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I remember a few pages ago someone asked how not to be the loving new guy on a dive, and I have a bit of a supplemental question to that. I'm doing my first actual facts (not in a lake or river) dive in January in Antigua, and then going on a week trip to Cozumel with friends. I've only been certified since May and chew through air (usually double what some people breathe!). Any exercises or anything I can do to make sure I'm not the rear end in a top hat who makes everyone turn back super early?
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# ? Dec 22, 2016 18:25 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 08:53 |
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Hmmmmmmm.......... advice for how to not burn through air.... When I was training for 6 months before getting certified... I was no spring chicken, and wanted to make sure I was in pretty good shape... I did a lot of pool work, working on my lung efficiency with a lot of anaerobic exercises. I was swimming regular laps to build endurance, but I was also working in "no breathing" laps as far as I could go. Yeah, they hurt, but after a couple months I was doing 50 yards with a flip-turn in the middle without needing to take a breath. Applied to scuba diving, it turns out that I had trained myself to be calm and relaxed under water, confident in my ability to deal with air emergencies, and my breathing never got rapid and I was using about half the air in the pool the instructor thought I would use. Every body and metabolism is different, but that worked for me.
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# ? Dec 22, 2016 19:01 |
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I recently got my dry suit spec. The not-peeing thing I was fine with, but the way-too-loving-tight neck and wrist seals really poo poo on the experience for me.
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# ? Dec 22, 2016 22:44 |
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Trivia posted:I recently got my dry suit spec. There's a balance between too tight to be comfortable and too loose to not leak, and latex seals stretch out a bit over time. All that being said, I my experience if you're noticing how tight the seals are during the dive they're too tight.
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# ? Dec 22, 2016 23:34 |
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What if they were so tight your hands were getting really cold outside the water, and you were light headed everywhere you walked (never mind IN the water)? (They were much too tight.) In fact, my buddy was so uncomfortable from it he ended up vomiting upon surfacing.
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# ? Dec 23, 2016 00:33 |
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Trivia posted:What if they were so tight your hands were getting really cold outside the water, and you were light headed everywhere you walked (never mind IN the water)? That's insane. You're going to put too much pressure on your carotid artery and could potentially end up unconscious underwater. If you were doing this as part of a class then your instructor dropped the ball in a very dangerous way.
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# ? Dec 23, 2016 02:00 |
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Spaced God posted:I remember a few pages ago someone asked how not to be the loving new guy on a dive, and I have a bit of a supplemental question to that. I'm doing my first actual facts (not in a lake or river) dive in January in Antigua, and then going on a week trip to Cozumel with friends. I've only been certified since May and chew through air (usually double what some people breathe!). Any exercises or anything I can do to make sure I'm not the rear end in a top hat who makes everyone turn back super early? The key to air consumption is not making unnecessary movements and staying calm. Aside from staying calm, most beginners compensate for bad buoyancy control by moving which dramatically increases your air consumption. If you don't exercise or swim at all there is probably some benefit to be gained by doing so, but I would guess that it's minor compared just reducing your movement underwater. If you have trouble staying calm, it should help to focus on your breath and slow it down. asur fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Dec 23, 2016 |
# ? Dec 23, 2016 02:29 |
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asur posted:The key to air consumption is not making unnecessary movements and staying calm. Aside from staying calm, most beginners compensate for bad buoyancy control by moving which dramatically increases your air consumption. If you don't exercise or swim at all there is probably some benefit to be gained by doing so, but I would guess that it's minor compared just reducing your movement underwater. If you have trouble staying calm, it should help to focus on your breath and slow it down. Yeah, in retrospect I've noticed I was doing most of my buoyancy control with my lungs (to the point of always having a decent amount of air in my lungs even during exhales) instead of just giving my BC a little air. I'll be trying to be a bit better with exercising and getting calmed down in the water so I can get as much out of my tank as I can Thanks for the good words!
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# ? Dec 23, 2016 03:05 |
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DeadlyMuffin posted:That's insane. You're going to put too much pressure on your carotid artery and could potentially end up unconscious underwater. Yeah no poo poo. Good thing we never went more than 2 meters under (we had a fresh out-of-OW-with-6-dives woman). Oh, guess who had to be her buddy
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# ? Dec 23, 2016 04:58 |
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The not peeing thing isn't really an issue if you're not doing an hour plus of deco regularly. Most dives aren't more than an hour and you can go longer than that in everyday life without needing to pee. Convenience zip on a rear entry suit can be worth it for those times you're on the boat and really need to go though. Otherwise personally I think it's just another failure point or something to forget to close. Tight seals are a bitch, neck ones are actually dangerous because of where they can put pressure. Do you have a chance to change them? I'm currently dreaming of getting dry gloves as they seem to give more dexterity than 5mm neoprene.
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# ? Dec 23, 2016 08:20 |
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MrNemo posted:The not peeing thing isn't really an issue if you're not doing an hour plus of deco regularly. Most dives aren't more than an hour and you can go longer than that in everyday life without needing to pee. Convenience zip on a rear entry suit can be worth it for those times you're on the boat and really need to go though. Otherwise personally I think it's just another failure point or something to forget to close. Balanced Pee Valve won't leak backwards into the suit, and there is nothing better then pissing under water.
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# ? Dec 23, 2016 14:18 |
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I heard "There are two types of divers, those who pee in their wetsuits, and those who lie about not doing it." Call me a liar because I never have and i think it is REALLY gross.
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# ? Dec 23, 2016 20:55 |
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This is why I like just wearing bathing shorts on the bottom, I can pee and fart with impunity. Do they make fart valves for dry suits?
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# ? Dec 23, 2016 20:59 |
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Squashy Nipples posted:This is why I like just wearing bathing shorts on the bottom, I can pee and fart with impunity. Not fart valves, but they do make a takeadump valve. Check out info on it here: http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showthread.php/31937-800-minute-dives?highlight=takeadump
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# ? Dec 24, 2016 01:12 |
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lord1234 posted:Balanced Pee Valve won't leak backwards into the suit, and there is nothing better then pissing under water. I was much more thinking of pee zips where it is quite possible to have a quick piss before kitting up and forget to close it. I have actually checked how balanced valves look to the outside world but I know they require a bit of setting up to be used involving catheters so I couldn't see myself bothering if I wasn't going on an extended dive. Piss before you get in the water, I really don't understand the way people seem to look forward to doing it underwater. A bit like people who really enjoying peeing outdoors.
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# ? Dec 24, 2016 17:51 |
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It's a bit harder for women. I've called a dive early because I had to pee. Now I'm religious about using the head before I get in the water, but it can be frustrating if I'm shore diving somewhere there isn't a public restroom.
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# ? Dec 24, 2016 19:11 |
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asur posted:The key to air consumption is not making unnecessary movements and staying calm. Aside from staying calm, most beginners compensate for bad buoyancy control by moving which dramatically increases your air consumption. If you don't exercise or swim at all there is probably some benefit to be gained by doing so, but I would guess that it's minor compared just reducing your movement underwater. If you have trouble staying calm, it should help to focus on your breath and slow it down. This 100%! From personal experience and what I see all the time the biggest factor of air consumption for most new/infrequent divers is they are way overweighted, so they subconsciously compensate with their fins/arm flailing to maintain position in the water. In Key Largo the diving is very accessible and cheap so we got a lot of people getting certified or going on their yearly dive trip from surrounding areas, which is awesome. What is not awesome is when the 140lb woman gets on the boat and asks for 18lbs of lead because "that's what they always use" and won't hear anything different, then rides the invisible unicycle all around the reef and runs out of air in 40 minutes. Any reputable dive operation will be cool with you doing a weight check before the dive so don't be afraid to ask. Once you get this dialed in you will really see your diving move to the next level. Also like asur said, every movement effectively uses air so don't make any that you don't need to. Another thing that I see new divers doing is constant flutter kicking to propel themselves forward. We all did it at first, but what really helped me improve was to watch HOW my DMs were actually diving. What you will see (probably) is that they do one slow kick and then glide motionlessly for a bit. Once I got my weighting right this single thing probably improved my air consumption more than anything.
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# ? Dec 24, 2016 20:17 |
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lord1234 posted:Not fart valves, but they do make a takeadump valve. Check out info on it here: http://www.cavediver.net/forum/showthread.php/31937-800-minute-dives?highlight=takeadump Oh thank god, it's a joke. I was obviously joking about the fart valve, but I was afraid to click on that link. Someone asked a while back about good boat manners, a guy I dove with in St.Thomas did a pretty good blog post about it: http://aadivers.blogspot.com/ quote:Emily Post’s Boat Diving Etiquette
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# ? Dec 25, 2016 03:26 |
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"Ascents should equal descents" is very cute and clever advice. I would get a T-Shirt of that.
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# ? Dec 25, 2016 15:25 |
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GORDON posted:"Ascents should equal descents" is very cute and clever advice. I would get a T-Shirt of that. "Descents are optional, ascents aren't" is the other way I've heard this. Haven't heard back from my buddy in St Croix. He never checks his fb anymore, and I've got no other way to get in touch with him.
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# ? Dec 26, 2016 00:01 |
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To the goon asking how to not be the new guy with bad air consumption: sorry, there's no way around it. But every person you dive with was the new guy at one point so don't worry about it. Eventually you will learn how to breathe slow while still constantly breathing and then you will learn how to break the "never stop breathing" rule. You shouldn't worry about either of those things now though. And once you've learned both of those things, you shouldn't poo poo on brand new divers who haven't learned either one yet. e: that last point also means you shouldn't be worried about someone making GBS threads on you, unless you decided to do the blue hole or some poo poo like that right after getting OW let it mellow fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Dec 26, 2016 |
# ? Dec 26, 2016 07:05 |
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How do you evaluate liveaboards? I've been fantasizing about the Red Sea, but the more I learn about it, the more a liveaboard makes sense, because of where the best dive sites are. I figure I'll take a two week vacation, and stay at a nice resort for a few days before and after a liveaboard trip. It's hard to evaluate the different itineraries when they all describe things differently. http://www.liveaboard.com/pages/Search.aspx?page=1&country=8&m=0&cid=7000
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 13:15 |
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Squashy Nipples posted:How do you evaluate liveaboards? I try to find reviews on Scubaboard for either the exact boat or the chain. Other than that, price, itinerary and size. I pretty much ignore the descriptions of their itineraries except as a rough guide and assume that if two liveaboards are going to roughly the same spot then they're roughly equivalent. I haven't done it, but the classic Red Sea itinerary is Brothers, Deadulas, and Elphinstone. The north consisting of Ras Mohammed, Tiran, and Thistlegrom can be done as day trips out of Sharm El Shiekh though there might be issues diving Thistlegrom since at least when I was there they wanted a full boat and tourism has tanked since then. If you can swing it and want to see everything, doing a long liveaboard to the south and then a short one in the north would be awesome.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 20:28 |
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Forgive my analysis paralysis.. My wife and I are headed to Bonaire for a couple of weeks and she thinks we should buy a GoPro. We have enough dives, ~50, to be comfortable in the water with our gear. I was thinking about buying a TG4 and lights but the cost isn't justifiable until we move to the coast. And I have OMD I use for hiking / family / dogs but a housing, lenses and lights out me back in the crazy money zone. The GoPro can double as a shooting, hiking, time lapse camera but for now the question is could the GoPro, a filter, and a selfie stick take decent photos and video from 0-100 feet?
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 23:46 |
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Ropes4u posted:Forgive my analysis paralysis.. 100' underwater? No. But if you're talking generically then yes it can, but you cannot change depth. That means no zoom, no macro, etc. however, it does a really good job at what it does. I bought a hero 4 for my wife last year and her second diving use was in Bonaire actually. She was able to take a bunch of good photos and videos using it for the first time underwater. Also in Bonaire it was a hell of a lot simpler for her to just clip it to her BCD and walk in the rocky entries than it was for me with a big rear end rig with strobes and all. So that will be nice for you. I dunno about the selfie stick part, she just has a small hand grip that doesn't extend or anything. The red filter will be essential underwater
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 00:39 |
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I have a faux pro that records in 1080p and it can't fit a filter but I just add a little red in post processing and it's fine. Cost about fiddy bones and came with the underwater housing and stuff. Unless.money is no object I would personally not buy the brand name.
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 00:55 |
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GORDON posted:I have a faux pro that records in 1080p and it can't fit a filter but I just add a little red in post processing and it's fine. Cost about fiddy bones and came with the underwater housing and stuff. Unless.money is no object I would personally not buy the brand name. What brand fakie did you buy? let it mellow posted:100' underwater? No. But if you're talking generically then yes it can, but you cannot change depth. That means no zoom, no macro, etc. however, it does a really good job at what it does. I bought a hero 4 for my wife last year and her second diving use was in Bonaire actually. She was able to take a bunch of good photos and videos using it for the first time underwater. Thank you that is the answer I hoped for, good enough.
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 02:00 |
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Ropes4u posted:What brand fakie did you buy? Make sure you get a stainless steel carabiner if you're doing the BCD clip thing (and you should for some of those entries and exits) so it isn't immediately rusted to poo poo. E. Also bring a device with storage. Your ipad, etc. I think we ended up emptying her GoPro every 4 or 6 dives to keep enough space. HD video chews up the storage. let it mellow fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Dec 31, 2016 |
# ? Dec 31, 2016 03:28 |
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The fakie I am using is a dbpower. While bringing storage is great advice for daily.video dumps, I find I need to replace the battery after every dive, they last about an hour when you go down 60 feet with water at 60 degrees. My storage card can handle about 5 hours on 1080p, though.
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 05:18 |
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Just did a "behind the scenes" tour at the local aquarium. Could not convince them to let us dive in the big tank.
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 21:36 |
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GORDON posted:Just did a "behind the scenes" tour at the local aquarium. Could not convince them to let us dive in the big tank. Boooo! Ours here is that way, though. We're a smaller aquarium, and I don't think the tank could handle the volume of visitors that would be interested. It's a shame too, because doing a Discover Scuba Diving class with rays, sharks, turtles, and other fish around would probably be the high point of someone's dive education and a near-guarantee of someone going on to become certified. We run a trip to the GA aquarium every year, and my school's scuba club is trying to start a tradition of going to the Baltimore aquarium every year, too.
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 21:42 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:Boooo! Ours here is that way, though. We're a smaller aquarium, and I don't think the tank could handle the volume of visitors that would be interested. It's a shame too, because doing a Discover Scuba Diving class with rays, sharks, turtles, and other fish around would probably be the high point of someone's dive education and a near-guarantee of someone going on to become certified. We run a trip to the GA aquarium every year, and my school's scuba club is trying to start a tradition of going to the Baltimore aquarium every year, too. We're planning on diving in Epcot's big aquarium in 2018. :-D
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# ? Jan 1, 2017 03:49 |
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We dove the Denver aquarium a while back before going to a Broncos game, it was cool to do once but not sure I have any desire to ever dive another aquarium. Had to use their gear which made sense because they gotta keep the water chemistry right and they actually had communication systems which was cool as hell. But knowing exactly what was there and being able to easily find it kinda made the dive less interesting. Also needing to go hide when the aquarium mermaids were doing their show was lol. On the good side, air lasted forever and waving at little kids through the glass made their day so that was fun.
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# ? Jan 2, 2017 02:09 |
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I'm currently in Port Douglas and have been using a gopro for my dives. I'm using a Backscatter handle and filters and getting pretty good footage on my 4 silver. The only issues I'm having are some shakiness (which will be my technique) and not getting close enough. Can see for sure that lights are in my future though. As soon as you're past 5m the light just goes.
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# ? Jan 2, 2017 10:51 |
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Red_Fred posted:I'm currently in Port Douglas and have been using a gopro for my dives. I'm using a Backscatter handle and filters and getting pretty good footage on my 4 silver. The only issues I'm having are some shakiness (which will be my technique) and not getting close enough. If you have the cash now backscatter has sola 2500s on sale at 40% off. Two of them and a tray are $700. I ordered a hero 5 and a stick for our trip to Bonaire and am making my own tray to test which I like better. I have been debating the need for lights. I really want a camera so I'm holding out.. Ropes4u fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Jan 2, 2017 |
# ? Jan 2, 2017 12:58 |
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Be careful with combining a light and a red filter, it won't be good. Also you'll find that the light doesn't do a thing for you that the filter doesn't, except when you're trying to take photos or videos of a lobster or something like that in a crevice. Anyway, you'll figure it out pretty quick.
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# ? Jan 3, 2017 04:35 |
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Next trip, coming right up! Heading down to Crystal River to snorkel with manatees, getting a night/drift dive in Rainbow River, a day at Blue Grotto, and a half-day at Devil's Den! Skipping out on Ginnie this time, but there's a ton more people on this trip and the drift dive in Rainbow River was a favorite of mine from last time too. As we kicked up silt, little tiny fish would come eat whatever is in the silt that we kicked up...then some of the little fish would get hit by diving ducks (cormorants, I think?), who promptly screamed back to the surface to fly away with a fresh meal
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# ? Jan 3, 2017 17:13 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:Next trip, coming right up! Heading down to Crystal River to snorkel with manatees, getting a night/drift dive in Rainbow River, a day at Blue Grotto, and a half-day at Devil's Den! Skipping out on Ginnie this time, but there's a ton more people on this trip and the drift dive in Rainbow River was a favorite of mine from last time too. As we kicked up silt, little tiny fish would come eat whatever is in the silt that we kicked up...then some of the little fish would get hit by diving ducks (cormorants, I think?), who promptly screamed back to the surface to fly away with a fresh meal Why not grab a cave cert?
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# ? Jan 3, 2017 19:18 |
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whoa, what do you guys think of this? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/minidive/minidive-the-first-mini-scuba-tank-for-everyone
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# ? Jan 3, 2017 19:44 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 08:53 |
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let it mellow posted:Be careful with combining a light and a red filter, it won't be good. Also you'll find that the light doesn't do a thing for you that the filter doesn't, except when you're trying to take photos or videos of a lobster or something like that in a crevice. Anyway, you'll figure it out pretty quick. AP will make any planned changes take forever so there is no worry about lights showing up in two weeks. Thanks for the help. Hopefully I can share something after the trip
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# ? Jan 3, 2017 20:02 |