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Crunkjuice posted:Go to your local dive shops and tell them exactly that. Most shops have clubs that do monthly/weekly/whatever dives locally. You can always post here looking for dive buddies (long shot), or try scubaboard. I think they have a personal section to meet other local divers. I'll do that. My goal for the end of the year is to back up to the Puget Sound and see a giant pacific octopus!
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Apr 24, 2014 03:09
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Before I read much further, what can you do in the way of snorkeling or entry-level diving in the vicinity of the outer banks and lower banks of NC?
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Apr 25, 2014 02:43
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SnakePlissken posted:Before I read much further, what can you do in the way of snorkeling or entry-level diving in the vicinity of the outer banks and lower banks of NC? Lower banks has a few shipwrecks in Wilmington (this is where I live  ). There's a wreck 3 miles or so off-shore that has a max depth of 60ft, so it's perfectly within basic open water limits. There's a few other wrecks a little further out that have their wheelhouses and some other structure at ~55 feet with the bottom resting at ~90 feet which you can still dive on, but you need to be mindful of your limits and depth on those.Alexander Ramsey (aka Liberty Ship): http://www.wilmingtondiving.com/libship.shtml Hyde/Markham (2 wrecks that are less than 1/4 mile away from each other): http://www.wilmingtondiving.com/markham.shtml Those are the ones I'm familiar with, but here's a list of others that local dive shops run charters out to: http://www.wilmingtondiving.com/index.htm
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Apr 25, 2014 03:50
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Wow, thanks for that! I'm not a diver at all presently, just a guy who swims a lot. This may be something I get into. Gonna read more here. Quick question: is there anything in between a snorkel and a scuba tank, that gives some breathing assistance but not so heavy duty? Seems like there must be, but I can't recall ever seeing anything like that except maybe in James Bond movies or something.
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Apr 25, 2014 17:11
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I suppose you could look into snuba, but otherwise not really.
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Apr 25, 2014 17:38
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SnakePlissken posted:Wow, thanks for that! I'm not a diver at all presently, just a guy who swims a lot. This may be something I get into. Gonna read more here. Scuba is a tank of compressed air with a pressure regulator attached. Not sure how much simpler it could get.
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Apr 26, 2014 09:38
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Snuba always makes me laugh because it seems to have more potential danger (Your air hose is floating on the surface, etc) while also not being as versatile as SCUBA. The one thing it makes sense for is people that clean boat bottoms. Otherwise if you are using surface supplied breathing gas you are a commercial diver and already out of this thread's paygrade.
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Apr 26, 2014 10:25
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Snuba to me is more of a vacation thing to get snorkelers into scuba. Get a brief underwater experience to see what its like. Scuba is definitely much simpler and less hassle, especially as snuba is not financially feasible to 99% of divers to own and operate. I still want to try it sometime though
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Apr 26, 2014 12:16
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Once you learn it, scuba diving is sooooooooo much easier than snorkeling, I don't know why anyone would want to add all the hassles and limitations of snorkeling to an underwater diving experience.
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Apr 26, 2014 14:26
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Squashy Nipples posted:Yeah, dive fins are huge, a totally different breed. It was raining for one of my dives in Isla Mujeres, but aside from the lighting being a bit flatter, I didn't think the visibility was compromised.
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Apr 26, 2014 15:57
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eviljelly posted:Once you learn it, scuba diving is sooooooooo much easier than snorkeling, I don't know why anyone would want to add all the hassles and limitations of snorkeling to an underwater diving experience. How is it easier than free diving or snorkeling? I agree that it's not difficult at all, but snorkeling requires exactly 0 training, free diving requires some light training, whereas scuba requires you some knowledge of physics and enough training to operate a BCD and empty a mask underwater, at the very least.
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Apr 28, 2014 12:17
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Cippalippus posted:How is it easier than free diving or snorkeling? I agree that it's not difficult at all, but snorkeling requires exactly 0 training, free diving requires some light training, whereas scuba requires you some knowledge of physics and enough training to operate a BCD and empty a mask underwater, at the very least. Once you learn it, I said. I find snorkeling to be cumbersome in that you're always on the verge of running out of air or ingesting water. The latter is what really annoys me most about snorkeling. I don't have any experience with freediving, though, and I made no claims about it.
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Apr 28, 2014 15:02
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Squashy Nipples posted:
Just watch out for lightning that could ruin your day.
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Apr 28, 2014 15:13
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eviljelly posted:Once you learn it, I said. I find snorkeling to be cumbersome in that you're always on the verge of running out of air or ingesting water. The latter is what really annoys me most about snorkeling. Oh, ok; but that doesn't say much, even controlling a nuclear reactor is easy "once you learn it". Your snorkeling problems can be easily fixed with a good snorkel and remembering to spit out your snorkel when you dive under water; in fact, it's a safety measure. Never dive under the water with the snorkel hose in your mouth, for it will make the experience uncomfortable or even dangerous. jackyl posted:I suppose you could look into snuba, but otherwise not really. I checked it out and while the concept looks interesting, the italian page has been translated so badly that even Google Translate would make a better job. That doesn't look professional, and the english pages don't exactly encourage me. Isn't it, like, just a very long snorkel? Cippalippus fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Apr 28, 2014 |
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Apr 28, 2014 18:24
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Cippalippus posted:Oh, ok; but that doesn't say much, even controlling a nuclear reactor is easy "once you learn it". Your snorkeling problems can be easily fixed with a good snorkel and remembering to spit out your snorkel when you dive under water; in fact, it's a safety measure. Never dive under the water with the snorkel hose in your mouth, for it will make the experience uncomfortable or even dangerous. I was using snuba as a counterpoint to the James Bond magic mouthpiece rebreather. It both is and isn't a real long snorkel, but to explain why it isn't a real long snorkel, you'd have to understand the basics of scuba gear (or a regulator), so.... Anyway, all I can say is my wife and I kept questioning whether diving was a good thing to do or not and didn't do our discovery dive until our early/mid thirties. That was a massive mistake if you ask either of us and we came from different backgrounds as far as water comfort levels go. So, yeah, i get that questioning it is a legitimate stance, but don't be like us. Spend the few hundred bucks next time you get a chance to do a discovery dive, it is worth it!
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Apr 29, 2014 04:50
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I'm relatively new to scuba (been diving for a year and half) but I know how a regulator works - we even dismantled one during a training session. Neat little things. Looking better at this snuba thing, it's a snorkel attached to a raft which holds tanks filled with regular compressed air. I can see its advantages for very young people approaching underwater diving, but I could regularly reach 30 feet underwater without any free diving training when I was twelve, which is still a lot more than what you get with snuba.
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Apr 29, 2014 08:19
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Cippalippus posted:I'm relatively new to scuba (been diving for a year and half) but I know how a regulator works - we even dismantled one during a training session. Neat little things. 30 feet for a twelve year old kid is more then enough depth. It is still not known what depth really does to the body on long term.
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Apr 29, 2014 13:00
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Its not the depth itself that does damage to the body, its the decompression/recompression from descending/ascending that does damage long term. Commercial divers who daily go into a chamber? They get their bodies wrecked and can't work after a decade or so. Sometimes to the point where they can't dive or even fly because the pressure change will do so much damage to them. That's obviously the extreme danger, nothing even remotely close to recreational diving. For recreational divers, at this point scientifically, it's pretty safe to say scuba diving (within recreational limits) is not dangerous to the human body long term.
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Apr 29, 2014 15:02
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Indeed, and when you're free diving you're exposed to a whole different kind of threats. You don't have the same hazards you get when you're scuba diving, and unless you're doing it alone it's much harder to get yourself in a bad accident. 30 feet might seem a lot for a kid, but when you've completed a successful turn underwater you've already reached 12-15 feet doing literally nothing. A couple of kicks will make you reach 30, and the only thing you will need to do is compensating your ears. This last point is the only thing that requires any skill or knowledge, as the Valsalva isn't quite recommended for free diving.
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Apr 29, 2014 15:51
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Crunkjuice posted:Its not the depth itself that does damage to the body, its the decompression/recompression from descending/ascending that does damage long term. Within normal recreational diving limits the car ride to the boat/beach/quarry is more likely to harm you in the long term.
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Apr 30, 2014 09:34
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Bishop posted:... "we don't really know what breathing this much helium is going to do to you long term...".... Serious question, do you have a squeaky voice after diving because of it?
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May 1, 2014 01:32
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Unimpressed posted:Serious question, do you have a squeaky voice after diving because of it? Why wait until after?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliox#Diving_uses quote:Because sound travels faster in heliox than in air, voice formants are raised, making divers' speech very high-pitched and hard to understand to people not used to it.[10] Surface personnel often employ a piece of communications equipment called a "helium de-scrambler," which electronically lowers the pitch of the diver's voice as it is relayed through the communications gear, making it easier to understand.
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May 1, 2014 01:47
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Ha, I would totally not lower the diver's voice if I were on the boat. At least I'd get to have some laughs while they're having fun diving.
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May 1, 2014 05:25
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I know that you are supposed to wait eight hours between flying and scuba diving. However, does that still apply if you are diving in an aquarium instead of a lake at sea level? Or is the pressure issue still going to be the same?
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May 1, 2014 16:07
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legsarerequired posted:I know that you are supposed to wait eight hours between flying and scuba diving. However, does that still apply if you are diving in an aquarium instead of a lake at sea level? Or is the pressure issue still going to be the same? DAN recommends at least 12 hours but the generally guideline I've heard is 24. That being said, it all depends on how long and how deep. If you're 15 feet in an aquarium for 30 minutes, you're probably pretty safe if you drove straight to the airport. I'd do some double checking if I were you.
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May 1, 2014 18:05
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Unimpressed posted:Ha, I would totally not lower the diver's voice if I were on the boat. At least I'd get to have some laughs while they're having fun diving. Richard Pyle seems to enjoy it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci8sbqCBWrA
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May 1, 2014 18:53
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Cru Jones posted:DAN recommends at least 12 hours but the generally guideline I've heard is 24. I've decided to skip diving on this trip just to be safe. I live in Texas and sometimes it feels like I'm never going to block out time to actually use my certifications.
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May 1, 2014 20:20
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legsarerequired posted:I know that you are supposed to wait eight hours between flying and scuba diving. However, does that still apply if you are diving in an aquarium instead of a lake at sea level? Or is the pressure issue still going to be the same? legsarerequired posted:I've decided to skip diving on this trip just to be safe. I live in Texas and sometimes it feels like I'm never going to block out time to actually use my certifications. These numbers are conservative, especially for shallow OW dives. If you're so inclined, you could calculate your residual nitrogen load/surface interval using the dive tables. But anything less than 1 atm (33 feet) and you're basically off gassing (or nitrogen loading at a very very slow rate) so in terms of an aquarium, I would imagine you won't be going any deeper than 20ft and not staying down for longer than 48 hours.
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May 1, 2014 21:13
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legsarerequired posted:I've decided to skip diving on this trip just to be safe. I live in Texas and sometimes it feels like I'm never going to block out time to actually use my certifications. Theres lots and lots of good diving around Texas. What city do you live in?
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May 1, 2014 22:05
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Hi diver Goons! Have any of you gone to Caye Caulker, Belize and used that as a base for diving? I'm going to be there for about a week in June. I'm thinking of doing a night dive, a 2 tank trip and a 3 tank trip. I don't want to do Blue Hole this time around though (I haven't dove since last July, so I want to take it easy on this go around and make sure I'm still comfortable). Any non-Blue Hole recommendations? I'm open to any and all suggestions. I probably will be heading back there within 12 months of this first trip, if not sooner, so I will have plenty of chances to try different dive sites.
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May 1, 2014 22:33
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Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:Hi diver Goons! Have any of you gone to Caye Caulker, Belize and used that as a base for diving? I'm going to be there for about a week in June. I'm thinking of doing a night dive, a 2 tank trip and a 3 tank trip. I don't want to do Blue Hole this time around though (I haven't dove since last July, so I want to take it easy on this go around and make sure I'm still comfortable). We were in Ambergris in December and the diving was good, my last set of pictures was from there. Definitely do a night dive at Hol Chan, that was awesome. Othwersie, you'll see a lot of finger coral, nurse sharks, etc. I don't have any Caye Caulker specific recommendations, sorry. But I will say take Maya Air over the ferry, and they don't weigh your stuff so you can ignore the weight limits.
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May 2, 2014 13:57
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Cippalippus posted:...remembering to spit out your snorkel when you dive under water; in fact, it's a safety measure. Never dive under the water with the snorkel hose in your mouth, for it will make the experience uncomfortable or even dangerous. Maybe I'm an idiot but I don't understand this at all. I've been snorkeling hundreds of times and I always dive with my snorkel in my mouth. That way I can blow air through it to clear it when I surface and never have to raise my head above water.
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May 2, 2014 17:09
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Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:Hi diver Goons! Have any of you gone to Caye Caulker, Belize and used that as a base for diving? I'm going to be there for about a week in June. I'm thinking of doing a night dive, a 2 tank trip and a 3 tank trip. I don't want to do Blue Hole this time around though (I haven't dove since last July, so I want to take it easy on this go around and make sure I'm still comfortable). I'm in Caye Caulker right now, did the blue hole today, as well as Half Moon Caye and Long Caye. Went with these guys: http://www.belizedivingservices.com/ Super professional, great guides and crew - if you don't do the blue hole you'll save a bunch of cash, it was expensive - $321 USD for the 3 dive day. I'd definitely do more dives with them if i could afford it, but I'm backpacking for 6 months and really need to be thrifty. I'll also be diving some cenote caverns near Tulum, Mexico in a week or so which i'm really looking forward to. Caye Caulker itself is also a lovely island, laid back, safe, good food but it's expensive compared to other countries in the region.
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May 3, 2014 06:05
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Unimpressed posted:Serious question, do you have a squeaky voice after diving because of it? Unimpressed posted:Ha, I would totally not lower the diver's voice if I were on the boat. At least I'd get to have some laughs while they're having fun diving. Bishop fucked around with this message at 07:20 on May 3, 2014 |
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May 3, 2014 07:17
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Does anyone have recommendations on earplugs to keep water out? My doc recommends I keep my left ear as dry possible due to a recent case of swimmers ear. I looked at this fancy ProEar2000 and wonder if it works well.
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May 3, 2014 08:25
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Crunkjuice posted:Theres lots and lots of good diving around Texas. What city do you live in? I live in Houston. I've been told Flower Gardens is amazing, but difficult due to strong currents. I've been lake diving, and I'm interested in becoming a volunteer diver at Moody Gardens in Galveston once I get enough dives under my belt, but I'm not aware of anything else that's really colorful with coral and a wide variety of fish. I want to dive at the downtown aquarium this summer though! legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 09:20 on May 4, 2014 |
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May 4, 2014 09:02
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Genewiz posted:Does anyone have recommendations on earplugs to keep water out? My doc recommends I keep my left ear as dry possible due to a recent case of swimmers ear. I looked at this fancy ProEar2000 and wonder if it works well. DAN seems to lean towards recommending against diving with vented earplugs. That article is framed for divers recovering from eardrum ruptures, which isn't your exact use case. They do mention a couple of vented earplug products and all of their evidence for effectiveness is anecdotal. Are you prone to getting swimmer's ear or just recovering from a recent infection and want to keep the ear dry until you are fully healed? The conservative option would be to delay diving until an ENT clears you. If you absolutely have to go diving and want to use the earplugs then take into consideration what diving with an earplug means (i.e. you are potentially creating another airspace that will need to manage).
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May 4, 2014 14:57
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RE Scuba vs Snorkleing: As someone who has snorkled on and off for 30 years, and scuba-ed for 20, you've got some crazy biases if you think one is fundamentally better then the other, they are totally different experiences. There is a time and place for both; I just came back from a trip where I did both, and I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything else. RE equipment: bought a new mask and snorkel before my trip, love them both. "Dry" snorkels have always been a little gimicky, but I loving LOVE the modern purge/drain on the bottom, it takes very little effort to clear and works flawlessly. Also, I wish I had learned about the toothpaste trick sooner, it worked great! But what happened to snorkeling fins? The ones I used to own were like maybe 6-9 inches longer then your foot? The dive outfitters gave me regular (long) fins for diving, but the fins provided by the resort for snorkeling were almost as long as dive fins, like three feet? You don't need that much propulsion for snorkleing, and it felt awkward to do the flutter-kick at the surface with that much fin. I ended up using the dolphin double-leg kick a lot, which I never used to do with snorkleing fins. Oh, and to answer my original question from a few months back, yeah, the dive outfitters didn't care how old my diving certs were.
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May 4, 2014 15:24
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helpy posted:DAN seems to lean towards recommending against diving with vented earplugs. That article is framed for divers recovering from eardrum ruptures, which isn't your exact use case. They do mention a couple of vented earplug products and all of their evidence for effectiveness is anecdotal. Are you prone to getting swimmer's ear or just recovering from a recent infection and want to keep the ear dry until you are fully healed? The conservative option would be to delay diving until an ENT clears you. If you absolutely have to go diving and want to use the earplugs then take into consideration what diving with an earplug means (i.e. you are potentially creating another airspace that will need to manage). It's an odd case for me and my ENT because my Eustachian tube gets plugged up around spring due to pollen allergies  . That plus the swimmer's ear from swimming in the pool made my ENT suggest I keep that ear as dry as possible to prevent possible damage to the eardrum (I have to go back in a couple of days to check). I'm taking my PADI certification in July and got worried that things will get more complicated.
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May 4, 2014 20:54
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Squashy Nipples posted:But what happened to snorkeling fins? The ones I used to own were like maybe 6-9 inches longer then your foot? The dive outfitters gave me regular (long) fins for diving, but the fins provided by the resort for snorkeling were almost as long as dive fins, like three feet? You don't need that much propulsion for snorkleing, and it felt awkward to do the flutter-kick at the surface with that much fin. I ended up using the dolphin double-leg kick a lot, which I never used to do with snorkleing fins.
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May 5, 2014 23:26
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