Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

I would but I have the remainder of my AOW, plus nitrox, then another week of diving. Already put the deposit down. Saw one of your boats in the harbor, interesting layout with the tanks up front.

Also night diving is the most surreally awesome thing holy poo poo.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Clicktrack
Aug 15, 2007
Kawasakis! Maicos! PURSANG!

pupdive posted:

I love this picture. I wish I had shot it myself. I cannot really say what I love about it, but.

Thanks dude, it's my desktop :) That was just on a Canon Ixus130 with underwater housing, wish I still had it. That picture's from Bali. We might be used to Sydney conditions, but the temperature there was like bathwater, and the visibility seemed almost limitless.

Here's TANZENTURLE's footage of the Camp Cove dive: http://youtu.be/8peAUeUcK8Y

It was really cool to see the active nature of creatures that are usually much more docile, like the cuttlefish. 1:48 for cuttlefish dramatically changing its skin colour and pattern.


For more experienced night-divers: what kind of behavioral changes do you notice in sea life between day and night dives?

Clicktrack fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Aug 27, 2012

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

East gales to 35 kt. Wind waves 17 ft. Scattered showers.

Its time to DIVE

Sotore posted:

As an experienced diver, how often do you worry about the 'bends'? And what would you recommend to any novice divers like myself about avoiding it?

As a decompression diver! I must say the number one thing hydrate hydrate hydrate. Pee like a madman underwater if needed. Put it to perspective just for real life. I drink enough water than I pee 10-15 times per dive (3 hours).

I really am not that concerned about it I run very conservative profiles.

Clicktrack posted:

Thanks dude, it's my desktop :) That was just on a Canon Ixus130 with underwater housing, wish I still had it. That picture's from Bali. We might be used to Sydney conditions, but the temperature there was like bathwater, and the visibility seemed almost limitless.

Here's TANZENTURLE's footage of the Camp Cove dive: http://youtu.be/8peAUeUcK8Y

It was really cool to see the active nature of creatures that are usually much more docile, like the cuttlefish. 1:48 for cuttlefish dramatically changing its skin colour and pattern.


For more experienced night-divers: what kind of behavioral changes do you notice in sea life between day and night dives?

Well where I dive twice a week I would be terrified to dive at night given the level of sharkatron. Imagine the paranoia 0_o

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
Tossed up some video from my dive with the Goliath Grouper off the coast of Jupiter, FL a week ago. We saw easily over 150 grouper on one of the dives, it was pretty awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tycri8cWEYY

pupdive
Jun 13, 2012

Clicktrack posted:

For more experienced night-divers: what kind of behavioral changes do you notice in sea life between day and night dives?

There is almost no way to come to the end of lists of what changes on night dives.

The funniest thing is that there are some schooling fish who just fall to the bottom asleep. They don't find a place to sleep, they just drift to the bottom as a school, and fall asleep still in a vague school shape, with their body color sort of faded out to match the sand. If you poke one, it shakes itself awake, changing colors, and sort of swims half asleep off to somewhere else.

Parrotfish sleep in holes facing out and blow big spit bubbles around themselves which supposedly alerts them in case something comes to hassle them, but usually just alerts divers to their presence.

All the invertebrates come out in force: Crabs, Shrimp, Octopus, and are much more active. Sea Urchins go from being spiky things in holes to being things that are walking around.

If divers ever get a chance to be on a live aboard they should avail themselves of the ability to do a real middle of the night dive. Things change at 9:00 at night, and they change even more by midnight, and even more at 2:30 in the morning. These sorts of dives are easy on a liveaboard, they say.

fordan
Mar 9, 2009

Clue: Zero

SlicerDicer posted:

As a decompression diver! I must say the number one thing hydrate hydrate hydrate. Pee like a madman underwater if needed. Put it to perspective just for real life. I drink enough water than I pee 10-15 times per dive (3 hours).

There are two types of divers in the world: those who pee in their wet suit, and those who lie about it.

(and dry suit divers too I suppose)

Rooted Vegetable
Jun 1, 2002

fordan posted:

There are two types of divers in the world: those who pee in their wet suit, and those who lie about it.

(and dry suit divers too I suppose)

Am I the only one convinced that people will somehow see my act of shame?

Also, St. Lucia is worth diving for a few days. Hit the main sites, not enough sea life for my liking though. Watch out for fire coral.

Wish I had a a camera housing, was worth photos.

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

fordan posted:

There are two types of divers in the world: those who pee in their wet suit, and those who lie about it.

(and dry suit divers too I suppose)

I definitely pee in my drysuit all the time.

eviljelly
Aug 29, 2004

I've got a 3mm neoprene zip-up jacket which I'm in love with. I'd say about 70% of the reason I love it so is because I get to pee without worrying about marinating in my own pee all dive. I usually pee about 4-5 times a dive now.

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

East gales to 35 kt. Wind waves 17 ft. Scattered showers.

Its time to DIVE

fordan posted:

There are two types of divers in the world: those who pee in their wet suit, and those who lie about it.

(and dry suit divers too I suppose)

My catheter came off last dive, I already peed part so screw it.. I pissed the hell out of my drysuit then just flushed it with saltwater at surface once I took it off.

pupdive
Jun 13, 2012

Crunkjuice posted:

I definitely pee in my drysuit all the time.

(I peed in your suit too!)

I took too many vitamins today, and when I did the post dive flush on the boat, I washed the deck with bright yellow pee.

I am not the slightest bit ashamed to say this.

TANZENTURTLE
Oct 15, 2009

Pikachuuuuu

Heners_UK posted:

Am I the only one convinced that people will somehow see my act of shame?

Big underwater pee-man here too. I wonder if someone will see me hovering suspiciously motionless, apparently looking at nothing. Breathing steadily, perhaps even, contentedly?

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

SlicerDicer posted:

My catheter came off last dive, I already peed part so screw it.. I pissed the hell out of my drysuit then just flushed it with saltwater at surface once I took it off.

That sucks. I've been lucky my catheder has never come off. That would be slightly unpleasant.

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000
Peeing in wetsuit chat is my favorite diving chat. Just pee in your wetsuit. Warms you up on a cold dive. Feels good man.

Sotore posted:

As an experienced diver, how often do you worry about the 'bends'? And what would you recommend to any novice divers like myself about avoiding it?
I do a lot of decompression diving so I worry about it quite a bit. Getting bent is far from an exact science, I've been in situations where I definitely should have been bent but was not, and I know plenty of stories of people who did everything right on simple dives and still got bent. The best you can do is hydrate, follow the rules, and make offerings to Poseidon. E: Ascend slow, really loving slow. During your last 30 feet of ascent, 10 feet per minute is a good mark to go for. The only exception to this is when you've gone real deep and you're still rapidly ongassing until you get back up to 100' or so.

TANZENTURTLE posted:

Great pics, hope you murdered that lionfish

Clicktrack posted:

More great pics
This rules, it's always good to have more people contributing pics because an underwater camera is somewhere after a scooter on my "to buy" list.

TANZENTURTLE posted:

I noticed a while back that some people where talking about having done diving in quarries, im guessing because they live in central US states or similar circumstances. Can anyone elaborate what diving in a good quarry site is like? Do they deliberately hatch sustainable ecosystems to make them attractions?
Most of the quarries I've been in will have catfish and other types of freshwater fish in them. One type of fish comes up and nibbles on you. Dosen't really hurt, it's just annoying. I've been "bitten" more in quarries than in the ocean.

As has been said, most of what you do in a quarry is skills practice and looking at the poo poo they sunk in it. Trucks, boats, planes, helicopters, etc. One of my favorite stories is a quarry owner who had a semi that he wanted to put into the quarry, so he just drove it down the ramp into the water while wearing dive gear. I'm sure the EPA approved of that one...

Bishop fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Aug 28, 2012

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

Bishop posted:

As has been said, most of what you do in a quarry is skills practice and looking at the poo poo they sunk in it. Trucks, boats, planes, helicopters, etc. One of my favorite stories is a quarry owner who had a semi that he wanted to put into the quarry, so he just drove it down the ramp into the water while wearing dive gear. I'm sure the EPA approved of that one...

Skip forward to about 2 minutes in this. http://vimeo.com/44831221 I wasn't in this but in lake Travis we sunk a 3 story house boat i rode down to 100 feet. It was a controlled descent with lines from the surface so we didn't kill ourselves but that was an eerie feeling.

Also, don't dive at athens scuba park. Its run by a registered pedophile.

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000

Crunkjuice posted:

Skip forward to about 2 minutes in this. http://vimeo.com/44831221 I wasn't in this but in lake Travis we sunk a 3 story house boat i rode down to 100 feet. It was a controlled descent with lines from the surface so we didn't kill ourselves but that was an eerie feeling.

Also, don't dive at athens scuba park. Its run by a registered pedophile.
That's still pretty awesome. You got to experience being trapped in a sinking ship without the dying part. From what I've heard about the guy driving the semi into a quarry, he just revved the engine and drove the fucker straight in while alone. It wasn't all that deep though, maybe 30 feet.

Why are all the people that run dive quarries a little "off"?

Gromit
Aug 15, 2000

I am an oppressed White Male, Asian women wont serve me! Save me Campbell Newman!!!!!!!

Bishop posted:

Peeing in wetsuit chat is my favorite diving chat. Just pee in your wetsuit. Warms you up on a cold dive. Feels good man.

Only got 30 dives under my belt but I've yet to do it even once. My dives last about 40-50 minutes each and I've just never needed to pee when I'm down there.

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

I haven't worn a wetsuit yet in Thailand but pee in the ocean erryday.

First dive down to 39.9m today. Highly disconcerting to watch your pressure gauge drop like that. Nitrox/Wreck dives tomorrow.

Clicktrack
Aug 15, 2007
Kawasakis! Maicos! PURSANG!
TANZEN's been lauding the experience of peeing in his wetsuit for long enough, guess I'll finally join the club.

pupdive
Jun 13, 2012

MA-Horus posted:

I haven't worn a wetsuit yet in Thailand but pee in the ocean erryday.

First dive down to 39.9m today. Highly disconcerting to watch your pressure gauge drop like that. Nitrox/Wreck dives tomorrow.

Nice to see someone actually notice that, and understand why. I sometimes take a tiny 6 CF tank with me to have people breathe from to actually be able to see the needle move.

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

pupdive posted:

Nice to see someone actually notice that, and understand why. I sometimes take a tiny 6 CF tank with me to have people breathe from to actually be able to see the needle move.

Yeah, all while chasing after your NDL.

BiggerJ
May 21, 2007

What shall we do with him? A permaban, perhaps? Probate him for a few years? Or...shall we employ a big red custom title? You, the goons of SA, shall decide his fate.
I'm not considering getting into diving, but out of curiosity and for the benefit of anyone who is: what suggestions would you give to anyone who's considering getting into diving? How much money should be saved beforehand, things to keep in mind when arranging travel and while actually traveling, etc.

A few more specific questions:

How expensive a hobby is it? What's the minimum level of income someone should have for the hobby to be even remotely feasible?

What should be kept in mind when traveling to and staying in a third-world country?

BiggerJ fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Aug 29, 2012

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

BiggerJ posted:

I'm not considering getting into diving, but out of curiosity and for the benefit of anyone who is: what suggestions would you give to anyone who's considering getting into diving? How much money should be saved beforehand, things to keep in mind when arranging travel and while actually traveling, etc.

A few more specific questions:

How expensive a hobby is it? What's the minimum level of income someone should have for the hobby to be even remotely feasible?

What should be kept in mind when traveling to and staying in a third-world country?

You don't really need to save up beforehand, aside from the money it takes to get certified, which is typically somewhere between $200-500 depending on price of the course and if you have a mask and fins already. Aside from that you don't really need to save any money if you don't want to. Depending on how often you dive, renting gear is a completely reasonable option. Most dive charters rent gear which can be worthwhile if you're not diving often since dive gear isn't necessarily cheap and needs maintenance. If you only dive a couple times a year, I'd personally rent gear instead of owning it.

As for if you want to buy gear, it all depends on how much you want to spend. If you don't mind looking at used gear, you can get a full set up for as little as $500 or less. If you go new and high end, you could easily spend a few grand. If you get into more complex and advanced equipment, you can get over $10k. I think looking at it in terms of income is a bad way of looking at any hobby since income doesn't take anything like your personal expenses and discretionary income into play. It's not a cheap activity to get into by any means, but you can certainly be economical when diving. The more you get into though, the more you're going to pay just on the fact that you'll want to dive more though and a typical two tank dive off of a boat is usually in the $60-90 range.

As for traveling, I've never dove in a third world country, but the one thing I can absolutely, 100% recommend is having DAN diving insurance. DAN will cover a lot more than just medical expenses when traveling, such as air lifting, and lost dive gear in the event of an accident. Beyond that, having DAN is an insurance that they'll find you the right doctor to go to. Not every doctor knows exactly how to handle dive related injuries and going to one that does could be what saves your life if things go wrong.

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

BiggerJ posted:

I'm not considering getting into diving, but out of curiosity and for the benefit of anyone who is: what suggestions would you give to anyone who's considering getting into diving? How much money should be saved beforehand, things to keep in mind when arranging travel and while actually traveling, etc.

A few more specific questions:

How expensive a hobby is it? What's the minimum level of income someone should have for the hobby to be even remotely feasible?

What should be kept in mind when traveling to and staying in a third-world country?

Where do you live? A lot of the people who own gear are people who have active local dive communities who get to dive a lot. If you get certified and are only looking to dive on vacations a few times a year, buying your own gear isn't really that economical outside of snorkeling gear (mask, snorkel, fins). Now say if your on coast, or have a big lake nearby and can dive monthly? Then its worth it to buy your own gear.

If you want to save money beforehand 1,000 bucks is a good starting point for everything. This would get you a certification and a full set of gear, with some of it being used. I hate scubatoys, but this can give you an idea of what a full gear setup costs http://www.scubatoys.com/store/search_results.asp?iLevel=2&subcat=32&txtsearchParamCat=18&txtCatName=2 (minus snorkeling gear)

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000
That link to scuba toys led me to this. Hmmm

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

Bishop posted:

That link to scuba toys led me to this. Hmmm



I REAAAAALLLY want that rapid diver system. I float the river a lot, go kayaking, camping etc around water but never want to carry a full set of dive gear. I could easily lug that thing around in my backpack and mess around in the water for a few minutes to get my diving fill and go back to another activity.

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000
Yeah it would be pretty cool for that type of thing. Also (if I ever become suicidal), that would be a useful thing to tow down with you so you could come out of the rest of your rig and fit through extra tight restrictions.

fordan
Mar 9, 2009

Clue: Zero

Crunkjuice posted:

I REAAAAALLLY want that rapid diver system. I float the river a lot, go kayaking, camping etc around water but never want to carry a full set of dive gear. I could easily lug that thing around in my backpack and mess around in the water for a few minutes to get my diving fill and go back to another activity.

And rocks from the shore as weights?

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

fordan posted:

And rocks from the shore as weights?

Without thermal protection I sink in fresh water so Id be ok. It'd be a summer only toy. And yes, its 3 on my toy fund so I might have one in a year or two.

bluey26
Feb 4, 2008
Does anyone know what the situation (i.e. political / safety) is like over in the Red Sea at the moment?

I'm one day planning to go over there for 6-12 months and hopefully work as an instructor. I got my divemaster and assistant instructor in Koh Tao (yeah I know it's not the greatest way to do so and actually be good at what you're doing), so I'm planning to do my IDC somewhere in Dahab and hang around there for a little while hopefully working.

I'm not planning to go until probably the beginning of 2014, because I still need to graduate from uni first (another 1.5 years to go). I'm asking now because I'm in the early stages of planning in terms of working out how much money I'll need to save, what equipment to start obtaining.

I had a great time on Koh Tao doing my DM and Assistant Instructor with Crystal Dive Resort so I'm hoping for a similarly awesome experience. My major question is has the political situation Egypt killed off the dive industry and tourist activity in the red sea? i.e. is it worth looking at other possible destinations such as the Caribbean (perhaps Utila) or the Mediterranean?

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

Bam Nitrox, deep water and wreck specialties done. Find me another place to get your AOW cert plus those others for 800 bucks.

Finch!
Sep 11, 2001

Spatial Awareness?

[ ] Whaleshark

404 Not Found

MA-Horus posted:

Hey eviljelly, I'm on Koh Tao. About to do my night dive for Iain's AOW course. Great so far!

I'm in Bangkok now but I'll be back at Big Blue on Sunday night. Definitely keen for a few beers!

TLG James
Jun 5, 2000

Questing ain't easy
Night Dive tomorrow. Should be fun. Kinda pissed they won't let us go without someone from the dive shop, making it cost about twice as much per person...

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

Finch! posted:

I'm in Bangkok now but I'll be back at Big Blue on Sunday night. Definitely keen for a few beers!

Yessssss I'll be into my fun dives by then but I'm always down for beers.

I have a routine now. 7am dives until noon. Lunch, nap. Massage, drinks, dinner, drinks, bed. It's a good routine.

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

East gales to 35 kt. Wind waves 17 ft. Scattered showers.

Its time to DIVE
Some more photos from Hawaii, I now have a fully electronic controlled Mark 15 now so that is useful to dive that way. It allows much lower stress and all that.














Bishop posted:


This rules, it's always good to have more people contributing pics because an underwater camera is somewhere after a scooter on my "to buy" list.

I post pics so people can see the real world that nobody wants to share. I also post pics to make people Jelly ok not really I just like to share what I see. I wish I could record my visual output and show people that cause what I see is never fully captured.

SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Aug 30, 2012

TANZENTURTLE
Oct 15, 2009

Pikachuuuuu
drat. Those are really stunning. I think that wrasse is begging to become my new wallpaper

Edited some footage together from another night dive a couple days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbQerPE1gJU

Clicktrack
Aug 15, 2007
Kawasakis! Maicos! PURSANG!

TANZENTURTLE posted:

drat. Those are really stunning. I think that wrasse is begging to become my new wallpaper

Edited some footage together from another night dive a couple days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbQerPE1gJU

Turn off the lights for the full experience.

TLG James
Jun 5, 2000

Questing ain't easy
Night Dives rule!

Anyone have a good recommendation for a light?


Took this photo tonight. Saw 3 octopus.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

Welp slight change of plans. Was gonna do a week of diving starting tomorrow but I got into a scooter accident. So I'll have to wait a few days.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Crunkjuice
Apr 4, 2007

That could've gotten in my eye!
*launches teargas at unarmed protestors*

I THINK OAKLAND PD'S USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE WAS JUSTIFIED!

TLG James posted:

Night Dives rule!

Anyone have a good recommendation for a light?


Took this photo tonight. Saw 3 octopus.



what's your budget?

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply