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Icon Of Sin posted:Angry Granpa blenny is great! The rest are pretty good, too Something Special is a must do
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Jun 16, 2019 03:41
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Divers Direct is running a Father’s Day sale on a bunch of stuff. GoPros, lights, knives, and a BCD are all in the email they sent, plus probably a bunch more.
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Jun 16, 2019 14:10
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Finished my NAUI open water and nitrox cert dives today. Was the only group to successfully compass navigate to landmarks and make it all the way back with the planned amount of air. (I navigated, also computer nav would've made life a lot easier)
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Jun 17, 2019 00:59
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Pham Nuwen posted:Are the Lanai Cathedrals a reasonable destination for a pair of inexperienced divers? We've already got a Molokini trip booked and are thinking one more boat dive would be good to round off the vacation, and the Cathedrals come up as a top destination. Any operator recommendations? We dove the cathedrals with Extended Horizons last month. Would recommend both the operator and the site. It's a fine dive for new divers.
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Jun 18, 2019 18:49
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Wickerman posted:Finished my NAUI open water and nitrox cert dives today. Was the only group to successfully compass navigate to landmarks and make it all the way back with the planned amount of air. (I navigated, also computer nav would've made life a lot easier) Yay, welcome to the club! Now get your Advanced Open Water. Seriously, they took way too much out of Open Water, you really need AOW to know what you need to know. Also, a lot of dive operators won't take you on the cool dives without Advanced.
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Jun 18, 2019 18:59
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I was debating whether I should do advanced open water with NAUI, try to diversify the cert organizations starting now. Thoughts?
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Jun 18, 2019 21:16
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It’s been my personal experience that the instructor matters more than anything else, especially when it comes to which training org you’re going with. I don’t know how much that generalizes (if at all), but finding a good instructor and staying with them is probably more important than whichever organization they’re with. Just be careful, i stayed with an instructor for so long that I became one of their divemasters 
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Jun 18, 2019 21:38
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Also when shopping for a place to do a course, consider the size of the operation. Some places are veritable dive factories, where they churn out new divers on a schedule. Avoid those, you won't get the personal interaction that you need. Some smaller outfits can allow for a more leisurely pace, but keep in mind shops like that often employ freelancer instructors, so they may not be getting compensated for any extra time they spend with a student. Also, do your bookwork and quizzes/tests online to maximize efficiency (especially if you're doing courses while on vacation).
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Jun 19, 2019 03:36
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Preparing for a trip to Scapa Flow for the hundredth anniversary. Super excited and finalising bits of kit fiddling I've been putting off (also bought a new dive computer, OSTC Plus). Unfortunately my canon camera is still broke and I haven't prioritised sending it in for repair so probably no photos but I'm happy to give a trip report and might try grabbing some photos from other people. On a different note, anyone know any diving related podcasts? It's not a super aural medium but I'm curious if anyone knows of anything.
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Jun 23, 2019 20:38
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A good video to demonstrate why we dive in cold New England waters. I'm the guy with the battered red NITROX tank. Stay to the end for MONSTAH LOBSTAH! No keepers on this dive, though, all too small or too big. I caught a big one that might have been legal, but I never gauged her because she had eggs.  Loblolly Cove For the Father's Day Club Dive, four of us made the trip to Rockport to dive at Loblolly Cove. Visibility was 20' or better, when it wasn't blurred by crossing the thermocline. Not exactly sure what the temps were inside the cove, but as we made our way further out, it dropped to a slightly chilly 47°. Personally, I think I saw a grand total of 5 lobsters, all short, except the 10-pounder Ken decided to wrestle with. He gauged it just to be sure, and promptly turned it loose (the claws on this beast were bigger then his hands). Other life included a pair of sea ravens, a tiny cunner, and the usual compliment of snails and hermit crabs. http://www.jw-ocean-stuff.net/posts/2019-06-16/index.html Squashy Nipples fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Jun 24, 2019 |
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Jun 24, 2019 18:29
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Nice shot! Sorry you didn't find any Legal Seafood.
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Jun 24, 2019 20:00
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I had a good day the other day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjMh4tV4SwQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_6QNRAQPOg
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Jun 25, 2019 00:15
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I'm tired of crappy rental jacket BCDs and thinking of buying a basic backplate/wing/harness setup. What kind of stuff should I be looking at at the entry level, and what should I expect to spend? For some background, I'm currently working on my advanced open water certification and will mostly be diving in a drysuit in the Pacific Northwest. However, travel compatibility is a plus for the occasional vacations. Edit: P.S. I've already spoken with my local dive shop, but I'm interested in other opinions, including those that don't have a vested interest in selling me crazy expensive gear.
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Jul 3, 2019 19:15
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I dive a Hollis LTS for my personal gear. It’s a back-inflate BCD, but it’s not a solid backplate so it can roll up real nice and tiny-like and fit in a bag real easy. The only complaint I had for it was weight pockets...the ones up front hold 6-7lbs apiece (max), and I had to buy the ones to go on the back so I could actually wear 22lbs of lead and dive Cali waters (wearing an 8/7 wetsuit). That could be a dealbreaker for you, diving in the Pacific Northwest (unless you’re into old-school weight belts). Otherwise, no complaints. The zipper on one of my weight pockets needs replacing, but I’ve had the thing for over 3 years and dove it in freshwater, saltwater, and more pool sessions than I’m comfortable remembering. I’ve probably got ~250-300 dives on it? They go for about $450 online, but a Hollis/Oceanic dealer local to you may have better options. Oceanic has the Biolite, and like any product that Oceanic/Hollis have in common, it’s essentially a palette swap between the two. Such things happen when you’re sister-companies, I suppose
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Jul 3, 2019 19:25
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plester1 posted:I'm tired of crappy rental jacket BCDs and thinking of buying a basic backplate/wing/harness setup. What kind of stuff should I be looking at at the entry level, and what should I expect to spend? I dive a Halcyon Infinity, which is anything but cheap, but is absolutely fantastic, and basically bulletproof. My girlfriend dives a Dive Rite TravelPac and loves it. I’ll never voluntarily dive a jacket BC again.
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Jul 3, 2019 23:13
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plester1 posted:I'm tired of crappy rental jacket BCDs and thinking of buying a basic backplate/wing/harness setup. What kind of stuff should I be looking at at the entry level, and what should I expect to spend? I dive in the Pacific Northwest (BC), too, so have some insight into this. First question - singles or doubles? If singles, you'll need a single tank adapter. Halcyon does make incredible kit, but I didn't really like their backplates, so instead bought a Heser (https://heser-backup.de/shop/) backplate and single tank adapter. They aren't cheap, but they are awesome pieces of kit and bulletproof. If you want to dive singles, the STA fits in really nicely, though it doesn't have weight (which is why the extra weight in the Heser backplate is so great for northwest diving). You will also want weight pockets for your cam straps, as well as the detachable weight on the harness. Depending on your undersuit, you may need more or less weight to balance you out, but the combination of ditchable weight pockets, plus the weight on the cam straps, really helps balance out a singles rig nicely. If you want to dive doubles, and choose Heser, you'll need different size bolts for your twinset that are typical in the US-Canada, but that's easily dealt with if you're keen. For wings, I have a 40 pound Halcyon singles wing and a 60 pound Halcyon doubles wing. Both bulletproof, well made, and well supported. The Halcyon webbing is also really good, and far better than what Heser sells. Ditchable weight pockets, for me, are still essential with doubles, though technical divers for good reason may not use them. For you, at AOW level, they make good sense. In terms of what you want to pay, I'd suggest checking out 'Eight' to gauge prices. They're a new dive shop in the Seattle area and rep Halcyon kit, amongst others. They can definitely outfit you with a BPW that will set you up nicely. Good stuff isn't cheap, but it does last, and you won't be replacing it any time soon. A good backplate will last a lifetime.
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Jul 4, 2019 05:06
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These the guys? https://www.8diving.com/ Cute logo!
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Jul 4, 2019 06:10
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Thanks for the replies everyone! I'm only diving singles for now, but that I suspect doubles will be in my future if I keep it up. I'll check out that Eight shop also in addition to my current shop.
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Jul 4, 2019 06:15
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One option is buying more or less any wing with a stainless steel backplate and a one piece harness set up. Perhaps out of step with others here I haven't got a strong brand preference. Halcyon have a great name but there's a definite premium there and enough clones that I think there are more cost effective options. Going a DIR type set up can be a bit cheaper than buying a new BC but getting halcyon stuff definitely isn't (although yes, quality is top notch). If buying parts separately rather than a package, don't forget a crotch strap! This design of backplate is probably the general one to get, it allows you to use standard stainless butterfly bolts for a twin-set and works fine for singles too. The only thing you'd need to change is the wing. With checking too if the wing has a tank stabiliser, I've got an oxycheq wing that has one and I don't need an STA (although wouldn't recommend them for travel, the material is too tough to fold up nicely). If you're thinking for dry suit diving stainless is the way to go as you've got 3kg or so off your belt. The downside is you'll need something else for travel (more cost). You'll definitely need a weight belt or harness as well, standard set ups don't have weight pouches. Alternatively look at back inflate BCDs. Zeagle is a US brand I'm aware of that do some very good options. It can be simpler than trying to put a set up together, although just buying a package does that job too.
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Jul 4, 2019 07:52
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Kesper North posted:These the guys? That’s them!
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Jul 4, 2019 18:03
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MrNemo posted:If you're thinking for dry suit diving stainless is the way to go as you've got 3kg or so off your belt. The downside is you'll need something else for travel (more cost). Or you can just be stubborn as gently caress like me and travel with a 6lb steel plate in your luggage. Halcyon is great stuff but yes, you can absolutely do better on price.
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Jul 4, 2019 23:05
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MrYenko posted:I dive a Halcyon Infinity, which is anything but cheap, but is absolutely fantastic, and basically bulletproof. We are eventually replacing our jackets with Dive Rite TravelPacs. I have heard nothing but good about them..
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Jul 5, 2019 01:19
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ahhhHHH https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1150810908811255809
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Jul 17, 2019 18:49
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That jellyfish owns.
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Jul 20, 2019 05:01
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Sooo... a few weeks ago my wife and I pulled the trigger on a long term goal and moved to Bonaire. We both quit our corporate "career" jobs after 20 years and are now working in the dive industry. I don't miss it one bit so far :-). It was a massive logistical PITA to get here in 1 go with all our stuff and 2 dogs but it all ended up working out! I'm working as a DM for Dive Friends at the moment but will be doing the IDC in August to become an instructor and will be assisting in the photo dept. soon. I guided my first ever dive last week on Klein and got to show the group a seahorse... it was awesome to see how stoked everyone was but I still have a lot to learn about being an actual Divemaster and managing groups of divers. I can get friends and family discounts on diving, not quite sure what that is yet but if anyone is coming to Bonaire I can hook you up! Enjoy this fireworm: 
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Jul 20, 2019 19:32
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I’ll be there in October!  How are the lionfish down there? We kill plenty of them in FL, and I can’t see one without wanting to stab it now.
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Jul 20, 2019 20:39
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Icon Of Sin posted:I’ll be there in October! I'm from Fort Lauderdale and I say KILL 'EM ALL.
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Jul 20, 2019 21:07
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SuitcasePimp posted:Sooo... a few weeks ago my wife and I pulled the trigger on a long term goal and moved to Bonaire. We both quit our corporate "career" jobs after 20 years and are now working in the dive industry. I don't miss it one bit so far :-). It was a massive logistical PITA to get here in 1 go with all our stuff and 2 dogs but it all ended up working out! What neighborhood did you move to on the island? We most bought a house and two rental condos unit a few years ago, but my career isn’t quite over and working a couple more years will mean I can just retire instead. We are always look for property when we are on the island and almost bought a lot in Sabadeco last year. TLDR let me know how you like living on the island
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Jul 20, 2019 22:35
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Bonaire owns, did you buy a hilux yet? We were just there a couple months ago and got all our tanks at dive friends. We were at sand dollar for that trip and the house reef was good.
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Jul 21, 2019 03:57
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SuitcasePimp posted:Sooo... a few weeks ago my wife and I pulled the trigger on a long term goal and moved to Bonaire. We both quit our corporate "career" jobs after 20 years and are now working in the dive industry. I don't miss it one bit so far :-). It was a massive logistical PITA to get here in 1 go with all our stuff and 2 dogs but it all ended up working out! I did the same thing, except I'm in Koh Samui, Thailand. Cheers and welcome to the fold!
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Jul 22, 2019 02:50
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Ropes4u posted:What neighborhood did you move to on the island? We most bought a house and two rental condos unit a few years ago, but my career isn’t quite over and working a couple more years will mean I can just retire instead. We are always look for property when we are on the island and almost bought a lot in Sabadeco last year. We're renting a house in Hato for this year, which is just past the big oil tanks north of Capt. Dons/Hamlet Oasis area. It's a pretty quiet neighborhood with a lot of local people around. Living here is a little different than coming on vacation... the last couple of trips we took here we tried to test things out by cooking at home, seeing what we could buy and where, etc but there's still a lot of weird stuff to sort out on the fly. Things that are just kind of minor inconveniences in the states are monumentally annoying sometimes. Like to open a bank account you can't just go open one, at least at MCB. You have to make an appointment, and to make that appointment you have to wait in line. You want to do this because unless you already have a debit card on the Maestro network there are a lot of things you can't pay for with a card like utilities or residency application fees. Which means you have to go wait in ANOTHER line to pay with cash. Stuff like that you just have to roll with. Overall I really like it once you get some of the setup hassles out of the way. We lived in the Keys for 3 years so had some practice with island deprivation (avoided going to the mainland or Amazon for stuff) but this is way beyond that. You just get used to it and learn to live without things you may not REALLY need until you go back for a visit or someone brings it down. You can have stuff shipped but its expensive, slow, and unreliable. I would recommend to anyone moving to any island (or anywhere really) to rent for at least a year before buying anything. Real estate is extra illiquid and can be volatile so you don't want to get stuck with something you can't sell for years, or end up wishing you had bought something else after spending time actually living on the island.
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Jul 22, 2019 02:57
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let it mellow posted:Bonaire owns, did you buy a hilux yet? We were just there a couple months ago and got all our tanks at dive friends. We were at sand dollar for that trip and the house reef was good. Hey that's awesome I worked there today for the first time! I love that reef, it has the highest documented speciation of any site in the Tropical Western Atlantic. I think this is skewed because when REEF people come they all stay there, but it's still cool :-) We didn't buy a truck yet, we're renting one (probably for free) from this guy while he waits for the one he's going to sell us to get here through the DR. It's not a hilux but some lovely Chinese model that has a Toyota drivetrain. It's a cheap beater but should be reliable which is perfect for here. We'll probably get a smaller car or scooter for work/non-diving use since gas is expensive AF.
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Jul 22, 2019 03:02
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Icon Of Sin posted:I’ll be there in October! Awesome! Lionfish are around for sure, I see one or two every other dive but like in a lot of other places you have to go to out of the way sites or deep to really find a lot of them. They are hunted pretty heavily on the reefs, which is good. Don't bring your spear here because they're illegal to use. STINAPA only allows hunting with one of these, and they have to be registered, because they don't want everyone jacking up the corals with Hawaiian slings : https://stinapabonaire.org/education/lion-fish-on-bonaire/ You can sign up for a guided hunting dive with some of the shops and I think one even has a lion fish hunting cert offering. Note that even if you have this you still have to go hunting with a guide as a non-resident. I'll ask around and find out more about it. Who are you diving with here?
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Jul 22, 2019 03:14
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I’m not quite sure. Some friends of mine set up the trip, and I don’t have the exact details accessible right now. Those spears look pretty nifty. We only use Hawaiian slings at work, but I’m glad to know I won’t need to buy a spear and bring it down 🤣 We bring in 50-100 lionfish from Biscayne on the weeks we go out for them...they used to pull in a ton more, but hurricane Irma actually did us a solid in this single limited context. We still routinely pull in ones that are north of 40cm, so while the absolute numbers may have changed I don’t really think the size of them has changed at all. And the big ones just keep breeding... 
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Jul 22, 2019 03:30
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Yeah, our last trip to Bonaire we didn’t see many lion fish compared to 4 years ago or whenever it was we last went before this year. But that’s kinda meaningless because it’s great they are cleared up to even the 100’ max we went on a couple first dives (I was shark hunting on the flats), but they are still going nuts breeding much deeper. I’ve heard some of the eel and reef shark feeding is working but every time I’ve seen that in action, the eels and sharks learned that dead lion fish will be provided by divers, not that they should eat live ones.
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Jul 22, 2019 04:09
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let it mellow posted:I’ve heard some of the eel and reef shark feeding is working but every time I’ve seen that in action, the eels and sharks learned that dead lion fish will be provided by divers, not that they should eat live ones. To be fair, this is what I’ve learned about chickens, pigs, and cows.
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Jul 22, 2019 11:40
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Need to see if I can get some photos to share but I'm just back from Scapa flow diving on the remains of the German High Seas Fleet. Diving on a WW1 battleship is bloody impressive! We brought our club RIB up and dived off that but I would recommend any sane person to book a space on one of the hard boats since we typically started at 7am and didn't finish diving until 8pm. The dives: Scapa flow was where the 78 boats of the German High Seas Fleet were interned at the end of the Great War. They were kept with skeleton crews for about a year as negotiations dragged on. Finally the commanding German officer, worried that the British would demand all or part of the fleet as reparations ordered all crews to scuttle their vessels. Over the course of that day all 78 were sent to the bottom where they proved a pain for the Royal navy, presenting a lot of navigation hazards in their home base. Salvage operations were launched and have run intermittently over the last 100 years until today where there are 7 major wrecks remaining (and a number of other wrecks including a German WW2 boat and a couple of British ones now designated as war graves). These wrecks are 3 light cruisers (the Karlsruhe, the Dresden and Brümer) and 4 König class battle ships (the König, Kronprinz, Markgraf and Coln). The cruisers are relatively shallow, 24-36m ranges on them and are in a variety of states. The Karlsruhe has a pretty much intact structure and still has most of its deck guns. The battleships are all upside down (due to being top heavy what with the massive loving cannons on top) and makes diving on them initially less impressive. However they are enormous and going along the sea bed, you can get 'under' the main deck. In the case of the Kronprinz the main guns are still intact. These are seriously massive things, if you've dived on a really big wreck imagine something on the scale of a main drive shaft only there are 2 of them and they were used to lob gigantic bombs miles away. We managed to dive once on each but I could easily imagine spending a week diving on one of those battleships every day and just starting to feel I knew the overall shape and structure. If you like diving metal I cannot imagine a better site (apart from the absolute ball ache getting there)
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Jul 22, 2019 18:01
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SuitcasePimp posted:We're renting a house in Hato for this year, which is just past the big oil tanks north of Capt. Dons/Hamlet Oasis area. It's a pretty quiet neighborhood with a lot of local people around. Living here is a little different than coming on vacation... the last couple of trips we took here we tried to test things out by cooking at home, seeing what we could buy and where, etc but there's still a lot of weird stuff to sort out on the fly. Things that are just kind of minor inconveniences in the states are monumentally annoying sometimes. Like to open a bank account you can't just go open one, at least at MCB. You have to make an appointment, and to make that appointment you have to wait in line. You want to do this because unless you already have a debit card on the Maestro network there are a lot of things you can't pay for with a card like utilities or residency application fees. Which means you have to go wait in ANOTHER line to pay with cash. Stuff like that you just have to roll with. Thank you for the information. Keep us posted on how you like living on the island. Our "friends" who live in Bonaire, the people we rent from, wouldn't go back to Europe for anything.
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Jul 23, 2019 02:07
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Anyone in Bonaire/anyone who's been there before: I've heard about a dive site at a place called the Salt Pier. I've heard its a good spot, but can only be done when there's no large ships nearby? Is there a tracker or something to know when the site would be divable?
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Aug 2, 2019 02:33
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| # ? May 27, 2024 14:53 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:Anyone in Bonaire/anyone who's been there before: I've heard about a dive site at a place called the Salt Pier. I've heard its a good spot, but can only be done when there's no large ships nearby? Is there a tracker or something to know when the site would be divable? A fair number of people here have been, one goon lives there now, and the pier Is open most days of the week.
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Aug 2, 2019 02:54
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