posted:He'd probably know better than me whether people are practicing that, but it's definitely an important check that you should perform. You're sniffing the air to check for gasoline fumes, and then you should breath it in as a secondary test. You don't want to wait to find out that you're huffing carbon monoxide during your dive. Probably not an issue in Hawaii, but many areas off the beaten track still use the old gasoline engine air compressors. Yeah, I do that, contaminated air check. I was diving with a guy around my age who had about 20 dives, and his technical knowledge was abysmal, almost to the point that I didn't want to dive with him. He had to ask me what buttons inflated/deflated his 'vest'. When I asked if he meant his BCD, he didn't know what a BCD was. I kinda gave him a  and did some explaining. So very very glad I went with a hard-rear end instructor for my OWD.
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Jun 27, 2012 01:09
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TLG James posted:The place I'm going though doesn't make you pay till you do your final dive. It's pretty drat nice. lol then of course you should do it. Good decision!
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Jun 27, 2012 01:45
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eviljelly posted:lol then of course you should do it. Good decision! I got my "cert" today. Signed up for advanced, starting this friday with a 100 foot dive. We did the CESA ascent and our first "skill" and it was super choppy up top and when I went to breath in air into the BCD, I got about half a gallon of salt water into my lungs. Good times.
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Jun 27, 2012 01:50
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MA-Horus posted:I kinda gave him a Those people scare the gently caress out of me. I'm always just like, "You do realize that you're in charge of not killing yourself, right?"
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Jun 27, 2012 07:37
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TLG James posted:We did the CESA ascent and our first "skill" and it was super choppy up top and when I went to breath in air into the BCD, I got about half a gallon of salt water into my lungs. Good times. We always hear the best stories from military guys. One fun diver a few months back was a submariner in some navy and he told us that part of his training was doing a CESA. But it simulated a sinking submarine, so they had to all go out a ~75cm x ~75cm window, one by one, while the chamber filled with water. From 40 meters (131 feet). He said his lungs were burning for air... and he still had 10-15 meters to go. Be glad you don't have to do that! While we're on military diving... we had another military dude, and part of his training was doing an entry from a helicopter from about 12 meters (39 feet) in the air. He said you had to make sure you enter feet first because if you land on your tank, you would break your back. Additional fun-ness: no matter how tight you hold onto your poo poo, ALL of it goes flying off you the instant you hit the water when you jump from that high. God drat crazy sons of bitches.
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Jun 27, 2012 08:10
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eviljelly posted:God drat crazy sons of bitches. The best one I've seen was a former military diver - British, I think - who had retired and was taking an open water refresher course I was also taking. His method of clearing his mask was to somehow suck all the water out through his nose, then breathe air back in...
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Jun 27, 2012 08:45
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Kaal posted:Those people scare the gently caress out of me. I'm always just like, "You do realize that you're in charge of not killing yourself, right?" Yeah. He was a piss-poor diver, he pounded through his tank just maintaining buoyancy.
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Jun 27, 2012 13:17
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I am back from 10 day absence.    Bishop posted:
http://www.recycleur.eu/cariboost_files/2008TechDiverReport.pdf Should be required reading for any tech diver, was sent to me by my good friend and instructor 
SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Jun 30, 2012 |
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Jun 28, 2012 05:37
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The diving gods have been against me the last couple months. I've had three dives cancelled because of weather and today's dive was cancelled because the motor in the dive boat died. I still need to go use my new camera damnit!
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Jul 1, 2012 03:46
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I was fortunate enough to be working on the island of Oahu last week, and of course I went diving during my free time. The wreck photos are from the M/V Mahi and the turtle was seen during a freediving trip to Shark Cove. Awesome visibility  Spotted eagle rays  Yours truly. I dove my Interspiro AGA, and it was nice to have comms on a recreational dive for a change  
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Jul 6, 2012 00:02
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This is probably the coolest kickstarter i've ever seen.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...urce=newsletter
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Jul 6, 2012 00:09
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Diver Dick posted:I was fortunate enough to be working on the island of Oahu last week, and of course I went diving during my free time. The wreck photos are from the M/V Mahi and the turtle was seen during a freediving trip to Shark Cove. Awesome man glad you got to visit hawaiian waters. The visibility on Oahu seemed to be pretty good that day. In other news I have gone full retard... I now own a MK15 rebreather, it shall commence moar madness'es   Here is some tastes of Moku Ho'oniki again.  
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Jul 6, 2012 21:08
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Woot! Just finished the DM course! All I have left to do is to send off the paperwork and get the snorkel test done!
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Jul 7, 2012 10:57
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