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jackyl posted:We're going to Turks and Caicos tomorrow, it's gonna own. Dunno what sites we will hit yet, probably all west Caicos but maybe some off grace bay! That sounds awesome, dive safe and bring back photos.
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Apr 25, 2015 05:26
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So I got back from Koh Lanta diving last week. It was the end of the season and things were super quiet, never managed to get out to Hin Daeng due to not being enough people to go any of the 5 days I was diving. On the upside I had some awesome dives and there were never more than 12 people on a boat that normally takes about 20 divers and 20 or so snorkellers, so stuff was very relaxed. Some cool things seen: These Batfish were fun, followed us around for about 5 minutes like lost puppies.  A young whale shark came over and just swam around for about an hour. Eventually got bored before he did.  We managed to find a seahorse out at Koh Haa that the dive guide had been looking for on and off most of the season.  And an artsy shot for shits and giggles.  Had fun on a neat little wreck. We failed to find the frogfish there but it was nice to see some metal again  Some awesome Zebra/Leapord sharks at Koh Bide. They were also super chill and I got to see two of them swimming together for a while too. With the very, very brief sight of a Blacktip on an earlier dive it brought it up to 3 different shark species in one week of diving. 
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Apr 25, 2015 13:28
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I'm on vacation in Curacao, and it has ruined me: I'll never go on a cold water dive again. The dive master wore a full wetsuit, but I just went in my swim trunks with no neoprene. After a brutal Boston winter, this water is like bath water to me, even at 50 feet.
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Apr 27, 2015 16:02
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http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/quiksilver-japan-true-wetsuits-business-suit Now we just need a BCD jacket version for some fine diving.
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Apr 27, 2015 19:07
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On a long trip in Asia (currently in Krabi airport in Thailand) and finally had a chance to upload an amazing (I think) video of a flamboyant cuttlefish my girlfriend took a few weeks ago in Kapalai (near Sipadan) in Borneo. About 1:45 into the video we caught it (attempting to) feed which is pretty cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5NoVpsqeP4 Oakland Martini fucked around with this message at 13:52 on May 2, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 08:44
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 We did a harbour cleanup dive today. Last year we got nearly 5 tons, aiming for the same again this year! There's an unbelievable amount of poo poo down there 
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May 2, 2015 13:52
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Tomberforce posted:
Sure, but did you find one of these  http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington-archived/4317979/Cleanup-trawls-rubbish-from-harbour-depths
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May 3, 2015 00:11
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Oakland Martini posted:On a long trip in Asia (currently in Krabi airport in Thailand) and finally had a chance to upload an amazing (I think) video of a flamboyant cuttlefish my girlfriend took a few weeks ago in Kapalai (near Sipadan) in Borneo. About 1:45 into the video we caught it (attempting to) feed which is pretty cool. Wow, that's quite a display! I recently saw some cuttlefish while snorkling. There was wind and a few clouds, so I got to watch them change colors with the shadows. It was a lot more subtle then the flamboyant, though. I just read this on wikipedia: quote:"They have an unusual biogeographic pattern: totally absent from the Americas, but present along the coasts of East and South Asia, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean, as well as all coasts of Africa and Australia." What the hell? I was in the Caribbean, that counts as "Americas", right?
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May 4, 2015 12:57
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Squashy Nipples posted:What the hell? I was in the Caribbean, that counts as "Americas", right?
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May 4, 2015 14:21
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Bangkero posted:It was most likely a Caribbean reef squid and not a cuttlefish. Definitely not a flamboyant cuttlefish. Flamboyants crawl around the reef floor since their cuttlebone is too big for it to maintain buoyancy. Also there's no subtleness to their colour patterns (hence the name "flamboyant"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_reef_squid Yeah, looked a lot like one of those pictures.
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May 5, 2015 01:44
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Anyone have experience diving in Mediterranean in early June? Thinking of Malta or Crete, but open to other places if there are better or warmer places in the area. I dove in Sicily, dive shop in Giardini Naxos, in mid April and was not expecting how loving cold it was. Aside from the cold, the diving was ok; visibility was kind of poor and there wasn't a whole lot to see though I may be spoiled by Hawaii and Cozumel which are the only other places I've dove at.
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May 7, 2015 10:36
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I pretty much only dive in the Mediterranean Sea. It's never too warm, even in the summer I dive with a semi - dry suit. June isn't a hot month anyway.
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May 7, 2015 17:26
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Cippalippus posted:I pretty much only dive in the Mediterranean Sea. It's never too warm, even in the summer I dive with a semi - dry suit. June isn't a hot month anyway. Yeah, looking at average water temperature in early June at various places in the Mediterranean it seems like I would be lucky to see above 21 C. I might see if I can swing a trip to the Red Sea in June instead and dive in the Mediterranean later in the year. Any places in particular that you would recommend? I'm in northern Italy for the year, from the US, so I definitely want to take advantage of that. Portofino is one place I'l almost certainly go since it's a relatively short drive, but other than that I'm a little unsure since it seems like there's so many options.
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May 7, 2015 22:07
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What's the goon opinion on Babby's First Dive Computer? Amazon buyers seem to like this one: Cressi Leonardo Wrist Computer
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May 8, 2015 22:09
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Well, if you're in northern Italy you can go in the Portofino reserve which is quite nice. Be careful though because it's literally one of the most expensive places on earth, and I mean 25 € for a coffee expensive. You can stay in Santa margherita ligure which is where all the diving centers are, and while still terribly expensive it's not as outrageous as Portofino. 2.5 hours from Milan. Secondly there is the Isola del Giglio, the island where that cruise ship crashed. It has been removed now. The place is amazing, but it's 5 hours away from Milan. Isola d'Elba is a fine place for diving, and a somewhat shorter trip compared to Isola del Giglio. In Padova you can check out the Y-40 which is the deepest pool in the world. It's worth it even because you can leave your obnoxious girlfriend/boyfriend who doesn't dive in the spa while you enjoy the pool. I already went twice because it's quite fun, there's a bike on the bottom (42m) if you want to check out your air consumption under fatigue (not joking). In Montecatini there a cool spa diving center. It's basically a very very easy cave dive, except in a natural hot water spring, and it's pretty unique. In the Adriatic you can find plenty of great sites in Croatia. I only know Cres though. The Italian coast is sandy while the croatian coast is rocky, meaning that there are few diving sites worth it. The Paguro, a sunken oil platform, is one of them, near Ravenna. Ravenna is a nice city to watch and even the restrooms are protected by UNESCO, while not being full of tourists. Compared to other cities in Italy there's a large number of Americans too. If you just want to dive you can go to one of the lakes, Garda Lake is pretty popular. If all the lakes in the world dried up right now, I wouldn't give a poo poo: diving in lakes is terrible. If you have a week, go in Sharm El Sheik. It is better than all the places mentioned above, and more. The water is hot and the place is amazing and cheap. Squashy Nipples posted:What's the goon opinion on Babby's First Dive Computer?
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May 8, 2015 22:14
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Squashy Nipples posted:What's the goon opinion on Babby's First Dive Computer? Suunto Zoop is a great starter dive computer too.
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May 8, 2015 23:17
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Squashy Nipples posted:What's the goon opinion on Babby's First Dive Computer? I just bought a Suunto Zoop. Very basic but robust. I really like it.
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May 8, 2015 23:28
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If you frequently dive with someone it's not a bad idea to try and match computers or get one with a similar decompression algorithm so that you both have the similar NDL times. People seem to either love Sunnto or hate them. At a dive trip I was at last year there were a lot of complaints about the algorithm being overly conservative for multiple dives and penalties for being slightly outside the expected depth or cutting and SI slightly short. Thanks or the information Cippalippus, definitely going to get to Sharm and Portofino. Hopefully elsewhere as well.
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May 9, 2015 07:42
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I went spearfishing recently for the first time and managed to get bit by a sea lion a couple hours into it. Came out of nowhere and clamped down on my upper leg. Didn't break the skin much but tore up my wetsuit a bit and left a massive bruise. It was just startling more than anything, I was still able to stay out there and enjoy the rest of the day spearfishing (and had a blast). Is that sort of thing common? I thought sea lions mostly left humans alone, I had never heard of anybody being bitten by one before.
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May 9, 2015 10:08
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my wife and I both have Suunto Cobras and they are extremely conservative. We are always on deco limits that are a lot tighter than people with other brands and the nitrox settings are a bit hosed up. You have two go in two different top level menus and go a couple menus deep to switch between air and nitrox. It's actually easier to just set the thing to nitrox always and change it to 21% rather than switch out of nitrox mode. still, I like the computer and would recommend it.
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May 10, 2015 03:39
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jackyl posted:my wife and I both have Suunto Cobras and they are extremely conservative. We are always on deco limits that are a lot tighter than people with other brands and the nitrox settings are a bit hosed up. You have two go in two different top level menus and go a couple menus deep to switch between air and nitrox. It's actually easier to just set the thing to nitrox always and change it to 21% rather than switch out of nitrox mode. I'd rather have a conservative computer than the opposite. For basic rec diving, the Zoop is excellent. If you do much more Nitrox or specialty diving you'll want something more specialized. FYI I had a Viper for nearly 10 years, depth sensor only just died on me, so they're really decent.
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May 10, 2015 03:48
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Look up what deco model your computer uses. There are variants of both but VPM vs buhlman is a good example. If I'm doing a deco dive I'll run my shearwater predator computer using Buhlman, and a hand written plan using VPM-B. It will spit out a different deco schedule because of certain assumptions they make but they are very similar and both have good track records. For no decompression diving any of the widely used models is well tested and conservative. Spend some time going back over the tables so you keep a good feel for what is a normal max bottom time. Computers are very reliable these days, just try and stay somewhat sharp. A bigger issue IMO is divers ascending too fast. Unless you've gone real deep and need to get up to a deco stop, it's almost impossible to ascend too slowly.
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May 10, 2015 04:15
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Bishop posted:A bigger issue IMO is divers ascending too fast. Unless you've gone real deep and need to get up to a deco stop, it's almost impossible to ascend too slowly. Absolutely this. The number of times I've seen divers finish a safety stop then shoot to the surface is unbelievable.
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May 10, 2015 10:31
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asur posted:If you frequently dive with someone it's not a bad idea to try and match computers or get one with a similar decompression algorithm so that you both have the similar NDL times. People seem to either love Sunnto or hate them. At a dive trip I was at last year there were a lot of complaints about the algorithm being overly conservative for multiple dives and penalties for being slightly outside the expected depth or cutting and SI slightly short. That's a really good point, I hadn't thought of that. I was thinking of buying that Cressi for myself for now, and then giving it to the woman for her open water training and buying myself another one. Do people still use console type computers, or is it all wrist based? Are those wireless pressure gauges any good? An air hose is such a simple, reliable thing, I can't imagine replacing it with electronics.
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May 10, 2015 14:42
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Squashy Nipples posted:That's a really good point, I hadn't thought of that. The point of wireless air isn't to replace the pressure gauge, it's for ease of use and to log the data. From what I've been told they're a lot more reliable now then in the past though the sensor is still expensive. Consoles exist, though The only time I've seen one was on dive shop gear.
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May 10, 2015 16:26
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fletcher posted:Is that sort of thing common? I thought sea lions mostly left humans alone, I had never heard of anybody being bitten by one before. Very uncommon. I heard a story out of San Diego recently about a spear fisherman getting bit by a sea lion going after his fish, but that was the first I'd heard of a diver getting a sea lion bite. You're the second... Were you carrying a fish at the time? A lot of the sea lions around here are starving, so maybe they're desperate.
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May 10, 2015 17:48
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Squashy Nipples posted:That's a really good point, I hadn't thought of that. You don't want to replace the hose because a wireless tank transmission gives you redundancy; besides, the transmitter might not connect for some reason or it might lose signal or stop working underwater. I swapped my Suunto wireless transmitter for a Galileo transmitter and I can read my tank pressure and my buddy's too, but my good old gauge is still solidly connected to the first stage. Cippalippus fucked around with this message at 23:40 on May 10, 2015 |
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May 10, 2015 19:32
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Very uncommon. I heard a story out of San Diego recently about a spear fisherman getting bit by a sea lion going after his fish, but that was the first I'd heard of a diver getting a sea lion bite. You're the second... Nope, I wasn't carrying any fish at the time. I wonder if maybe I got too close to some pups without realizing it?
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May 10, 2015 20:48
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When I dug out my old NAUI card, I found several equipment catalogs from 1993. I should scan a few pages for you guys, the computers look ridiculous. Some of them look like they might actually contain vacuum tubes. Plus, neon-colored wetsuits were still popular.
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May 11, 2015 18:34
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Someone try and convince me from pulling the trigger on a really good deal on a used Waterproof D7 drysuit. 
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May 15, 2015 08:40
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Red_Fred posted:Someone try and convince me from pulling the trigger on a really good deal on a used Waterproof D7 drysuit. You're taking to a guy who bought his last DUI after using it for a weekend because mine developed a torn seal the owner was selling it for cheap. I felt less bad though because he had like 6 suits he'd bought on various whims.
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May 15, 2015 13:31
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Yay, I'm glad this thread exists as I have questions and I probably bugged my gf plenty with the basics already. I went on vacation to Puerto Aventuras recently, and my gf bought a block booking set of dives for her and her family who were only down for a few days. She's got Advanced Open Water and has 150+ dives to her name and she had a dive left over and asked me if I'd want to use it. I'm the least adventurous person on the planet, but I said I'd do a pool test and see how I got on (I'd snorkelled a day or two previously and found it frustrating, but she assured me it was a totally different thing). I did the pool test, did some classroom (this was via PADI) and then booked a dive at the Ponderosa cenotes with my gf and another chap who had experience. It was good fun and I got over most of my issues, and only panicked once because I flooded my mask and I knew I was in safe distance to go up at least. Still no idea how I did that, I did the exercise again straight after and it went fine like it did in the pool. Anyway! I'm totally green, but I enjoyed myself and I like the fact I've got a hobby that I can do with the girlfriend. I'm a bit more cautious about doing ocean dives, but we'll get there. She lives in Key West so the diving down there is supposed to be amazing, and certainly better (and cheaper) than anything I can do here. 2 questions I hope someone can point me in the right direction - 1. I have a little 'Discover Scuba Diving' book that PADI gave me, and they filled out the two middle pages for a 'pool/confined open water' for the 30 minutes of exercises we did in the pool, and also the Ponderosa dive and advised that I completed all the exercises asked of me. I take it this will go towards my Open Water cert? If so, how do I transfer these across. I'd like to do some online classroom stuff in the next few weeks while it's still fresh, so I presume I make an account with PADI online and start that, do I just copy the info over or is there a more official route I have to go? I'll make sure I take this book with me to Florida regardless. 2. The less fun one - I have *something* up with my inner ear I believe. Started about 5 or 6 years ago where I was getting dizzy spells out of nowhere. I could be sitting at my desk, and suddenly my balance completely trips and I end up grabbing hold of something for stability (that I don't need). I'm crap on bar stools too. UK doctors are a waste of time and never got anything out of them, so I just deal with it. When we did the exercises to show how to equalise, I realised that I can get one ear to equalise a lot better than the other. And it's pretty consistent too - even trying now if I pinch my nose and breath out, my right ear will clear while my left doesn't. And now I'm a bit light headed. Underwater I found it hard to deal with the pressures - we were only going 7 metres deep, but I felt it. I had to equalise (more often by swallowing than the nose trick) more than I expected. A lot more, like every foot going down I felt I had to do it, or I could feel the pressure in my ears. It wasn't catastrophic - I ended up going the full depth down as far as I could tell, but I'm worried this might be even harder in deeper waters. Does anyone have much experience with this? Anything I can read up on? The funny thing is, doing that dive has led me to understand a little bit more about what's up with my ears, and I read about someone else who had a similar vertigo after diving, where they suddenly lost understanding of balance and all I can think was "I feel like that anyway!". I'm a bit worried that this will get in the way a bit, not that I can see me ever going *that* deep. I was plenty happy with 7 metres, it felt like a lot more when you're under the water! Thanks
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May 15, 2015 16:51
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Awesome man glad to hear you enjoyed it. I dove with Dive Adventuras last summer and really enjoyed it. 1. No clue hopefully someone else can answer. 2. First I would definitely go talk to an ENT doctor that works with divers and see what they say because you do not want to cause major damage. That being said, I don't have an issue with vertigo, but my right ear always gives me issues on not wanting to clear but there are a few things I do that help. Before I head to the site I take a 12 hour sudafed, and then as I am prepping my gear I take a hit of Afrin (nasal spray). As far as techniques on the surface before we go down I always pre-equalize my ears as the shallower depths you need to do so more often and it can be more difficult. I also make sure when going down that I am vertical in the water and tilt my head so the bad ear is to the surface and then work my jaw. The good news is the deeper you go the less often you have to equalize. There is also a really good lecture you can find on YouTube called The Diver's Ear and they go over some more techniques. On my phone otherwise I would link it.
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May 15, 2015 19:17
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MrNemo posted:You're taking to a guy who bought his last DUI after using it for a weekend because mine developed a torn seal the owner was selling it for cheap. I felt less bad though because he had like 6 suits he'd bought on various whims. Have you heard anything bad about Waterproof or the D7 though? Regarding equalising: there are several good DAN articles too which are worth reading. But a good ENT (preferably one who specialises in diving) will set you straight.
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May 15, 2015 19:30
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Red_Fred posted:Someone try and convince me from pulling the trigger on a really good deal on a used Waterproof D7 drysuit. My wife has a D7. She love, love, love, love, loves it. It is truly a beautiful piece of kit. If I dove cold I would buy a Waterproof in a heartbeat. Definitely far better build quality than DUI (in my experience anyway) and very well thought-out design. My only real complaint would be the built-in boots - they're not resizable so you may need to use bands to keep your feet in them if they are far too big.
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May 15, 2015 20:20
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Gindack posted:Awesome man glad to hear you enjoyed it. I dove with Dive Adventuras last summer and really enjoyed it. Ah awesome, getting decongestants here is cheap and easy because I guess we don't have tweakers who try to use them to get high on. Until I can find someone who actually knows what they're talking about (in the UK the standard rule of thumb is a 2 year wait for anything), maybe I can take some of those and try doing a pool dive here (there's a school nearby that a local club uses to trial people, I'm sure I can pay them for a session and see if they help). Will definitely check that out too, thanks for the advice.
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May 15, 2015 20:26
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The nasal spray isn't something I'd want to use, though. Surface atmosphere is at 1 bar. Every 10 meters, you add 1 bar. In the first 10 meters, the pressure doubles, that's why the first meters are also the hardest; the good news is that you barely need to equalize after it. When you get proficient you don't even need to pinch your nose and blow ("Valsalva manouver") to equalize, learning alternative tricks such as swallowing or moving the jaw, or using the alternative Frenzel manouver. Sea's iodium helps a lot. I never use the Valsalva anymore and usually I just swallow or move the jaw, pinching the nose if equalizing is more difficult than usual.
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May 15, 2015 21:08
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sofullofhate posted:My wife has a D7. She love, love, love, love, loves it. It is truly a beautiful piece of kit. If I dove cold I would buy a Waterproof in a heartbeat. The one I'm looking at is an ML where I'm probably closer to an M (after some rough measurements) this shouldn't be an issue though right?
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May 15, 2015 21:24
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yes, your book will count to OW as long as it was signed off by someone with an instructor number.
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May 16, 2015 01:01
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Red_Fred posted:The one I'm looking at is an ML where I'm probably closer to an M (after some rough measurements) this shouldn't be an issue though right? Might be a little long in the legs, but you can use the internal straps to keep that from being an issue. You might need to wear ankle straps if the boots are too long. It'll be fine.
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May 16, 2015 06:17
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