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MA-Horus posted:Gear question:
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# ? Nov 25, 2015 16:37 |
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# ? May 20, 2024 18:15 |
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If you used them in Salt water and didn't clean them throughly you should get them checked without doubts.
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# ? Nov 25, 2015 19:44 |
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Is there such thing as a good roll up snorkel?
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# ? Nov 25, 2015 19:50 |
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The quick answer is no. The longer answer is more involved: snorkels are fine and dandy when freediving and snorkeling, but they do not really belong on divers especially in their heads, which is something you probably are thinking about when you are asking about roll-up snorkels. And a problem is that since the most experienced divers generally don't use snorkels, snorkels sold at dive shops just keep getting worse and worse moving from flex bottom snorkels to the latest round of full-flex snorkels. Because dive shops only sell them at all because of outdated agency standards. Roll-up snorkel take the reduced function flex design, where the flex that was previously limited to the lower section between the tub and the mouthpiece, and extends that floppiness it to the whole tube, making the whole thing a unreliable mess, with both the top tube flexing back into the water, and the lower tube flexing out of the mouth. The horrible state of snorkels in dive shops is the result of two factors: most dive agencies have older instructors who came to the sport from free diving clubs, thus snorkels are still a required part of scuba diver training. And second, snorkels are uncomfortable and even hazardous on a diver head underwater, and divers come to realize that. So we get less and less functional snorkels to make both the old instructor and outdated agencies happy, and yet allow people who rightly hate snorkels to say they have them somewhere on their gear. Only a few forward thinking training agencies have seen the light, and stopped requiring (and in fact not allowing) snorkels. Because those agencies see the long hose as a basic part of the safe diver's kit, and long hose and snorkels don't play nice together at all. The snorkels for sale in dive shops are almost exclusively crappy halfway designs with the worst of both worlds (bad for diving, and bad for snorkeling) with a flex section between the tube and mouthpiece, which makes them even bad at being snorkels because the tube wants to go straight, so keeping the snorkel in the mouth requires constant bite and jaw effort. The flex section is there to get them somewhat out of the way of the regulator. But it was clearly designed by someone who does not actually use a snorkel as a snorkel, rather it's just newbie mask flair. It does not really work, because the snorkel is still in the way of gear. More importantly it stretches itself straight which puts in more in the way of the inflator and more likely to catch on things and tug a mask off a diver. All it takes is a day of snorkeling and free diving with a fixed tube snorkel to see just how much that flex section makes snorkel use difficult. All it takes is a day if diving without a snorkel to see just how much hair-pulling and mask-pulling and leaking a If divers actually used their snorkels as snorkels, rather snorkels just being "mask flair for the newbies", they would demand better snorkel design. But snorkel usage tends towards zero with experience. Open Water Students are just required to have a If we had more women instructors, we would have probably done more to get rid of the snorkel on the dive mask, because the snorkel retaining device is usually far more effective at pulling hair than doing than anything else. Women students, worse yet, are often upsold mask strap covers by the dive shops, to 'solve' the hair pulling problem. But the problem is the retaining clips (for both the ends of the mask strap, and for the snorkel). Get rid of those, and hair pulling is rarely is an issue. But unthinking adherence to tradition is kind of the rule of the day in diving sometimes. You guys out there who want their female partner SO's to get into diving: lose the snorkel, lose the snorkel clip. Lose the mask strap retaining clips. Nothing turns someone off of a sport than constantly getting their hair yanked and ripped out, literally. If your instructor insists long haired people must wear a snorkel for anything but the bare minimum snorkel skill times, find a new instructor. There is a way to use a snorkel without the hair pulling clip, but it requires the fixed tube snorkel to work well, the kind of snorkel that you generally cannot find at a dive shop. And this is ignoring the biggest problem with all snorkels that they are designed for guy sized heads, not female sized heads so with a tiny number of exceptions they are dangly and annoying for women divers. As has been pointed out many times, by many people, in a bunch of places, every argument for Save your money; don't buy a bad snorkel with flex-y sections anywhere in the tube. If you really want to carry a snorkel, roll a fixed snorkel up in the middle of your Safety Sausage/SMB. That way when you lose the snorkel, you can say you tried to carry one. And if someone asks you can always say you have one rolled up in your SMB. It's what I do! I even sometimes have one in there, because I find lost snorkels all the time, because mask flair is always falling off masks. pupdive fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Nov 26, 2015 |
# ? Nov 26, 2015 00:40 |
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In the last 7 years I've been really diving (with my own funds that is) I only remember using the snorkel maybe four times. Once was while killing our surface interval between dives (shallow mooring), another was a sand shallows leopard shark spotting, and the other two were spontaneous sightings of mantas and whale sharks (also during surface intervals). They're not really worth it if A) you have a license or B) You're not snorkeling with a buddy trying to get them interested in diving. I guess they're nice to have just in case, but I wouldn't drop any considerable amount of cash on them personally. If you want a shiny new dive toy, get a computer (or light).
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# ? Nov 26, 2015 02:24 |
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To be sure, I am not saying don't own a good snorkel. I always have a snorkel in my box on the boat or beach, so I can go set lines or just look at stuff, while waiting for whatever. It's just that good snorkel (with a fixed tube) is almost impossible to buy at a dive shop. Free-diving shops, Spearfisherman shops have them in abundance. But I am not sure how many spearfishing/free-diving shops most people ever get to see. Even if you come to the tropics, they are kind of in locals only places. Posting (or maybe reposting) for fun this awesome free diving video, because I love free-diving and snorkeling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU_IF20t2R8
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# ? Nov 26, 2015 02:36 |
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Hmm I guess I thought they might be useful for the shore dives in Bonaire, on the swim out. Or possibly the rough winter water in Florida - in the event we get stuck on the surface waiting for the boat. I have a good snorkel for snorkeling but wanted sow thing that I could store for the never going to happen event I am thinking about. Bought regs and computers yesterday this was one of the last things I wanted to pick up other than a knife or shears.
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# ? Nov 26, 2015 05:00 |
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Mandibular Fiasco posted:I went with the stock silicone neck seal, as opposed to neoprene or a SiTech replaceable seal. I've found that if you maintain the standard silicone seal and don't do stupid things to it, it works just fine. The SiTech replaceable seal has a big ring around it, which is more of a nuisance than anything else. It helped! I got an E.motion suit-deal yesterday and the guys at the shop threw in a BZ400X undersuit and socks. Great service from the local divestore-guys. Just need a pair of jetfins to replace my rather worn atomic splitfins and a primary torch, and I'm set for diving this winter. Can't wait to get it wet!
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# ? Nov 28, 2015 16:26 |
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How long until we have liquid breathing/external gill devices, so I can live my dream of diving on Titanic?
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# ? Nov 29, 2015 01:26 |
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Never, unless the ocean started to magically possess ~80% dissolved nitrogen.
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# ? Nov 29, 2015 01:53 |
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I don't know about the US but holy crap have dry suits gotten more expensive in the UK in just the last 3 years. I decided to get my second hand DUI taken in to a reasonable size (so no more worryingly believable Michelin man impersonations) rather than buy a new one. I have also discovered that like 3 of my friends have gotten bent in the time I've been away, one on a 28 minute 32m dive, no deco, that was finished with a long safety stop to breath down a 50% stage to prepare for a deep dive the next day. This was his 3rd day of diving and I know there's been remarks made about no such thing as an unearned hit but it does seem like cold water diving has a hell of a lot more DCI incidents than warm water. All the cases I know of are skin bends though, my friend in that case was referred to a cardiologist to get tested for a PFO because his diving profile for those 3 days left the technicians at the pot a little puzzled as to why. No elevation issues as he went from the dive boat to a lifeboat (to another lifeboat, to the car of the guy from the deco centre). On a more positive note, I've been convinced to start planning a trip to Scapa in the next year or so. Yummy yummy metal.
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# ? Nov 29, 2015 03:42 |
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CaptainZalo posted:It helped! Glad to know it was of value! I have finally got my KUBI rings installed - they sure look slick! Haven't had a chance to take them out diving yet, but hope to do so next week. The system is fantastic - aluminum rings with a rubber o-ring that allows the gloves to slide and lock right in. Hopefully they dive as well as they look - the reviews of others suggest the system is very solid. I also see Santi has a new rings product, called Magic Rings. Looks very interesting, particularly the ability to use the rings to secure a torn drysuit wrist seal. Once you have your new fins, see about getting an instructor to teach you a frog kick, a backwards kick, and to do a helicopter turn. Super useful skills that make the jet fins or the F1s really useful. I picked up a Halcyon Flare as my primary light - really pleased with it so far. Lots of punch, but still low profile. I didn't need the variable size of the Focus, and saved myself a pile of cash in doing so.
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# ? Nov 29, 2015 04:58 |
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Trivia posted:Never, unless the ocean started to magically possess ~80% dissolved nitrogen. My understanding is highly oxygenated Perflurocarbon means no dissolved gasses in your blood, equalized external pressure, and only requires oxygen as a dissolved gas in any case. The biggest barrier is CO2 scrubbing out of your blood--the liquid mix isn't efficient enough--thus the external CO2 gill plugged into your femoral vein. Meaning a theoretical human diving depth of deeper than our oceans go.
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# ? Nov 29, 2015 19:54 |
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While certainly fascinating, femoral surgery I think is a little bit beyond the realms of recreational diving. That's not even to mention oxygen toxicity, that wouldn't be solved. You can reach the bottom of the ocean even now, you just need a rope and a big rock.
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 19:33 |
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Cippalippus posted:While certainly fascinating, femoral surgery I think is a little bit beyond the realms of recreational diving. Oxygen Toxicity is solved, because the Oxygen you are receiving in the liquid is not under pressure as a gas. Therefore, you'd be getting the same Oxygen concentration that you'd get from breathing air at sea level. If I understand the science right, which I might not, Oxygen toxicity requires concentrations at 147% of what you'd get breathing pure Oxygen at 1 bar... but yeah, in any case, I have no idea how the femoral vein (not artery) CO2 scrubber works, or how invasive it is... all I know is that the system combination was recently patented. The other cool thing about liquid breathing diving under these conditions, besides my dream of diving a wreck on an abyssal plain, is that you literally require no decompression. There have already been a number of experiments where they've decompressed liquid breathing mice from a simulated 1000m to 1 bar, with absolutely no ill effects; however, this should just follow from the science of it since you don't have any compressed gasses dissolving in your blood/tissue. There are also a number of unpublished (read secret) navy run experiments involving navy seals engaged in liquid breathing experiments; however, if I understand the history of this correctly, they were small scale and did not use an external CO2 scrubber, which significantly limits the utility of liquid ventilation for diving purposes. ZombieLenin fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Nov 30, 2015 |
# ? Nov 30, 2015 21:59 |
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It would still be under pressure and still be toxic. Edit; or not. I need to see into it.
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:27 |
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I have no knowledge of liquid breathing systems. Other than seeing it in The Abyss. The commentary on that DVD is pretty cool, because they explained how realtively little fudging they did with things. Chemical decompression was represented by flashing lights because of the audience's level of understanding not because of the lack of knowledge of diving of the filmmakers.) O2 toxicity happens on compressed breathing gas because the compressibility of gas makes the partial pressure of o2 rise above 100%. Assuming an ideal liquid (not compressible) then as long as the partial pressure of oxygen in solution is OK, it's OK. The problem is how to pass O2 from the breathing solution to bloodstream or hemoglobin. If you are using and "oxygen dissolving directly into solution" system, then you would have to use high o2 levels, which would theoretically cause O2 toxicity problems over time. I have no idea of what level of solubility Oxygen has in proposed systems, though, it's hard to see how the pressure could rise to a potentially toxic level (the lower limit for toxicity is more than 0.3 ATA), but if it using direct solution of oxygen into blood, rather than hemoglobin binding it could be a problem I have no idea how pulmonary oxygen toxicity would be affected by liquid. As a related side note, one of the reasons chambers are used to treat CO (carbon monoxide) poisoning is that there is a point at which the Oxygen goes into solution at high enough levels that the hemoglobin oxygen transfer (which is bound by CO) is not needed, which is probably part of the idea of a liquid breathing system came from. Well that and the fact that there are already a huge number of liquid breathing systems in use today by fish, and what not.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 02:09 |
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Is a thigh pocket a bad idea? I am thinking about buying one to store my tablet, smb, and reel. I hate having things flopping around but am open to suggestions.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 15:57 |
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Ropes4u posted:Is a thigh pocket a bad idea? I am thinking about buying one to store my tablet, smb, and reel. I hate having things flopping around but am open to suggestions.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 16:19 |
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Ropes4u posted:Is a thigh pocket a bad idea? I am thinking about buying one to store my tablet, smb, and reel. I hate having things flopping around but am open to suggestions. A thigh pocket is a great thing when glued to a wetsuit/drysuit, and then you switch to sidemount and you cannot easily reach the thing. In other words, the useful ones are on your suit so you know where they are, and what's in them. Some people especially sidemounters prefer the purse that you bring up and rummage around in. I may be just beastly strong, but those strap on thigh pockets simply annoy me because they are tight and then loose as I swim along. Glued on the suit? OK. There is a reason though, why jacket style BCDs with those pockets are so popular: they are really functional (as long as you don't get a BCD that trade pocket space for integrated weight space). A bunch of us were complaining on the boat about why ScubaPro did away with the old ScubaPro Classic that had simply the best pockets ever made. Basically get a bunch of 'experienced' instructors together and mention the Classic, and we will all wail and lament, and gnash our teeth. Just about every instructor has that BCD/fin/mask that they treasure in large part because it is no longer made. And the silliest among us stock 3 or four NOS spares of those. I have lost the best X ever made to all manner of things. The worst is when someone has the bright idea to loan out your fins on your day off to an intro diver who stand on their toes and breaks the rail of the fin.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 17:55 |
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Maybe I am asking the wrong question. Should I plan on carrying a slate / pencil / reel / smb when shore diving? My wife and I are going to Bonaire on our first trip abroad and are trying to get our finial gear setup squared away.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 18:23 |
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SMB: always. Slate, pencil, and reel, not so much. I've got a slate, and the only time I've used it since buying it was to loan to my friend for her mapping project as part of her divemaster course. The only time I've used a reel was for distance measurement underwater (to verify distance estimation done with kick cycles) and searching for lost equipment (also as part of her mapping project). Even shore diving here I keep my SMB with me, since the current here can get fairly strong pretty quick when the tides start to change and I don't want to end up out in an active channel without some kind of surface marker.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 18:52 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:SMB: always. Slate, pencil, and reel, not so much. I've got a slate, and the only time I've used it since buying it was to loan to my friend for her mapping project as part of her divemaster course. The only time I've used a reel was for distance measurement underwater (to verify distance estimation done with kick cycles) and searching for lost equipment (also as part of her mapping project). Even shore diving here I keep my SMB with me, since the current here can get fairly strong pretty quick when the tides start to change and I don't want to end up out in an active channel without some kind of surface marker. Perfect, thank you for the help.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 19:07 |
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Ropes4u posted:Is a thigh pocket a bad idea? I am thinking about buying one to store my tablet, smb, and reel. I hate having things flopping around but am open to suggestions. I love mine. I have a backplate and don't have bcd pockets anymore, but when I did I found them really difficult to use and usually ended up having to rely on a buddy for help. I'm sure it's a bit easier in warm water bit I still find thigh pockets a much more natural position.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 20:36 |
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Ropes4u posted:Maybe I am asking the wrong question. Get a cheap stainless or plastic whistle too.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 22:31 |
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If you do not need to deploy the SMB underwater, the reel (often a thumb reel) is completely optional. I have to deploy at my stop, and some places you have to drag the float throughout the dive. For the stop display a thumb reel, and for the carry through the dive a full reel. But both the thumb reel and the regular reel become entanglement hassles until you have played with them enough to deploy them without thinking. If you do not need to deploy it underwater, then the cheapest sealed oral inflation unit is probably the easiest and they come with a clip. If you are both carrying them, get two different colors. They will stay useful even if you get a big one later.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 22:44 |
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DeadlyMuffin posted:I love mine. I have a backplate and don't have bcd pockets anymore, but when I did I found them really difficult to use and usually ended up having to rely on a buddy for help. This is because the newer BCDs try and do too much with that area, and why Zeagle got the weight integration right. Once the weights are there, the pockets become fiddly, and small. A zip pocket in particular is hard to deal with.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 22:46 |
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Ropes4u posted:Is a thigh pocket a bad idea? I am thinking about buying one to store my tablet, smb, and reel. I hate having things flopping around but am open to suggestions. I love them. Ever since I got a Hollis Neotek which features 2 thigh pockets, all my friends bought one as well: http://www.hollis.com/neotek-semi-drysuit/ The only downside to it is that it's not a drysuit, really. You can't find a better wet suit than that.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 22:53 |
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pupdive posted:This is because the newer BCDs try and do too much with that area, and why Zeagle got the weight integration right. Once the weights are there, the pockets become fiddly, and small. A zip pocket in particular is hard to deal with. The pockets on my old BCD were pretty huge, as I recall, just not in a great position. I think the thigh is a more natural position when you're diving, but maybe I have long monkey arms.
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 08:14 |
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Ropes4u posted:Maybe I am asking the wrong question. Bonaire is ideal for like diving with Nitrox depths are like 30m 40m max. Also hiring a pickup and just dump your stuff in the back you can go to whatever diving spot you like. Basically just a standard diving set will do. There is also a wild side on Bonaire east side or so I don't remember very well, but there are no official diving spots located there anyway. Night diving is also very nice there. I would suggest to do that at the diving resort themselves.
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 08:31 |
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One of my most memorable night dives was around the docks in ~3 meters of water. I was under there for close to two hours. When I was finished I got out, immediately rinsed my poo poo off, and had a beer and a burger. It was awesome.
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 08:48 |
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DeadlyMuffin posted:The pockets on my old BCD were pretty huge, as I recall, just not in a great position. Were they zips? Zips are a night mare on pockets that are not locked down (like they are with glued on thigh pockets). Mares has always made zipped BCD pockets that are small, open in the wrong direction, and horribly insecure. Do you remember the brand? (Like I mentioned above my view on pockets is basically based on the old and 15 years discontinued ScubaPro Classic, which I have not used for forever. I don't use Jackets anymore on a regular basis. The Classic since it did not have cinches on the shoulders probably put the pockets in a different place because it did not have to reserve space for the shoulder stitching.Most of by storage is butt mounted, of the unclip and rummage purse.
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 10:07 |
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We will wrap up advanced open water, nitox and shore diving the first week. Second week we will be shore diving and possibly grabbing a couple boat dives.
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 17:39 |
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pupdive posted:Were they zips? Zips are a night mare on pockets that are not locked down (like they are with glued on thigh pockets). Mares has always made zipped BCD pockets that are small, open in the wrong direction, and horribly insecure. I love the old AP Valves Buddy jackets that had solid, velcro cover pockets. They were easy to get into and out of (or at least easy to get stuff out of) even if the jacket was fairly inflated. Then they went to zip pockets (that you pull towards yourself to close, so at least easy to unzip underwater) but I found them a real pain to get into or out of. That said I've got a wing now and pretty much everything I really need can be clipped on in a nice neat location, I feel like pockets really aren't that necessary unless you just don't want to have to think about where to keep things. I guess slates could be a pain if you're doing anything other than fun diving though.
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 23:19 |
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currently diving in Barbados and holy poo poo, turtles are everywhere. Also got a seahorse and tiny baby octopus today, pictures coming whenever I get around to editing. Dove the Stavronikita first dive today and that's a nice wreck
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 23:35 |
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Hi all! I just did my sixth dive (first after receiving my certification card) on Sunday, and just wanted to post a short reminder to my fellow newcomers, or perhaps someone who's just done a refresher course after a long hiatus, more weight doesn't hurt. We set up at a park above the beach, walked down a bunch of stairs, and swam out from shore, and finally when we were ready to go down, I couldn't sink! Neither could my buddy, conveniently enough, so we had to go all the way back to shore and back upstairs for nothing. I added 4 pounds, and joined the second dive after the others finished their surface interval, and sank fine. There were some fun fish and a ton of lobsters, and the divemaster I was with caught one and let me hold it! No pics because I don't have a camera, but I saved up for a camera case for my phone (I think it's called Watershot) that I saw at my local dive shop. Does the lens part make it worth ponying up nearly $200, or should I just look for a regular waterproof case? Also, they had a magenta filter, and is that worth it? I assume the point is to counteract the blue from Rayleigh scattering, but I don't know how well it works or if the same can be achieved digitally.
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# ? Dec 3, 2015 23:23 |
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Extra weight DOES hurt though. Both figuratively and literally. More weight increases your drag, which increases your efforts, which increases your air consumption. It also incredibly hampers your ability to fine tune neutral buoyancy under water, and also decreases mobility. On top of all that, it can also lead to back soreness / stiffness. A difference of 1 or 2 kilos is definitely noticeable. You should do a neutral buoyancy check at the surface on your first dive, and always log how much weight you used at what thickness wetsuit. For many recreational divers (myself included) increasing your bottom time is goal #1 after you've become proficient at the other skills. One of the best ways to do that outside of general fitness is to decrease your weights. Edit: As for the camera, I've no experience with a cellphone camera case, nor a red filter, but I do know that adding in more red into your photos in photoshop is not the cure-all that it sounds. Yes, it will balance out the large amount of blue, but to the point where photos start becoming desaturated and gray. It also brings out a lot of graininess. I usually add a new color channel to the picture, and add some of the existing blues and greens to help the red channel out a bit. Unfortunately you can't just add the red back in where you know it should be because the lens never took it in to begin with. The best you can do is re-map some of that blue to red. If you know of a better way, I'm all ears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFhrTQJg6MI Trivia fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Dec 4, 2015 |
# ? Dec 4, 2015 00:03 |
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Trivia posted:Extra weight DOES hurt though. Both figuratively and literally. Thank you, this is good to know. I have asthma so it might take me more time than most to get my bottom time up, but I've started doing more fitness activities lately so I at least feel I'm going in the right direction. I bought a different kind of BCD than what I got my cert with (one that doesn't let water in), and was too ambitious thinking I'd be able to drop so many pounds without issue just because I dropped a few during the process of training. What I should've said was, "Don't assume you need less weight just because it seems like it fits a downward trend"
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# ? Dec 4, 2015 02:10 |
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When I first started I was of course super excited and tense and all that, so I needed a lot more weight than necessary. As time goes on you'll find you need less. On my last trip I was down to 3 kgs in a 1.5 mm suit. I was slightly buoyant during my safety stops, but nothing I couldn't handle. In return I felt waaaay more comfortable at depth, and doing wreck penetrations was that much easier.
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# ? Dec 4, 2015 08:07 |
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# ? May 20, 2024 18:15 |
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Though I am not a particular fan of log books, one thing that it is useful for is logging details of a dive. If you own your own gear, and your own wetsuit, and your either own all of the same kind of tanks, or always rent the exact same kind of tank, then you already know the weight you need. Otherwise, you are going to need to track how much weight you use with various varieties of gear. The hidden variation that fools people often is tank buoyancy. From the most negative steel to the most positive aluminum is a swing of about 10 pounds/3.5 kg. An interesting thing sidemounters discover is even the same brand of tank in the same volume can change. So I have a bunch of aluminum 80's that that I have divided into groups because I cannot mix the tanks between groups unevenly. ***** When you have the weight right, you should usually have to exhale pretty fully to descend from the surface, when wearing a wetsuit, if you are diving deeper than a safety stop for all of the dive. This changes depending on the size of the person because both lung volume and compression of the suit vary with diver size. If you have gear you are using all the time, you can find a good weight, by having just enough weight to comfortably hang out motionless at 3-6 feet when your tank is basically empty, and you have no air in your BCD. Obviously best done at the end of a dive in good conditions. The air in a tanks weighs about varies about 6 lbs/2kg from the beginning to the end of the dive. There are things to vary with this. Trivia, as he mentioned, likes to do this check at the safety stop because many divers don't spend any time in shallower water, and carrying extra weight is not ideal. But this means that if you have to go to the surface towards the end of the dive (or you end up there accidentally), you are going to have trouble re-descending. Which is fine but something to keep in mind. People who are doing big surf entries and exits may have to carry extra weight to be able to duck through waves. ***** When teaching, one of the hardest things is to get people to do is to understand that diving is always different than being on land. Other than when ascending to the surface, your fins should never be below the plane of your body. This goes triple for descent. You should never have fins below your body on descent, and you should be able to stop your descent, or at least slow it significantly, with just a sharp inhale. In other words as you move down the water column, you are probably going to have to add air to make up for loss of buoyancy due to suit compression. (This upright position is a problem that they absolutely did not fix in the updated PADI materials. People are basically standing everywhere: on descent, on the bottom in both the pool. It's hilarious that PADI got that kneeling was a problem in their materials, and fixed that, but instead just made standing a problem. Ah well. We teach diving in the water, not in videos. It would help, though, if we were not imprinting bad behvaior in the training videos.) Once horizontal position is squared away, breathing will always make you move around in the water column. The air in your BCD, and the air in your lungs, are both buoyant. Dumping the BCD, but not dumping the lungs, should not allow you to descend easily. Once you get firmly in your head that breathing will absolutely affect your buoyancy, you figure out that a very important part of a dive is the last check done with your gear on. Put the mask on, put your reg in, and focus on full exhale. Keep everything in place until you descend. Jumping in the water, playing with your mask, etc is a way to get the heart rate and breathing rate back up, and then descent becomes difficult even with the right amount of weight. pupdive fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Dec 4, 2015 |
# ? Dec 4, 2015 11:36 |