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Oakland Martini posted: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. Health concerns. I'll explain later. I'm not talking about snorkeling for fun, anyway, I'm talking about serious free diving. Just got back from Giglio Island. What an awesome weekend!
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May 6, 2014 12:38
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Oakland Martini posted: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. After holding your breath for a long time, forcing an exhalation may make you faint or induce a black out. On top of this, extreme free dives may lead to a condition called "samba" which is dangerous (potentially deadly); holding your snorkel in your mouth and preparing to expel water may exacerbate the samba. Anyway, if you snorkel for fun without reaching your limits, there's nothing wrong with holding the snorkel in your mouth; some expert free diving fishers do it, too. Got my 2nd CMAS star and now I can dive to 30m (I suppose it's 90 feet), or the equivalent of a PADI advanced open water certification. Our dives were in Isola del Giglio and our school doesn't allow underwater cameras (or drysuits) during exams, but we went to check out the rocks where the Costa Concordia ripped the hole in her hull. There's a plaque at about 10 meters, at the impact point; neat dive, too, there were a few lobsters and an octopus started playing with one of our instructors. The Costa Concordia is still there waiting to be moved, so I took a few pictures of it with my phone while on the ferry and in the town.  Port side.  Starboard side, taken from the lighthouse.
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May 6, 2014 21:44
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Cippalippus posted:Got my 2nd CMAS star and now I can dive to 30m (I suppose it's 90 feet), or the equivalent of a PADI advanced open water certification. I thought CMAS 2 star was to 40m and considered slightly higher than PADI Advanced Open Water?
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May 6, 2014 22:14
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Yes in general but the italian branch of Cmas lowers it to 30.
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May 6, 2014 22:26
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Dang, didn't realize the different CMAS branches can do their own thing. Seems strange to be part of a single standard setting umbrella group and then have each member group be able to set different standards. No wonder I always had trouble looking up what exactly CMAS divers were allowed to do.
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May 7, 2014 12:48
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Yeah, it's a mess. As you can see here, it's the equivalent of a 2 star diver CMAS, but it still says that my maximum depth is 30m. That isn't a problem however, since I got to 36 meters during a dive, and a couple of my friends freshly certified went down to 54 meters with a four star instructor the day after we received the certification, since we're all going to do the 3 stars training next year (it was considered just like a training dive, allowing divers to exceed their qualification). I was just busy drinking gin tonics in Giglio Porto while they were at it 
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May 7, 2014 13:22
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What thickness suit do you wear for the Adriatic and what months are the "comfortable" months for scuba?
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May 7, 2014 14:03
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June to november are comfortable, the best of course are August and September. During the 3 warmest months (July-September) you can dive with a 5mm wetsuit, I don't even wear gloves or hood. During the rest of the year I advise a 7mm semi-dry or a dry suit. My Hollis Neotek was more than enough for the rather cold (14°C) waters of April/May. I prefer the Tyrrenian sea to the Adriatic, though. The italian adriatic coast is sandy as gently caress and there's nothing to see, while the croatian coast is rather awesome but quite far away from where I live.
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May 7, 2014 14:24
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Oakland Martini posted: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. I had a learning experience with "why to spit the snorkel out", but that was the type of snorkel more than anything else. I grabbed one of the fancy-pants dry snorkels from the boat I worked on and imploded the drat thing at about 25ft. Once the little diaphragm bottom purge thing blows you pretty much have a straw. If I want to keep my face down after freediving I just wait until I'm about 5 feet to the surface before putting the mouthpiece back in. Stupid fancy-pants gear, mo parts mo problems.
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May 8, 2014 04:03
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This isn't diving specific yet, but I'm doing my Red Cross First Aid, CPR an AED cert Saturday in preparation for doing Rescue Diver in Utila the week of Memorial Day. Also there will be lots of non-cert dives and hopefully whale shark pictures! e: I was a lifeguard for lots of years so this should be a no-brainer cert but I need current certs, also things have probably changed since the last time i re-upped it (and AED wasn't part then), so I'm curious about that. let it mellow fucked around with this message at 06:14 on May 8, 2014 |
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May 8, 2014 06:12
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When I took my rescue diver/CFR courses (I did them back to back so I don't remember what they said in which course exactly), I was specifically asked if I had been trained as a lifeguard before, because apparently some of your first instincts as an on-land lifeguard are all wrong when you're trying to rescue someone in a diving context. They said for instance that lifeguards may be trained to jump in the water as quickly as possible to attempt a rescue (don't know if this is true or not), but in the diving context this is a bad idea.
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May 8, 2014 10:38
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Ive done plenty of both and freediving is far superior  I actually do enjoy both and see them very differently, but I just enjoy freediving much more. The long freediving fins are still very available. I have a set made of carbon fiber for extra propulsion goodness. The reason you remove your snorkel when you dive is so your airway isnt stuck open if you pass out. Humans have natural mechanisms that prevent water from entering your lungs if you pass out underwater but a snorkel can prevent this from happening. IM FROM THE FUTURE fucked around with this message at 20:59 on May 8, 2014 |
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May 8, 2014 20:57
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eviljelly posted:When I took my rescue diver/CFR courses (I did them back to back so I don't remember what they said in which course exactly), I was specifically asked if I had been trained as a lifeguard before, because apparently some of your first instincts as an on-land lifeguard are all wrong when you're trying to rescue someone in a diving context. They said for instance that lifeguards may be trained to jump in the water as quickly as possible to attempt a rescue (don't know if this is true or not), but in the diving context this is a bad idea. Yeah, I expect it to be different in some cases (and yeah, it was always better to go for the save quicker), but I'm sure there will be some similarities. I'm mostly curious how CPR has changed in almost 20 years though, if at all.
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May 8, 2014 22:21
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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. I use a ProEar2000 mask - it helps a lot with equalisation problems but it also does keep the ears dry. They are a little fragile though, you gotta look after 'em.
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May 12, 2014 07:47
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How hard is it to learn to dive with a close circuit system? I always thought the rebreather systems were cool.
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May 16, 2014 09:21
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I just finished a dive tour of the cenotes/fresh water caverns in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun. Holy poo poo, I cannot recommend this highly enough - INSANE vis of like 100+M, haloclines, full overhead caverns with beautiful stalactite/stalagmite formations, hydrogen sulfide clouds creating eerie underwater swamps. If you guys get the opportunity, get onto it! Here's some pics (not mine, I don't have an underwater camera yet unfortunately). The Pit  Angelita  Grand Cenote  Dreamgate 
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May 19, 2014 16:58
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GrandMaster posted:I just finished a dive tour of the cenotes/fresh water caverns in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun. Holy poo poo, I cannot recommend this highly enough - INSANE vis of like 100+M, haloclines, full overhead caverns with beautiful stalactite/stalagmite formations, hydrogen sulfide clouds creating eerie underwater swamps. If you guys get the opportunity, get onto it! Aaaaahh really need to get diving more so i can eventually get my cave cert. https://vimeo.com/81512736 https://vimeo.com/85361441
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May 19, 2014 17:09
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Yeah full cave is pretty terrifying, but these caverns are a great intro - no special cert is needed, you just need a bit of experience and good buoyancy control so you don't smash into any delicate formations (I've only logged ~42 dives). You are never more than 60M from a natural light/air source in case of emergency. The guides you go with have to dive with a full cave rig so they are more than adequately kitted out to help you if you get into trouble. The only issue I had was some equalization problems, not great when you are in an overhead so cannot just ascend a bit to sort it out. That said, if you are full cave/deep/tech certified, or want to get certified then this is the place to be. Some of these cenotes have over 250km of interconnected cave systems.. It's pretty mind blowing.
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May 19, 2014 17:16
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I'm a total beginner at scuba and I'm planning on diving somewhere this year while on vacation, possibly Punta Cana. I'm thinking of doing my theory and pool dives here in Canada and the open water certification while on vacation. This is partially because open water cert sites are far from me, cold year round, and are harder to fit into my schedule. Some of the one of the places I'm thinking of getting my training from is this place http://www.thediveoutfitters.ca/training/openwater.htm#.U34diC8SJPY. My concern is that it's not by PADI but by Scuba Diving International and TDI. It seems like good training anyway, but would my training be recognized when I try to do my open water dives later in the year? Are there any other problems with my plan?
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May 22, 2014 17:29
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Bigos posted:I'm a total beginner at scuba and I'm planning on diving somewhere this year while on vacation, possibly Punta Cana. I'm thinking of doing my theory and pool dives here in Canada and the open water certification while on vacation. This is partially because open water cert sites are far from me, cold year round, and are harder to fit into my schedule. Some of the one of the places I'm thinking of getting my training from is this place http://www.thediveoutfitters.ca/training/openwater.htm#.U34diC8SJPY. My concern is that it's not by PADI but by Scuba Diving International and TDI. It seems like good training anyway, but would my training be recognized when I try to do my open water dives later in the year? Are there any other problems with my plan?
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May 22, 2014 18:02
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Thanks.
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May 22, 2014 18:26
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So I finally got around to getting a new cable for the Gopro I borrowed to go diving in Ginnie Springs and Key Largo, FL. Going into the Ballroom at Ginnie Springs:  Looking back out:  (It's a rough pic, but that blue is the prettiest I've ever seen  )The fish is confused by his pineapple hat (he made it while drunk, then wore it diving because apparently ): A buddy of mine took this pic (I tore into the rum a bit too hard the night before )Wheelhouse flag on the USS Spiegel Grove: Apparently someone replaces the flag every year, and has done so ever since it was sank 96 feet down, on Conch Reef (this was right before a barracuda thought our group leader might look tasty and swam within a few feet of him): 
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May 22, 2014 22:42
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Leaving for Utila tomorrow morning! Hopefully we see some whale sharks and I have cool stories about the rescue diver cert.
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May 23, 2014 19:09
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jackyl posted:Leaving for Utila tomorrow morning! Hopefully we see some whale sharks and I have cool stories about the rescue diver cert. Whale Sharks are the best! Good Luck!
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May 23, 2014 22:35
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Well, that was fast. Right after the response by Bangkero, I called up the dive shop and they told me they had an opening for their class the next day. I had already been cleared by my doctor, so away I went. Now class and pool work is done and I just have to wait for the open water. I also ended up seeing a real rescue. One guy in the class ahead of me had a seizure in the water. Fortunately, everyone was in the shallow end and above water. Everyone was so calm and organized getting him out of the water that at first I thought it was just a drill, so they handled it well. So, lesson learned: always use the buddy system and watch your health.
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May 26, 2014 06:58
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Cippalippus posted:the Valsalva isn't quite recommended for free diving. Why is that and what's the general alternative (Frenzel?)? I know that past a certain depth you won't be able to get the needed air from your lungs for the Valsalva.
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May 26, 2014 21:13
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Gear question would I be better off getting a Go Pro hero 3 or something like a Canon G 11 and a housing? The GoPro seems to be the current craze, but I heard some bad thing about the focus and battery life. I still love my Canon Élan II film camera, so manual settings don't scare me - but if the GoPro is idiot proof it may be the better option...
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May 26, 2014 21:32
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Just got back from my annual May trip to the Cabo Pulmo marine park in Baja. Since last year a large number of bull sharks have set up camp at a small wreck (dive site's called "El Barco," how original...). Got to see 10-12 of them on the first dive of the trip! I'll post some GoPro footage soon when I get a chance. Also tried out a Cressi frameless mask that I got on a whim for $20 on Amazon. Turned out to be great. Very comfortable and didn't have to clear my mask once the whole trip.
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May 26, 2014 21:56
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BarqueCat posted:Gear question would I be better off getting a Go Pro hero 3 or something like a Canon G 11 and a housing? The GoPro seems to be the current craze, but I heard some bad thing about the focus and battery life. I still love my Canon Élan II film camera, so manual settings don't scare me - but if the GoPro is idiot proof it may be the better option... I'm not personally an underwater photographer, but I worked with some underwater photographers and videographers. The biggest problem with consumer level underwater photography seems to be lighting. If you're able to afford and operate underwater strobes along with a decent camera like the G11, then go for it. Without strobes, you might as well go for the GoPro.
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May 26, 2014 21:58
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Image dump time! It's been about 5 months, but here're the pics from my (not-so-recent) Philippines trip. Truth be told, I took a lot more video than pics. Unfortunately there's so much laziness that I haven't gotten around to editing or piecing them together. Some day.  I flew in to Manila first and spent a couple days there. Panic ensued when yes, my dumbass self got his camera stolen. It was a run-by swiping. Fortunately I managed to find another camera that was of the same make and similar model, so it was able to fit my underwater housing. Lessons learned all around (don't go to Manila).  From Manila I went to two separate locations. The first was Busuanga Island, to the west. The other was the tiny island of Malapascua.  The airport (and much of the islands) were a wreck from the typhoon. This is the island of Busuanga, which is the island to the north of Palawan Island.        I did a lot of snorkeling on this trip, mainly because I had a friend in tow who was not a good swimmer and also didn't have a diver's license. No worries though, lots of neat things to see still.  A flounder that I almost stepped on.  Lunch!     The big allure of going to Coron was for the wreck diving. I also had to balance my desires to dive with my friends' desires to do Something Else. Jerks.     Many of these wrecks were at 30-35 meters. I don't have a wreck diving cert, but the instructors felt I had enough control to do the dives without killing myself. In most of the dives it was me and one other guy, plus the guide. It was pretty intense being only able to see by torchlight, 30 meters underwater, and inside an overturned ship. The vertigo you get from swimming through a listed ship is kinda neat.  The first day of diving had really lovely weather. Constant cold rain. But, to top off the day, we went to Barracuda Lake, which is a marine lake Coron Island. The gimmick of this particular lake is that there's an intense thermocline about 20 meters down. It is literally like diving in a 40 degree bath. As such, everyone dove in board shorts. You could even see the halocline between fresh and salt water. It was surreal. The water would go blurry to crystal clear, and you could see the shimmer as you swam along.  The bottom was also featured really fine silt. We played.    The Kogyo Maru was one of the more interesting (and challenging) wrecks. It was about 30-40 meters down, and listen on her side. She was a logistics transport, and in her hold she had materiel for bunker and fortification construction. When she was sunk her hold was still full of construction equipment.  There was a bulldozer.  And a cement mixer.  And a fuckton of cement.  View from the engine room. We were around 35 meters, and pretty close into going deco. My watch started screaming at me. It was a new challenge for me, as it was pitch black inside, and the route required navigating some pretty tight spaces. Gotta have your head on a swivel, go slow and steady, and for the love of god don't kick or panic.  This wreck was so shallow there were snorkelers all around. It was probably around 10-15 meters. Really small wreck, but still penetrable. The cooking area and bridge were pretty neat, and trying to swim through the narrow corridors was fun.     Our next destination was the island of Malapascua, which is north of Coron. It was hit hard by the typhoon, so a lot of buildings and ships were leveled. The whole island was in the throes of recovery. The weather was also pretty cloudy and cold.  Our reason for going however was to see the Thresher Sharks. We had to get up really early to be out on the reef by 7:00 am. It was a ~30 meter dive, sitting off a wall on the sea bed by a cleaning station. The threshers appear and cruise the area. Really beautiful fish, though somewhat  -ey. I saw my second Mantis Shrimp there too. This one was wandering about so I filmed him for the most part.  I also got A LOT of cuttlefish footage. They did some really interesting stuff, but that's all on vid. I only snapped a few photos. 
Trivia fucked around with this message at 02:14 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 02:10
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How many of you wear dry suits, and if so, what do you do when you need to pee. Holding it is very uncomfortable and prevents me from actually enjoying the dive, and dehydrating myself pre-dive is also very uncomfortable. Do any of you use P-valves?
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May 27, 2014 23:19
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stratdax posted:How many of you wear dry suits, and if so, what do you do when you need to pee. Holding it is very uncomfortable and prevents me from actually enjoying the dive, and dehydrating myself pre-dive is also very uncomfortable. Do any of you use P-valves? I've got a Halcyon p-valve in my drysuit. I kind of love it, but it is sort of annoying at times. If you don't have the hose at the right length for your junk/mobility, it can tug and pull on your junk and that sucks. If i decide not to use it i tuck it down my other pants leg and it disappears. You get used to the catheter condoms fairly easily. If you break out the suit a few times a year, its probably not worth it. If you dive heavily in cold water its loving fantastic.
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May 27, 2014 23:34
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I just got my open water certification, and now I'm looking for a dive computer. A coworker recommended getting something from Cressi, anyone here want to make a suggestion? I'm not really interested in buying an air integrated, since they seem to be significantly more expensive and a normal pressure gauge works just fine for me. Are any brands/models known for being particularly good or bad, good value, etc? e: This computer is pretty cheap and has good reviews. Is there a good reason to go with something else? This is going to be baby's first dive computer, basically http://www.amazon.com/Cressi-Leonar...computer+cressi QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 11:51 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 11:45
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I only saw the single button Cressi a couple of times, but I personally find single button computers to be impossible to navigate. A slightly cheaper option is the Suunto Zoop. I still use mine as my primary computer. It has two buttons, so it's a lot easier to navigate than with just one button. My big problem with it is that it's a bit conservative - it really sucks to go on fun dives with other DMs/instructors because we would hit the NDL far before we were running low on air, but with customers I found it was almost never a problem. Just make sure you don't get a low end Mares (so super conservative that it's nearly impossible to do a 30m dive), or, god forbid, an old Aladin (iirc one of my divers ended up with only 5 min NDL on her Aladin on an 18m dive somehow).
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May 29, 2014 12:57
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QuarkJets posted:I just got my open water certification, and now I'm looking for a dive computer. A coworker recommended getting something from Cressi, anyone here want to make a suggestion? I'm not really interested in buying an air integrated, since they seem to be significantly more expensive and a normal pressure gauge works just fine for me. Are any brands/models known for being particularly good or bad, good value, etc? My dad uses it as backup computer, and he says it's ok. It's good if you have trouble reading watch-sized computers, like the D4i, but don't want to spend a lot of money for a Galileo Sol.
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May 29, 2014 15:28
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I think that I want to keep my dive computer purchase under $400, which looks totally feasible. My local dive shop sells a fancy $1000 air-integrated model, and then they have two computers that are $330 (bigger display) and $350 (more compact, same company), but I've forgotten what brand/model they are. My vision is fine underwater (I'm about 20/40), so the bigger display doesn't really matter to me. The guy in the dive shop was trying to sell me on the idea that you can use the smaller display computers as normal watches, which sounds neat, but watches chafe the poo poo out of my hairy wrists, so it's just going to be thrown into a closet between dives. I also wouldn't mind a computer that's a little conservative, since I have no idea what my nitrogen tolerance might be e: Also, although I live at sea level, sometimes I have to go up to 3000 or 10000 feet for work. If I've gone diving within the previous few days, should I take the computer with me? QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 20:07 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 20:03
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Nice pics trivia, thanks for sharing. I've never done the Irako but have dove the Olympia Maru, Kogyo Maru, and Morozan Maru many times. The best is surprising the schools of fish when coming out of the explosion/torpedo holes. I got some good sharky shark footage from Malapascua, I should post some of them when I get the chance. e: also, Monad shoal has some amazing macro - most people don't see it because they're there for the threshers! Bangkero fucked around with this message at 14:26 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 14:12
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eviljelly posted:
If I had my choice again, i'd go for the vyper over the zoop - it's a touch more expensive but includes the usb interface cable (~$50 on it's own) plus it has an illuminated display instead of the glow in the dark display on the zoop.
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May 31, 2014 23:54
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GrandMaster posted:If I had my choice again, i'd go for the vyper over the zoop - it's a touch more expensive but includes the usb interface cable (~$50 on it's own) plus it has an illuminated display instead of the glow in the dark display on the zoop. Counterpoint: I love my zoop, it's big and easy to use and just always works so easy.
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Jun 1, 2014 05:47
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Anyone been through ed Robinsons scuba in Maui? I'll be pretty close to them this winter.
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