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
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!
No idea about hog regulators. GoPro's are becoming very popular with recreational divers. Their video quality is great and are tough little bastards. There are a few people here who have them so they can chime in with more info on them, but as far as i've seen they are fantastic.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

macado
Jun 3, 2003

How to keep an idiot busy, Click here.

DreadLlama posted:

I have two gear related questions.

First, someone near me is selling a set of HOG regulators for about $250 (local currency). As I do not currently own regs, this might be good. But I've never heard of HOG before this sell ad was posted, so I don't know if they're a shite brand or not.


Question #2: Some guy recently recommended that the GoPro series of cameras as a potential upgrade from my Canon Powershot D10. Since my current camera is rated for 10m (and has never gone deeper than 15), and the Gopro's are rated for 60, they look to be a good fit on paper. Has anyone experience with these?


In regards to HOG regulators, I own several and they're actually great regulators. Very similar design to Apeks (some would say clones). Great regulators, the only issue is someone who can service them. I service my own which isn't an issue but check if you have HOG dealers in your area. If not there are multiple places online who can service them if you send them (One place being DiveGearExpress).

Anyone who is familiar with Apeks regulators should have no issues servicing them if they're willing to do it. The service kits can be bought online by the consumer.


I also own a GoPro, for photos they suck in my opinion. They're decent with video if you have the diving housing with the flat lens and/or color filters. A lot of people buy them and expect perfection out of a 300USD camera, they're very good at what they do but they're not perfect They don't do so well in low light situations so either use them when diving with good visibility or have video lights.

shots shots shots
Sep 6, 2011

by Y Kant Ozma Post

DreadLlama posted:

I have two gear related questions.

First, someone near me is selling a set of HOG regulators for about $250 (local currency). As I do not currently own regs, this might be good. But I've never heard of HOG before this sell ad was posted, so I don't know if they're a shite brand or not.

Hog regulators are made by Aropec in Taiwan, who makes regulators and other scuba equipment OEM/ODM for a ton of bigger names (I use them for manufacturing other watersports things).

The HOG regs are pretty great in my opinion, along with their other gear. I buy Aropec gear wholesale all the time and its great (second stages for $40, first stages for $80, hell yeah) and you can often tell what its an unbranded version of.

NPR Journalizard
Feb 14, 2008

DreadLlama posted:

Question #2: Some guy recently recommended that the GoPro series of cameras as a potential upgrade from my Canon Powershot D10. Since my current camera is rated for 10m (and has never gone deeper than 15), and the Gopro's are rated for 60, they look to be a good fit on paper. Has anyone experience with these?

No personally, but the instructor's assistant had one when I got my ticket. She loved it, and had been using it for a while with no problems.

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

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

Its time to DIVE

macado posted:

I also own a GoPro, for photos they suck in my opinion. They're decent with video if you have the diving housing with the flat lens and/or color filters. A lot of people buy them and expect perfection out of a 300USD camera, they're very good at what they do but they're not perfect They don't do so well in low light situations so either use them when diving with good visibility or have video lights.

They are not bad for what they are but low light suffers for sure. Hell I have issues as I go below 60ft with my DSLR that I take down and I get very frustrated with lack of contrast on that.

Here is a pic to show example of how complicated things become at 90+ft, note this is shot with a DSLR and a 10mm wide angle lens.

IM FROM THE FUTURE
Dec 4, 2006

Best mask defog tech is burning the lens with a lighter until its covered in soot and then cleaning off. Same thing ad toothpaste only way more effective.

I have a gopro. With the addition of the dive housing its a really great camera esp the new one. They are much better suited for video then stills. Although the new one is better at both. But IMHO the gopro is the best bang for you buck for underwater photography.

Snowdens Secret
Dec 29, 2008
Someone got you a obnoxiously racist av.
The nice thing about the GoPros is you can get into them relatively cheap. GoPro has a dive-specific flat-front housing coming out that's supposed to be very affordable as well.

I have a Contour camera, which is a GoPro competitor. It's supposed to be comparable to the GoPro HD. Because it was on sale last Christmas season, the camera, dive case and strap altogether were about $150 bucks. I took it on my most recent dive in Long Island Sound (my 6th dive ever) to try it out. Results:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6QDPqagvgg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vReKer42ZJc

This is in fairly extreme murk at about 25-30 feet down and maybe 5 ft visibility, but it shows these cameras' main weakness, that they need a lot of light. The GoPro2 HD is supposed to be better in this respect than the first-gen HD (and my Contour), but they'd still benefit from extra lighting. Thing is, once you get into extra dive lighting (and the apparatus to hold the camera/lights etc) the price starts going up pretty quickly. (I also inadvertently left my camera in 720p narrow angle instead of 1080p wide, which hurts the example vids, but has no effect on constrast/etc from low light.) Nevertheless if you just want a vid shot to show the folks back home, they're great and affordable.

I would not recommend this sort of camera for still photos.

The nice thing about them is they're so versatile you can use them for all sorts of above-water stuff as well. I bought mine to mount on my motorcycle.

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

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

Its time to DIVE

IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:

Best mask defog tech is burning the lens with a lighter until its covered in soot and then cleaning off. Same thing ad toothpaste only way more effective.

I have a gopro. With the addition of the dive housing its a really great camera esp the new one. They are much better suited for video then stills. Although the new one is better at both. But IMHO the gopro is the best bang for you buck for underwater photography.

I have heard of burning but I never have seen it work? I just use baby shampoo mixture

ttomkat
Mar 26, 2010

SlicerDicer posted:

I have heard of burning but I never have seen it work? I just use baby shampoo mixture

One of my dive instructors did this to my brand new mask when getting certified. He did it to get rid of the film that new masks suffer from. I had tried toothpaste first, but it still had that "new film" in it after some pool sessions. He burned the inside and BOOM it was great!

Of course, I don't know if I would trust myself with a lighter and a new mask.

Mr.AARP
Apr 20, 2010

I was born after Kurt Cobain died. Now you feel old.

Hey guys (and gals?). Diving noob here that has definitely got sucked into the sport. Living in North Orange county (California), we have a Regional Occupational Program that uses the high schools to teach different trade skills. Well, it just so happens that one of those is scuba diving (even though only about 5% of students progress far enough to NAUI Instructor and hope for a career) and I had a relatively empty Senior year schedule.

I've just started the basic class a couple weeks ago and went on my first skin dive at Crescent Bay in Laguna. Currently learning scuba in the pool but will have my first open water in a few weeks. Can't wait!

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000

Mr.AARP posted:

I had a relatively empty Senior year schedule.
That's one way to deal with senioritis... Good luck and enjoy it! My senior year I just skipped class and smoked weed. (although I got certified when I was 13 :smug: )

In me news, I am now living in Key Largo for at least the next 3 months. Got my gear, my boat, my favorite shop only 20 minutes away. Life is good. If anyone wants to come down and dive shoot me a PM or post in this thread. We can take my boat and I can even provide gear. I should be free on weekends, but I need some advance heads up because I'll sometimes schedule tech trips a week or two in advance.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Oct 11, 2012

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
I may take you up on that at some point depending on my schedule. I'm pretty busy over the next few months, but if a weekend ends up free I might be willing to make the venture down from Orlando. That or the next time I'm in Miami for work we can do a night dive or something.

Mr.AARP
Apr 20, 2010

I was born after Kurt Cobain died. Now you feel old.

Bishop posted:

That's one way to deal with senioritis... Good luck and enjoy it! My senior year I just skipped class and smoked weed. (although I got certified when I was 13 :smug: )


Yup, getting fitted for a 7mm suit next week since my football frame doesn't agree with normal sizing haha. It'll be nice to be the only one peeing in it though...

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
Damnit. Cressi finally got back to my dive shop about my first stage that got damaged when I was in Key Largo and it wasn't just the yoke that bent, the housing got tweaked to. The cost for the service plus the parts is more than what the first stage replacement cost would be, which is $160. I have a spare really old Sherwood first stage, but it's essentially been out of commission for about a decade so I'm a bit hesitant to put it into use, especially because I was having a hard time finding a shop that would service it before I bought the Cressi setup.

So right now my main ideas are either bite the bullet and just pay the replacement cost for the same first stage, check around either craigslist or scubaboard and find someone selling a lightly used first stage or consider possibly upgrading my first and/or first and second stage. Time to do some looking around.

Paul MaudDib
May 3, 2006

TEAM NVIDIA:
FORUM POLICE
Hello, I'm an open water diver. Got certified in a drysuit on Christmas Eve 2006 in a spring-fed lake, and went diving with my family on our only "nice" vacation ever. Haven't dove since then but I'd like to get back in one of these years when the money aligns. I'd particularly like to get my Nitrox certification and do some long shallow dives.

For anyone doing photography, your first priority is a strobe (e: I dove with this. Water is blue as gently caress and the flash on your little point and shoot or DSLR won't do dick beyond like five feet. Get yourself a little optically slaved strobe. You don't need TTL or anything like that, you'll get pretty good at guesstimating exposure from manually adjusting the flash strength for the distance of the shot. I don't know anything about hotlights, sorry video guys v:shobon:v

I really, really want a Nauticam NEX-5N housing with the Nikonos lens adapter. 720p video or stills through a UW-Nikkor 15mm (23mm equivalent) f/2.8 :circlefap:

Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Oct 11, 2012

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
Nitrox isn't really going to make your shallow dives any longer. Nitrox won't really make your dives any longer until you get to deeper depths I'd say in the 70+ foot range. Anything shallower and you're going to run out of gas before you hit your nitrogen limits. Beyond that the other big reason for Nitrox is to give yourself more of a cushion with your nitrogen limits to help reduce your chances of running into problems.

macado
Jun 3, 2003

How to keep an idiot busy, Click here.

Bishop posted:

In me news, I am now living in Key Largo for at least the next 3 months. Got my gear, my boat, my favorite shop only 20 minutes away. Life is good. If anyone wants to come down and dive shoot me a PM or post in this thread. We can take my boat and I can even provide gear. I should be free on weekends, but I need some advance heads up because I'll sometimes schedule tech trips a week or two in advance.


Half tempted to come down. I havent been to Keys in about 4 years. Would love to do some tech diving on Spiegel Grove.

Would beat the winter water temps in New England.

Paul MaudDib
May 3, 2006

TEAM NVIDIA:
FORUM POLICE

rockcity posted:

Nitrox isn't really going to make your shallow dives any longer. Nitrox won't really make your dives any longer until you get to deeper depths I'd say in the 70+ foot range. Anything shallower and you're going to run out of gas before you hit your nitrogen limits. Beyond that the other big reason for Nitrox is to give yourself more of a cushion with your nitrogen limits to help reduce your chances of running into problems.

Hmm, I thought it was the opposite, that it prevented nitrogen buildup at shallow depths (meaning you can do more, longer dives per day, especially since you're not burning your air fast) but the oxygen partial pressure could become excessive down deeper causing health issues.

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

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

Paul MaudDib posted:

Hmm, I thought it was the opposite, that it prevented nitrogen buildup at shallow depths (meaning you can do more, longer dives per day, especially since you're not burning your air fast) but the oxygen partial pressure could become excessive down deeper causing health issues.

Max depth on EANx32 is about 32 meters. As in, do not go deeper unless you wish oxygen toxicity on yourself. It's really most useful between 20-30 meters, drastically increases your downtime. I did my wreck diving certification on nitrox which gave me an additional 20 minutes at depth, great for practicing skills.

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

MA-Horus posted:

Max depth on EANx32 is about 32 meters. As in, do not go deeper unless you wish oxygen toxicity on yourself. It's really most useful between 20-30 meters, drastically increases your downtime. I did my wreck diving certification on nitrox which gave me an additional 20 minutes at depth, great for practicing skills.

Sure, 32% is 32 meters, but you can get any mix from 21-40% with a Nitrox cert. When I dive Jupiter I get a 26%, 32% and 36% fill so I can vary my mix to optimize my depth and bottom time.

And yes, you have it backwards. Nitrogen builds up faster the deeper you go because the pressure on your body is what causes the nitrogen to dissipate from your body slower. The trouble you run into that as mentioned above is that any gas mix has a maximum operating depth which varies based on that gas mix. As your Nitrox mix gets higher that depth is shallower. Ideally you want to try to get a mix just barely higher than your max dive depth so you maximize your no decompression time. This is how rebreathers work they're constantly giving you the optimal gas mix so that you're continuously breathing a different mix as your depth varies and you max out your time. My buddy who dives a rebreather is always yelling at me for having to surface first.

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000

rockcity posted:

Nitrogen builds up faster the deeper you go because the pressure on your body is what causes the nitrogen to dissipate from your body slower.
Well, sorta. The main problem is that you are taking in a much larger volume of gas at depth per breath. If you are at 33ft/10m, you are taking in twice the amount per breath that you would on the surface, 66ft 3 times, and so on. Then you have Henry's law, which for our purposes means that the body's tissues can absorb and hold more nitrogen the deeper we are. So the deeper we go, the more we on-gass. We're also off-gassing nitrogen into our blood stream, which then in turn escapes the body mostly through our lungs when we exhale. If you ascend to fast (or past your decompression ceiling if you're doing a deco dive), you are offgassing faster than you can expell the nitrogen and then those pesky bubbles form. That's a nutshell version of it.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Oct 12, 2012

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004

Bishop posted:

Well, sorta. The main problem is that you are taking in a much larger volume of gas at depth per breath. If you are at 33ft/10m, you are taking in twice the amount per breath that you would on the surface, 66ft 3 times, and so on. Then you have Henry's law, which for our purposes means that the body's tissues can absorb and hold more nitrogen the deeper we are. So the deeper we go, the more we on-gass. We're also off-gassing nitrogen into our blood stream, which then in turn escapes the body mostly through our lungs when we exhale. If you ascend to fast (or past your decompression ceiling if you're doing a deco dive), you are offgassing faster than you can expell the nitrogen and then those pesky bubbles form. That's a nutshell version of it.

That as well. I was trying not to get too into the full technical science behind it all and focus on when Nitrox is beneficial. I dive Nitrox pretty much exclusively now even if only for the benefit of the reduced risk of getting narc'd. My dive club did a big push to get people Nitrox certified to increase the safety of our group.

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

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

Its time to DIVE

MA-Horus posted:

Max depth on EANx32 is about 32 meters. As in, do not go deeper unless you wish oxygen toxicity on yourself. It's really most useful between 20-30 meters, drastically increases your downtime. I did my wreck diving certification on nitrox which gave me an additional 20 minutes at depth, great for practicing skills.

umm really? Exposure at 1.4 is 150 mins? its 1.37 or something at 32 meters for ppo2

Bishop posted:

Well, sorta. The main problem is that you are taking in a much larger volume of gas at depth per breath. If you are at 33ft/10m, you are taking in twice the amount per breath that you would on the surface, 66ft 3 times, and so on. Then you have Henry's law, which for our purposes means that the body's tissues can absorb and hold more nitrogen the deeper we are. So the deeper we go, the more we on-gass. We're also off-gassing nitrogen into our blood stream, which then in turn escapes the body mostly through our lungs when we exhale. If you ascend to fast (or past your decompression ceiling if you're doing a deco dive), you are offgassing faster than you can expell the nitrogen and then those pesky bubbles form. That's a nutshell version of it.

I could melt thine brain with constant ppo2 of a breather :P

DeadlyMuffin
Jul 3, 2007


rockcity posted:

Nitrox won't really make your dives any longer until you get to deeper depths I'd say in the 70+ foot range. Anything shallower and you're going to run out of gas before you hit your nitrogen limits.

Maybe for the first dive. But if you're doing multiple dives in a day, especially on a liveaboard or something where you're doing 4 or 5 dives/day, you can definitely start running out of bottom time before you run out of gas even if you're staying well above 70 feet.

I think in general if you're shallow enough to avoid PP O2 issues with nitrox and you find yourself running out of bottom time then switching to a richer mix might be a good idea.

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

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

Its time to DIVE

DeadlyMuffin posted:

Maybe for the first dive. But if you're doing multiple dives in a day, especially on a liveaboard or something where you're doing 4 or 5 dives/day, you can definitely start running out of bottom time before you run out of gas even if you're staying well above 70 feet.

I think in general if you're shallow enough to avoid PP O2 issues with nitrox and you find yourself running out of bottom time then switching to a richer mix might be a good idea.

Thats my beef with Liveaboards, they wont let me go dive for 3+ hours.

DeadlyMuffin
Jul 3, 2007


SlicerDicer posted:

Thats my beef with Liveaboards, they wont let me go dive for 3+ hours.

We get it, you're very excited about your rebreather. I know there are liveaboards that cater to rebreather divers though, although I'm sure not many.

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000
6-9 foot seas? No problem let's go loving deco diving. I dive with a group of people that are equally as crazy as me for better or worse.

DreadLlama posted:

someone near me is selling a set of HOG regulators for about $250 (local currency). As I do not currently own regs, this might be good. But I've never heard of HOG before this sell ad was posted, so I don't know if they're a shite brand or not.
...
As far as I can tell, they're primarily for tech diving
A lot of tech divers like the HOG regs because they are pretty cheap and reliable. They became a fad over the past few years and people would laugh at my overpriced scubapro regs and then I'd cry and... anyways. HOG regs seem to be very good impersonations of Apex regs (as Macado said) and they are solid. More importantly they are cheaper and apparently the service kits are easy to get ahold of so you can maintain them yourself if you are so inclined. They would be fine for any type of diving

IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:

Best mask defog tech is burning the lens with a lighter until its covered in soot and then cleaning off. Same thing ad toothpaste only way more effective.
This blows my mind. I'm scared to try it so I'll do it first with a throwaway mask.

rockcity posted:

That as well. I was trying not to get too into the full technical science behind it all and focus on when Nitrox is beneficial.
I figured as much I just wanted to add to it a bit for the nerds out there (and to make sure I remembered it)

macado posted:

Half tempted to come down. I havent been to Keys in about 4 years. Would love to do some tech diving on Spiegel Grove.
:getin: Boat and lodging is on me. I don't have extra tech gear but if you flew in I could probably borrow/rent from someone.

pupdive posted:

OOA gas sharing either matters, in which the octopus should be on the left for the OOA diver's benefit (or it should be a left running hose, or an Oceanic Omega/Poseidon type), or the octopus is just something we pay lip service too, and we can mount it on the right because it does not matter that is gets pulled out of the OOA divers mouth in an actual gas sharing situation.
I've got a crazy solution to this one... bungee your backup reg around your neck and have a long hose on your primary. Donate your primary during an emergency and switch to the one around your neck. Learning how to donate your primary and switching to a secondary on your neck is pretty simple and it's not something that should be confined to tech diving.

Like crunkjuice said, having a second stage on your BC inflator hose is another way to do it to.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Oct 14, 2012

MrTheDevious
May 7, 2006

Ahh nostalgia, you cruel bitch
This is something you guys might not know the answer to, but I have REALLY strange sinus problems. I've always wanted to dive, but I can't really go below 10 feet in a pool without feeling like my head's going to explode from the pressure I'm mostly unable to equalize. Is there a solution for this? I really want to dive but not at the cost of my ears blowing up :(

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
There are some people who just can't get their ears to equalize, it's rare, but it does happen. What you may want to do is find a shop that does a discover scuba class where they let you try it out in a pool and you can practice equalizing techniques to see if you can get any of them to work for you before committing to the sport further.

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost

MrTheDevious posted:

This is something you guys might not know the answer to, but I have REALLY strange sinus problems. I've always wanted to dive, but I can't really go below 10 feet in a pool without feeling like my head's going to explode from the pressure I'm mostly unable to equalize. Is there a solution for this? I really want to dive but not at the cost of my ears blowing up :(
Do you have sinus problems besides the ones with equalizing? It might be that you're trying to equalize too great of a pressure difference, which is what's thwarting your attempts. If you can do the Discover Scuba class you can try equalizing ridiculously frequently and see if that helps.

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!
Do the discover scuba. If you still have issues and still want to try to dive, go to an ENT doctor and talk to him about options.

ljw1004
Jan 18, 2005

rum

MrTheDevious posted:

This is something you guys might not know the answer to, but I have REALLY strange sinus problems. I've always wanted to dive, but I can't really go below 10 feet in a pool without feeling like my head's going to explode from the pressure I'm mostly unable to equalize. Is there a solution for this? I really want to dive but not at the cost of my ears blowing up :(

I read through the "United States Diving Manual" section on equalization. It seemed more trustworthy than what I'd learnt from my scuba instructors or the PADI course.

I was the "bad-at-equalizing" guy in the class. It took me five times as long as everyone else to get down to 30 feet. It seems that everyone has their own personal technique for equalizing. It's difficult, because you're exercising muscles that you've never used under conscious control before, and you can't even visualize exactly what they're doing or how effective they are.

For everyone, the universal thing is that if you aren't equalizing then you HAVE TO GO UP a few feet, for me up to 5 feet. It's impossible to equalize when you're already experiencing pressure in your ear.

A second universal truth is that you need a lot more equalizing in the first five feet of descent, and less equalizing for the next five feet, and so on. I'll be equalizing once every four inches for the first five feet of descent.

For me, my right ear equalizes fine by holding my nose and blowing in it. But my left ear equalizes by sort of yawning, stretching my jaw out (losing the tight bite on my mouthpiece), tilting my head to one side, and the like. Blowing doesn't help it at all. After fifteen dives I can now do this as quickly as my right ear, and it's great because it equalizes hands-free.


Anyway, I've only done 20 dives by now, so I'm very inexpert. Take all this with a pinch of salt.

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

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

Its time to DIVE

ljw1004 posted:

For me, my right ear equalizes fine by holding my nose and blowing in it. But my left ear equalizes by sort of yawning, stretching my jaw out (losing the tight bite on my mouthpiece), tilting my head to one side, and the like. Blowing doesn't help it at all. After fifteen dives I can now do this as quickly as my right ear, and it's great because it equalizes hands-free.


This is far safer anyway to learn this as you will unlikely do round window rupture. At anyrate it makes photography, descents and all that stuff really easy. You can be doing other things with your hands vs trying to blow your ears clear.

IM FROM THE FUTURE
Dec 4, 2006

Bishop posted:


This blows my mind. I'm scared to try it so I'll do it first with a throwaway mask.


Yeah I only did this after the toothpaste thing failed to defog a mask I had. This fixed it right up.

You've gotta be mindful of the silicone and the temp of the glass. But I've never melted a mask and I'm pretty stupid. As you burn the glass the lens will heat up, so make sure you put it under a faucet or something and also switch between lenses and sides of the lens often, and don't ever apply flame directly to the edges, just get close. Keep working it until its black as poo poo, give it a good rubbing with a finger, and then rinse with water. Boom you have a mask that defogs with a tiny bit of spit.


Another defog secret for newbie divers. One of the most important things to a defogged mask is ensuring your face is the temperature of the water. Usually your face heats up on the boat and steams you're mask up. Cool your face down with or in the water before you don your mask and it will be perfect.


Freediving I equalize probably 200-300 times a day upside-down when I dive. I can mostly equalize hands free but I still need to use my hands for the first 10 feet or so. Its def important to equalize soon and often at first. Further passed the point of correct equalization the more trouble you will have equalizing.

When using my hands I don't do a Valsavla Maneuver (pinch and blow) I do whats called a Frenzel Maneuver. It consists of pinching your nose but instead of blowing closing off your throat with air in your mouth and swallowing. Try it out it may work better for you.

The worst part about diving is figuring out diving related things to do when the weather and viz sucks. Just finished this thing up.

IM FROM THE FUTURE fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Oct 15, 2012

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost
I don't think you're actually burning it, it sounds like you're just building up a lot of soot

I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like a good idea. If I'm right about the soot part I'll probably smear a thin layer of dish soap on the lens and get that all sooty before rubbing it around and rinsing it off.

IM FROM THE FUTURE
Dec 4, 2006

DarkHorse posted:

I don't think you're actually burning it, it sounds like you're just building up a lot of soot

I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like a good idea. If I'm right about the soot part I'll probably smear a thin layer of dish soap on the lens and get that all sooty before rubbing it around and rinsing it off.

You do touch the flame to the glass, right up inside there, but you can't burn glass. You watch the flame work itself around on the mask from the other side as you do it keeping close but away from the edges. Covering the entire thing over and over.

I would say the effect of defogging is more related to the flame touching the mask and burning off the manufacturing film buildup, then the buildup of soot taking it off via abrasion. If abrasion worked toothpaste should work better but it doesn't. Although I could be wrong.

IM FROM THE FUTURE fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Oct 15, 2012

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Vroom Vroom, BEEP BEEP!
Nap Ghost
Yeah if your mask has a glass lens it's definitely soot, though that's a good point about abrasion. I wasn't as sure about plastic lenses though, since I hadn't tried the process before.

Bishop
Aug 15, 2000

IM FROM THE FUTURE posted:

The worst part about diving is figuring out diving related things to do when the weather and viz sucks. Just finished this thing up.

Or you can just go diving like I did yesterday. Glad you did not go out though because that thing is.... classy? Add a neoprene top hat and a monacle mask and you can spear fish in style. Seriously though that's really cool.

Yesterday's dive was.... punishing. Rough seas, my set of doubles fell on my foot on the trip out so I was bleeding before we hit the water. I forgot to put the crotch strap of my back plate on so everything (double AL80s and two slung 40s) kept riding up on my back. We started with a team of 3 but one guy never made it to the water because he accidently ripped his rebreather electronics off as he was standingup (broke the fischer connector). We got real lost in the wreck. I had a piece of rusted steel colapse on my head. My buddy had a video camera and he blinded me a few times with the light. I had forgotten my gloves and my hands are now cut up to hell. 3 silt outs. Good times.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Oct 15, 2012

rockcity
Jan 16, 2004
What you're burning off and what that soot is is a thin film caused by the manufacturing of the glass. It will wear off over time so if your mask has been used a lot already that film is probably gone, but a new mask has it on there. I was skeptical at first too, but I did this to the mask I bought a little while back and it has nearly zero fogging at all afterwards and I did the toothpaste trick prior which didn't help much.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

SlicerDicer
Oct 31, 2010

PAILOLO CHANNEL

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

Its time to DIVE
You know the seadive masks pretty much never fog on me at all? I dont know why but they are great masks.

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