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MrNemo
Aug 26, 2010

"I just love beeting off"

Also beyond 15m or so torches can do a good job of bringing out the colours, can be useful for picture taking or just enjoying the pretties.

I'm thinking about buying a travel wing since I like wings and it'd be nice to use that instead of rental BCs. Anyone have experience with any bits of kit? I kind of prefer simpler set ups, the Halcyon Traveller looks pretty nice but I can't shake the feeling that their stuff is a little overpriced. The Frog Indigo wing looks nice too and is pretty small (not sure what the weight is though). Any recommendations?

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legsarerequired
Dec 31, 2007
College Slice
Thank you for your responses! I see myself doing day dives for the next couple of years so I guess I don't have to worry too much about a little flashlight scaring away or disturbing wildlife while I shine it on coral and reefs, right?

legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Feb 7, 2015

Cippalippus
Mar 31, 2007

Out for a ride, chillin out w/ a couple of friends. Going to be back for dinner

DeadlyMuffin posted:

Where is a knife mandatory? I've always found shears much more useful, but it's personal preference.

Italy. Technically the knife isn't mandatory, but some cutting equipment is mandatory since the first law about diving was passed in 1939. Back then there was no scuba diving obviously, but the much more dangerous and complicated ARO, autorespiratori ad ossigeno, which were a kind of primitive rebreather.

DeadlyMuffin
Jul 3, 2007


I saw a monster Mola yesterday, it was amazing. It's only the second really big one I've seen, and it scared the bejesus out of the newbie diver I was with. Tip-to-tip was bigger than me (so 6' plus) and the size of the body was incredible. I knew I kept the wet wide angle lens around for something :-)

Monterey, California, on the way back from the metridium field.


Icon Of Sin
Dec 26, 2008



Trip meeting was tonight. Got to meet the rest of the group that's going to FL with us over spring break. Ginnie Springs, Blue Grotto, Devil's Den, Crystal River, and Blue Heron Bridge are all on the menu :getin:

Gindack
Jan 30, 2010
Any of you guys been down to Cayman Brac yet? Getting ready to book a trip down there this summer.

Man with Hat
Dec 26, 2007

Open up your Dethday present
It's a box of fucking nothing

Exciting Lemon

DeadlyMuffin posted:

I saw a monster Mola yesterday, it was amazing. It's only the second really big one I've seen, and it scared the bejesus out of the newbie diver I was with. Tip-to-tip was bigger than me (so 6' plus) and the size of the body was incredible. I knew I kept the wet wide angle lens around for something :-)

Monterey, California, on the way back from the metridium field.




I'm getting certified for 18 meters this weekend and going to California the coming fall and holy poo poo this decision just got ten times better.

Has anyone done the diving thing in Mandalay Bay in Vegas? It looks rad as hell on paper.

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

Any of you guys have recommendations for live-aboards or dive resorts in the Caribbean or Central America? I'm in desperate need of a dive vacation but I'll be going solo. Quality of diving is much more important than amenities for me.

let it mellow
Jun 1, 2000

Dinosaur Gum

MA-Horus posted:

Any of you guys have recommendations for live-aboards or dive resorts in the Caribbean or Central America? I'm in desperate need of a dive vacation but I'll be going solo. Quality of diving is much more important than amenities for me.

I've got a bunch of recommendations for locations, but what are you looking for and roughly what are you looking to spend?

e: I'll throw out a suggestion randomly: Curacao, specifically Westpunt. There's great shore diving, plus boat dives of course. We stayed at the lodge Kura Hulanda and it was pretty nice, but there's also some apartment style weekly rentals right next to it that were a lot cheaper and had people signing up at the dive shop for dive buddies.

Curacao itself is reasonably priced, is easy to get around in and has a lot of cool things to check out. If you go, make sure to go to Sol Food at least once.

let it mellow fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Feb 13, 2015

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

Yeah probably should have given more detail.

I'm not looking for 5 star anything, my last big diving foray was several years ago in Koh Tao. I have AOW/Nitrox/Wreck but I'm rather out of practice so I'd prefer not to go crazy advanced right away. Beautiful sea life, reefs or dolphins would be really cool. I'm ok with sharks (even after some loving rear end in a top hat bull sharks made me nearly poo poo my pants at Sail Rock) and my budget is...well, let's just say limited.

DeadlyMuffin
Jul 3, 2007


MA-Horus posted:

Any of you guys have recommendations for live-aboards or dive resorts in the Caribbean or Central America? I'm in desperate need of a dive vacation but I'll be going solo. Quality of diving is much more important than amenities for me.

I dove Saba last June and it was the best Caribbean diving I've done, compared to Cozumel a couple times and Turks and Caicos.

cowofwar
Jul 30, 2002

by Athanatos

MA-Horus posted:

Any of you guys have recommendations for live-aboards or dive resorts in the Caribbean or Central America? I'm in desperate need of a dive vacation but I'll be going solo. Quality of diving is much more important than amenities for me.
Why are you hiding out here and not asking me in the hamilton thread?

We just did a western carribean cruise and with Princess. We visited Grand Cayman, Roatan (Honduras) and Cozumel. Diving in Cozumel was the best and operator was the best (blue magic).

Anyways, cheapest is probably to do a 7 day cheapo bargain basement carnival cruise for $500 and do the shore excursions for ~$100 a day. I'm planning on going feb 2016 to eastern/southern carribean (st thomas, barbados, st lucia, st kitts, st maartan.

http://www.carnival.com/itinerary/7...16&embkCode=SJU

Alternatively you can look in to blackbeard cruises for a week-long live aboard for $1,000.

MA-Horus
Dec 3, 2006

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.

cowofwar posted:

Why are you hiding out here and not asking me in the hamilton thread?

We just did a western carribean cruise and with Princess. We visited Grand Cayman, Roatan (Honduras) and Cozumel. Diving in Cozumel was the best and operator was the best (blue magic).

Anyways, cheapest is probably to do a 7 day cheapo bargain basement carnival cruise for $500 and do the shore excursions for ~$100 a day. I'm planning on going feb 2016 to eastern/southern carribean (st thomas, barbados, st lucia, st kitts, st maartan.

http://www.carnival.com/itinerary/7...16&embkCode=SJU

Alternatively you can look in to blackbeard cruises for a week-long live aboard for $1,000.

Um because I had no idea you were a diver! How that never came up in drunken conversation is a surprise to me.

Mano
Jul 11, 2012

I was on Bonaire with 2 colleagues; mostly we did drive to some dive site and dive there, but we also went out with a boat one day from the hotel operator.

let it mellow
Jun 1, 2000

Dinosaur Gum

MA-Horus posted:

Yeah probably should have given more detail.

I'm not looking for 5 star anything, my last big diving foray was several years ago in Koh Tao. I have AOW/Nitrox/Wreck but I'm rather out of practice so I'd prefer not to go crazy advanced right away. Beautiful sea life, reefs or dolphins would be really cool. I'm ok with sharks (even after some loving rear end in a top hat bull sharks made me nearly poo poo my pants at Sail Rock) and my budget is...well, let's just say limited.

Ok, I'm going to add Utila to the list then. It's cheap, good shallow dives with decent vis, you might catch a whale shark and it seemed friendly to single people on a budget. Only problem is that it's a pita to get to if you don't pay for a puddle jumper.

E: also it is cheap as hell and fun to drink in

Red_Fred
Oct 21, 2010


Fallen Rib
Is it normal for a BCD to have quite a bit and of water in it after a dive? We did two long and shallow dives (max depth 7m for around 40-50 mins) yesterday with a lot of ascending and descending if that factors. I left it inflated overnight and it was still inflated this morning.

Icon Of Sin
Dec 26, 2008



I feel like it can, if you're letting air out of it while you're already underwater. Mine tends to stay water-free inside, but I only let air out at the surface to start my initial descent and leave it alone until I'm putting air in it back at the surface to stay afloat after the dive. I sink really easy though (I dive with no weight in fresh water) and have my buoyancy pretty well dialed-in/under control, so I don't need to play with it very much once it's set.

DeadlyMuffin
Jul 3, 2007


Red_Fred posted:

Is it normal for a BCD to have quite a bit and of water in it after a dive? We did two long and shallow dives (max depth 7m for around 40-50 mins) yesterday with a lot of ascending and descending if that factors. I left it inflated overnight and it was still inflated this morning.

Yep. I think Icon of Sin is right about it being due to letting out air when you're underwater. I end up with a lot more water in my wing when I'm diving somewhere tropical and controlling buoyancy with the wing alone than when I'm diving in cold water and buoyancy is mostly controlled by the drysuit.

HandlingByJebus
Jun 21, 2009

All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world, so there was only one thing I could do:
was ding a ding dang, my dang a long racecar.

It's a love affair. Mainly jebus, and my racecar.

cowofwar posted:

Why are you hiding out here and not asking me in the hamilton thread?

We just did a western carribean cruise and with Princess. We visited Grand Cayman, Roatan (Honduras) and Cozumel. Diving in Cozumel was the best and operator was the best (blue magic).

Anyways, cheapest is probably to do a 7 day cheapo bargain basement carnival cruise for $500 and do the shore excursions for ~$100 a day. I'm planning on going feb 2016 to eastern/southern carribean (st thomas, barbados, st lucia, st kitts, st maartan.

http://www.carnival.com/itinerary/7...16&embkCode=SJU

Alternatively you can look in to blackbeard cruises for a week-long live aboard for $1,000.

Had a blast with Blackbeard, myself.

Tomberforce
May 30, 2006

Red_Fred posted:

Is it normal for a BCD to have quite a bit and of water in it after a dive? We did two long and shallow dives (max depth 7m for around 40-50 mins) yesterday with a lot of ascending and descending if that factors. I left it inflated overnight and it was still inflated this morning.

Yeah that's fine and normal - it's good practise to rinse out the interior with fresh water though, especially if you're not plannning to dive for a while. You can fill it up through the inflator hose, slosh it around, orally inflate it and drain.

Red_Fred
Oct 21, 2010


Fallen Rib

Tomberforce posted:

Yeah that's fine and normal - it's good practise to rinse out the interior with fresh water though, especially if you're not plannning to dive for a while. You can fill it up through the inflator hose, slosh it around, orally inflate it and drain.

Oh I always do that anyway so all good there. I can think of a bunch of times yesterday where I went to dump air and didn't really have any in there so water would have got in then. No leaks! Excellent.

Raere
Dec 13, 2007

I'm very interested in starting the certification process this year. I live north of Boston, so the open water dives would be out of the question for several months.
What's the timeline from signing up to doing an open water dive? I'm guessing you wouldn't want too much time in between the pool and open water, so would it be best for me to wait a bit to get started?
Can anyone recommend any diving shops or training groups in MA?
Are there any decent places to do open water dives in the state, or would it be better to travel?

Tomberforce
May 30, 2006

Buddy of mine snapped a nice shot of me and my friend on a fun wreck dive. Thats me with the twinset. Just a go pro 3 with red filter.

Icon Of Sin
Dec 26, 2008



Tomberforce posted:

Buddy of mine snapped a nice shot of me and my friend on a fun wreck dive. Thats me with the twinset. Just a go pro 3 with red filter.



Goddrat :stare: Where is that? I've had good results with the same set up.

Tomberforce
May 30, 2006

HMAS Swan in Western Australia :)

Oakland Martini
Feb 14, 2008
Refugee from the great account hijacking of 2008
I'm planning a trip to Asia this April and want to go to Indonesia for part of it. Was originally thinking of Komodo, but also been reading about Raja Ampat. Has anyone been to either (or anywhere near there)? I'm particularly interested in liveaboards, but I'd be very interested in hearing about land-based diving and dive operators as well. Did you do any other cool things in the region aside from diving? My girlfriend and I like all kinds of outdoor stuff, not much into shopping, clubbing, bar-hopping, etc.

TLG James
Jun 5, 2000

Questing ain't easy
Got back from Maui a week ago, had a fun time.

Unfortunately the shoreline was pretty much wrecked with surf the whole time I was there, so my beach/night dives got cancelled, but I did get to go out on boat dives quite a few times, but the surf did ruin a few of the sites so ended up doing the crater more times than I would have liked. Even got to do the "back wall" which a ton of the companies were calling an "advanced" dive for some reason.

Hearing whales under the water is so cool.

Ending up doing most of my dives with Mike Severns Diving. I was incredibly impressed by them, their staff really gives a poo poo and loves showing off fish behaviors. They do use weight belts though for their rental equipment which I don't enjoy but whatever.

TLG James fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Feb 24, 2015

Luceo
Apr 29, 2003

As predicted in the Bible. :cheers:



Heading to Cozumel for a last-minute sanity escape, next Saturday! Already in touch with Jeremy from Living Underwater and I hope he has availability, but if he doesn't, are there any other well-recommended shops? Any other must-see attractions?

cowofwar
Jul 30, 2002

by Athanatos

Luceo posted:

Heading to Cozumel for a last-minute sanity escape, next Saturday! Already in touch with Jeremy from Living Underwater and I hope he has availability, but if he doesn't, are there any other well-recommended shops? Any other must-see attractions?
I liked Blue Magic

HandlingByJebus
Jun 21, 2009

All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world, so there was only one thing I could do:
was ding a ding dang, my dang a long racecar.

It's a love affair. Mainly jebus, and my racecar.

Luceo posted:

Heading to Cozumel for a last-minute sanity escape, next Saturday! Already in touch with Jeremy from Living Underwater and I hope he has availability, but if he doesn't, are there any other well-recommended shops? Any other must-see attractions?

Sand Dollar was good too.

asur
Dec 28, 2012
Tres Pelicanos was great.

_Endgame_
Jun 19, 2010

NERF THIS!

Luceo posted:

Heading to Cozumel for a last-minute sanity escape, next Saturday! Already in touch with Jeremy from Living Underwater and I hope he has availability, but if he doesn't, are there any other well-recommended shops? Any other must-see attractions?

Scuba Mau right next to Villa Blanca is a really solid dive shop. If you talk to the people and get to know them and have enough experience they will go so far as to take recommendations on dive spots such as the Devil's Throat or Columbia deep.

Luceo
Apr 29, 2003

As predicted in the Bible. :cheers:



Thanks for all the recommendations!

Red_Fred
Oct 21, 2010


Fallen Rib
I'm currently doing my knowledge review for the PADI Nitrox cert and something occurred to me. I dive without a computer (I use tables) but my restriction on dives has always been air consumption. This would indicate to me that the increased NDL with Nitrox is only an advantage if you're using a massive steel tank?

Obviously there are other advantages (less surface intervals etc.) but the big selling point seems to be increased NDL.

Icon Of Sin
Dec 26, 2008



Red_Fred posted:

I'm currently doing my knowledge review for the PADI Nitrox cert and something occurred to me. I dive without a computer (I use tables) but my restriction on dives has always been air consumption. This would indicate to me that the increased NDL with Nitrox is only an advantage if you're using a massive steel tank?

Obviously there are other advantages (less surface intervals etc.) but the big selling point seems to be increased NDL.

Bingo. You can't go as deep on nitrox (Due to O2 toxicity concerns) but you get to stay longer at the depths you can go to, have shorter surface intervals, and have a better margin of safety wrt to your NDLs. I've heard that your main concern starts to be how much air you've got left, rather than how long you can stay at a given depth based on your NDLs. Makes sense to me, since you'd have to be carting around another tank to stay down at 110 ft for 25 minutes on 32% O2.

Disclaimer: I've got the cert but haven't really had occasion to dive with it yet.

Trivia
Feb 8, 2006

I'm an obtuse man,
so I'll try to be oblique.
Some people say that using Nitrox reduces fatigue from repeated dives. Whether this is a placebo effect I don't know. Personally I feel less wiped afterward, but that's highly subjective and doesn't take into account the difficulty or strenuousness of the dive itself.

let it mellow
Jun 1, 2000

Dinosaur Gum

Red_Fred posted:

I'm currently doing my knowledge review for the PADI Nitrox cert and something occurred to me. I dive without a computer (I use tables) but my restriction on dives has always been air consumption. This would indicate to me that the increased NDL with Nitrox is only an advantage if you're using a massive steel tank?

Obviously there are other advantages (less surface intervals etc.) but the big selling point seems to be increased NDL.

this is correct, your main benefit of nitrox isn't on consumption or deep dives, but intervals, NDL time and the unproven freshness thing. It really shows benefits on multi tank dives, since that's when deco becomes a real thing that matters to you. If you aren't flirting with deco on your second or third dives, nitrox isn't doing a lot for you and you need to work on consumption.

Red_Fred
Oct 21, 2010


Fallen Rib

jackyl posted:

this is correct, your main benefit of nitrox isn't on consumption or deep dives, but intervals, NDL time and the unproven freshness thing. It really shows benefits on multi tank dives, since that's when deco becomes a real thing that matters to you. If you aren't flirting with deco on your second or third dives, nitrox isn't doing a lot for you and you need to work on consumption.

Okay that all makes sense and there is no doubt I need to work on my consumption. I guess on something like a live-aboard where you might be doing 3-4 dives a day using Nitrox for the last couple would make the most sense. I don't actually have a specific need for Nitrox I just saw there was a course on, it was relatively cheap and it's a certification for life so I thought why not.

Oakland Martini
Feb 14, 2008
Refugee from the great account hijacking of 2008
Yeah if you're on a liveaboard doing 3-5 dives a day Nitrox is really helpful. When I was in the GBR in July we were doing multiple 30m dives every day, and I really don't even see how you could do that on regular air. Our Nitrox instructors mentioned that liveaboard operators really prefer Nitrox divers because it lowers the risk of nitrogen-related incidents a lot.

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Bishop
Aug 15, 2000
The training progression divers take is air-nitrox-trimix.

With trimix you add helium to reduce the nitrogen in your breathing gas without getting an oxygen level that makes you have an o2 toxicity seizure at depth. So on a multi stage deco dive you will use the trimix deep, then switch to high content oxygen gasses like 50% and 100% when you are surfacing and timing stops. Helium can cause problems if you bolt to the surface but if off gasses quicker than nitrogen so you plan for the later.

IMO 30% or 32% nitrox is the ideal gas for most dives unless you are passing a PPo2 of 1.4

Bishop fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Feb 27, 2015

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