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I know for sure our party barge had the dive flag, and I'm almost 100% positive the other was as well. Looking back you were probably right about it being a ways off, but it was pretty drat loud though.
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Sep 17, 2013 11:55
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If you did not see it, it could easily have been hundreds of feet away. I understand where you're coming from because I've had the same feeling many times but sound just travels REALLY well underwater, especially the high pitched sound of a boat's engine/props.
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Sep 17, 2013 16:04
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Could someone tell me anything about this dry suit?. I dive in British waters a lot and I want to get a good dry suit for my Advanced Open Water course next weekend. I'm sick of getting soaked wearing those loving Typhoon rental drysuits.
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Sep 20, 2013 16:19
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Gushing Granny posted:Could someone tell me anything about this dry suit?. I dive in British waters a lot and I want to get a good dry suit for my Advanced Open Water course next weekend. I'm sick of getting soaked wearing those loving Typhoon rental drysuits. Not used those but for similar money you could get a seaskin nova, although that's not going to arrive in time? Where are you doing it? I spent most of last year diving in gildenburgh doing my sports diver Yorkshire divers would be a good place to ask
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Sep 20, 2013 17:20
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Finch! posted:Hey, nice. I'm on Gili T and did my first dive in Indonesia today at "Turtle Heaven." They weren't lying - 7 turtles in one dive. Awesome man, I got back to Perth this morning - had a really fantastic weeks diving over in Nusa Lembongan. It was a week of new dive experiences for me - actually my first dives with deep drop offs and strong currents, so it was good experience. First up reputable shops - we dived mostly with Big Fish Diving - who were absolutely excellent. We did our last day diving with Dive Concepts - who were frankly pretty terrible, especially in comparison with Big Fish. Blue Corner and Two Fish seemed decent but are a fair whack more expensive, Lembongan dive centre seemed ok from what I could see, and all the rest of the operators seemed a bit dodgy from what I could tell. Dive Concepts basically had a joke of a divemaster who was so far out of her depth it wasn't funny. She'd finished her DM the week before, having spent a grand total of 15 days doing the divemaster course in its entirety, having gone into it with 45 dives and having (I think) done her Open Water only a few months ago. Some of the stuff was excusable, if annoying, and just inexperience on her part - constantly pestering me (DM) and my buddy (instructor) for our air, asking if we're 'ok' every few minutes and telling us to buddy up repeatedly because we're not diving on top of each other. In my experience this is pretty normal when people first start guiding as DMT's but normally have ironed out by the time they certify. She didn't give herself a chance, racing through things so quickly. But other stuff was frankly inexcusable - firstly her trim, fin control and general underwater demeanor was worse than some open water students I've seen, I lost count of the number of times I saw an errant fin spasm take out a piece of coral and I wanted to throttle her. In the briefing (these were drift dives) we were told to grab onto the bottom for fun, just to feel the current flowing past (I mean what the gently caress this is an almost pristine coral region?!) She also got a bit lovely at me on the boat when I wouldn't gear up after a surface interval of 35 minutes but insisted on a minimum of an hour - it was a 3 dive trip, we'd been diving every day for over a week and we had an impending flight 36 hours after the last dive. She was also trying to take us down to 30+ metres for no reason whatsoever (because everyone wants to go deep apparently) but we just maxed out at 22 there was nothing different to see deeper. Obviously it wasn't a problem for us, as we're both experienced and were obviously controlling our own dives and deco status =but I really worry that she's been guiding freshly certified inexperienced divers independently, when most of the sites around Lembongan are potentially dangerous. Anyway, rant over. The Big Fish DM's on the other hand were really excellent - controlled competent divers who put dive safety above chasing Mola Molas to 40 metres! OK Dive Site Report: The general character of Lembongan diving is sloping steep reef diving with the potential for some really crazy and changeable currents, including strong downwells sucking down into a 200 metre deep channel. Not too common, but something that every diver should be aware of diving around there. Crystal Bay is the most notorious after a couple of downwell related fatalities last year, but most of these sites have the potential and others (Blue Corner for example) are supposed to be even more fierce. Sites we dived were: Crystal Bay: Probably the most well known site in the area for its frequent Mola Mola sightings. Sheltered bay with astounding bommies in the shallows, heads out to a moderately steep sloping reef. There is a Mola Mola cleaning station at 30 metres, though they are encountered shallower. Usually jam packed with idiot divers. Weep as you see them lying on the coral and hanging off bommies. Manta Bay: A great southerly facing shallower dive site which captures zooplankton coming in with the big swell. This has the benefit of attracting a poo poo ton of Manta Rays! People often see 10+ Manta's on a dive here. These people are not us. We saw one, from a distance. Dammit! Also cold - water temperature can be a good 4 or 5 degrees lower than Crystal Bay and probably average 23 (Think Rottnest in Summer!) Toyapakeh: Fantastic sloping reef site with stunning coral growth. This has pretty much got it all and was one of the best we dived. Bukal/Sental/Pura Ped: Three sites all effectively linked along one wall on the North shore of Nusa Penida. All of fairly similar character, with Sental having steeper drop offs. We had some pretty crazy currents here - zipping along one way, stopping then heading back on itself, then heading down! Fine if you stay alert and shallow up if the downwell is getting too strong. Mangroves: Shallower site known for a crazy, crazy drift, the two times we dived it we actually had very little current and made for a very nice easy and relaxing reef dive. If it's really pumping try and slow it down or it will blow you off Blue Corner in about 20 minutes! Will post some photos and some info about the island later!
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Sep 23, 2013 02:58
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I went ahead and ordered the said dry suit from my dive shop, as well as a Fourh Element Arctic undersuit. Should keep me toasty warm when boat diving in the North Sea again.
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Sep 23, 2013 10:58
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I dived the Apartments yesterday, off the northern beaches of Sydney. Was really good, lot of fish, and some PJs and wobbegongs. had a wobbe swim right under me, about 20cm away, scared the poo poo out of me when I noticed. The water's a bit cold right now, about 16 degrees. On the way back on the boat, we saw three humpback whales and a pod of dolphins. Four of them swam right under our boat, with their heads sticking just ahead so lying on the bow and looking right down you could see them just flitting under the water, occasionally ducking out to the side for a quick breath and ducking back in. I guess the liked the sensation of being in the pressure wave of the boat. Gotta say, I never really get excited about going out to dive in Sydney since it's cold, but every time I go out, I come back with a big smile.
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Sep 23, 2013 12:32
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According to my Zoop, the water was warmer than the air last weekend. Probably not in the sea, but in freshwater it was a toasty 17c while the air was 14c.
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Sep 23, 2013 14:46
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So the GF and me did our second ever dive in the Maldives a couple weeks ago. It was awesome and she was very brave being a little claustrophobic but once we started the dive and watched the pretty fishes everything was alright. We were both alone with the instructor which was cool. Went to 12 meters  and the dive lasted 35min because I breath like a baloon and use all my air while my GF and instructor had 100bar left  I'm a terrible diver yay I guess. In my defence I'm a big guy (1.86m for 90kg)Wanted to ask some advice on something tho, we still haven't done any cert so I guess once we start this (next summer in Switzerland) we'll know plenty of important poo poo but I had issue decompressing my ears, my left ear in particular was really hard to purge. I was wondering what might be the cause of this? I blown so hard in my nose that I had blood going out at the end of the dive, not mentioning it was pretty painful. Should I be checking a doctor to see if everything is alright or is this just due to inexperience?
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Sep 23, 2013 15:30
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Le0 posted:Wanted to ask some advice on something tho, we still haven't done any cert so I guess once we start this (next summer in Switzerland) we'll know plenty of important poo poo but I had issue decompressing my ears, my left ear in particular was really hard to purge. I was wondering what might be the cause of this? I blown so hard in my nose that I had blood going out at the end of the dive, not mentioning it was pretty painful. Should I be checking a doctor to see if everything is alright or is this just due to inexperience? BADBADBADBADBADBADBADBAD. You NEVER force equalization, as it can do serious damage to your sinuses and ears. Do you still have issues with your ears/sinuses from this dive? If so immediately get to a doctor. I don't want to get all alarmist or yell at you too much, but that was very very stupid and could have hurt yourself pretty badly. If you have equalization issues, you stop the descent. Ascend a few feet, and then try to equalize again and then begin to descend SLOWLY once your ears have cleared. If you can't clear your ears you abort the dive, not force the issue and rupture something inside your head just to dive.
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Sep 23, 2013 17:38
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Crunkjuice posted:BADBADBADBADBADBADBADBAD. You NEVER force equalization, as it can do serious damage to your sinuses and ears. Do you still have issues with your ears/sinuses from this dive? If so immediately get to a doctor. I don't want to get all alarmist or yell at you too much, but that was very very stupid and could have hurt yourself pretty badly. Agreeing here that you should go to a doctor, preferably an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist. I did basically the same thing but not as bad on my first pool dive and ended up with clogged tubes and decided to cancel my ocean dives halfway through the next week due to blood and such. After that it developed into an ear infection, but I went to my ENT and she gave me some crazy strong antibiotics + steroids that had me fine in like a day. For a while I had ~5% hearing loss in one ear, but it's either gotten better or I've gotten used to it. Since then I've continued diving, gotten my cert and not had anymore ear problems. I now clear my ears all the time and looked up all the methods for clearing while diving and found all are better than the hold your nose and blow method they teach.
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Sep 23, 2013 18:50
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Agreeing with the above 100%. If you have trouble equalizing, terminate the dive. And for the love of god, if something starts bleeding, stop diving and seek medical attention. Was it your ears or your nose that was bleeding? I'd be really concerned about a ruptured eardrum at this point...
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Sep 23, 2013 18:53
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I always found swallowing was a much easier and safer way to equalize than the valsalva maneuver. I've heard that it's different for everyone though. What other techniques are there, Aquila?
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Sep 23, 2013 21:32
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In regards to equalising, I used to hold my nose and bang in the pressure to clear and had difficulty a few times. After speaking about it to some people, I changed to holding my nose and gradually increasing the pressure and I've never had issues since. I guess this is obvious to most in this thread, but hopefully can be useful to fellow newbs.
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Sep 23, 2013 22:58
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Gushing Granny posted:I always found swallowing was a much easier and safer way to equalize than the valsalva maneuver. I've heard that it's different for everyone though. What other techniques are there, Aquila? There seem to be three general variants, hold your nose and blow, valsalva (tongue against roof of mouth while opening jaw as much as you can), and moving jaw side to side. Maybe some people can effectively swallow with a regulator in their mouth, but I can't, so I guess that would be four. With any you can try tilting you head to either side as it may help. Since I take a fast elevator to and from the 18th floor of a building several times a day I can practice clearing my ears in a situation where I can actually feel the need for it. I usually cycle through all methods when descending in a dive and rarely have problems anymore (the only time I can think of is after ascending and then my buddy wanted to swim back to the boat at 10ft instead of a surface swim). As for Le0 my completely unqualified non medical professional guess would be that it's not a burst ear drum, and just a burst blood vessel in your eustachian tube, as you'd probably be nearly incapacitated by the former, and probably only mildly annoyed by the latter. Still, please see a qualified doctor immediately about it.
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Sep 23, 2013 23:44
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Has anyone been/heard of good diving in Vietnam? I may find myself there this winter, and I'd like to know if there's a locale I should hit up for a couple of days at least.
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Sep 24, 2013 01:29
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Trivia posted:Has anyone been/heard of good diving in Vietnam? I may find myself there this winter, and I'd like to know if there's a locale I should hit up for a couple of days at least. YES. I spent a week in Con Dao, which is an island off the southern coast, and it had some of the most amazing, unspoiled reefs I've ever seen. You can fly there from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for $75-$150 round trip. There are some fancy resorts on the island, as well as some cheaper places, so I think it'll fit most budgets. I personally stayed at the Six Senses resort, which was lovely, apart from the dive master (more about that in a minute). The island is mostly a national park and a military base, so there's a lot of unspoiled natural beauty (and a now-closed prison that was used during the war, which is of historical interest). I booked the trip planning to schedule dives through the resort, but I was so totally unimpressed with my first conversation with the resort divemaster that I decided to seek options elsewhere on the island. I'm very glad I did. I ended up diving with these guys: http://www.dive-condao.com/ They have - by far - the best dive boat on the island, are very safety-conscious and have highly professional dive masters. Great folks, I really enjoyed my whole experience with them. The owner, an American, is a font of local knowledge and was happy to help arrange other activities on the island (and seemed to be able to do so better and cheaper than the Six Senses concierge). They were happy to take us out and do as much diving as we were up for, and the boat was by no means crowded. There was a wide variety of dive sites. Most of the dives tended to be in shallower water (30-60 feet), which was nice as I tend to use a ton of air. The coral was amazing. Easily the most unspoiled reefs I've seen anywhere. As far as marine life goes, lots of mantas, sea turtles, and particularly cuttlefish, which I'd never seen before in the wild. It was cuttlefish mating season and we saw quite a few mating pairs.
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Sep 24, 2013 02:01
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Oh geez. I went to Con Son back in 2008, but that was before I got my advanced license. I've spent time in Ho Chi Minh City, but haven't been up to Hanoi. I wouldn't mind going back to Con Son though, I had a blast with rented motorbikes the last time, and the scenery was pretty spectacular. However, if I go in December it'll be the windy season. Won't that hamper a lot of the diving?
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Sep 24, 2013 02:46
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It might rule out some of the dive sites, but there's a lot of good diving in the lee side of the island that is protected from the wind.
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Sep 24, 2013 03:09
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I should also add that I went in early January, and didn't have any problems.
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Sep 24, 2013 17:07
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Right now I'm trying to decide between Vietnam, Indonesia, or the Philippines. Since I'll be with the girlfriend, I've been requested to allocate some time for land-based activities (drat her, she'll never understand!). She's not so keen on Indonesia on account of the monsoon season. That bums me out as I had heard the Gili and Lombok islands are gorgeous. If there's time, I was also considering getting my Rescue Diver's cert. I believe she'd go for her advanced.
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Sep 25, 2013 00:24
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I just wanted to say that I always read this thread's title as "Ask us about dying!". I don't have any questions about diving, though. But seeing this title always makes me think about death and life after death and near-death experiences. Well, I guess one question which may have already been answered is do divers like that Van Halen album/why did they name it that? 
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Sep 25, 2013 01:46
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This wouldn't be the first time someone's misread the title. Changing it to "Ask us about Scuba Diving!" would certainly help. When I first saw it I thought it was high diving or some poo poo.
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Sep 25, 2013 01:55
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I.C. posted:I just wanted to say that I always read this thread's title as "Ask us about dying!". I don't have any questions about diving, though. But seeing this title always makes me think about death and life after death and near-death experiences. Well, I guess one question which may have already been answered is do divers like that Van Halen album/why did they name it that? I'm only really a fan of the intro to Little Guitars, and their cover of Pretty Woman, and they named it that because there is a "Diver Down" flag which means that there are divers in the water below, but also because it's Van Halen and if there's one thing they love more than eatin' pussy, it's naming albums after eatin' pussy.
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Sep 25, 2013 04:41
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Crunkjuice posted:BADBADBADBADBADBADBADBAD. You NEVER force equalization, as it can do serious damage to your sinuses and ears. Do you still have issues with your ears/sinuses from this dive? If so immediately get to a doctor. I don't want to get all alarmist or yell at you too much, but that was very very stupid and could have hurt yourself pretty badly. Thanks for the heads up, our instructor did not say much on this subject and as it was our second dive only I didn't know that. Aquila posted:Agreeing here that you should go to a doctor, preferably an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist. I did basically the same thing but not as bad on my first pool dive and ended up with clogged tubes and decided to cancel my ocean dives halfway through the next week due to blood and such. After that it developed into an ear infection, but I went to my ENT and she gave me some crazy strong antibiotics + steroids that had me fine in like a day. For a while I had ~5% hearing loss in one ear, but it's either gotten better or I've gotten used to it. Since then I've continued diving, gotten my cert and not had anymore ear problems. I now clear my ears all the time and looked up all the methods for clearing while diving and found all are better than the hold your nose and blow method they teach. I will go see my doctor cause I think there must be an issue with my ear, I hope it was not too damaged  eriktown posted:Agreeing with the above 100%. If you have trouble equalizing, terminate the dive. And for the love of god, if something starts bleeding, stop diving and seek medical attention. It was my nose that bleeded a little but I noticed only when I got out of the water at the end of the dive. During the dive seeing I had problems with equalization I tried swallowing etc... but nothing seemed to work Unimpressed posted:In regards to equalising, I used to hold my nose and bang in the pressure to clear and had difficulty a few times. After speaking about it to some people, I changed to holding my nose and gradually increasing the pressure and I've never had issues since. I guess this is obvious to most in this thread, but hopefully can be useful to fellow newbs. So do you mean that instead of blowing hard once, do it gradually? This is helpful to me since I really need to find a better method I guess What would be the best way to practice this, doing other dives I guess ?
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Sep 25, 2013 08:32
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Le0 posted:
Do it gently, early and often. Also try equalising at the surface just before you descend. You should do it before you feel any pressure or discomfort, not to alleviate it. Tomberforce fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Sep 25, 2013 |
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Sep 25, 2013 08:50
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I can't remember if this has been linked before but watch this guys lecture. Later on he goes into various techniques that can help. I have problems equalizing and some of the techniques demonstrated helped me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9UNcp9lxM I think it is part 4 where he starts going into the various things you can do. Main thing I have started to do is pre pressurize my ear on the surface so I can get down easier.
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Sep 25, 2013 09:06
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Tomberforce posted:Do it gently, early and often. Also try equalising at the surface just before you descend. I think my problem was that I was doing the direct opposite of what was needed  I was doing it only when I started feeling discomfort in the ears and I was doing it very hard Gindack posted:I can't remember if this has been linked before but watch this guys lecture. Later on he goes into various techniques that can help. I have problems equalizing and some of the techniques demonstrated helped me. I'll watch this looks interesting
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Sep 25, 2013 14:20
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Trivia posted:This wouldn't be the first time someone's misread the title. Changing it to "Ask us about Scuba Diving!" would certainly help. When I first saw it I thought it was high diving or some poo poo. I guess we could rename it to something like "Ask us about SCUBA (and other forms of) diving". If anyone has a good idea to make it clearer I'll PM one of our overlords asking them to change it. Bishop fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Sep 25, 2013 |
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Sep 25, 2013 15:13
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Bishop posted:I guess we could rename it to something like "Ask us about SCUBA (and other forms of*) diving". *But not dumpster
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Sep 25, 2013 22:44
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Trivia posted:*But not dumpster Always dive feet first in case there are large objects you can't see. Head first could cause severe head trauma and in extreme cases death. Its always a good idea to make sure your entry point is clear from dange Never dumpster dive on trash day. You may get distracted and end up in the back of a garbage truck. Try to pick a nice dive spot. The nicer the neighborhood, the nicer the dive will be fore you. I'm sure we can think of more
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Sep 25, 2013 22:52
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Nothing about handling the sites flora and fauna? Shame on you for overlooking that. Also pick up all the aluminum cans you can find since eventually you can find a postal worker to take you to a recycling plant. Also it cleans up the habitat for the aforementioned flora and fauna.
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Sep 26, 2013 03:42
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Le0 posted:So do you mean that instead of blowing hard once, do it gradually? This is helpful to me since I really need to find a better method I guess Yeah, exactly that, just gradually and gently increase the pressure until it clears or you feel it's too much, in which case stop and ascend a bit and try again. Practicing is easy, you can do it anywhere, you'll feel the pressure building even if there is no external pressure. There are probably other tips and techniques, but this is what I found consistently works for me. BTW, a nose bleed can mean something far less serious than ear damage. My wife gets a minor nose bleed occasionally and it's no big deal. Unimpressed fucked around with this message at 06:26 on Sep 26, 2013 |
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Sep 26, 2013 06:23
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Bishop posted:Yeah I've always worried about the title not being too specific. It can be confusing but since free diving and such is also covered in here I just went with "diving". We might be missing out on goons who are curious or contribute advice. I've noticed the GBS deep sea thread has some divers I've never seen posting here. Scuba diving/free diving thread: get wet, go deep
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Sep 26, 2013 14:07
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The key to dumpster diving is watching your gauges. If your methane ppCH4 approaches or exceeds .06 it's time to get out. Also carry at least 3 knives in case you have to stab someone that was sleeping in there.
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Sep 26, 2013 18:22
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Met a fellow diver at a socialite dinner and he was so full of poo poo. He claimed that during his first dive 15 years ago he "fell down" to 40 meters, or 120 feet. Yeah, sure! Come the gently caress on. His qualifications? Padi dive master, of course. He was incredibly confident (to the point of being cocky) and full of himself and quietly decided that I don't want him around when I dive.
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Sep 26, 2013 23:59
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Bishop posted:The key to dumpster diving is watching your gauges. If your methane ppCH4 approaches or exceeds .06 it's time to get out. Also carry at least 3 knives in case you have to stab someone that was sleeping in there. Convulsing due to methane toxicity when dumpster diving is pretty much the worse situation any diver can be in.
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Sep 27, 2013 00:41
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It appears I won't be going to Vietnam after all. I think instead I'll be making my way to the Philippines. Any advice there (except stay out of the south)?
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Sep 27, 2013 03:16
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Is anyone here big into TecRec? I want to learn to dive on trimix eventually, but I know really deep diving requires mastery of your recreational SCUBA equipment first.
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Sep 27, 2013 09:23
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Gushing Granny posted:Is anyone here big into TecRec? I want to learn to dive on trimix eventually, but I know really deep diving requires mastery of your recreational SCUBA equipment first. There are a few techies kicking around here, how much recreational diving have you done? There are a few pre-requisites before you start the basics of tech training. In other news, I renewed my first aid cert today, which means I am now a Divemaster! Woo! 
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Sep 27, 2013 09:38
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