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BlueBayou posted:Ive been taught nothing other than to tell the DM when i have 700psi left When i lead tours of certified divers, i usually have them let me know at 1k, that way we can still mosey on back towards the ascent line at our leisure and not have it be an immediate ascent. When i teach OW students, i have them tell me at 1500 and then head back to the ascent line. I assume OW students are trying to actively kill themselves, so i don't take chances with them.
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Jun 20, 2013 04:19
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I didn't mean to start a problem, everything I've seen on a guided dive has been tell the closest DM when you're at half gas and then they know when to start ascending and/or split the group, depending on DMs, skill level, etc. And earlier on, we were the ones making a T when we hit 1500, then doing the ascent and stop ourselves - my post earlier was more about the people that get sub 500 and act like its no big deal. That's what blows my mind, since it is incredibly ignorant of the dangers a large body of water holds. Also you're underneath that body of water. e: and I agree that the issue is people getting used to guided dives - look at the Bimini dive I posted about earlier with assholes dropping to 170 on a single tank of air. e2: no offense, Bishop, that was a different ball game than what you do let it mellow fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 04:45
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/\ /\ heh I don't even know what I'm susposed to be offended at so I guess none taken? /\ /\ Teaching as a DM is awesome, but I would never want to be one of the leaders on a cattle boat out of some vacation destination. Too many dumb people. W/R/T gas... in the Keys I think the standard is "back on the boat with 500". They change what you should start surfacing at depending on the dive. One nice thing about the AL80 tank is that it's drat hard to stay down long enough on one to get bent. Of course people still manage to do it all the time. Bishop fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 04:48
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Most of the dives I've been on have required signals at around half, from which we start to slowly ascend. Once you're on top of the reef at no more than 15 feet, they let us go to poke around. Those with SMBs and dive computers are given a lot more freedom. My experiences are probably out of the ordinary however. Spending several thousands to go to a premier dive destination usually weeds out the cattle boat customers.
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Jun 20, 2013 05:02
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Crunkjuice posted:
Scott. I have a cruise in September so I am going to be drat sure I am not that guy who runs out of air or returns with 100psi left in the tank.
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Jun 20, 2013 05:08
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Bishop posted:/\ /\ heh I don't even know what I'm susposed to be offended at so I guess none taken? /\ /\ Offensive stuff? Dont get me started :P Bishop posted:Teaching as a DM is awesome, but I would never want to be one of the leaders on a cattle boat out of some vacation destination. Too many dumb people. I go on cattle boat.. they let me drop off the back and go where I want by myself or with my buddies :P The other day I dropped off back with 2 cameras went and shot test shots all by myself they dont care.
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Jun 20, 2013 08:39
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I ask my divers to let me know at 70 bar (1000psi) and prefer to be on the surface with no less than 50 bar (700 psi), although 40 (600) is okay. I had a Russian AOW couple not say anything even at 60 bar and when I started taking us up, the dude shot back down to take pictures of a moray eel. I went down and told him again that we need to go up. On the boat he was a little miffed that I "hurried" him at the end of the dive. I explained why and reminded him of what I said during the predive briefing. He said during his AOW course, he always came up with 0 air and he would inflate orally on the surface. 
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Jun 20, 2013 08:53
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eviljelly posted:I ask my divers to let me know at 70 bar (1000psi) and prefer to be on the surface with no less than 50 bar (700 psi), although 40 (600) is okay. I know of some dive shops that have blanket bans on Russians diving with them! When I'm guiding I usually get people to let me know how much air they have at the start of the dive as well - I find it gets them thinking about it, and lets me know that they know how to check and signal air before we start getting low. Depending on the experience of the divers and dive profile I then get them to tell me at somewhere between 150 and 100 bar. Tomberforce fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 09:51
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This is kind of a broad question, but what does being a good buddy entail, beyond the simple stay in line of sight, help with gear, and the superficial stuff? WHen following your buddy at depth where do you guys swim in relation to them? As a new diver what can I do to make sure I don't get in my buddies way or make them think I am off trying to kill us both?
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Jun 20, 2013 10:33
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Well, listening to a more experienced buddy (and actually heeding it) is a start. Anecdote time! Back in March when I went to Palau, a friend here (in Japan) showed interest in going as well. This guy is typically flaky, but means well so it's hard to hate him. Queue my surprise when he actually bought tickets and went! He was brand-spanking new to diving. He started with OW then went straight to AOW and Nitrox cert. Being a swimmer he was super comfortable in the water and caught on quickly. This was a blessing and a curse, as he was also a bit careless and excited about everything (at one point he went down close to 1.6 PPO2 on nitrox, without realizing it). He was comfortable enough to easily forget about dangers. Our last dive for the trip was a wreck dive. It was a WWII merchant vessel called the Iro. Our guide said we'd be doing some very light penetration, no more than entering a cargo hold then making our way out through an aisle. He also would take us into the bridge and some other areas. As a note, he made SURE to tell us not to kick when we're in the ship, as there's 60 years of silt and poo poo and causing a brown-out would gently caress everyone behind you. Before jumping in, I made sure to remind my newbie buddy to not use his loving fins. Well, my buddy and I (and parents) were about done with the dive, and one last point the guide showed us was the bridge. He motioned that it was a simple room which was basically just a U-turn. Go in, turn left, go straight, turn left, exit. I made it a point to go in first 'cause I had a feeling my friend would inevitably use his fins. I went in, going slowly and using my tank-banger to help stay away from floor and ceiling. I proceeded forward and went deeper in the room, planning to do a loop before turning around and going out the exit. This is where I hosed up. I had assumed (dumb) that he would wait for me to complete my loop and go out. No dice, instead he continued on towards the exit, cutting me off and kicking poo poo up all the way. I was in the corner incredulously watching him brown-out the area. At that point I was doing my best to note the exit because in another 10 seconds I would be virtually blind. And that I was. I did make it out of course (no real danger, but I can see how someone would panic). As I exited I could see him looking at the mess he made, hands raised in supplication; all the while I wagged my finger with a 'drat-son-don't-ever-disappoint-me-like-that-again' look. I was pretty pissed, that poo poo was all in my hair. So, moral of the story is: slow it down, take it easy, watch what you're doing. And listen to your dive guide / buddy.
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Jun 20, 2013 11:54
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Gindack posted:This is kind of a broad question, but what does being a good buddy entail, beyond the simple stay in line of sight, help with gear, and the superficial stuff? WHen following your buddy at depth where do you guys swim in relation to them? As a new diver what can I do to make sure I don't get in my buddies way or make them think I am off trying to kill us both? When I worked as a DM, I would still go fun diving with a DM, DMT or Instructor from time to time, even though superficially it may seem like it's basically the same thing whether I take out customers or whether I go with staff. The key difference was that I know that the DM/DMT/Instructor would be a good buddy. To me, this means: that they don't take unnecessary risks but are also not complete wusses about vis, current etc; that we know each others' hand signals (not just the 'official' ones but the ones we might make up on the fly); that they are good on buoyancy and air. The most important thing is that I don't have to worry about my buddy and he doesn't have to worry about me.
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Jun 20, 2013 14:33
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Gindack posted:This is kind of a broad question, but what does being a good buddy entail, beyond the simple stay in line of sight, help with gear, and the superficial stuff? WHen following your buddy at depth where do you guys swim in relation to them? As a new diver what can I do to make sure I don't get in my buddies way or make them think I am off trying to kill us both? Stay within line of sight of each other at all times. Even with crystal clear vis, there isn't any real reason to venture far away from them. Make sure you two have your own dive plan that falls into the divemasters briefieng. Example: Knowing your buddies expectations for the dive. Is he going to take photos,just going to relax, going for max time at max depth, etc. Tell him your experience level and comfort level so you two agree on a dive profile that suits both of you and doesn't take you or him out of your respective comfort zones. If you don't want to go to 130 feet you don't have to, so speak up. Try to stay beside him and not behind him if possible. Also, if you are on a wall or something, leave the more experienced diver on the deep water side of the pair. And we've talked it to death, keep checking on your air frequently so as not to run into an emergency situation.
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Jun 20, 2013 17:34
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Gindack posted:This is kind of a broad question, but what does being a good buddy entail, beyond the simple stay in line of sight, help with gear, and the superficial stuff? WHen following your buddy at depth where do you guys swim in relation to them? As a new diver what can I do to make sure I don't get in my buddies way or make them think I am off trying to kill us both? Well being a good buddy means.. 1) keep eye on own air and let me know when your air is down at increments. 2500/2000 psi or 150/100 bar. Sorry thats main concern I dont want you to die.. by keeping eye on air you will keep near me :P Good enough for me! LOL and you wont panic or freak out as you know what your air is :P It would really ruin my day to haul a corpse.. Just sayin.. Even more so if I had to drag you in 1000+ yards as far as I go out sometimes. Given the most common cause of death is OOA 
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Jun 20, 2013 18:47
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It's also a good idea to always buddy up with a better diver than you... that way they have to deal with your gently caress ups instead of the other way around  SlicerDicer posted:Offensive stuff? Dont get me started :P Bishop fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 19:44
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Bishop posted:It's also a good idea to always buddy up with a better diver than you... that way they have to deal with your gently caress ups instead of the other way around My rebreather buddies would stake me down for the sharks LOL!!! Otherwise I am the most experienced so I have to deal with the others fuckups. Actually Bishop if we dove together I am likely one of the safest most safety oriented divers you will ever meet dispite my stupid banter.
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Jun 20, 2013 20:38
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Yeah I'm just being sarcastic. But don't deny it, if I said that there was a 300ft reef with [insert some amazing poo poo here], you would be down for it.
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Jun 20, 2013 20:49
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Drift diving is annoying. Oh look a cool turtle! aaannndddd we've been swept past it
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Jun 20, 2013 20:50
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Bishop posted:Yeah I'm just being sarcastic. But don't deny it, if I said that there was a 300ft reef with [insert some amazing poo poo here], you would be down for it. I promised my husband I wont go beyond 200ft / 60m due to deco and all that stuff.. Neutral Buoyancy Turtle is displeased with my assheavyness.  BlueBayou posted:Drift diving is annoying. Drift Diving is actually awesome just got to learn how to do what you want to do and reef hooks are very useful. SlicerDicer fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 20:51
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Well lend me that giant camera rig you have and at least I can take video of whatever happens at this hypothetical 300ft reef
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Jun 20, 2013 22:06
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Bishop posted:Well lend me that giant camera rig you have and at least I can take video of whatever happens at this hypothetical 300ft reef I should have a zinc coin that rots to auto inflate sausage to send my camera up just incaser style.
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Jun 20, 2013 22:14
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Just booked my flights to Samoa for holidays.. Does anyone have any dive recommendations for the region? I'm also thinking about getting an entry level computer to track my dive times/profiles etc.. I don't dive very often, so don't want to spend a fortune. Is the suunto zoop still the go-to entry level option?
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Jun 21, 2013 06:46
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I used a Zoop even as a DM doing 50-100 dives a month. Cheap, reliable, conservative.
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Jun 21, 2013 08:54
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Are the dive computers integrated into consoles going to be air integrated standard or do I have to make sure the computer/console I am buying says "Air Integrated." I don't want to assume and not get what I want.
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Jun 21, 2013 09:44
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Gindack posted:Are the dive computers integrated into consoles going to be air integrated standard or do I have to make sure the computer/console I am buying says "Air Integrated." I don't want to assume and not get what I want. Yes if it doesn't say 'air integrated' chances are it isn't. Also be wary if you're buying a wireless air integrated system about whether it comes with a transmitter or not. I use a Mares Puck Air - simple, cheap and effective air integrated system which is nitrox compatible up to 50%.
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Jun 21, 2013 09:51
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GrandMaster posted:Just booked my flights to Samoa for holidays.. Does anyone have any dive recommendations for the region? I'd keep a look out on Scubaboard if you're not in a rush to buy new. I scored my Suunto Vyper for like $100.
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Jun 21, 2013 13:50
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If you are going to get a expensive one get a Shearwater or Liquivision they will do what you need forever 
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Jun 21, 2013 18:24
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Oh god my schedule. Discover scuba 7-10 tonight. Open water 7-1 sat/sunday, discover classes 2-4, 5-7, 8-10 saturday and sunday. Good news is, the discover classes are 10 students a pop. and i'm making 30 bucks a student. God i love country clubs.
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Jun 21, 2013 22:08
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Any recommendations for a dive shop to do a guided dive with in Monteray, CA? My folks live out there and I'll be visiting them a lot... want to make the best of it.
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Jun 22, 2013 03:56
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Crunkjuice posted:Oh god my schedule. Discover scuba 7-10 tonight. Open water 7-1 sat/sunday, discover classes 2-4, 5-7, 8-10 saturday and sunday. Good news is, the discover classes are 10 students a pop. and i'm making 30 bucks a student. God i love country clubs. Wait, some country clubs have diving? I live entirely too far north apparently. No diving at my club except when we gambled on how many balls one of those reclaimed ball companies pulled out of 18's pond. It was like 10k which is amazing and made me realize that business is viable.
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Jun 22, 2013 04:50
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jackyl posted:Wait, some country clubs have diving? I live entirely too far north apparently. No diving at my club except when we gambled on how many balls one of those reclaimed ball companies pulled out of 18's pond. You know what rich people will pay for a discover scuba class?my buddy and I are charging 75 a head for a 2 hour discover class to a country club and they loving ate it up. Granted my buddy is a member, but the club is taking 15 a head and were splitting the rest. Seriously, its a bunch of rich people and if you can sell the club on a discover class in their pool? poo poo, that's just pure profit. If they sign up for open water cool, who cares! Were gonna pimp discover classes to every club around.
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Jun 22, 2013 05:24
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BlueBayou posted:Any recommendations for a dive shop to do a guided dive with in Monteray, CA? I went to school up there an have friends that dive very frequently, I could put you in touch with them if you'd like? Good group of people!
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Jun 22, 2013 05:25
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So boys and girls, I promised pics and by god you will get them. Sorry for the lateness, I'm extremely lazy you see. Palau's national flag.  Takes about 5 hours by plane; roughly 800-1000 US.  Into the deep!  Titan Triggerfish. I hate these aggressive fuckers.      Green Turtle and a Batfish I believe.    Safety stop.  Chandelier Cave. Palau's Rock Islands are largely limestone, and thus quite porous. This site is located right next to the dive shop's docks, so people often go here for their third dive of the day (only takes maybe 30-45 minutes, and you're under water for maybe 10 of that. It's really hard taking pictures in low light, nevermind when you're bobbing around. This was the best one out of the lot. When you go into the caves, guides warn you to always watch above you lest you hurt yourself. Lo and behold, someone didn't and got stabbed with a stalactite. He was bleeding from the top of his head for the rest of the tour. Dumbass.  One the way out of the cave everyone turns off their lights and swims for the exits. Really cool.  After the cave dive a DM approached me and asked if I was interested in doing a special dive. He informed me that is only happened during full moons, and the next day would be just that. It would be an extra $100 dollars, but you get to see a massive school of Bumphead Parrotfish spawn. Hell yeah I said, and signed right up.  Here you see an explosion of ecstacy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DmXtmm4MaQ There was fish cum everywhere.  Ulong Island, where we often ate lunch.  Going from dive spot to dive spot, you sometimes run into a pod of dolphins. They're not shy of boats, but they are of divers. You could hear them underwater, but they would never in a million years show themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adUMlhwPBOU  The Blue Holes, close to the very famous Blue Corner. The Blue Holes are, like the Chandelier Cave, limestone formations. Except these ones are mostly collapsed through, and are also underwater. We can thank the last Ice Age for these.    At the Blue Corner. If the current is strong enough, and there are no other divers, you can hook into the edge of the wall and watch the sharks pass by. Typical varieties include: Whitetip, Gray Reef, Blacktip (rarer). The current here is pretty strong and the sharks come here to sleep.    At the Blue Corner is also the resident Napoleon Wrasse. This is a very friendly fish and often comes to accompany divers. He's not afraid to eyeball back. I think he likes the bubbles.      Our last dive of the vacation, third dive of the day. We wanted to do at least one wreck dive. The WWII Japanese merchant vessel Iro was the best candidate. Visibility was pretty poor because of the full moon causing algal blooms. Didn't stop us from having fun though!       Sam's Tours (and the Malakal Yacht Club) at sunset.  One of the nice things about Sam's Tours is that they offer unlimited free house reef diving. Now, the house reef is right off the docks, and no more than about 4-5 meters deep. Not to mention that it's pretty muddy without much coral. HOWEVER, if you put in the time you can see some really cool things. And it's the PERFECT time to do a night dive. It's shallow, there's a wall (so you can't get lost) and you're right next to the docks so you can end whenever you want. During the day you can see these guys, Mandarin Fish. They're pretty tiny and move erratically. I was fortunate to find a couple doing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ggGQDZ75UM  At night you get a whole new world. All the nocturnal species come out to play. Glass shrimp, banded shrimp, crabs of varying sizes. Crocodile fish appear as if out of nowhere. Another diver down there led me to this guy, a Devil Scorpionfish (I think).  As strange as it sounds, THIS little guy might be the highlight of the trip. Not the $100 dollar parrotfish dive, not the sharks at blue corner, and not the other attraction that I'll soon exhibit. Nope, it was this little cuttlefish, off the house reef, at about 7:30 pm. I'm fairly certain it's a juvenile Broadclub Cuttlefish. This little guy was there hunting. I found him when I noticed a rock 'move.' I started following him with my light, but all he did was turn white and try to scoot away. I followed him like that for about 10 minutes, until it dawned on me. I shut the light off and watched him by moon (and fluorescent) light. That's when I saw him do this towards a small crab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjloPutUCeo It was loving awesome. So awesome that I went back and did a couple more night dives on the house reef. Cuttlefish are my favorite sea animals by far. They're just so loving cool. Here's a sweet Nova special about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In7n590GjxU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsGqcgjEgPs On our last day we signed up for the "Rock Islands Tour." Flying out the next day meant = no diving. I wasn't all that excited about the tour, but in retrospect it was pretty great. You can access and see things while snorkeling that are inaccessible diving. The colors are also so much more vibrant.           This here is one of Palau's most famous attractions. Remember how I told you about the Rock Islands, their limestone construction, and the Ice Age? Well, all of these things together plus a a poo poo ton of time equals marine lakes. Palau has dozens of them, and most are verboten to the public. Except one.    There's no diving in the lake. The decomposing leaves create hydrogen sulfide (or something) which is quite poisonous. The surface is fine as it's often diluted with rainwater.  And my god there are millions of them, all stingless.        The color of the lake is a muddy green, while the jellies are light yellow-orange. In the above photos, I messed around with the levels and color to give them more contrast. I also took vid! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVITe5d3lCQ I hope you've enjoyed these pics / vids. It was a pain in the rear end prepping them for the thread. Also, sorry for being 3 months late.
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Jun 22, 2013 05:44
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Nice shots, I'm a bit jealous that you saw two mandarin fish at once 
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Jun 22, 2013 13:36
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Well, in less than a week, we're going to start our road trip to Miami, and our flight to Belize is in 12 days! I made our dive reservations yesterday--we're doing South Water Caye (3 tank) through Avadon Divers out of Placencia. They had Blue Hole but 1) it would be a 3 hour boat ride each way and 2) my husband doesn't have AOW yet so, yeah. l also ordered my camera with housing. I can't wait to take/share pictures.
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Jun 22, 2013 15:36
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Sorry for the double post, but, I didn't want to edit my last post with all this: I emailed Avadon Divers previously to try to reserve the South Water Caye trip and also to book another non-diving excursion through them. I got an email back saying call the shop to make reservations with dates they would be doing the stuff we were interested in. Yesterday I called the shop to do so. Some guy answered the phone who really didn't know what he was doing. Like I was actually prompting him to take down our names and such. I wound up getting a call later yesterday from a different guy apologizing and he actually took my credit card number and stuff. He confirmed me for the dive on July 5 and a different excursion on July 6. Then a couple hours later he called back and said "is it OK if we move the other excursion to July 7?" I said that was fine because I'd rather have a day to recover between a long dive day and something else anyway. But now, today, I got an email asking if they could move our dive from July 5 to July 4. We arrive July 3 and I don't really want to have something scheduled the first full day we're there because on the 3rd we have a long day of travel to get there, etc. I replied and said no, the 4th doesn't work for us but we can switch from South Water Caye to another dive if necessary so that we don't have to dive the day after traveling. I'm starting to be less than impressed with them, even though on TripAdvisor they have rave reviews. What do you guys think? Are dive operators always this disorganized/flaky?
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Jun 22, 2013 18:29
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SaNChEzZ posted:I went to school up there an have friends that dive very frequently, I could put you in touch with them if you'd like? Sure, that'd be nice. I swear, I'm a good person too.
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Jun 22, 2013 19:35
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Trivia posted:Pretty pictures Nice photos man! Looks like you had a blast!
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Jun 22, 2013 23:10
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OK, update on my last post: After I wrote back and said that we didn't want to dive on the 4th, they said they were going to another location for diving on the 5th at a more expensive price (like $50 more per person). I replied and said that was out of our price range and asked if maybe there were other 2 tank dives the week we'd be there at the same price as South Water Caye or cheaper. She ended up replying and saying, "never mind, we will just do South Water Caye on the 5th." I guess they were trying to bait and switch to see if they could make more money. I'm glad I stood firm. I'm going to include this whole ordeal on my TripAdvisor review of them after the fact. I mean, I can be flexible to a degree on vacation, but I don't want to dive within 24 hours of a flight, and I have to stay within our budget. 
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Jun 23, 2013 00:26
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BlueBayou posted:Sure, that'd be nice. I swear, I'm a good person too. PMimg you his info
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Jun 23, 2013 02:00
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Got my last check out dive tomorrow afternoon for my cert and I cannot wait, I ended up packing all my gear and got it ready to go last night. Turns out the LDS' Diveclub is having a event at the same place so now instead of looking like a dumbass in front of a few strangers I get to look like one in front of a bunch more. Maybe they will mistake me for a manatee in my wetsuit.
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Jun 23, 2013 04:42
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