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At Sydney Airport on my way to Hawaii. 3 dives at the weekend, can't wait!
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Mar 29, 2013 06:24
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Thought you guys might like to see some more shark action  https://vimeo.com/62766623 https://vimeo.com/62810702 https://vimeo.com/62825414 Also I am posting more here now that I got it running. http://stealthwater.com/ SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Mar 29, 2013 |
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Mar 29, 2013 09:19
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I'm in Gozo, malta at the moment and managed to get in 4 dives over 2 days while the non diving gf was in a spa and I thought if share my experience here. The first day was lovely, gozo is known for 30m+ vis but a recent storm reduced that a fair bit. We did two dives in a beautiful bay which weren't all that spectacular but some of the better sites were still out because of swell. I got to free an octopus that had found an abandoned lobster pot which was pretty cool, dive knives aren't just for show! The second day was at gozo's blue hole and the dives in general but there were some things that freaked me out a bit. First dive was down the hole and out around a giant arch to check out the boulders that had recently gfallen off the arch above from the recent storm. I was diving with an instructor and a couple who were divemasters in Egypt. I was enjoying a nice dive but noticed we were fairly deep on a dive that was supposed to be a cruise around 20 or so meters to maximise dive time but at this point I was at 30 and the other 3 were well below me. I let them get on with it but eventually I noticed my ndl was getting down to around 10 minutes and I wanted to ascend, especially as I'm still not too light on gas. The group below we're signalling for me to come down to see what they were looking at and I decided I'd pop down to tell them that I was going to go up, I hit 37 meters when I saw them going through a tight swim through at what must have been excess of 40m and my computer let me know I only had 4 minutes left before I hit deco which at this point they must have been well into. I left them too it and hovered at 20 checking out the sea cucumbers till they came up. Unsurprisingly they were shocked when their computers started alarming as we started to ascend. Later on I found that my hp gauge (on my personal regs) wasn't accurate when I ran out of air, luckily it was when I had my reg in my mouth walking through the surf and it didn't matter but considering I'd just be taken through what was supposed to a crack but was actually a narrow tunnel I was a little shaken. Dive 2 seriously pissed me off and I ended up thumbing it. We went down to a sea cave which we were supposed to just pop in one or two meters and check out how it looked looking into the ocean. What ended up happening is everyone went in to see if they could find the lobsters that had been hanging out earlier in the day. Stupidly I followed them in in abit as at first there was a massive amount of room. Further in however the roof came down sharply and the floor started being dispersed into the water column by people's fins. I started getting abit stressed and noticed I was blowing through gas but was only able to check my gauge with a torch I didn't have so I started to head out and frog kick as best I could but being so tall and badly trimmed at the time I was still stirring up the floor a little too. At this point I was probably 20m back and just kept thinking about all the stories I've read of divers venturing into simple caves like this and getting into trouble. I looked back to see if the others were following me but they were watching one of the couple stick their head through a restriction as the water around them clouded up, apparently because they thought they saw a grouper back there. At this point I realised I was basically diving solo and went out the cave and checked out the very nice life on the wall outside. The three others came out after 5 or so minutes and we went round the wall and back into the blue hole as planned, the instructor then signalled to go into the cave at the bottom there at which point I lied and said I had 50bar and started to ascend by myself. What pissed me off most is the fact I went into the cave to begin with. I know better then that but I guess underwater you want to stick near what is supposed to be your alternate air source especially if they were in instructor. I don't think it's a problem with the shop or the instructor themselves because all the divers and shops I was talking to at lunch were doing the exact same thing and didn't see a problem with it. It's a shame because the wall outside was a really nice dive and I'd have much rather spent more time there then trying to get killed to see a single lobster. So I've decided a few things. One is I'm not getting in the water again without a proper redundant air source which either a pony, twin tanks or a buddy I have absolute faith in. Two "it'll be ok" is never ok and trust my gut as soon as its telling me to get out of there. Three is that while I now have 26 dives and think my buoyancy is actually pretty decent looking at other people with similar time underwater it still needs a lot of work to get where i want it so now I have a bit more free time I'm going to get a drysuit so i can go diving regularly in the freezing lake near me to practice and I'm considering taking gue fundamentals. Fake edit: hole poo poo that's alotta words Loving Africa Chaps fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Mar 30, 2013 |
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Mar 30, 2013 15:31
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I am heading out but GUE is dirtard stuff. I agree with a lot of what they say but.. I am the anti christ to them! Rebreatherings is the DEBEL TO YOU MAMA!!
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Mar 30, 2013 16:36
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:Three is that while I now have 26 dives and think my buoyancy is actually pretty decent looking at other people with similar time underwater it still needs a lot of work to get where i want it so now I have a bit more free time I'm going to get a drysuit so i can go diving regularly in the freezing lake near me to practice and I'm considering taking gue fundamentals. The sad fact is that few people (instructors included) do not suck completely and totally at neutral buoyancy, and more experience at doing something badly actually just reinforces bad behavior. Next time you go diving, spend the entire dive head down and feet up. Get Your face about a foot from the bottom and keep it there for the whole dive .Don't use your hands to swim or give yourself stability. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Committing to head down gets lots of stuff to see, because eyes close to stuff is how to see stuff well*. More importantly, it will only take you one dive to realize that buoyancy is 99.9 breathing pattern. Once one is convinced of this, neutral buoyancy takes care of itself. Open Water Students can do this on Dive 1 (if they are taught about diving from someone who actually understands diving.) GUE is vastly overrated as a training agency by students (who generally cannot remember thing one from their OW course, and just compare the half-remembered OW course with the GUE course that actually teaches techniques) and they think there is something good about the agency, when there is just something good about going for dive lessons once you have stopped messing with your mask all dive, and gotten equalization settled, which about all most OW students actually do most of the time in most OW classes. Go look at videos of the GUE OW course and you will see they struggle to actually teach OW students how to dive,just like most instructors for most agencies do. And that's with ridiculous 10 day long, 16 hour a day, Open Water courses. * this "eyes close to things" factor is why so many divers like wall dives: because most divers suck at neutral buoyancy and spend most of their dive with their fins down, which means their eyes are too far away from stuff to see anything. Turn a wall dive sideways: just learn to put your head down and dive any reef with your eyes close to it, and walls lose their unique appeal.
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Mar 31, 2013 14:56
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That's an interesting point, I never understood everyone's preference for wall dives. I always thought they were pretty boring myself. I like myself a shallow reef with lots of light and cruising as close to the reef as comfortable. As for the head down feet up thing, I've rarely ever seen anyone but myself do that.
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Mar 31, 2013 15:14
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Will fix post later got to run to Oahu crap flight :P Neutralized  Not Neutralized (Standard beat up sand pic) 
SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Mar 31, 2013 |
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Mar 31, 2013 15:41
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Trivia posted:That's an interesting point, I never understood everyone's preference for wall dives. I always thought they were pretty boring myself. I like myself a shallow reef with lots of light and cruising as close to the reef as comfortable. Most people don't go head down because they fear bashing their face into things, because they don't have any real buoyancy control. Everyone who gets convinced to dive head down learns buoyancy control automatically. (This does not necessarily apply to rebreather divers because their buoyancy is completely different.)
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Apr 1, 2013 00:23
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Do you think poor buoyancy control is because it has something to do with the "never hold your breath" mantra? I hear that thrown at newbies a lot, and I think it could dissuade them from breath holding to trim their buoyancy. The "never hold your breath" thing should add "while ascending" as an addendum.
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Apr 1, 2013 00:44
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Poor buoyancy control is mostly due to lack of calmness and comfort in the water. People breath fast and way to shallow to figure out if the amt of air they have is right. They try to overcompensate by breathing faster, and its just a never ending cycle. Calm down, breath deep and slowly, and you'll figure it out.
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Apr 1, 2013 01:07
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The disadvantage of diving head down, feet up is that it's easy to have accidents. That's me about to get hit by a whaleshark. I had no idea it was there.
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Apr 1, 2013 05:12
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Finch!, gently caress you.. That is all! You do a disservice to divers everywhere! ;-) And holy mother of ramoras! Crunkjuice posted:Poor buoyancy control is mostly due to lack of calmness and comfort in the water. People breath fast and way to shallow to figure out if the amt of air they have is right. They try to overcompensate by breathing faster, and its just a never ending cycle. Calm down, breath deep and slowly, and you'll figure it out. Or be like me and not give a poo poo? SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 05:24
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Finch! posted:That's me about to get hit by a whaleshark. I had no idea it was there. I was gonna say, the major disadvantages is that you miss all the other cool poo poo going on around you.
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Apr 1, 2013 05:46
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SlicerDicer posted:Or be like me and not give a poo poo? Fair enough. If you dive safely, don't touch the bottom, and don't affect my dive, i don't care what you do. However as DM when teaching, its my job to help students tune their buoyancy and thats the biggest problem i've noticed. People breath really shallow when they aren't confident or calm, and that has a huge impact on a divers buoyancy control. Things like proper weighting, adding small amounts of air to your bcd at a time are factors, but if a diver doesn't breath fully and calmly, they'll never have good buoyancy control.
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Apr 1, 2013 06:03
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Crunkjuice posted:Fair enough. If you dive safely, don't touch the bottom, and don't affect my dive, i don't care what you do. However as DM when teaching, its my job to help students tune their buoyancy and thats the biggest problem i've noticed. People breath really shallow when they aren't confident or calm, and that has a huge impact on a divers buoyancy control. Things like proper weighting, adding small amounts of air to your bcd at a time are factors, but if a diver doesn't breath fully and calmly, they'll never have good buoyancy control. I did not mean to come off like that, I dont give a poo poo about being on the bottom in heavy current. I am of course on sandy type bottoms walking so I can go up in backpressure zones to prevent damage. If I was on a calm dive I would be zen like buoyancy but when current starts ripping I change the way I dive. Hence the dont give a poo poo and park myself as needed to remain safe. All this is not to say I have not crunched my fair share of coral in current, surge, sudden stupid underwater rivers and or downwellings. I crunched a huge Antler Coral by surge hitting me and throwing me some 30ft underwater unexpectedly. SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 07:46
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Trivia posted:I was gonna say, the major disadvantages is that you miss all the other cool poo poo going on around you. Head down does not mean head in the rear end. One can be head down and be watching the sunset. Thinking that they need to be stomach down is part of the problem that people get themselves into when they don't neutral because any time they stop wailing away with their legs they sink. One the other hand, fins down does mean head in the rear end. Because people who dive fins down really do have their heads in their rear end. pupdive fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 14:06
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Crunkjuice posted:but if a diver doesn't breath fully and calmly, they'll never have good buoyancy control. Actually there are a huge number of people who would have absolutely no ability to effectively dive if they breathed fully. Breathing appropriately matters; but large lung volume people will end up swinging up and down 6-12 feet on a breath cycle if they actual breath fully and slowly, no matter how carefully they time it. It one of the very first things an instructor has to do is spot the huge lung volume people and purpose underweight them so they have to breath on the bottom half of their lung volume. People who have not seen people put on spirometers really have no idea what a huge difference in lung volume there is from person to person. But get an instructor who trains lots of Open Water Divers and has their student pool split equality between say, Americans, and Japanese, learns immediately that there are lung volume differences basically beyond belief. My favorite story is doing an air depletion exercise and having to wait for more than a minute to have the Japanese student react. I have American students who empty the hoses in a single breathing cycle.
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Apr 1, 2013 14:19
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We played with spirometers in med school so I know I have a functional capacity of 6 and a half litres so I do do try and concentrate on not taking too deep breaths as otherwise I'm all over the place.
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Apr 1, 2013 17:29
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:We played with spirometers in med school so I know I have a functional capacity of 6 and a half litres so I do do try and concentrate on not taking too deep breaths as otherwise I'm all over the place. Shallow breathing causes CO2 retention though  macado posted:People around here that claim to have 1500-3000 dives and have only been certified at most 5 years piss me off. It's pretty trivial math to realize they're full of poo poo. On average I do 48-50 dives a year. YEAR!!!! SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Apr 1, 2013 |
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Apr 1, 2013 19:16
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SlicerDicer posted:Shallow breathing causes CO2 retention though In people with large lung volume, there is never a problem with CO2 retention because of the sheer volume of air exchange. It is of course never simple because some huge lung people are out of shape fat fucks and they build up CO2 from just changing their minds. Another reason to be eagerly awaiting the arrival of rebreathers in the mainstream.
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Apr 2, 2013 05:29
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pupdive posted:Another reason to be eagerly awaiting the arrival of rebreathers in the mainstream. I am highly skeptical... I mean lets face it.. if I had to bail for all the reasons that the Recreational Divers do... Or didnt dive due to issues... Didnt know how to fix my own gear I would dive 3 times a year LOL They are very very very finicky, they break they have issues they rarely ever work flawlessly. They are able to kill you and with how many divers dive with brains turned off its not really great idea.. Buoyancy takes brain power. I manage 3 airspaces "drysuit, wing, counterlung" Always Know your PPO2 or DIE Always Know your scrubber limits.. Ohh wait you need a qualified person to pack your scrubber? Well poo poo I am sure as hell not qualified... Boosting O2 is inherently dangerous I do it. Do people really want to carry that much weight? Did I mention they will kill you? Did I mention they will kill you? I am seriously skeptical of it though I mean sure you can do some neat stuff with them but I highly doubt they will become normal. I say this as a rebreather diver who has had... Solenoid Failure- Stuck open, dove 3 hours feathering valve, Flooded Controller, Run 100% manual for over 20 dives (read flooded controller), Flooded Loop (Multiple times always on full exhale), cell issues <-- these suck as you do not know what you are breathing. My first rebreather dive ever stressed to hell I had my drysuit try to kill me.. It decided to add air all on its own LOL So yeah they suck.. they are a pain in the rear end.. But I love them
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Apr 2, 2013 06:51
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SlicerDicer posted:
Yes but I gather your dives are deeper and much longer duration than most people :-) 50 is pretty typical number for tech divers around here. Rather than doing two dives a day, they do one longer dive. Most of my dives are shore dives or off charter boat I work for in less than 70ft of water.
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Apr 2, 2013 17:07
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If you are working as a dive instructor or divemaster, it wouldnt be unusual to rack up dives in a hurry. I'd say a busy DM could easily do 800 dives in a year.
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Apr 2, 2013 23:51
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Heads up for SoCal divers, May 1 is the USC Chamber Day. I will likely be going, so if anyone else is say something here so we can meet up.
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Apr 3, 2013 00:39
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Aquila posted:Heads up for SoCal divers, May 1 is the [url=https://secure.https://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/SCA/events/event_order.cgi?tmpl=events&event=2360392+]USC Chamber Day[/url]. I will likely be going, so if anyone else is say something here so we can meet up. Unfortunately, I can't make it but I'll be attending Power Scuba's shore dive at Crescent on the 20th. Seeing as I'll be moving down to San Diego to attend SDSU this fall I figured I'd make some dive buddies from down there. If you haven't dove Crescent yet you're seriously missing out. It's a close tie between it and Woods Cove for my favorite Laguna site.
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Apr 3, 2013 03:48
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macado posted:Yes but I gather your dives are deeper and much longer duration than most people :-) True, eviljelly posted:If you are working as a dive instructor or divemaster, it wouldnt be unusual to rack up dives in a hurry. I'd say a busy DM could easily do 800 dives in a year. 12 dives per week, 30 mins per dive average.. Thats what it is around this area... 360mins underwater per week. I do 360mins per week :P puts things into perspective no? If I do 3 dives per week I am well over what a DM could hope to do. Answers Macado too.
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Apr 3, 2013 06:34
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Aquila posted:Heads up for SoCal divers, May 1 is the [url=https://secure.https://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/SCA/events/event_order.cgi?tmpl=events&event=2360392+]USC Chamber Day[/url]. I will likely be going, so if anyone else is say something here so we can meet up. Just a heads up, if you've not reserved yet, try to get on the magician. Did my OW cert with those guys and the crew+food are superb. Also they have two roomy bunk rooms, so sleeping on the way out is a breeze.
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Apr 3, 2013 07:38
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eviljelly posted:If you are working as a dive instructor or divemaster, it wouldnt be unusual to rack up dives in a hurry. I'd say a busy DM could easily do 800 dives in a year. Possibly, but not even close to easily. That's no days off and three dives many days, and never fewer than two. It's simple math. Seriously people vastly overrate their dive counts. Instructors and divemasters are no different. My student counts are accurate (mostly) because that is kept by a third party. Ask me to name the number of OW students and I will easily double it. Atlantis's divers used to really rack up dives, but then OSHA and lawsuits made them stop using divers altogether in some places and severely restrict their usage in other places.
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Apr 3, 2013 09:40
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Making like 5 dives a week is more then enough during a year working as DM. And maybe not having diving classes during winter time.
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Apr 3, 2013 11:04
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As a surface humper. I do 50-100 dives a day  But each one is only 2 minutes long
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Apr 3, 2013 13:18
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Most working DMs will not do anywhere near 800 dives a year unless they're working every single day with no days, doing three dives a day and working for a large operation. :-) Went out diving this weekend. Tried my hand at making a time lapse video with my GoPro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzYUV2mWuCo I need to practice a bit more. I had it taking a picture at 5 second intervals. Dove at one my my favorite sites called Graves Light. One of the outer most harbor islands in Boston Harbor. Tons of harbor seals out there. Great for lobster in the summer. The site is basically extremely rocky with huge granite cliffs/rocks that form channels with large cracks and crevices. Goes to about 65ft and 5-20ft the closer you get to the island. Perfect site for open water checkout dives when the conditions are right. The harbor seals aren't as friendly here as some of the other sites that divers frequent but they're definitely getting more curious. Water is still 37-39F. I will be so happy when it warms up to high 40s/50s.
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Apr 4, 2013 00:25
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There is some new videos here and then a few that are not linked, you can of course check them if you wish through going through vimeo. This was shot on april 2nd I saw some action of hammerheads that was pretty good among other speices. https://vimeo.com/63276323 https://vimeo.com/63298763
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Apr 4, 2013 06:25
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SlicerDicer posted:There is some new videos here and then a few that are not linked, you can of course check them if you wish through going through vimeo. This was shot on april 2nd I saw some action of hammerheads that was pretty good among other speices. Holy crap jealous. Hammerheads AND whales? Right before you started laughing, the call reminded me of the 'goats yelling like people' video. Totally awesome.
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Apr 4, 2013 07:33
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Hey SlicerDicer: Have you done a write-up on your gear head to toe before? If so, link please? If not, can you please?
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Apr 4, 2013 08:26
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SaNChEzZ posted:Holy crap jealous. Hammerheads AND whales? Right before you started laughing, the call reminded me of the 'goats yelling like people' video. Totally awesome. Thanks glad you liked, stay tuned its likely going to get alot more awesome tell september when it mellows out again. Although whales are going to be leaving soon pupdive posted:Hey SlicerDicer: Depends on what I am configured but here is a generalized list. Mask: Seadive Low Volume, Snorkel Atomic Mark 15 rebreather, modified following. Custom Delrin barrel double oring sealed hose adapters, 1.5 inch cooper hoses, golem gear bov, DES Titanium Plates and Frame for harness and stand, Laguna Research ECCR setup, Bare Drysuit Tech Dry x2 10ft safety marker bouy Nautilus Lifeline, x3 different size mountain climbing cams (friends), double sided carabiner to attach ropes to cams, x2 reef hooks with custom line one is 6m the other is 12m, finger reel of course, I carry a writing slate, I use the scubapro jetfins I think this about it? I have another mark15 and a inspiration as well, that one is modified with a titan box, has a BOV, narked at 90 adapter to allow for 4th cell and shearwater predator plugged in. Dive computers I use for my mk15 are x2 shearwater petrels. Camera is Red Epic, 18-55mm RED Lens T3 (f2.8), I have the Deep Epic from gates and then have x2 Keldan Luna 8 Bailout is usually consist of 2 offboard cylinders. x2 40cf tanks one with 38% and the other with 100% o2. I hope this helps Mark15 complete 78lbs, Camera is 83lbs, cylinders are 18lbs each misc crap is likely 15lbs Somewhere on order of 230lbs or some crap like that.
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Apr 4, 2013 09:05
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Drysuit dudes, need some quick help. Ive got an OW class this weekend and i'm wearing my drysuit (suck it students, you deal with 55 degree water) and my left wrist seal is slightly torn. I don't have time to replace them before this weekend, and have looked around online for some tips. People are recommending thick (like 1 inch wide) rubber bands to hold down the wrist seals. Have you seen this done before? If so, im guessing office depot/max type stores will have them? I could get apollo bio seals but gently caress paying 50 dollars for two pieces of rubber.
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Apr 5, 2013 00:06
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Crunkjuice posted:Drysuit dudes, need some quick help. Ive got an OW class this weekend and i'm wearing my drysuit (suck it students, you deal with 55 degree water) and my left wrist seal is slightly torn. I don't have time to replace them before this weekend, and have looked around online for some tips. People are recommending thick (like 1 inch wide) rubber bands to hold down the wrist seals. Have you seen this done before? If so, im guessing office depot/max type stores will have them? Hell if I know I am rough as crap on my stuff and never torn one yet.
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Apr 5, 2013 03:47
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https://vimeo.com/63535364 Moar proof I suck... Hello Sharkies!
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Apr 8, 2013 06:32
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SlicerDicer posted:https://vimeo.com/63535364 I love your videos. Roughly how deep are you in this one? Also around 1:15 are all those five divers using rebreathers too?
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Apr 8, 2013 08:41
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Aquila posted:I love your videos. Roughly how deep are you in this one? Also around 1:15 are all those five divers using rebreathers too? Yep it was a rebreathering fest I hit 34.5mThis is me at about 32m I know this spot well. And yes I am fully aware I am on the bottom, in current, with marauding sharks. 
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Apr 8, 2013 08:43
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