|
Good recommendation! We did the fish fry on Tuesday night, it was awesome, and reasonably priced. In fact, the entire stretch of road between the Hilton and Oistens is chock full of great dining options. I may do a food write up in GWS. Definitely an island worth renting a car on. The Bajan drivers have been very kind and considerate.
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2016 14:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 13:57 |
|
|
Squashy Nipples posted:Good recommendation! We did the fish fry on Tuesday night, it was awesome, and reasonably priced. In fact, the entire stretch of road between the Hilton and Oistens is chock full of great dining options. I may do a food write up in GWS. Yeah, Barbados owns and driving around it can get a bit hosed up, especially around the soup bowl, but it's a great island. Glad you enjoyed Oistens! the Friday night fish fry is absolutely nuts, we didn't go on a week day so that's cool that it was still good.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2016 23:01
|
|
|
I'm doing some trip planning and it looks like the cheapest way to get from Indonesia to the Philippines is through Malaysia. Given this I thought I could do a spot of diving here on my way, any recommendations on the shortest time to get a few good dives in? Note I will be diving in Indo, Philippines and other SE Asian countries.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2016 06:11
|
|
|
Anyone here dive in Melbourne?
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2016 07:27
|
|
|
Red_Fred posted:I'm doing some trip planning and it looks like the cheapest way to get from Indonesia to the Philippines is through Malaysia. Given this I thought I could do a spot of diving here on my way, any recommendations on the shortest time to get a few good dives in? I've dove in all of those countries. How long will you be in each? If you have lots of time, then Sipadan in Malaysia and Komodo in Indonesia were amazing. Philippines reefs weren't the greatest. I've done Cebu and Coron Island. Coron was fun because of the WWII wreck diving available. Cebu was very basic but not terrible. If you have lots of time (and money), jump to Palau for a few days. Dive the Blue Holes and the Blue Corner for tons of sharks. It also has Jellyfish Lake. Personally, I'd go to one place and do a liveaboard.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2016 11:56
|
|
|
Trivia posted:I've dove in all of those countries. How long will you be in each? If you have lots of time, then Sipadan in Malaysia and Komodo in Indonesia were amazing. The plan was a month in Indo (but my focus is on bodyboarding there, not diving) then a couple of weeks to a month in Philippines. I could do maybe up to 2 weeks in Malaysia. I'm pretty flexible all around but do want to do Thailand, Vietnam etc so can't spend all my time before that. Probably 3-4 months in SE Asia in total. There is no way I can afford to do a liveaboard in Palau. I actually looked into this on your suggestion a while back but holy poo poo it's expensive.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 01:01
|
|
|
You don't have to do a liveaboard there, it just makes daily commutes to dive sites muuuuch better. I went with Sam's Tours and despite having some really fast boats, it still took 1-1.5 hours to get to the sites. You can do lots of reef diving and also a couple of wrecks while you're there. I've been twice, if that's any inclination of how awesome it was. ------ Malaysia - I only went to Semporna and Sipadan. Sipadan was really cool, but for every day reserved diving the preserve you need to also book a day or two doing non-Sipadan diving nearby. Mabul or Semporna (go with Mabul Island). Indonesia - Komodo's reefs were pretty amazing I must admit (I'm actually going back in 2 weeks!). You need to go to Labuan Bajo, and from there take boats to the national park. Liveaboards here are pretty cheap in comparison. Check out Blue Marlin Diving for a flexible dates ship (I went with the Ikan Biru. Small, but had everything I needed.). Philippines - Cebu diving was like I said, meh. I went to Malapascua Island to see Thresher sharks; those were pretty cool and  -ey looking. Otherwise Malapascua was pretty ho-hum. Busuanga Island had some neat reefs, but the allure for me was the wreck diving. These were my first real penetration dives, some as deep as 35 meters. You definitely need good fin and buoyancy discipline, otherwise you will kick up 60 years worth of poo poo. Stay the gently caress away from Manila, that place sucks. Thailand - Don't dive near Phuket or Phi Phi Island. They are much more party-oriented, so you won't get very good reefs at all. Khao Lak (north of Phuket) does day trips to the Similans, or you can do liveaboards from there. The Similans were really nice when I went (7 years ago). Vietnam - Never dove here, but I recommend you go to the War Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. Fuckin' brutal man. Make your way to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, everyone says it's the bee's knees (though I've never been).
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 01:22
|
|
|
For peninsular Malaysia the perhentian islands are probably the best. Not really worth it unless you fancy a small island break though. Koh Lanta is pretty good, south of phi phi and there are some decent sites around. Again not destination diving by itself though probably. I went with Kon Tiki and they were pretty good, that was the last week of the season though and things were super super quiet. No idea what they might be like when busy. Ha Long bay I keep hearing mixed reviews about. I was there a while ago now, like 12 years, and it was pretty. Definitely worth not trying to do bargain basement though, get a decent boat. Also I am finally a full open water instructor, looking forward to the dice season proper in the UK. Just wish I had more holiday, really want to try diving Scapa flow this year.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2016 18:25
|
|
|
I assume everyone reading this already knows about the Deep Sea thread, with current updates about diving the Marianas Trench (and finding a can of low salt Spam 7 miles down, of course, because Guam is Guam). But if not: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3582242 Amazing, amazing, amazing. People are awesome.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2016 03:03
|
|
|
If I wanted to see wild octopus, where would be the best place to dive?
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2016 20:16
|
|
|
Are you talking country or general location? Night dives in the muck can be pretty good. Lots of crabs (which is their prey) and hidey-holes. One of the coolest octopuses I've seen was a night dive in harbor bay. I think it was about 4 meters of water total, and the little guy was living in a bottle. He kept eating the worms that our lights attracted. Probably watched him for a good 20 minutes.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2016 01:59
|
|
|
Octopuses are not strictly nocturnal, but they are significantly more active at night, when the crustaceans they like to eat the most are significantly more active. And the sudden change in color of using the typical narrow beam light makes their camouflage work less effectively. I cannot remember the last night dive I did where I did not see at least one octopus. Sometimes just a bunch of young-uns the size of a gloved finger tip trying to swell up and scare me. This has been all throughout the Northern Pacific in the tropical zone
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2016 10:27
|
|
|
Trivia posted:Are you talking country or general location? Location is where I'm thinking. It sounds like down the line I will need to plan a trip to the Pacific. 
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2016 16:44
|
|
|
Beautiful day reef diving out of West Palm Beach Florida. Nothing super crazy but we did see a half dozen loggerheads and some sharks. Edit to add today's sharks and goliath grouper. And I dumped my zoop into deco mode ER Code. I guess waiting for the camera is a good idea. Ropes4u fucked around with this message at 18:37 on May 7, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 7, 2016 00:59
|
|
|
legsarerequired posted:If I wanted to see wild octopus, where would be the best place to dive? Three places we've seen them: Curaçao shore dive called Alice in wonderland, Belize hol chan marine park night dive and Barbados in that shallow bay with all the wrecks E: also saw three sea horses in the same Barbados site
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2016 05:00
|
|
|
I saw a bunch of octopi on a night dive in Cozumel.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2016 22:58
|
|
|
Where other than Bonaire has great shore diving?
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2016 01:09
|
|
|
Ropes4u posted:Where other than Bonaire has great shore diving? Westpunt, Curaçao was good shore diving
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2016 04:28
|
|
|
jackyl posted:Westpunt, Curaçao was good shore diving Yeah, Westpunt is awesome. Lots of reefs right offshore. There are some houses you can rent that are right on limestone cliffs over the water, and you just walk down a staircase and jump in. I might do that when I go back to Curacao. jackyl posted:Three places we've seen them: Curaçao shore dive called Alice in wonderland, Belize hol chan marine park night dive and Barbados in that shallow bay with all the wrecks drat it, I've yet to see any octopus. That site is Carlise Bay Marine Park, and it's awesome. Some fun wrecks in pretty shallow water, lots of critters. I did a night dive there, and the most interesting thing we saw was two worms loving. The guide said that the worms themselves were uncommon but not rare, and that he had never seen two together like that. They glowed a bit under UV, which was cool.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2016 14:00
|
|
|
Squashy Nipples posted:Yeah, Westpunt is awesome. Lots of reefs right offshore. There are some houses you can rent that are right on limestone cliffs over the water, and you just walk down a staircase and jump in. I might do that when I go back to Curacao. The Curaçao one was when we were killing air after one of our OW exercises, at the time we had no idea how rare that sighting was and just kinda assumed it would happen over and over again Then it was years until we saw another and it took the Belize night dive, but that was an awesome sighting - it was rapidly changing colors based on dive light angles. Then last year we were in Barbados and got three seahorses and an octopus during the day in shallow water.  I have the pictures and need to post themE: I think I posted the Belize one earlier in the thread
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2016 01:45
|
|
|
pupdive posted:I assume everyone reading this already knows about the Deep Sea thread, with current updates about diving the Marianas Trench (and finding a can of low salt Spam 7 miles down, of course, because Guam is Guam). I did not know about this, it's incredible, thank you! Also, this thread needs a bit more California love :-)     Regarding finding octopus: it also helps to keep an eye out for piles of shells near a crevice or opening in a rock. They tend to leave their trash pile right outside their front door.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2016 08:35
|
|
|
In Australia we basically see occys every dive!
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2016 12:20
|
|
|
Is there a real difference between 'travel' and 'regular' BCDs? I got a great deal on Cressi Aquapro 5 which is classified as travel. For a babby's first BCD, will this limit me at all?
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2016 23:22
|
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:I did not know about this, it's incredible, thank you! Can you see nudibranches like that at any California coral dive?! They look amazing!
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2016 03:36
|
|
|
legsarerequired posted:Can you see nudibranches like that at any California coral dive?! They look amazing! Not every single dive, but they're not uncommon :-) The purple guy is a Spanish Shawl and tend to be a bit more common off of Southern California, but we see them in NorCal too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flabellina_iodinea The white bodied one is a Hiltoni (no cool common name I know of) and a bit more common up north. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidiana_hiltoni There are a decent number of colorful nudis around, so it's quite normal to keep an eye out for them and see a couple in a dive. If you dive off the west coast "Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs" by David W Behrens is the reference.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2016 05:45
|
|
|
Raere posted:Is there a real difference between 'travel' and 'regular' BCDs? I got a great deal on Cressi Aquapro 5 which is classified as travel. For a babby's first BCD, will this limit me at all? It won't limit you in any way. (Make sure having your own gear is a means to dive more.) BCDs are made 'travel' by reducing the size of the backplate that is part of every BCD, and reducing stiffening materials all around the BCD. Generally the pockets are made less useful by the lack of stiffening material. Though to be honest the rise of the weight integrated BCD has in general made pockets less and less useful anyway, because weight pockets steal space from the pocket area anyway.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2016 08:32
|
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:Also, this thread needs a bit more California love :-) Nudibranchs are the best part of California diving. I've seen at least a couple of these blue-and-orange ones; they're really striking.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2016 00:34
|
|
|
On my very first dive in California I saw an Octopus. None since  . I do see nudis on most california dives.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2016 01:22
|
|
|
Well ladies and gents, I'm off to Komodo for my DMT! Six weeks! I'm more than a little nervous.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2016 12:34
|
|
|
The usual advice: 1. You're training to be a role model. Think about what the best instructors and guides have looked like (in and out of the water), and try and be them. 2. Understand that part of divemaster training is instructor training since there is no other place for it to go. Even if you never become an instructor, you may find that part interesting. Even if you don't, you'll have to do it anyway. 3. Any given instructor should have habits you emulate, and habits you learn from (because you don't want to be anything like that). Both are instructive. 4. The mapping project can be a quick scrawl of some site. But if you think about it right, it's teaching you to do perfect site briefs, just in a written form. Imagine that someone who has never dove a site before has only that piece of paper to use, and it can be endlessly educational. There are some pretty decent site map sites on the internet to get a feel for the map part. I've never see a complete DM map on the internet that I though sufficient for that requirement, because the DMC's are still clearly thinking like a diver instead of dive controller. What agency are you doing it through?
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2016 21:32
|
|
|
Padi DMT through Wicked Diving out of Labuan Bajo. I've yet to actually meet my instructor or the other DMT student. Right now it's just learning the place and starting the coursework. Cheers for the advice!
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2016 06:14
|
|
|
Let me just say, as you are slogging your way through it (because even though it is diving, there are still some slogging points). Passionate divers like you are why I do this, and if you keep that passion in your diving, others will catch the fever from you. I took a 70 year old guy and his 40 year old son diving together on an intro dive today, and watching the old guy smiling so wide his reg looked to keep falling out all through the dive was why I do this. The pay (mostly) sucks, it's hard keeping the floorboards of every vehicle from rusting through, everything I own has a vague musty smell from never drying out. The job can be a weird mix of stress watching to keep things safe from our side, while trying to keep it light and fun on the their side. But. Listening to the guy say he had wanted to do this his whole life, but his wife would not let him until he turned 70, and then taking him out and making it work for him, well it's amazing. I know there's nothing, in the end, important about what I do as a dive instructor, but I know that there a son, who loves his father, who got to see his dad do something Dad had always wanted to, and finally got to do together. And I helped make it happen, in part from years of experience of learning how to do my job well. Years of low pay, and rusty musty cars and apartments not withstanding.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2016 06:36
|
|
|
About a month late, but trip report on Barbados: Barbados was amazing! Soft, luscious sand that extends way out from the beaches. All that sand actually damages the visibility a bit, but the water is otherwise clear and blue and awesome. We stayed at the Hilton, which turned out to be a great dive hotel: an excellent dive shop on premises, and close proximity to a wealth of great dive sites. The trips to the dive sites were so short, that the main dive boat didn't have a hull: it was one of those metal pontoon jobs with the flat deck. I dove with a couple of hardcore divers, whom I'll call M&A. They were great, lots of experience, well-equipped, and M had his Instructor cert. I learned a few good things from them. Site highlights: Carleynes (reef drift dive) Pieces of Eight (reef drift dive) Brianna wreck (2 year old wreck, went down with everything intact, LOTS of cool stuff to see) Stavronikita Wreck (deep dive, my first to 100 ft, nice mix of stuff to see in/on the boat) Carlise Bay Marine Park (shallow wrecks, tons of turtles and fish) I ended up diving in the Marine park three times: it's a good second dive after a first deep dive, and we did a night dive there as well. I'm really glad I dove it in daylight first! On the first day, in addition to M&A, there was a somewhat older gentlemen, whom we'll call R. R was doing his PADI advanced training, not long after getting his Open Water. He seemed nervous for some reason? Like before we even got on the boat. Hard for me to relate, because I'm never scared to jump in the water. M&A and myself were in one group, and R was in a second group with his own private DM. Anyway, there was a bit of current, so they put out a rope, and told R to jump in. He overshot the rope by look a foot, and holy poo poo, I've never seen a grown man panic like that. It was kind of scary. He was trying to swim towards the rope with his arms, like he had forgotten that he had legs and fins. The DM doing his training had to jump in and help him over to the rope. He finished both dives that day, but we didn't see him again on the boat for the rest of the week. I saw him in the executive lounge that night, and he still looked shaken. And finally... the bad thing. In retrospect, I think one of the divers took a small hit, and might have benefited from some O2. Things got a little tense on deck afterwards, so I took the blame because I didn't "stick with my buddy", but the truth is more complicated then that. Thursday morning, I show up for the morning dive boat, and in addition to M&A, we've got a new guy, Mick. I had run into him in the bar the night before, and he was a guy from London who got to travel a lot for work. He shows up Thursday morning, in 100% brand new equipment that he had never used before. His equipment is also all metric/DIN, and his first temper tantrum of the day was because they didn't have a DIN adapter on the boat. And then we find out that he hadn't dove in over two years! So, on the boat, it's been just M&A and myself all week, but now we have Mick, and 6 people from a cruise ship who didn't even bring their own masks. The divemasters had promised M&A and myself that we would be the Stavronikitia today, as sort of grand finale for our week. But once they get on board the boat, with only two DMs and bunch of newbs, the DMs start getting cold feet. Later one of them would tell me that they were most nervous about taking Mick on the deep dive. So, Mick throws an even BIGGER temper tantrum, because he wants to do the deep dive, and he doesn't want to go with the B squad. So, the DMs decide that one of them will take the newbs to a nearby reef, while the other one moors the boat to the wreck and takes us down, leaving the boat unmanned (which I think they really didn't want to do). So, we are getting ready for the dive, and when the DM says that 700 lb is our low-air condition, it turns out that Mick doesn't know how to convert PSI to bars, which is what his gauge reads in. Also, without his glasses, he can't see his computer very well. But we jump in, go down the line, and start the dive. First part of dive goes great, no problems. The stern is just about at 100 feet, and I didn't feel any effects at that depth. After we've gone all the way around the ship, we start slowly spiraling up the main mast in the middle, which has become well reefed and is teeming with fish. It was beautiful, but also a bit turbid: once we were about 15 feet off the deck of the ship, I couldn't see it anymore. And that's when Mick ran out of air. I mean, he had some left, but the DM took a look at his gauge and decided he needed to go up. I don't know how low Mick's air got, but I've still got 1300 PSI, and M&A are at about 1600. The DM later told us that he wanted to take Mick and myself back up the line (which is affixed to the bow of the wreck), and then come back to finish the dive with M&A. But as soon as he turns around to communicate this to the three of us (who are in close proximity), Mick (who is behind the DM, away from us) just loving bolts, completely disappearing into the turbidity. So, the DM is signing to us, and we all point back at where Mick had disappeared, and the DM takes off after him. We are at about 50 feet. Ok, so this is when I should have stuck with my buddy: I should have gone after the DM, found Mick, gone up the line together, and done our safety stop together. Instead, I sat there and watched them disappear. My gut told me to stick with M&A. So we kept on, slowly ascending around the mast. DM doesn't come back. We are near the top of the mast, at about 30 feet, and I sign to M that I'm down to 800 lbs, and it's time to go. He signals back to do our safety stop. So we ascend to 15 feet, huddle and wait. Just as A is getting out the inflatable marker buoy, the DM finally finds us. He motions for us to follow him, and he... brings us back down? (this looks weird on my dive log). I think he had lost the orientation of the wreck, and needed to see it to find the bow line. We get to the rope, go up to 15 feet, and DM motions for another stop. Except now I'm down to 400 PSI, so I switch to the DMs octo to complete the second safety stop. We get back on the boat, everything is OK. Mick is sitting there, and starts arguing with the DM. Apparently he didn't do his safety stop, as he lost buoyancy control, and surfaced way too fast. DM is accusing him of not pulling his dump valve. Once that calmed down, I talked to the DM, and he told us that there was too much traffic in the area for it to be safe to use a buoy, so that's why he took us back to the rope. I didn't realize it at the time, but Mick was definitely... off a bit after that. Eyes seemed a little glazed over, talked a little slow. Had some trouble keeping up with the group on the next dive, which was a super easy dive in the Marine Park. A lot of lessons to be learned here, but I think the biggest one is to be more active in monitoring my buddies air.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2016 15:36
|
|
|
Squashy Nipples posted:
Im a bit new so forgive me if this is stupid, but did you agree to be paired off with mick?
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2016 00:44
|
|
|
Jesus Christ, I don't even know where to begin analyzing that clusterfuck.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2016 05:51
|
|
|
Ropes4u posted:Im a bit new so forgive me if this is stupid, but did you agree to be paired off with mick? Implicitly, yes. During the dive briefing, the DM assigned us, and I didn't say anything. I should have inspected his equipment right then. It wasn't until the surface interval that he told me that he couldn't really see his computer. I don't know if he had an air-integrated computer or not, but he had a mechanical pressure gauge that read in bars. Trivia posted:Jesus Christ, I don't even know where to begin analyzing that clusterfuck. I know, that's why it's taken me a few weeks to write it. It's interesting to see how my thoughts have changed a bit on reflection. I literally didn't realize how effected Mick got until like a week after I got home. The night it happened, I was having dinner with M&A, and they were complaining about how he was having trouble staying with us on the second dive, and how they saw me constantly looking around to find him, and yet none of us put it together then.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2016 14:19
|
|
|
Squashy Nipples posted:Implicitly, yes. During the dive briefing, the DM assigned us, and I didn't say anything. I should have inspected his equipment right then. It wasn't until the surface interval that he told me that he couldn't really see his computer. I don't know if he had an air-integrated computer or not, but he had a mechanical pressure gauge that read in bars. I am asking in order to learn from your adventure. Is it normal for strangers to be assigned as teams by the DM. Because if he didn't ask me and get my approval - nope.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2016 18:37
|
|
|
Ropes4u posted:I am asking in order to learn from your adventure. Is it normal for strangers to be assigned as teams by the DM. Because if he didn't ask me and get my approval - nope. if you're diving solo, yes. My wife and I almost always dive as buddies but a while back in Utila, I was doing rescue which she had no interest in, so she went out on dives and was either paired with another solo or with the DM depending on the boat composition. When we were on one of our St. Lucia trips she was coming off of a cold and had clearing problems so aborted the second and I was buddied up with a guy the DM had buddied win the first dive. and yeah, I learned their gear and showed them mine before getting in, specially since I have integrated weights in my BC and a lot of people aren't used to that
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2016 01:48
|
|
|
Ropes4u posted:I am asking in order to learn from your adventure. Is it normal for strangers to be assigned as teams by the DM. Because if he didn't ask me and get my approval - nope. And if you stuck to your guns on that, you might not get to do the dive. In this case, the DM actually assigned teams based on experience as he read them. It's actually pretty common for people doing this for a living to sit down and think through what went wrong and what could be done differently. It's part of the apprecticeship aspect of becoming a competent dive operator. Since Trivia is the one heading for his DMC work, he could use this as a dry run. But the problem with problems as described from the diver's side, and not the people on the job side, is that it is far more common than divers think to lose track of what is happening. In fact there is this line in the original description quote:He motions for us to follow him, and he... brings us back down? (this looks weird on my dive log). The perceptual narrowing that even competent, pretty dang experienced divers undergo in stressful situations in pretty unbelievable to people who have not seen it happen. The gorilla on the basketball court experiment is instructive here. With very, very few exceptions divers are doing something that requires many front brain cycles, and stress magnifies that to such a degree that basically dive professionals learn to not trust the reports of a diver on what happened underwater much at all. "How is it even slightly possible that divers fail to check their tank pressure?" is a question that makes sense to everyone except those who have some pretty serious experience being in charge of divers. Very, very few divers check their gauges until they think they are likely running low. It's hard to understand this, until you understand just how much perceptual narrowing defines what divers do underwater.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2016 02:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 13:57 |
|
|
I had an OOA situation in one of my first dives after doing my Open Water. Since then and getting older and respecting the environment more I basically have a mantra of you can't check your gauges too often. There is no harm in taking 5 seconds to just have a look.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2016 02:52
|
|