|
SuitcasePimp posted:Awesome! I would definitely recommend diving in Key Largo (first key you hit driving from anywhere) vs. going farther south. There is decent diving from Tavernier, Islamorada, etc. but Key Largo has the biggest marine protected area and most accessible wrecks as well as a LOT more choice in operators. Any site recommendations we should try to get to, besides no Christ of the Abyss? We're AOW and haven't done any serious wrecks yet but would be up for an easy-ish one. Given the time constraints I'm thinking we'll try to do a morning and afternoon trip on saturday 4/1 to get the most out of our day.
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2017 23:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 03:16 |
|
|
The Vikings posted:Thanks for the info! My wife likes to go with a guide when we're in a new spot so I was thinking Rainbow Reef or Sailfish scuba based on my internet research. Do you know if Rainbow rents computers? Been diving for a few years but mostly vacation spots and haven't gotten around to getting a personal one yet (may or may not happen before this trip). Rainbow does rent computers, I believe Suunto Zoops. All of the wrecks here that they take people to are pretty easy... you need AOW due to the depth but they are not really difficult. When the viz is good its pretty cool to come down the line and see the hulking mass looming out of the blue. Most have really cool "swimthroughs" that make you feel like a badass inside a wreck  As for sites you'll probably end up going to one of the many sites on Molasses Reef or French Reef which are in the marine sanctuary. Sometimes they'll go to some of the more northern sites like Dry Rocks or Minnow Cave which can be good, it all depends on conditions. Honestly though for shallow reefs close to such a populated area they are all quite good and you could dive the same site twice and see totally different stuff! Some people come down here often and get bored of Molasses but I never understood that. Saturday we saw an octopus cruising around, a huge scorpionfish, and a rare nudibranch while the group that went the other direction got buzzed by dolphins. You just never know! You'll probably do the wreck dive in the morning if you want to dive one, most likely the Duane or the mac daddy Spiegel Grove (its huge). Like I said these dives are short but can be very rewarding. If you are Nitrox certified it's not a bad idea although sometimes you get an air hog in the group so you don't really get the benefit of more bottom time.
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2017 02:34
|
|
|
Cozumel dive report: had to skip my safety stop on my second boat dive because of a gear failure. That sorta hosed with my head for a bit, but we managed to go back and kill do some lion fish hunting and other fun stuff. Absolutely loving gorgeous wildlife and reefs. Also make sure no one in your dive group fucks with coke because gently caress that poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2017 20:00
|
|
|
Spaced God posted:Cozumel dive report: had to skip my safety stop on my second boat dive because of a gear failure. That sorta hosed with my head for a bit, but we managed to go back and kill do some lion fish hunting and other fun stuff. Absolutely loving gorgeous wildlife and reefs. There sounds like there could be an interesting story here...
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2017 01:05
|
|
|
Red_Fred posted:There sounds like there could be an interesting story here... The spoilered part? Still ongoing because we're still here, but mostly stems from my very controversial opinion of "gently caress drugs." No Locked Up Abroad poo poo yet. I gotta be in class Monday so I hope no Locked Up Abroad poo poo ever
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2017 03:26
|
|
|
Westpunt
Squashy Nipples fucked around with this message at 13:00 on Apr 10, 2017 |
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2017 14:08
|
|
|
Westpunt owns, that's where we got our OW. Go to sol food one night, it's great
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2017 01:52
|
|
|
let it mellow posted:Westpunt owns, that's where we got our OW. Go to sol food one night, it's great Haven't heard of that one, I'll keep it in mind. OK so I bought myself a safety sausage... and when it's properly rolled up and stowed in it's bag, it's HUGE. Where do you guys carry stuff like this on dives? My BC has one mesh pocket that I can unroll, but outside of that I guess I could clip the bag to a ring, but it's sort of bulky, so I don't want it flopping around.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2017 21:06
|
|
|
Squashy Nipples posted:Haven't heard of that one, I'll keep it in mind. Drysuit or wetsuit pockets. You can either glue them on or buy a pair of shorts like the XShorts that have them built in.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2017 22:27
|
|
|
I've got two typically, one with a reel in a dry suit pocket and the other bungeed to a reel and clipped to the back d ring on my harness. Bungeed with a single cord tied to either end of the handle (one next to the attached clip) i can then put the rolled up DSMB next to the reel, on top of the handle, and pull the bungee over it and hook it on the reel. It leaves one with a neat package that is easy to deploy. pretty much this set up in fact.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2017 01:00
|
|
|
I keep mine on a finger spool, and they both stay clipped to the D-ring that's right behind my hip on my BCD.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2017 04:50
|
|
|
Icon Of Sin posted:I keep mine on a finger spool, and they both stay clipped to the D-ring that's right behind my hip on my BCD. Whenever I clip mine to my BCD the double ender unclips from the hand spool when I enter the water. Is there a trick to stop this? I now pretty much put it in my drysuit pockets.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2017 05:53
|
|
|
Red_Fred posted:Whenever I clip mine to my BCD the double ender unclips from the hand spool when I enter the water. Is there a trick to stop this? I now pretty much put it in my drysuit pockets. Andy from the UK has a video about this, and using those search terms gets me nowhere for finding the video to link for you on YouTube. But if someone can find the link, watch it, do what he says, and it will never happen again. Basically with any finger spool setup, the finger spool can lever open the trigger on the double ender. This goes double if you max out the line on the spool like I usually do, because the line can push the trigger open when the spool is basically full. Some people use bungie on the whole thing and semi-permanently attach the reel to the SMB. I use my finger spool for lots of other things, and I need to be able to clean up the line before I get on the boat with divers I am guiding, so I have to be able to separate the finger spool from the SMB easy. So I use hair elastic on a loop on an eye at the end of the line around to keep the line spooled, and use Andy from the UK's method for using the line to jam the trigger. (Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MqPNJA6eRs pupdive fucked around with this message at 09:15 on Apr 8, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2017 09:06
|
|
|
pupdive posted:Andy from the UK has a video about this, and using those search terms gets me nowhere for finding the video to link for you on YouTube. But if someone can find the link, watch it, do what he says, and it will never happen again. That video was super handy, thanks. Do you have one that shows deploying the DSMB when it is not already attached to the spool? I tried looking on Youtube but 9 out of 10 are already attached when they begin.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2017 07:04
|
|
|
Most everybody leaves the spool attached for their own good reasons and their own needs, just to be clear. I often use the spool for 100'/30m measuring independent of the SMB. (Advanced Class kick cycle things, etc.) Also I feel I have to get the line put away to make sure it does not get hung up on divers or gear when getting people back on the boat. If you do much drift diving, you get to see lost of guides/divers being sloppy with their line, and lots of tangly rat's nests in the camera bucket area. My finger reel is completely rewound and stowed by the time I get on the boat, because the finger spool is a separate thing for me, though most often used with the SMB. The SMB can then stay in the water with divers hanging onto it if the wind and the current are fighting each other, or passed up to the boat first. That's a call I like to be able to make on the fly. When I deploy my SMB, I get out the finger reel, unwind the double ender, clip the double ender off, and pass the finger spool through eye in the end of the finger spool line around the webbing loop on the bottom of my SMB. I dump the air in my BCD into the SMB and let it get above and away from me so I can check for tanglies before the SMB would make me positive. This is also the signal to divers that we are going to go up to safety stop depth. So it is attached when I am adding air. I think that if you don't use the "little eye loop on the end of the big eye loop" from the video this could be an exercise in frustration, trying to undo the finger spool from the webbing loop at the bottom of the SMB by picking at cave line, instead of just pulling on the little eye loop. In my case the little eye even has a stretchy bit that makes it even easier. I think it might be useful to link what videos you are watching, for everyone to chime in with ideas and feedback. I gladly steal ideas from everyone and everywhere, and I am always looking for new and better ways! (One of the problems with being "the experienced instructor" in my area is that people copy from me, and I don't get to steal ideas from people right around me.)
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2017 10:58
|
|
|
Welcome back, pupdive 
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2017 15:02
|
|
|
lord1234 posted:Drysuit or wetsuit pockets. You can either glue them on or buy a pair of shorts like the XShorts that have them built in. I don't wear an exposure suit when I dive in warm water. Just a neoprene cap for my bald-rear end head. I am considering buying a pair of pocket shorts, though, since my new winged BC is woefully short of pockets. pupdive posted:I dump the air in my BCD into the SMB I'm not sure I can do that, since with my BC I usually have to dump air out the back. I've found that there is a little bit of a learning curve to the wing design, as you have to know where the air is to dump it. My SMB has a valve, presumably so you can fill it with your inflator hose? But isn't that a bad idea buoyancy-wise unless you are simultaneously dumping your BC? Great info, thanks! I didn't actually buy a reel for it; I was just planning on using a heavy-duty coil lanyard that I already had. I bought it for shore diving, so it's really more of an emergency signal/float then something I plan on using every dive. If I'm doing a dive where we need to signal the boat, I leave that up to the DM.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2017 15:18
|
|
|
Squashy Nipples posted:I am considering buying a pair of pocket shorts, though, since my new winged BC is woefully short of pockets. (If you are diving with a rash guard, it becomes a quick and dirty pocket for lots of stuff in a pinch!) As long as your BCD has an inflator that fits in your hand, you can use that to put air in the SMB if it has an open end. I'd dump the air from the BCD into the SMB through the inflator as a general practice because then you are simply transferring positive buoyancy from place to place, rather than introducing new positive buoyancy into the mix. If you are diving a wing style BCD or BP/W, you have some options for sausage storage that you may not have with some jacket BCDs, in that you can put arbitrarily large SMBs (I use a 10 foot long, by 8 inch wide one) in a roll and use rubber tubing to store it on your butt area. Then you just have to find a place for a small finger spool or full size reel, and then attach them under water. The best place for a reel for most people in that case is on a hip D-ring, but my hip D-rings are usually occupied with clip weights or sidemounted tanks depending on the diving I am doing. In terms of the inflator valve filling types, I get why some people want to use them. You can positive pressurize them to make sure they are standing up even in some decent wind on the surface. And if you have a drysuit, you have a hose already to use to fill the SMB in any case, whether underwater, or on the surface. If you are deploying one under water, the expansion will make the bag fill itself to a great extent if you launch it deep enough. I don't think I would use an inflator hose style underwater regularly unless I had a cold water setup with a drysuit inflator hose, and then I'd make sure it is not the old style positive lock on style. If I was in that situation, I'd at least consider CO2 cartridge types. I kind of never want to be attached to an SMB. Some people do add an extra inflator hose to their gear for stuff, including filling SMBs even if they are not diving dry. I have an extra inflator hose with a DiveAlert, and then an air nozzle on it personally. The SMB with open end with a flapper valve are common to use underwater. With they open end type, you can just use light exhalations to get the bag to stand up, and one you are sure that everything is good to go, fill it with a solid purge to shoot it to the surface. Or in my case, I can fill it with the air nozzle. There are local considerations to every practice and need. I use a huge SMB that doubles as a 50 lb lift bag so that I can have divers literally riding on it while waiting for the pickup, and I need to deploy it deep to give the captain time to plan the pickup. 15 minute wait times are not uncommon even with planning. Other people want a small, easy to wave sausage that they are using more to signal once they get to the surface, and they may not even deploy it at depth. (I need to get some footage of my setup, and steps uploaded, but I have not been on the same boat as my wife in quite some time, and she's the video/photo person.) EDIT: I am just gonna say, the terminology on all this is far from decided. Safety Sausage, SMB, DSMB, Surface Marker, Open end SMB, Actual Open end SMB, thumb reel, finger reel, etc. pupdive fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Apr 9, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2017 17:18
|
|
|
Red_Fred posted:That video was super handy, thanks. Do you have one that shows deploying the DSMB when it is not already attached to the spool? I tried looking on Youtube but 9 out of 10 are already attached when they begin. I've used this as inspiration for that, although i need to practise a lot more deploying. Most of the time I'm lazy because i don't use the spool for much apart from as a back up DSMB. In terms of terminology, I've always used DSMB as a generic for that kind of thing. SMB is technically something that's already inflated on the surface but it's usually clear in an actual situation. A reel is with a handle, a spool is just line on a circular holder. Also glad to see pupdive back!
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2017 18:03
|
|
|
pupdive posted:As long as your BCD has an inflator that fits in your hand, you can use that to put air in the SMB if it has an open end. I'd dump the air from the BCD into the SMB through the inflator as a general practice because then you are simply transferring positive buoyancy from place to place, rather than introducing new positive buoyancy into the mix. This doesn't make sense to me. If you're deploying at depth you're putting air into the SMB and releasing it: as soon as you let go you need to be neutral. If you filled it using your BCD you immediately need to put air back in your BCD once you release the SMB. The method I use (which is common where I dive) is to orally inflate the SMB at depth. Take a deep breath, remove your reg to inflate the SMB, reg back in, release SMB, take a breath. That way you remain neutral. If you're deploying at ~70' (again, typical for where I'm diving) then a single good breath is plenty to give you a nice full erect (hehe) bag by the time it gets to the surface. Primary use is signaling a boat your location, so that's important. pupdive posted:If you are diving a wing style BCD or BP/W, you have some options for sausage storage that you may not have with some jacket BCDs, in that you can put arbitrarily large SMBs (I use a 10 foot long, by 8 inch wide one) in a roll and use rubber tubing to store it on your butt area. Then you just have to find a place for a small finger spool or full size reel, and then attach them under water. The best place for a reel for most people in that case is on a hip D-ring, but my hip D-rings are usually occupied with clip weights or sidemounted tanks depending on the diving I am doing. I have seen someone put very short inflator tubes on sling bottles for quickly inflating SMBs, but it was unusual. pupdive posted:If you are deploying one under water, the expansion will make the bag fill itself to a great extent if you launch it deep enough. I don't think I would use an inflator hose style underwater regularly unless I had a cold water setup with a drysuit inflator hose, and then I'd make sure it is not the old style positive lock on style. If I was in that situation, I'd at least consider CO2 cartridge types. I kind of never want to be attached to an SMB. A lock on SMB sounds downright dangerous. When I was shown how to deploy one, making sure you weren't attached was hammered into my head over and over. It's always really interesting to hear how other folks do things, since there seems to be a lot of geographical variation. For SMBs and reels there isn't much variety here, I think in part because many of the people using them are tech trained (or diving with people who are).
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2017 22:42
|
|
|
Later this year I might finally get the chance to do a big ol' SE Asia backpacking trip I've been thinking about for years. And I'll likely get certified for cheap while I'm in Thailand. I've heard, though, that the shape of the reefs in Thailand isn't great because of mass tourism and even some coral bleaching. So while I'm on the side of the world I think I'll splurge on a side trip to somewhere remote and exotic to do some diving and see the best reefs around, while I still can. I'm interested in colorful reefs full of healthy coral (the shape of the reefs in my native Florida is so sad) pretty fishies and maybe some nudibranches if possible. Big pelagic marine life is cool, but I'm not as interested in that this time. Also, since this would be one of my first times scuba diving it should be a pretty easy dive site. And again, in the Asia/Pacific region. Any suggestions?
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2017 23:06
|
|
|
I dove on Gilli air in Indonesia, which was good for turtles and the odd reef shark. Lombok was also fairly close and good muck diving. Better recommendation though would be Koh Lantana a bit farther south. I was there right at the end of the season and it was very quiet so i cant speak to how it is normally but i got to see a whale shark, nudis, a couple of sea horses and more. DSMB chat: I was always taught to inflate with the octopus which does cause issues if trying to launch it mid water. Many of the old crusties I know don't like seeing people orally inflating, either because you're taking your own regulator out or using the exhaust and they see a risk of line getting caught on something. Being mostly drysuit divers the valve inflator is pretty great as an option. Not one I use though
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 00:28
|
|
|
Ramrod Hotshot posted:Later this year I might finally get the chance to do a big ol' SE Asia backpacking trip I've been thinking about for years. And I'll likely get certified for cheap while I'm in Thailand. A friend of mine was a dive master in Thailand for 2 years and confirmed that the reefs are very damaged pretty much everywhere. We were planning to go diving there but after hearing her, we decided on Tulamben in Bali instead. We'll be there tomorrow for 3 weeks of non-stop diving and it's supposed to be amazing, I'll soon be able to give more info about that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 01:43
|
|
|
Senso posted:A friend of mine was a dive master in Thailand for 2 years and confirmed that the reefs are very damaged pretty much everywhere. We were planning to go diving there but after hearing her, we decided on Tulamben in Bali instead. We'll be there tomorrow for 3 weeks of non-stop diving and it's supposed to be amazing, I'll soon be able to give more info about that. Have fun. Awaiting your trip report.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 02:12
|
|
|
I found reefs in Thailand to be ok when I did my Open Water cert in Dec, there's still some bleaching but I felt there was still a lot of life in the water there. Going to Guam next month, will have something to compare with after then.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 02:54
|
|
|
MrNemo posted:DSMB chat: I was always taught to inflate with the octopus which does cause issues if trying to launch it mid water. Many of the old crusties I know don't like seeing people orally inflating, either because you're taking your own regulator out or using the exhaust and they see a risk of line getting caught on something. Being mostly drysuit divers the valve inflator is pretty great as an option. Not one I use though We should get our old crusties together and have them battle it out :-) I've never seen anyone use the exhaust, just their lips. I'd agree using the exhaust seems fiddly. So does popping off a drysuit hose though, at least to me. Especially if you have a spinning reel in your hand. Popping your reg back in is easy. The really nice thing about orally inflating is that there is no bouyancy change until the SMB is released. "Sticking the hang" is paramount. It'd be fun to do a few dives and see the different methods. I'd love to go to the UK or elsewhere in Europe and see how other cold water divers do things. Where are you posting from? I'm in northern California.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 03:13
|
|
|
My DSMB is a Halcyon one which means you can only use your mouth or a hose. I don't think I'll ever use a hose as it just seems to fiddly, like you say, in an already fiddly task. I have to say really like using my DSMB in place of the anchor line when hanging on a stop, makes it really easy to stay neutral.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 03:36
|
|
|
Lady Galaga posted:I found reefs in Thailand to be ok when I did my Open Water cert in Dec, there's still some bleaching but I felt there was still a lot of life in the water there. Going to Guam next month, will have something to compare with after then. What Thai reef?
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 04:13
|
|
|
We were diving with Aussie Divers who took us to several places around Phi phi islands, one of the better dive sites was Anenome Reef which had a nice variety of corals to look at. Only problem during that dive was the current was running strong so the visibility was low. Anyway I wouldn't care too much about trying to get the best spots in since the OW training takes up a lot of time, I would get the certifications you need first before going to cool places so you can maximize the experience with being qualified for the depths you need.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 04:49
|
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:We should get our old crusties together and have them battle it out :-) I'm currently in Argentina (Buenos Aires) for another month or two. Generally though from London, if you're going to be coming to the UK any time after May let me know and I'll see if we can arrange something (although UK South East diving is probably some of the worst for visibility). The exhaust technique is, I think, a DIR one. I actually like it as there's no time the mouth piece is removed and you can maintain neutral buoyancy. It is a bit tricky though as it requires having the DSMB and your bubbles lined up, the DSMB will be out of your line of sight while doing this so it requires practice, practice, practice. BSAC guidelines got a lot more explicit after some incident reviews started showing most fatalities involved a diver not having their regulator in their mouth so now the rule is always, always, always have a regulator in your mouth. Popping the suit feed on and off isn't difficult though, assuming the equipment is in good shape and not horribly sticky. It should be easily done with one hand, if you struggle it's also possible to remove the feed before taking the reel, etc. out. The major difference with that and a BC (apart from if you're only a BC you're temporarily losing your only source of positive buoyancy correction) is the feed is very easy to reach on a dry suit. Lanta is quite near Phi Phi (a bit further south) and 2-3 years ago stuff was still in reasonable shape there. Although I agree with Galaga, if you're qualifying then don't worry too much about the location. Most of your dives on the course are going to be just practising skills somewhere shallow. The actual dives on the course you'll be more worried about demonstrating all of your skills, watching gas, etc. than enjoying the dive. That said if you're only going to do the course abroad (can't get qualified before) and are only going to do one dive trip there, I'd recommend Phi Phi or Lanta in Thailand. It'll be more expensive than Tao but much less crowded and there is good stuff there. Another option might be Perhentian Islands in Malaysia. If you're going to be getting qualified and just want some nice reefs to potentially see after that's a decent choice. It's smaller and more basic than anywhere I've heard about in Thailand (in terms of accommodation, etc.) and probably a bit pricier but if you're staying on Kecil (the smaller island) you will be within a couple of minutes walking of the beach and dive centre. Not sure what it's like now, I was there 2 years ago and it had gotten bigger than my first visit (4 years ago now) but it's one of those tiny islands with no roads or motor vehicles. I'd see more about fitting the diving into your overall travel plans though if you're just looking to get qualified.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 15:16
|
|
|
MrNemo posted:I'm currently in Argentina (Buenos Aires) for another month or two. Generally though from London, if you're going to be coming to the UK any time after May let me know and I'll see if we can arrange something (although UK South East diving is probably some of the worst for visibility). The exhaust technique is, I think, a DIR one. I actually like it as there's no time the mouth piece is removed and you can maintain neutral buoyancy. It is a bit tricky though as it requires having the DSMB and your bubbles lined up, the DSMB will be out of your line of sight while doing this so it requires practice, practice, practice. BSAC guidelines got a lot more explicit after some incident reviews started showing most fatalities involved a diver not having their regulator in their mouth so now the rule is always, always, always have a regulator in your mouth. I'll probably be in Germany in October, maybe I can pop over. What's visibility on an average day? Ballpark temperature? I was taught to orally inflate in a GUE fundies class, they're the most obnoxiously "DIR" folks around here. Although as much as some folks act like it's a monolith it wouldn't surprise me if there weren't numerous different groups claiming their way is the DIR one. I've been a bit hesitant to do any more training with them since the attitude that they've discovered the One True Way to dive is grating. Are the BSAC methods documented somewhere I can read them? "BSAC.com" seems down at the moment. I'm excited to hear about people coming up with different solutions to a similar environment. MrNemo posted:Popping the suit feed on and off isn't difficult though, assuming the equipment is in good shape and not horribly sticky. It should be easily done with one hand, if you struggle it's also possible to remove the feed before taking the reel, etc. out. I'll give it a shot next time I'm in the water.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 15:53
|
|
|
I'm in Wilmington, NC, and diving the Graveyard. Come visit! Our wrecks crawl with sand tiger sharks in the summer 
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 18:31
|
|
|
Icon Of Sin posted:I'm in Wilmington, NC, and diving the Graveyard. Come visit! Our wrecks crawl with sand tiger sharks in the summer I live in Massachusetts, near the site of the Andrea Doria! Come dive it while I stay on the boat so I can call you next of kin.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 19:44
|
|
|
Squashy Nipples posted:I live in Massachusetts, near the site of the Andrea Doria! Come dive it while I stay on the boat so I can call you next of kin. ~60ft to the deck (or shallower) and ~84ft to the sand is how I like my wrecks
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 19:54
|
|
|
Icon Of Sin posted:I'm in Wilmington, NC, and diving the Graveyard. Come visit! Our wrecks crawl with sand tiger sharks in the summer I was actually thinking about doing a few dives after our 4th of July trip to the northern outer banks (kitty hawk area) before leaving the state. Any recommendations on dive sites or shops? My very preliminary research indicated I might want to drive south to Morehead /Beaufort for the diving rather that where we're going to be over the 4th.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 22:08
|
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:I'll probably be in Germany in October, maybe I can pop over. What's visibility on an average day? Ballpark temperature? South East is probably the worst part of the UK visibility wise (also fun diving in super busy shipping areas!) so usually my club dives further West. Average visibility is probably about 5m although it can seriously vary. I've been there in algal blooms with 0.5-1m vis and been a bit farther out on good days with near 20m. Summer temperature is probably around 14-16C. My club does Thursday night meetings and we've got a fairly good dive programme, if I got enough advance warning you could probably come along. Otherwise Swanage is a popular destination with a few decent operators. I picked up the exhaust inflate technique from another diver, I think they had had GUE training but looking at Youtube videos I can't see any of someone else using the technique. It's entirely likely it's too much of a pain to really bother with and the chance of getting line wrapped around something is considered too risky. The other one I've had recommended to me is a nozzle tied to an inflator hose that can be used to inflate a standard BC. BSAC materials aren't that commonly available. I think they make a reasonable amount of income from selling diver training packs. Along with membership dues that's the vast majority of the income since it's a non-profit and instructors, etc. are pretty much all volunteers and so they're a bit less free with letting people download stuff. They've also only just got instructor materials on-line but [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwDUieExRCA]this video[/url] is a pretty good visual for training and equipment most commonly seen. Larger reels tend to be common in the UK because it's cold water and even in summer people typically have 3 or 5mm gloves. In this cases finger spools can be a real pain if you've not put some thought into set up (like using extra large loops to grip) and practised.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 22:53
|
|
|
The Vikings posted:I was actually thinking about doing a few dives after our 4th of July trip to the northern outer banks (kitty hawk area) before leaving the state. Any recommendations on dive sites or shops? My very preliminary research indicated I might want to drive south to Morehead /Beaufort for the diving rather that where we're going to be over the 4th. I'm not as familiar with Outer Banks diving as I should be, but there are a few dive shops up there and some shore diving too; for a fee, you can hire a local divemaster to show you some of those wrecks. If the weather there goes to garbage and no boats are running, it's still possible to dive in the NC aquarium up there at Roanoke Island, near Nags Head ( Link ). This shop seems to have the best rating in the Nags Head/Manteo area: http://www.roanokeislandoutfittersanddivecenter.com/dive-sites.html I'm more familiar with Morehead City/Beaufort diving, but there's only 2 shops in town up there and both of them run charters a little differently than you're probably used to. Discovery and Olympus give you the option of staying inshore and shallow, or offshore and deep. The exact dive site is chosen by the boat captain the morning of the charter, so you don't know exactly which wreck you'll be on until you're underway. There's a ton of artificial reefs up that way (the newest one was sunk in May of last year), and a WWII U-boat that got on the wrong end of a pile of depth charges and now sits in ~110ft of water (U-352). Here's a link to the NC Artificial Reef Map, the Spar and Indra are both popular dives up there (outside of the U-boat). If you zoom in far enough on that map, you can see the wrecks themselves. It helps too if you disable the layer that shows them as big blue polygons, you can see the wreck outline as it sits on the floor; do that on the left-hand side in the Layers menu. Disable "DMF_ReefGuide - DMF - Artificial Reef Material" and you'll see the sonar images of the seafloor, including the shipwrecks. You'll probably want to get offshore ~10 miles or so before the vis gets to be decent, on their Liberty ship up there (the Theodore Parker) don't expect better than 25-30 ft. This map doesn't include any of the other wreck types (war, cause of sinking unknown, foundered in weather, etc). Last thing on Olympus and Discovery: they both have a 30-day cancellation policy, so be absolutely sure you're going to be there for the trip you signed up for. Olympus Dive Center: http://www.olympusdiving.com/ Discovery Diving: http://www.discoverydiving.com/
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 23:02
|
|
|
MrNemo posted:South East is probably the worst part of the UK visibility wise (also fun diving in super busy shipping areas!) so usually my club dives further West. Average visibility is probably about 5m although it can seriously vary. I've been there in algal blooms with 0.5-1m vis and been a bit farther out on good days with near 20m. Summer temperature is probably around 14-16C. My club does Thursday night meetings and we've got a fairly good dive programme, if I got enough advance warning you could probably come along. Otherwise Swanage is a popular destination with a few decent operators. Cool video, but doing the demonstration while kneeling in the bottom doesn't really show how it affects your buoyancy. Visibility there sounds about the same as here (I'd say 15-20' is average, but it can definitely be much less) and you're a bit warmer (typically 9-11C year round here). Not too different. This video looks about like how I was taught, except I keep my DSMB already attached to the reel. I'm glad she checked above her, I've seen way too many people not do that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfcEcCoIvKs This video is from the UK too, apparently. I didn't know there were GUE people there, I figured that was a mostly American thing. I thought BSAC was pretty universal in the UK, is that not the case? This diver's in a DUI suit so I figured she was American before I read the video description and saw the union jack on her arm. Union Jack aside, that looks like the typical GUE doubles uniform around here. Despite the slightly colder water, large reels like in your video are pretty uncommon here, probably because people like to keep them in a drysuit pocket. Dry gloves are also pretty common, especially among the crowd that's playing around with DSMBs, so big bulky gloves are a bit less of a concern but I think it'd be manageable in thick gloves, especially if the DSMB was already attached. That's too bad about the BSAC material, but it makes sense. edit: I think the diver in my video is a lady DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Apr 10, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2017 23:23
|
|
|
GUE has definitely made it over here, although there's a lot of antagonism (mostly on-line) about a lot of the techniques or set ups being well suited to Florida style cave diving but less appropriate to cold water diving in the open sea. BSAC is pretty universal here but like I said cross-pollination is common. The internet has made DIR style philosophies easy to transmit and most GUE people in the UK are ex or also current BSAC. Dry gloves are starting to become a bit more common (I just got my first suit with a pair!) but they're certainly not standard on suits. The DSMB demo there was done kneeling, which is how it has been taught in BSAC for a long, long time. Partly this has been the BSAC being slow to respond to changes in general diving philosophy and partly because UK divers are taught to deploy DSMBs early and likely from near the bottom. Like you said being on the bottom negates buoyancy issues so the technique is effective if ungainly and doesn't work well in certain sorts of dives. That also affects the choice for a reel because taking in 25m of spool is a much bigger pain in the rear end than using a big reel. The open sea diving with a club boat is the traditional BSAC diving and typically it means divers popping up in different locations so it's generally a good idea to give the cox'n as much warning as possible. Especially since there's a good chance of drifting on the ascent (which is another reason it's common practice to bag up from near the bottom). Trim and buoyancy are starting to become a much bigger focus of training and those aspects of the GUE type diving are slowly filtering in. It's a slow and ungainly process though as it requires building enough popular pressure for change, that needs to translate into issuing guidance and/or writing new materials and then disseminating that training from the HQ team to the national instructors, then down to regional instructors and then hopefully catching on in individual clubs. Like I said pretty much all instructors are volunteers who give up an evening every now and then for pool sessions or a day or two of dives on a trip to do lessons. Aside from their training courses, many are unlikely to do much in the way of instructor development so some quite outdated techniques are still getting passed on to newly trained divers and you can find quite a bit of variety from one club to another. There has been an ongoing internet/real life slap fight going on over Hog looping and primary donate. Since it isn't a set up or technique taught in any BSAC syllabus initially the word on it was BSAC divers weren't allowed to use it (a non-approved technique that would invalidate 3rd party insurance). They then relented that this had been a misreading of the policy but clarified that instructors weren't allowed to use it when instructing for anything (which made sense). They recently revisited the syllabus for twinset diving (which is a very new course for them) and included a bit on primary donate so now it is permissible but the whole thing took 5 years or so to work through. Whew, apologies to anyone who didn't want this wall o' text on British diving. I will go grab some pictures of diving off Patagonia to apologise!
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2017 01:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 03:16 |
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:This doesn't make sense to me. If you're deploying at depth you're putting air into the SMB and releasing it: as soon as you let go you need to be neutral. If you filled it using your BCD you immediately need to put air back in your BCD once you release the SMB. Well the point is that you can get the bag to act as your BCD buoyancy temporarily while you make sure you have the bag, the line, and your divers squared away. You can then reel out the bag however. Of course, some people like some negative buoyancy when shooting the bag, for dealing with odd stuff that can happen when the line starts to reel out, but that's a different thing. (There is always boat traffic and diving with a duty of care for others is something different than diving for your self.) DeadlyMuffin posted:The really nice thing about orally inflating is that there is no bouyancy change until the SMB is released. "Sticking the hang" is paramount. No buoyancy change until you inhale again, and then you will be positive. It's the same as exhaling into your BCD and then inhaling. Instead of exhaled bubbles drifting themselves up, they are lifting you up. The only way to stay neutral while inflating the bag, if you are keeping the bag in your hand, is to transfer air from the BCD into the bag. Lift from air in lungs=lift from air in BCD= lift from air in bag. If you add air to two places, you will be positive. If you just transfer air from place to place, you stay neutral.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2017 10:09
|
|