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Orions Lord posted:The most instructors I know do this just for fun in their spare time. They try to get some students or even just one and start teaching them during weekends. This is what my friend does. He actually doesn't even teach open water anymore, he prefers doing small classes of a couple people for classes like advanced, nitrox and cavern diving.
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Jan 16, 2013 15:32
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Crazy C posted:Figured Open-Water was the starting point. I take it those are all prerequisites among other things?  When you look at the padi table, you see how there are light blue, dark blue, and black bubbles ? Light blue is the recreational diving path that starts at open water diver and ends at rescue diver. Dark blue are specialtiy courses which are NOT required to advance to the next recreational level. You have to be a certain recreational level to take some, but thats it. Black is the professional level path, which starts after you finish rescue diver rescue diver. Master diver is in red, which means rescue diver + 5 specialties. Its meaningless. Specialties exist so you can do some special types of diving, most notably wreck diving, cavern diving, nitrox, etc. It also give extra training in things like photography, videography, etc. They aren't required to move onto the next recreational level.
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Jan 16, 2013 18:31
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"Boat Diver" has always been my favorite PADI specility course. Yeah I understand there are plenty of people who mainly shore dive lakes or off beaches and they might gain some stuff from it, but an entire class about diving off of a boat? 
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Jan 16, 2013 22:31
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Bishop posted:"Boat Diver" has always been my favorite PADI specility course. Yeah I understand there are plenty of people who mainly shore dive lakes or off beaches and they might gain some stuff from it, but an entire class about diving off of a boat? And with my shop - it's $400!
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Jan 17, 2013 00:28
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-Make sure your gear and/or tanks have been bungeed in before the boat leaves. If you mess with your gear don't forget to re-bungee them. If no bungees, try and situate things so they don't roll around. Also better to get most of your poo poo set up before the boat leaves dock. I violate this rule 99% of the time. -Don't get seasick. If you start to, focus on the nearest fixed point you can find. This may be a marker, the shore, or if all else fails, the horizon line. Also despite what your body is telling you, laying down and closing your eyes will just make things worse. Getting in the water, even just to wade around, will also help sea sickness -Keep in mind that current exists and that after jumping off the boat, you may need to swim up to the downline that the boat is attached to. If there is a lot of current, they'll put a "granny line" in to help pull yourself towards the bow. -Going off the previous point, remember there is current underwater too and try not to surface 20 miles from the boat, especially if you can't swim against the current. -When getting back on the boat remember that it may be rolling in the waves. This means the swim platform could smack you in the face if you timed it wrong. Also take your fins off and hand them up to the person on the boat before attempting to climb the ladder. Take a second to see the timing of the waves so you can grab on to the ladder at the best moment. -You'll get a predive briefing on where the lifejackets and 02 kit are. Also VHF channel 16 is monitered by the Coast Guard and everyone else. So if you need to call over that in an emergency. If you wanna sound like a pro: If things are bad but not immediately terrible say "pan-pan pan-pan pan-pan (french accent, basicaly ignore the n), this is [x] boat and we have [y] problem" then there is the obvious "mayday mayday mayday". This is for when somebody's gonna die or you are about to sink. Also remember your cellphone works a lot further out to sea than you might expect! Just dial 911 like you were on shore. You can paypall me your 400 dollars. Bishop fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Jan 17, 2013 |
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Jan 17, 2013 01:09
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Bishop posted:"Boat Diver" has always been my favorite PADI specility course. Yeah I understand there are plenty of people who mainly shore dive lakes or off beaches and they might gain some stuff from it, but an entire class about diving off of a boat? Underwater photography is even worse. Uhhh... Your colors may be off, fix them later. K thanks.
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Jan 17, 2013 03:08
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TLG James posted:Underwater photography is even worse.
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Jan 17, 2013 03:28
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Yeah I know a guy that teaches an awesome PADI underwater photography course. I'd take it but thankfully I've pledged not to dabble in underwater photography because I'm burning enough money as it is. I can't think of what would make someone a great or terrible "boat diver" instructor though unless the person had never been on a boat.Crunkjuice posted:Wes Skiles (RIP)
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Jan 17, 2013 06:22
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Bishop posted:"Boat Diver" has always been my favorite PADI specility course. Yeah I understand there are plenty of people who mainly shore dive lakes or off beaches and they might gain some stuff from it, but an entire class about diving off of a boat? Any Con-Ed course is basically as crap as it can be and as good as it can be. But that is no different than Open Water courses.
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Jan 17, 2013 08:12
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Crunkjuice posted:It's all about the instructor, not necessarily the course. Imagine if you took a PADI underwater photography class from some instructor who has a nice camera , or you take one from Wes Skiles (RIP). They are going to be two monstrously different courses, but give you the same C-Card. These courses only outline what skills MUST be taught, not what ONLY can be taught. Pick your instructor wisely and you'll be that much a better diver because of it. Yeah definitely. My underwater photography course was taught by a ex-Army diving instructor who has done deep dive camera-work for BBC documentaries, and basically lives and breathes technical diving and underwater photography. It was extremely useful, particularly as I was already a professional photographer and I could actually ask indepth questions.
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Jan 17, 2013 08:21
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Bishop posted:-Make sure your gear and/or tanks have been bungeed in before the boat leaves. If you mess with your gear don't forget to re-bungee them. If no bungees, try and situate things so they don't roll around. Also better to get most of your poo poo set up before the boat leaves dock. I violate this rule 99% of the time. If you get seasick often take a pill before the boat departs. Or ask how the sea condition is. We once had a bad trip the boat was rocking almost 45 degrees. I became sick and was trown true the bathroom. I still have a scar on my feet from it. An other diver was ejected from his bed and went with his foot true the door leaving a big hole. If the door was not closed he would be outside and maybe even in the water. Pills against sea sickniss did not help because I couldn't keep it inside. I did filmed this for a short time. http://duikenonline.com/blog2007.html It's in Dutch but anyway it's the last movie.
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Jan 17, 2013 10:04
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I just think I got used to avoiding sea-sickness. It never gets to me any more. I've been boating since I was like 8 which probably explains it. Sometimes I will get a tinge of it while getting into my rig because I'm focusing on things on the boat. The best advice is keep your focus on a fixed point. Or take pills, they help too. The absolute worst thing you can do is go below decks, lay down and close your eyes, or anything of the sort. This will make things even more miserable. Fight your instincts. Also we had a RIP to Wes Skiles earlier, I'm gonna post one of his last awesome works of cave diving: http://video.pbs.org/video/1405567128/ Bishop fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Jan 17, 2013 |
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Jan 17, 2013 10:46
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:I just got a Hollis m1 and it owns considerable bones. Tomberforce posted:I have one too, it is an absolutely fantastic mask. I broke one and had to use a Shadow. The Shadow is the only mask I've ever had that wouldn't stop fogging. I hated it and gave it away when another M1 arrived. It's like the previous M1 - after mild cleaning, it hasn't ever fogged and it is completely awesome.
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Jan 17, 2013 10:56
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Finch! posted:I broke one and had to use a Shadow. The Shadow is the only mask I've ever had that wouldn't stop fogging. I hated it and gave it away when another M1 arrived. It's like the previous M1 - after mild cleaning, it hasn't ever fogged and it is completely awesome. Yeah I had a perfectly servicable Mares mask at the time, and just tried on the M1 out of boredom in the shop. Bought it straight away and it's one of the best dive purchases I've made. I had another expensive day today - new reel and DSMB, plus a bunch of other accessories, retractors etc and a new pair of heavy duty gloves. I'm DM'ing on a wreck speciality course this weekend. I have to say I've got pretty good value out of this. I've not taken the wreck speciality course myself ($500!) but through the DM I'm sitting in on the whole course and doing all the dives. Plus they've thrown me in on a boat night dive for free too! All I have to pay is the extra for Nitrox fills and my acccomodation down there! I don't get the C-card at the end of it, but I get the experience and as a DM that's what I care about more. Pretty sweet!
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Jan 17, 2013 11:49
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Gents, Here an youtube movie about the re-birth of a wreck. It is a concrete ship that was repared towed and sunck to become an diving object. Very nice how to see how it went down. With all the camera's on it. When it went down it actual drifted away deeper then they wanted. So now it is at about 25m depth a nice depth to practise our courses for the tek light peeps. http://youtu.be/Ui5SU9dfocs Orions Lord fucked around with this message at 12:11 on Jan 17, 2013 |
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Jan 17, 2013 12:05
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Finch! posted:I broke one and had to use a Shadow. The Shadow is the only mask I've ever had that wouldn't stop fogging. I hated it and gave it away when another M1 arrived. It's like the previous M1 - after mild cleaning, it hasn't ever fogged and it is completely awesome. I'm pretty sure you just needed to get the residual film off of the mask. I've used a shadow for two years now and mine never fogs. I know people still think it's crazy, but I swear by the flame method and then follow that with toothpaste and it has never fogged since doing it. I did just toothpaste before my certification course and it would fog about 20 minutes into a dive, then I did the lighter trick and it's never fogged since.
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Jan 17, 2013 15:26
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Orions Lord posted:Welcome to the club. Yep i do plan to buy gear in the future, currently my friend wants me to use any of his spare gear that can fit well for this trip until i get some experience and had an idea of what i want. We can then come up with a shopping list after this trip, but if i need anything urgently i will just rent/buy it at the resort.
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Jan 17, 2013 15:26
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rockcity posted:I'm pretty sure you just needed to get the residual film off of the mask. I've used a shadow for two years now and mine never fogs. I know people still think it's crazy, but I swear by the flame method and then follow that with toothpaste and it has never fogged since doing it. I did just toothpaste before my certification course and it would fog about 20 minutes into a dive, then I did the lighter trick and it's never fogged since. Good tips. Sometimes it happens during the dive. And wont stop getting foggy I just let some water inside the mask. I open the bottom a bit first one side then the other. Then I bend my head forward so the water is taking away the fog. Or I just have it total flooded and blow it empty again.
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Jan 17, 2013 15:55
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rockcity posted:I'm pretty sure you just needed to get the residual film off of the mask. I've used a shadow for two years now and mine never fogs. I know people still think it's crazy, but I swear by the flame method and then follow that with toothpaste and it has never fogged since doing it. I did just toothpaste before my certification course and it would fog about 20 minutes into a dive, then I did the lighter trick and it's never fogged since. Orions Lord posted:Gents, Bishop fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Jan 17, 2013 |
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Jan 17, 2013 23:08
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rockcity posted:I'm pretty sure you just needed to get the residual film off of the mask. I've used a shadow for two years now and mine never fogs. I know people still think it's crazy, but I swear by the flame method and then follow that with toothpaste and it has never fogged since doing it. I did just toothpaste before my certification course and it would fog about 20 minutes into a dive, then I did the lighter trick and it's never fogged since. Oh, I had tried all the tricks: I used proper mask scrub, toothpaste, a certain type of shampoo, a lighter... I even combined mask scrub and toothpaste and scrubbed with a toothbrush after doing the lighter trick. No good - it kept fogging, and defogging underwater got to be a complete pain in the arse. Maybe the Shadow and my face combine to form some kind of nasty sweaty fog creating vortex or something. I gave the mask to a friend and it hasn't fogged for him. On the other hand, the M1 needed one mild application of mask scrub gunk and it's been fog free from day one... which is surprising, because it looks as though the M1 is lower volume than the Shadow. It's a mystery.
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Jan 18, 2013 05:02
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I need to try either the lighter or toothpaste method, since the drops are running about 50/50 for me. It isn't a big deal since I just flood it, butif one of those makes me not have to do that after 3 or 4 dives(and yes I put the drops in every time), I'm in. I think toothpaste comes first, since the lighter has more long term damage potential.
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Jan 18, 2013 05:05
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Finch! posted:Oh, I had tried all the tricks: I used proper mask scrub, toothpaste, a certain type of shampoo, a lighter... I even combined mask scrub and toothpaste and scrubbed with a toothbrush after doing the lighter trick. No good - it kept fogging, and defogging underwater got to be a complete pain in the arse. Maybe the Shadow and my face combine to form some kind of nasty sweaty fog creating vortex or something. I gave the mask to a friend and it hasn't fogged for him. Before putting on the mask... make your face wet. Maybe it helps.
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Jan 18, 2013 09:01
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jackyl posted:I need to try either the lighter or toothpaste method, since the drops are running about 50/50 for me. It isn't a big deal since I just flood it, butif one of those makes me not have to do that after 3 or 4 dives(and yes I put the drops in every time), I'm in. I think toothpaste comes first, since the lighter has more long term damage potential. Just don't hold the lighter there for a long time and you'll be fine. I just kept it moving the whole time and you only need to keep the flame on the glass until a little bit of black soot shows up. It really doesn't take that long for that too happen.
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Jan 18, 2013 13:55
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Its pretty important for a freediving mask to stay defogged because the regular flood to clean method leaves too much water in the mask and you end up getting it in your eyes and on the glass when you dive head first. With my current mask (omer freediving mask) the toothpaste method failed me. But the lighter did wonders. I was gonna toss it so I had nothing to lose. Ive since done it to 5-10 others masks over the years and they all seem to respond well to a good bic lightering. Its just glass after all. After that A little spit or defogger and ensuring your face is the same temp as the water should result in fogfree bliss. I like to do it in the sink with cold water pouring on the glass so it stays cool and you can really apply the flame. And you gotta take it slower near the edges then in the middle. Expensive masks usually don't fog because the glass was properly cleaned before leaving the factory. IM FROM THE FUTURE fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Jan 18, 2013 |
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Jan 18, 2013 16:12
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This line of discussion makes me wonder... Is fogging masks often just something that happens to some people or is it a problem that could be fixed with training?
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Jan 18, 2013 22:43
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I'm going to sell a mask with those heating wires they have in car windows. I'll launch it alongside my new underwater posting speciality.
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Jan 18, 2013 23:02
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I'm sitting in my hotel room in Catalina right now, tomorrow morning I finish my open water cert. In the class tomorrow is me doing dives 3 and 4 of my OW, two AOW students, the instructor, and five dive master candidates  I'm pretty stoked, I may have time for an extra dive tomorrow, then I have all of sunday to dive as well.
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Jan 19, 2013 04:46
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Aquila posted:I'm sitting in my hotel room in Catalina right now, tomorrow morning I finish my open water cert. In the class tomorrow is me doing dives 3 and 4 of my OW, two AOW students, the instructor, and five dive master candidates Dude, thats awesome. Be ashamed of nothing. You've got a lot of quality divers around you, and all of them have been where you are. Ask questions about anything and everything. They all want to show off their dive knowledge. If you want to make me happy, you should ask intricate dive physics questions to the DMC's in front of their instructor. Here are some sample questions What are M- values in relation to nitrogen? What is the Meyer-Overton hypothesis? Hey DMC, explain to me all of these markings on this tank. Is my first stage a piston or diaphragm? What's the difference? Carry my tanks bitch I can't tell you how much fun it is to mess with DMC's. Slicerdicer/Bishop, you should chime in with even more awesome questions Crunkjuice fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Jan 19, 2013 |
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Jan 19, 2013 05:44
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Bishop posted:This line of discussion makes me wonder... Is fogging masks often just something that happens to some people or is it a problem that could be fixed with training? I'm at about 30 dives now, all Caribbean except for one Denver aquarium, but it has been random for me. Some dives I have to flood a lot and some it is perfectly fine. Not sure if I bought a cheap mask or not, but it is a Tilos panoramic sg, that cost something like 50 or 60 dollars at the LDS. In retrospect, it probably is cheap. I will try the lighter method before our May trip and report back.
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Jan 19, 2013 06:10
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Bishop posted:This line of discussion makes me wonder... Is fogging masks often just something that happens to some people or is it a problem that could be fixed with training? I cant tell you how many divers ive met with "fogging problems" who dont cool down their face before putting the mask on. Telling them this typically solves it. jackyl posted:I'm at about 30 dives now, all Caribbean except for one Denver aquarium, but it has been random for me. Some dives I have to flood a lot and some it is perfectly fine. Not sure if I bought a cheap mask or not, but it is a Tilos panoramic sg, that cost something like 50 or 60 dollars at the LDS. In retrospect, it probably is cheap. I will try the lighter method before our May trip and report back. Even a 10$ mask from k-mart should be more then capable of being properly and completely defogged. Its just a pane of glass. My dad dives with a k-mart cheao because it fits his bearded face well and the lighter trick worked for him.
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Jan 19, 2013 14:11
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Certified! I had two really fun dives that went great. My buoyancy needs work and I still am not too good at clearing a fully flooded mask, but besides that I'm pretty happy with my diving ability. I did breath up alot of air, 2400psi on my first dive and 2800 on my second, on a 100 tank. Conditiions weren't as nice as when I was out in September, visibility was about 20-25ft on the first dive and 15-20ft on the second. Not too much wildlife, just the normal garibaldis and other small to medium sized fish. The instructor was complaining about an invasive kelp that is taking over the dive park, it was everywhere. I am extremely happy with Hollywood Divers and the quality of their instruction, and would definitely recommend them for anyone in the LA area interested in diving. Tomorrow I'm going to do two more dives. Also; catalina.jpg:  Kinda hard to tell in the scaled picture, but at least half the rooms have dive gear hanging out front, and at least half of those people have dry suits.
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Jan 20, 2013 01:17
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Orions Lord posted:Before putting on the mask... make your face wet. I tried wet face and dry face - no tangible difference. I also cooled my face as much as I can with ~29 degree Celcius water, to no avail. I don't like that mask anyway 
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Jan 20, 2013 01:53
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Had a pretty successful two-tank dive today at Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. Water was a bit colder than usual at 54F but not too bad. Only 3 more dives until I get my cert. In other news, I start the second semester advanced class next week and will be doing a night dive every Thursday. Can't wait!
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Jan 20, 2013 05:14
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I had 6 dives this weekend DMing on a wreck speciality on the HMAS Swan in South Western Australia (yes I'm totally logging the 10 minute bounce dive to 100 ft to look for a reel that one of the students dropped). I got the whole gig for free, and the instructor only needed me on the last dive to watch students whilst she was in the wreck with two of them, so I spent the other dives having a blast exploring the wreck interior with another DM. For the last dive she went with another kid from the boat without much experience, but with a lot of confidence. Turns out that he had no concept of what a no decompression limit is and exceeded his by a fair margin. The DM was running Nitrox and he was on Air, and the nitrox diver got to within 10 mins of an NDL on a second 100ftish dive. He flat out ignored her when she told him to surface and went into the wreck again, then he had to be reminded to take a safety stop. She absolutely ripped him when they got back to the boat, and this kid had no idea what he had done wrong. He's going to learn a fairly hard lesson if he keeps diving like that. I don't know what cert level he was, or which agency he trained with.
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Jan 21, 2013 00:06
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That's a bit of a scary thought, being on nitrox and having a hard limit and then seeing your charge go below that, knowing you risk death by chasing him.
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Jan 21, 2013 03:05
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Trivia posted:That's a bit of a scary thought, being on nitrox and having a hard limit and then seeing your charge go below that, knowing you risk death by chasing him. You don't chase him below your max depth. Signal, make noise, do whatever you can to get his attention, but you should never risk your health for someone else.
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Jan 21, 2013 04:18
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Yeah I set my DC to scream at me if I come within 2m of my nitrox hard limit. gently caress oxygen toxicity.
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Jan 21, 2013 05:15
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Ah she was never at risk of exceeding her O2 limits - the wreck was sitting in 100ft of water and she was diving a 32 mix. Just the other guy was way over his air NDL and clueless about it.
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Jan 21, 2013 06:10
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Unrelated - as a PADI DM, do you guys think that there would be alot to be gained from taking the GUE fundamentals course? I'm pretty interested, but it's hard to find a GUE instructor in Perth where I live.
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Jan 21, 2013 06:40
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Once you get me at around a 1.6pp02 I'm not following you unless you are a loved one. The sole exception might be if you were stuck or something and I would only need to spend a little bit of time at a high pp02Tomberforce posted:Unrelated - as a PADI DM, do you guys think that there would be alot to be gained from taking the GUE fundamentals course? I'm pretty interested, but it's hard to find a GUE instructor in Perth where I live. Aquila posted:Certified! 
Bishop fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Jan 21, 2013 |
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Jan 21, 2013 07:03
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