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Just finished diving Sheridan Caverns today on Kauai. Seeing green sea turtles in blown out lava tubes? This sport is the best.
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Feb 24, 2012 10:41
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 21:54 |
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Just got my certification card in the mail. Terrible picture, but that doesn't matter. Do people keep a log-book and their cards? It seems like just one more thing to take on a vacation.
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Feb 27, 2012 03:45
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Here's a question. My dad was a diver in the 70s/80s and has a lot of his own equipment, such as reg/bcd/tank. Problem is they haven't been serviced in 30 years. Are thy junk now, or can thy still be refurbished?
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Feb 27, 2012 23:35
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Good stuff, thanks for the info. I don't have any more info on the equipment as I live overseas in Korea, and it's in my parent's basement in Ontario. But I'll certainly tell my dad not to throw any of it out. It's cool hearing about diving in the old days before power inflating BCs and such. Except when you hear about the time that he nearly got killed by not being able to inflate his BCD due to depth.
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Feb 28, 2012 09:01
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Has anyone here ever dove Tobermory/Fathom Five in Ontario? Knowing how loving stupidly cold the water can be in Ontario, are you realistically going to want a dry-suit to dive there? (I want to dive the Arabia, a schooner that went down 100 years ago and sits intact. It's the dive that nearly killed my dad in the early 80's.)
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Mar 5, 2012 06:08
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Someone was talking about Big Blue diving a few pages back and I'm done in Korea in August, might spend a few weeks in Koh Tao doing some diving before coming home Especially as they have a deal on Advanced/Nitrox/Wreck diver courses and those are the 3 I want.
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Apr 12, 2012 06:41
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SlicerDicer posted:Nope this was in the crater ranging from 120-30ft All shot over a period of about 2 hours. Ulua, few fish shot in the Reef's End side. Garden Eels, The Whitetip, Beach Bunny, Urchin and Cucumbers are in Sand Channel the rest was in spot called Aquarium. I do want to shoot different sites next time maybe go over to Enenui.  Goddamn that place looks gorgeous.
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Apr 15, 2012 07:10
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I'm all booked in at Big Blue on Koh Tao, advanced open water with deep water and wreck specialties, plus nitrox. Late August 2012!
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May 15, 2012 02:02
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Would you guys suggest DAN insurance? It seems like a pretty good deal, 75 bucks a year or so. I borrowed a friend's PADI "Adventures in Diving" textbook and started reading up on the deep water diving...I'll admit it has me a little spooked.
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Jun 18, 2012 02:20
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Bueno. I'll get right on that, then.
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Jun 18, 2012 08:19
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DAN insurance purchased, seems like the best decision. Now another question, for any baldies. What do you wear to keep from getting horribly sunburned? I got fried in Thailand earlier this year, and I'm looking for something to wear in the water to keep that from happening. Bandanna? skull-cap? Neoprene beanie?
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Jun 20, 2012 01:38
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My god, I can actually contribute something! I was on Kauai in February, did 2 dives with Seasport Divers. Bought my snorkel and mask from them, actually. Pretty professional operation, good safety briefs, friendly divemasters. One actually commented on my predive checks because I smelled the air coming from my regulator, he said nobody does that anymore, but it's nice to see. There was about 15 people diving in total. Dive sites called Stonehouse, which was OK, but not all that impressive, and Sheraton Caverns. Sheraton Caverns is a series of blown-out extinct lava-tubes, which are habitats for green sea turtles, an absolutely incredible dive, by far the coolest thing I've done diving. I was wearing a 3mm shorty wetsuit in February and was fine water-temp wise, but I'm a big(fat) dude, some people in full 6mm wetsuits were pretty cold. YMMV. There's lots of dive operations on the island but Seasport came the most highly recommended. Excellent choice on Kauai by the way. It's a stunningly beautiful island. My family was there for 3 days before they started looking at real estate (don't do this it's hellaciously expensive).
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Jun 26, 2012 10:02
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Kaal posted:He'd probably know better than me whether people are practicing that, but it's definitely an important check that you should perform. You're sniffing the air to check for gasoline fumes, and then you should breath it in as a secondary test. You don't want to wait to find out that you're huffing carbon monoxide during your dive. Probably not an issue in Hawaii, but many areas off the beaten track still use the old gasoline engine air compressors. Yeah, I do that, contaminated air check. I was diving with a guy around my age who had about 20 dives, and his technical knowledge was abysmal, almost to the point that I didn't want to dive with him. He had to ask me what buttons inflated/deflated his 'vest'. When I asked if he meant his BCD, he didn't know what a BCD was. I kinda gave him a and did some explaining. So very very glad I went with a hard-rear end instructor for my OWD.
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Jun 27, 2012 01:09
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Kaal posted:Those people scare the gently caress out of me. I'm always just like, "You do realize that you're in charge of not killing yourself, right?" Yeah. He was a piss-poor diver, he pounded through his tank just maintaining buoyancy.
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Jun 27, 2012 13:17
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Jesus that's close. 3 weeks until my AOW course, and an additional week of diving afterwards on Koh Tao. Can't wait!
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Aug 2, 2012 10:37
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Two weeks until I'm in Thailand and diving again! What do you guys dive with, vest or back inflate BCDs? I've heard good things about both.
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Aug 9, 2012 15:41
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Just did a 2 tank dive on Koh Phi Phi, water temp 75 Fahrenheit. It's like warm bath water. SOOOOOOO nice.
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Aug 25, 2012 16:48
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eviljelly posted:Wait, are you sure it was only 75F (24C)? That seems freakishly cold for Thai water... That's COLD? I'll double-check, my log is in my backpack getting loaded onto a ferry. Koh Phi Phi->Krabi->Surat Thani->Koh Tao. 20 hours of travelling yay.
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Aug 26, 2012 04:26
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Hey eviljelly, I'm on Koh Tao. About to do my night dive for Iain's AOW course. Great so far!
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Aug 27, 2012 11:48
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I would but I have the remainder of my AOW, plus nitrox, then another week of diving. Already put the deposit down. Saw one of your boats in the harbor, interesting layout with the tanks up front. Also night diving is the most surreally awesome thing holy poo poo.
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Aug 27, 2012 16:00
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I haven't worn a wetsuit yet in Thailand but pee in the ocean erryday. First dive down to 39.9m today. Highly disconcerting to watch your pressure gauge drop like that. Nitrox/Wreck dives tomorrow.
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Aug 29, 2012 09:12
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pupdive posted:Nice to see someone actually notice that, and understand why. I sometimes take a tiny 6 CF tank with me to have people breathe from to actually be able to see the needle move. Yeah, all while chasing after your NDL.
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Aug 29, 2012 10:27
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Bam Nitrox, deep water and wreck specialties done. Find me another place to get your AOW cert plus those others for 800 bucks.
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Aug 30, 2012 07:05
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Finch! posted:I'm in Bangkok now but I'll be back at Big Blue on Sunday night. Definitely keen for a few beers! Yessssss I'll be into my fun dives by then but I'm always down for beers. I have a routine now. 7am dives until noon. Lunch, nap. Massage, drinks, dinner, drinks, bed. It's a good routine.
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Aug 30, 2012 15:48
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Welp slight change of plans. Was gonna do a week of diving starting tomorrow but I got into a scooter accident. So I'll have to wait a few days.
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Sep 1, 2012 04:26
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Sail Rock's reputation is much deserved. First dive, a swarm of big null sharks. Second dive, we swing around a pinnacle and BAM, WHALE SHARK! TWO OF THEM! 3m and 5m! Then third dive at least 8 bull sharks popping up and down through the thermocline. Absolutely amazing. And I did see the New Way boat out there first. My DMs give a lot of kudos to New Way for always being first out, thought I gotta say my experience with Big Blue has been nothing short of fantastic.
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Sep 4, 2012 02:10
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What is it with Japanese tourists and ruining things? Was back out at Sail Rock again with the bull sharks, but the seas were so rough the Japanese couldn't get back into the boat. So we left after one dive. Fuckers.
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Sep 6, 2012 19:04
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Trivia posted:I'll hop on the generalization train and say that JP divers are either really good (dive masters) or horrible (tourists). In Palau I'd see them sitting on the loving reef and I'd just about have an aneurysm. I am almost certain it's because their licensing organizations are poo poo. The Japanese dive masters here are indeed quite good, and must have the patience of saints. The tourists hop in the water with thousands of dollars in camera gear and start flashing away at loving everything. It's very annoying. The other day at Sail Rock, we come around this pinnacle and see a group of big eye trevally, escorting a 5m whale shark. We swim with it for a little while, then the Japanese show up and the water just starts blinking with camera flashes. And it leaves.
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Sep 7, 2012 02:17
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So. Two weeks of diving on Koh Tao complete. In those two weeks I've purchased a BCD, reg, fins, boots, rash guard and dive computer. I am addicted to this sport. I can't stop thinking about when I can dive next. I'm pretty sure I'm coming back to do my DMT.
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Sep 10, 2012 15:09
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A friend of mine has the S100 and it takes pretty nice underwater shots. A woman I dove with yesterday has the Canon G12 with a strobe and that takes exceptional shots, picked up the colors on all the pretty nudibranchs really nicely. I'm gonna miss Thailand. Well I'm gonna miss the bikinis a lot too, but I'll miss Thailand the most.
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Sep 11, 2012 15:12
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Some sort of shrimp, perhaps?
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Sep 14, 2012 23:31
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Must it be PADI? I've found SSI puts out some very good instructors.
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Sep 17, 2012 15:38
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macado posted:No beef with SSI. They seem to have decent instructors except for one person I know. I found some of their training material to be a little unpolished. I hate how they refer to everything as a "Total Dive System." The total dive system is a little funny. I really like the concept of learning at the trainee's own pace. No spending an entire dive trying to get one technique right, move on and come back to it later.
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Sep 17, 2012 16:28
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I don't see the point, really. You're gonna go diving in a giant concrete tube with zero marine life.
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Sep 18, 2012 04:17
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Is this where we post pics of sharks? Also just met a fellow diver that lives real close to me. "Yeah, just finished three weeks of diving in Thailand, it was pretty awesome" "Oh, cool! I've been doing tri-mix diving all summer on great lakes wrecks." Yup. He knows his poo poo much more than my noob rear end.
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Sep 18, 2012 22:13
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Paul MaudDib posted:Hmm, I thought it was the opposite, that it prevented nitrogen buildup at shallow depths (meaning you can do more, longer dives per day, especially since you're not burning your air fast) but the oxygen partial pressure could become excessive down deeper causing health issues. Max depth on EANx32 is about 32 meters. As in, do not go deeper unless you wish oxygen toxicity on yourself. It's really most useful between 20-30 meters, drastically increases your downtime. I did my wreck diving certification on nitrox which gave me an additional 20 minutes at depth, great for practicing skills.
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Oct 11, 2012 23:19
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Finch! posted:I saw a whale shark the other day. Finally! I thought they were mythical creatures and it was some joke that the whole world was playing on me. I can now confirm that they actually do exist. Sail rock or Chumpon? Saw Whale sharks my first dive at Sail Rock 
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Nov 6, 2012 03:42
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Finch! posted:Chumphon, and gently caress you That is a good question, and one I have no answer for. Maybe after New Years, maybe 5 years. Beats me.
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Nov 7, 2012 21:27
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For low-end dive computers I can advice the Suunto D4I. The Zoop is also a pretty decent piece of kit as well.
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Dec 7, 2012 04:18
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 21:54 |
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:Untill December 31 you'll also get a free wireless transmitter with the watch sized models. Goddammit. I wanted that transmitter, but I bought all my kit over in Thailand, so I didn't get one included.
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Dec 7, 2012 15:53
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