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I've had the incredible opportunity to snorkel in Kealakekua Bay for the past two Summers because of my job leading teen adventure camps. I've never really snorkeled before but drat is it amazing. Like dipping your face in to Finding Nemo on some of those reefs.
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Feb 27, 2013 05:41
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It's even better when you can get your face 10 inches from something and stare it down.
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Feb 27, 2013 05:43
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pupdive posted:Counter to the others, I do reccomend this path If it's an intro dive, then fine, he's got an instructor with him the whole time and not going deeper than 10m. But that would imply doing intro dives the whole trip. Wouldn't it be safer and more enjoyable to just do an OW?
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Feb 27, 2013 06:16
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Isn't that basically the equivalent of PADI's Discover course? Although, that one has some confined water work, I think, so maybe not. I did have an idea for Not an Anthem, though, that might be a good compromise. If you do the PADI Scuba Diver course or equivalent, it is less upfront commitment at the expense of more restrictive depth limits and direct DM supervision required for all dives. It also counts toward OW if you want to continue after that.
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Feb 27, 2013 14:23
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pupdive posted:Counter to the others, I do reccomend this path My first experiences diving were not with a certification, but there was still a half day course on land and in the pool before they took us out into open water. They were really cautious with everything skill wise on the first dive, but the one thing looking back that was pretty crazy was they let me go out on a dive to about 98 feet the next day. I was with a divemaster/instructor the entire time so he had a close eye on me, but looking back, it was still pretty risky. I basically had the choice do do a resort course and dive with them on two other dives the rest of the trip or do the full cert and no other diving. I picked the resort course and the other diving because I was with my dad and really wanted to dive with him and not just in the class.
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Feb 27, 2013 15:52
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Trivia posted:It's even better when you can get your face 10 inches from something and stare it down. Did that with a solitary clownfish one of my last dives. They're aggressive little things!
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Feb 27, 2013 16:19
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Ok guys, i need a recommendation around the San Clemente, Orange County area. A friend of mine is heading over to the States next month to visit her mom and attend her brother's wedding and whilst she's there she wants to do her SSI Advanced Open Water certification and also some leisure dives at catalina island. She's been in touch with Scuba Schools of America via the SSI website, who have gotten back to her that they can do the course at some beach in the area but says she needs her own equipment (mask, snorkel, mouthpiece??, hood, gloves, etc) because it would be gross to rent it out(?). Is this normal over there? We're used to a full set of equipment being available for rent over here. I think all she has is a wetsuit, but that's probably a 2/3mm one more suitable for our tropical waters. 1. Is this "buy your own gear" stuff normal over there or is she better off looking for an alternative school that will rent out equipment? 2. Does anyone have recommendations for alternative SSI schools in the area? 3. If she has to buy her own basic stuff, does anyone have recommendations for shops in the area with good deals/someone on a budget? She might not even be bringing the stuff she buys home (her luggage will probably be full of shopping) and stuff like gloves/hood/wetsuit might be too thick for tropical use anyway and she'll probably just leave everything at her mom's place. So yeah any suggestions or advice would be great.
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Feb 28, 2013 09:17
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raffie posted:Ok guys, i need a recommendation around the San Clemente, Orange County area. A friend of mine is heading over to the States next month to visit her mom and attend her brother's wedding and whilst she's there she wants to do her SSI Advanced Open Water certification and also some leisure dives at catalina island. I can't help on the SSI side of things, but I can try to help you out with dive shops locally. Just FYI, let her know not to bring the 2/3mil suit unless she enjoys hypothermia. The water temp is hovering right around the 55 degree mark right now. 1. http://www.pacificwilderness.com/ - Good shop to deal with in Orange, even though it is about a half hour drive from San Clemente. Rates are clearly listed so that's a plus. I'd still call ahead just to make sure they have everything ready. 2. http://www.seastallion.com/ - Only SSI school I know of in the area. Have never dealt with them so YMMV. Outside of that, if she can't set up the SSI classes I'd be glad to help her out with some shore diving. Laguna has some of the best in the world.
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Feb 28, 2013 10:24
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Mr.AARP posted:I can't help on the SSI side of things, but I can try to help you out with dive shops locally. Just FYI, let her know not to bring the 2/3mil suit unless she enjoys hypothermia. The water temp is hovering right around the 55 degree mark right now. Thanks dude, i've passed the information on to her and told her to check it out. I also suggest she just do the PADI Advanced course instead of SSI, even though her Open Water is from SSI. If she goes that route then Pacific Wilderness might be good for her. She'll need to do a whole bunch of dives first though, i think she's only got like 15 dives under her belt and i'm not sure what her standard is. On a side note, i was just reminded of the "dive mills" we have here in Singapore. Since there's pretty much nowhere to dive in our waters, the closest place is Tioman island in Malaysia and every weekend hoards of dive groups will descend on the islands there. It is not unusual for beginners to be offered both Open Water and Advanced certification in one weekend. My buddy flat out forbid me to go there for training, which was why i ended up in Manado with him. Last week in Manado there was a guy from China who was a certified Rescue Diver with 20 dives under his belt, which had everyone going wtf. Then again China is where you can find divers with Advanced certification who have only dived in 4m deep tanks.
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Feb 28, 2013 12:52
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raffie posted:
Yes, it's normal and I'd highly recommend it. Masks are a pretty personal thing and not everyone's face is shaped the same. The better your mask fits, the less it will leak and the less it will fog. I'd say most dive shops require you to have at least a mask, snorkel and fins for a open water course. My shop would give you a wetsuit if you wanted one, but it was the dead of summer in Florida so the water was plenty comfortable without one. She will not have that luxury.
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Feb 28, 2013 15:31
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Yeah she's planning to get her own mask/snorkel/fins and either carry them back in her luggage or mail them back. Hopefully everything else can be rented since there's no use for it here.
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Feb 28, 2013 16:07
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raffie posted:On a side note, i was just reminded of the "dive mills" we have here in Singapore. Since there's pretty much nowhere to dive in our waters, the closest place is Tioman island in Malaysia and every weekend hoards of dive groups will descend on the islands there. It is not unusual for beginners to be offered both Open Water and Advanced certification in one weekend. My buddy flat out forbid me to go there for training, which was why i ended up in Manado with him. I saw something like that when randomly Google searching for possible dive destinations, but in Thailand. Mermaids Dive Shop in Pattaya. You could go from nothing to DM in a matter of weeks. I have to question the safety behind that. That being said, I just got my OW in August 2012 and I already have rescue diver, submerged vehicle recovery, dry suit and full face so for me I've come really far in just 6 months. But I train almost every weekend with the dive team I'm on, and I got on the dive team through my intense dedication to training with the EMS people anyway just for fun and to get more bottom time. I'll have more pictures this weekend hopefully--though I don't know if we're going in the water or not. If we don't we'll be doing more search pattern stuff, inventory, etc.
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Mar 1, 2013 02:28
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Crunkjuice posted:How do you in good faith recommend someone try an activity with potential lethal consequences without certification or training? All I can say is that as an industry, the vast majority of diving is done this way. As an industry, diving is built on intro diving.
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Mar 1, 2013 12:06
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raffie posted:Last week in Manado there was a guy from China who was a certified Rescue Diver with 20 dives under his belt, which had everyone going wtf. Then again China is where you can find divers with Advanced certification who have only dived in 4m deep tanks. Rescue can be done after 9 dives, though the course itself makes for 5 credited dives, which means the minimum would be 14 dives after training is completed.
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Mar 1, 2013 12:08
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Today we had some dive team stuff again. We didn't go in the water though; instead we were checking the boat engines, practiced using the cascade system to fill tanks and drove the truck. Clockwise--our Zodiac boat, the Zodiac boat engine during a test run (we had the hose hooked up to it), the chillax area inside the rescue station, and maneuvering the truck between cones to practice backing up and stuff. We also did it with a boat attached on a trailer but I don't have a picture of that. I actually did really well and didn't knock any cones over.  Our chief wants us to be comfortable driving in case we get a call and have to back a boat into the marina. The picture on the left is the cascade system in the truck for filling tanks. There's actually 4 of those big tanks total. On the right, the top picture is gear inside the truck (wet suits and BCD's). Right middle is more equipment in the truck and the bottom pic is the bay at the station where we keep the Suburban, the truck, and all our boats. You can't see it in the pic because it was behind me, but we also have a pontoon boat. Next weekend I'm going to the pool for some skills training. Can't wait for the weather to warm up soon so I can log some more outdoor dives!
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Mar 2, 2013 21:49
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raffie posted:Last week in Manado there was a guy from China who was a certified Rescue Diver with 20 dives under his belt, which had everyone going wtf. Then again China is where you can find divers with Advanced certification who have only dived in 4m deep tanks. Amway Divers at it again?
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Mar 6, 2013 22:12
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We have our first couple of 2013 trips planned! Long weekend in Bimini coming up thanks to a free companion ticket we had to use and an awesome hotel deal, so any ideas there would be appreciated for shops. We're currently looking at Neal Watson's place since we are staying there, but any advice is appreciated. We will only have two days to dive though, since our free ticket was domestic only, so we're going to Miami and taking the ferry over and back. A lot of those sites look shallow and awesome, which could be good for pictures! Then we're in St. Lucia over Memorial Day, which we dove a while back with terrible viz due to storms, but we're giving it another shot since the deal was in way able to be passed up. Haven't done a ton of research on shops or sites there yet, so everything is TBD. Still, I am excited about getting back in the Caribbean, it has been like three months.  Also, anyone have input on this? jackyl posted:OK, there's been some conversation about photography here and my point and shoot housing had its zoom lever break in the middle of our December Aruba trip. I am going to see about replacing it, but that got me wondering about getting a real set up. I know this is budget dependent and I have no idea what my budget is, since any camera in this range will be better than anything we've ever owned, so let's say a $2k budget, but I could go higher if the camera was magic or something.
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Mar 7, 2013 00:11
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Here's some lovely video of myself and forums user BotchedLobotomy mouthbreathing off the coast of Catalina, CA whilest getting our open water certification. (He's the one with the leaky tank) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAXHE3IjhaM Diving is awesome.
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Mar 7, 2013 10:04
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We are going to the Thistlegorm again in April. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Thistlegorm
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Mar 7, 2013 16:13
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jackyl posted:We have our first couple of 2013 trips planned! Long weekend in Bimini coming up thanks to a free companion ticket we had to use and an awesome hotel deal, so any ideas there would be appreciated for shops. We're currently looking at Neal Watson's place since we are staying there, but any advice is appreciated. We will only have two days to dive though, since our free ticket was domestic only, so we're going to Miami and taking the ferry over and back. A lot of those sites look shallow and awesome, which could be good for pictures! Look second hand. I've seen dslr setups go for stupid cheap and even a 10 year old dslr is more than enough camera for 99% of people.
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Mar 7, 2013 18:28
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SaNChEzZ posted:Here's some lovely video of myself and forums user BotchedLobotomy mouthbreathing off the coast of Catalina, CA whilest getting our open water certification. (He's the one with the leaky tank) Very nice. Now you've gotta start shore diving Laguna/Redondo/Malibu to hone those skills for cheap.
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Mar 8, 2013 07:49
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Some white tip action from Molokai https://vimeo.com/61216264 I will be going again tomorrow
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Mar 8, 2013 22:05
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Mr.AARP posted:Very nice. Now you've gotta start shore diving Laguna/Redondo/Malibu to hone those skills for cheap. I'd love to, just gotta get the gear first!
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Mar 9, 2013 00:46
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SaNChEzZ posted:I'd love to, just gotta get the gear first! Let me know what you have/need and your budget and I'll keep an eye out for you on Scubaboard and CL.
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Mar 9, 2013 03:20
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Mr.AARP posted:Let me know what you have/need and your budget and I'll keep an eye out for you on Scubaboard and CL. I have gloves, boots, mask and snorkel 
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Mar 9, 2013 03:23
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Tomorrow I'm going on a dive to see bumphead parrotfish spawning. I'll post some pics, but can't guarantee they'll be pretty (too much cum in the water). P.S. Palau is as beautiful as ever!
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Mar 9, 2013 12:43
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Today i went out and spent a bunch of money on a bunch of stuff. Scubapro Knighthawk Scubapro Mk25/S600 +octo and SPG Oceanic OCS dive comp Hollis M4 mask Frog SMB +15m reel Divebag and 10L drybag Now i'm all set and planning my next dives. raffie fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Mar 9, 2013 |
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Mar 9, 2013 16:11
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raffie posted:Today i went out and spent a bunch of money on a bunch of stuff. I've been eyeing the frog smb. What's the build quality like?
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Mar 9, 2013 16:43
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:I've been eyeing the frog smb. What's the build quality like? To be honest i'm too new at this diving thing to tell but it seems alright. My experienced buddy who was with me (and got me some sweet discounts today) seemed to have no issues with it, although he pointed out that i would need to push down on the inflator tube to get air into it. He then compared it to the Halcyon one also on display (which was double the price) with which you just need to blow into the inflator tube, i think it has a one way valve so it's less fiddly.
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Mar 9, 2013 17:49
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pupdive posted:Rescue can be done after 9 dives, though the course itself makes for 5 credited dives, which means the minimum would be 14 dives after training is completed.
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Mar 10, 2013 08:26
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Bishop posted:I personally think that dives done during a course should not be counted as logged dives. Having someone with a rescue card from any agency with less than 20 dives is kind of scary. Well at least other than Rescue, they are in fact dives. Whereas Rescue, other than the search exercises is not really any diving. I am not sure about how I feel about logged dives meaning anything. I have dove with plenty of divers with several hundred dives who clearly were not trained to dive at any point (other than stupid gear tricks), and never bothered to actually think about diving in any way shape or form. And I have trained many divers who were better divers, on OW course dive 4, than most instructors I know. Most instructors I know simply are not good divers. They could be, but the are lazy and sloppy in the water. They are perfectly comfortable in the water, and could do rescues well, but they suck at diving.
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Mar 10, 2013 08:59
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Some of the worst divers I've had were Divemasters, for sure. I've very rarely seen a bad Instructor diver, though.
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Mar 10, 2013 10:15
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hey all you people who were crazy gung-ho about getting your DM rating: How did you get your logged dive counts for the rating? Someone was talking about doing DM (just finishing OW this weekend) and I noted that the stumbling block would be the 40 logged dives to start and 60 to finish. I started my DM just a few weeks after my OW cert, but having my own boat and lot of own tanks made that simple. How did you get your logged dive counts done?
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Mar 10, 2013 10:33
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usually you get unlimited diving while you do your divemaster training.
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Mar 10, 2013 11:39
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eviljelly posted:usually you get unlimited diving while you do your divemaster training. Gotta have 40 to start, (and places that let DMCs dive for free are using them as free labor).
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Mar 10, 2013 14:23
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I was just sorting through all the stuff i bought yesterday and trying to figure out how i'd want to attach stuff to the BC. I decide to put the BC on and orally inflate it a little to test it out and when i pulled on the handle of the right shoulder dump valve the handle came off  The knot at the end of the line that sits inside the handle to keep it on has slipped out. I can push it back in but it won't stay in the little cavity in the middle of the handle that it's supposed to sit in. Since it's new i'm going to bring it back to the shop, but now i'm wondering if the handle for bottom valve is going to pop off too at some point or if this will happen again. I was using a scubapro BC during my OW training/the remaining dives after i got certified and the handles look the same. I had no problem with the handles on that BC and definitely was not yanking too hard. I'm thinking of undoing the knot and making a bigger one that sticks out from the end of the handle, but i'll see what the guy at the shop says first.
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Mar 10, 2013 17:22
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raffie posted:I was just sorting through all the stuff i bought yesterday and trying to figure out how i'd want to attach stuff to the BC. I decide to put the BC on and orally inflate it a little to test it out and when i pulled on the handle of the right shoulder dump valve the handle came off That's a common problem with those handles on any bcd. Just double up the knot so it won't happen again and call it a day.
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Mar 10, 2013 20:15
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Some small sharks for you, lol small...   Welcome to 2013 Molokai Experiment LOL
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Mar 11, 2013 00:24
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Bishop posted:Cenotes are serious dives. They are often extremely deep and have caves branching off of them. I would treat them like Blue Holes. It's an adult swim dive and honestly there is probably nothing much to see from a snorkeler's prespective. If you want to do that dive, get at least a PADI AOW cert or something equivilent and stay out of the caves. While I am cave trained and usually never advocate that newer divers do any sort of overhead training, the cenotes (cavern dives) that are near Tulum are usually very shallow, have extremely wide passages, are very well marked and have ample light sources and entry points. These caverns are very different from central Florida caves which are often much deeper and a bit more smaller. Running cenote tours for open water divers is very much "the norm" here much to the controversy of other places in the world. As long as divers have solid buoyancy skills they can do these cenote tours. Even still, these dives are very much overhead and should be treated with utmost respect. The typical cenote tour in Dos Ojos or Gran Cenote for example is a maximum depth of about 30-35ft and lasts about 30-35 minutes if you're not cave or cavern certified. The dive guide must be full cave certified and will be diving in doubles. The dive guide ratio is 4 to 1.
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Mar 11, 2013 20:21
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Not an Anthem posted:Question: in mid-April I'm going to a destination wedding in Mexico at a resorty type place, Playa del Carmen. There's a cenote or two around within walking distance and I assume cool stuff like scuba diving. Sorry I didn't see that you weren't certified when you asked the question about cenotes. Definitely get certified while at home if you cant. No dive shop is going to take you on a scuba tour of a cenote without being certified. If they do, run away! A snorkel tour however is definitely possible. If you want to "try diving" there are heaps of places in Playa Del Carmen that will offer what they call a "discover scuba" diving course on a shallow reef (max 40ft) somewhere. This typically consists of about 1 hour of pool instruction and then a shallow dive with an instructor watching you like a hawk. This is not a certification course but it's a good way to find out if you like scuba and get you hooked before comiting to the actual open water certification class.
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Mar 11, 2013 20:32
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