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Had my orientation for PADI open water course yesterday. There's a decent amount of homework study and since the class will be mostly on work days, scheduling the group was a pain in the rear end because some rear end in a top hat has every evening booked a month in advance. Still, looks like a lot of fun and would give me some cool opportunities when traveling. I don't need to decide now, but what equipment does it make sense to buy vs rent every time? There aren't really any worthwhile locations here so I'd be only diving a few times a year max when on vacation.
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Feb 13, 2018 13:21
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| # ¿ Jan 18, 2026 16:23 |
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Thanks all. I'll probably get the mask, fins and boots for now. Even the instructor mentioned that most people don't bother with the snorkel in practice but I might get one anyway if I decide to actually just go snorkeling. In the course we'll be using the BCD so I'll postpone so I'll stick with that and hopefully avoid the controversy for now. For photos, I have a Xiaomi Yi (a gopro clone) with underwater housing. I used it a few times when snorkeling and the results haven't been that great tbh. Apparently an extra light source is very helpful? Are housings for SLRs worth it? I have a Canon 550D I could use for this, though it's autofocusing isn't that great especially in for video.
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Feb 16, 2018 11:40
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Done with my OWD confined water dives. It's still too cold to dive anywhere here so either have to wait or travel somewhere to finish it sooner. Now tell me something straight - is diving a complete sausage fest? I didn't notice at first as there was a woman in our group of 6 but I don't think there was a single one among the other groups at the pools.
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Mar 21, 2018 10:24
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Goddamit. It wasn't the goal or anything but I kind of hoped it would be a bit more balanced than my other hobbies like computer stuff, cars or electronics 
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Mar 21, 2018 16:41
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Has anyone dived in Southern Spain (Costa del Sol) by chance? Any good spots? I'm here for work for a bit and might as well take advantage and put something in my logobook. But it its' surprisingly difficult to find any specific recommendations. It's a huge area and I'll probably be able to only do a couple of dives at best but usually it's like "yeah costa del sol is nice" k thanks.
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Oct 6, 2020 21:20
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It's definitely the most natural gesture for me so I have to constantly remind myself to do the ok sign
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Jul 16, 2021 09:18
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I'm a pretty big photo nerd but just can't be bothered with doing it underwater. I've taken a GoPro a few times though and that was cool to record the awesome turtle you saw and what not. Maybe I was just lucky but I've never had more than like 4-5 people in a group dive so far. As for site reviews, I only managed a few dives on Malta. Rozi and another wreck IIRC, and it was meh. Like the wrecks are interesting but it takes a while to get there and there's nothing else going on. No complaints about water though, nice temperature and visibility.
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Dec 23, 2021 08:25
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I'm hoping US goons would be more familiar with the Caribbean locations. Is Roatán a good spot for a week or so? There are some cheap-ish flights for November-December so I'm thinking of booking it now to have a 7-10 day winter trip already taken care of.
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Apr 14, 2022 12:53
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Thanks, sounds awesome! I'm still hesitating a bit because of a trip to NY and Sri Lanka coming up and  but the tickets are still available so I might yet pull the trigger. Never done a liveaboard and I'm not sure I'm into the seal life in that way so I'd probably just stay on shore though.
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Apr 22, 2022 10:23
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Bonaire looks awesome, I'd love to do it sometime too! Can't imagine how amazing it has to be in order to spend 16 weeks there lol I did end up buying tickets to Roatán as I posted a few pages back. Or rather the flight is to Guatemala so I'll have a week or more to travel around as well, before getting a ferry and maybe hitting Utila on the way as well.
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Oct 5, 2022 19:03
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So far I've been just renting all the equipment on the spot. But this time I discovered that prices for that vary wildly, sometimes it's negligible and other wanted like $40 for a day/two dives so that does make you reconsider paying your own poo poo + extra luggage if doing more than a few dives. Sadly I ended up canceling the trip to Roatan I posted about earlier as the airline hosed with the connections to the point I'd be spending like 24 hours on planes or in airports. But I did a shorter trip to Egypt instead, and did my first boat dives at Ras Mohamed near Sharm El Sheikh. I guess it depends on who you book it with, but this boat was full of normies with families and kids that mostly just did snorkeling or beginner diving at like 1m so I ended up with my own private guy.  https://i.imgur.com/1fLWE4Y.mp4 The colors at depth really are a bummer though, not just for photos but also in person though it's not as bad. Do you guys carry lights for day dives as well?
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Mar 13, 2023 08:37
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| # ¿ Jan 18, 2026 16:23 |
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Amazing photos as always! I was just in Oman but ended up not diving there, just did snorkeling at the Daymaniyat islands. Pretty happy about that as everything interesting was at a pretty shallow depth and scuba stuff would've been unnecessary hassle imo. Saw more turtles at one site than in years of diving before   Proper camera and light gear makes a huge difference though  Has anyone done diving in Oman? This trip was mostly land-based so I didn't fit any diving in, but I also didn't get to Salalah so I might end up going again.
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Nov 7, 2025 18:24
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