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Trivia posted:I also typically carry a lot of poo poo so wonder if lack of pockets will be a hindrance. I have pockets on my wetsuits and drysuits, and love them. The outer thigh is a much better spot for a pocket than a BCD. Scubapro sells glue on wetsuit pockets that work pretty well. Some people like the shorts with pockets that you put over your suit, but they shift around and fall down for me
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Feb 2, 2020 18:31
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| # ? May 12, 2024 16:28 |
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Some people like the shorts with pockets that you put over your suit, but they shift around and fall down for me I just saw these for the first time like 2 weeks ago, they look super handy. Too bad I won’t be a working diver after this month, otherwise I’d invest in a pair. (I’m changing jobs and going back to fun diving only  )
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Feb 2, 2020 19:01
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I don't find staying upright on the surface to be any more annoying with a wing. But I also use a dry suit almost exclusively.
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Feb 2, 2020 19:17
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Changing gears for a sec, the USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary published a bunch of wreck slates like this one for their sanctuary wrecks.   There are 2 more u-boats in the mix, along with a British trawler-turned anti-submarine ship, some cargo ships, and a couple of others. Anyone interested in seeing those?
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Feb 2, 2020 22:24
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Post all the slates...
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Feb 2, 2020 23:02
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Icon Of Sin posted:Changing gears for a sec, the USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary published a bunch of wreck slates like this one for their sanctuary wrecks. Yeah those are sweet. Wing BC 4 lyfe. In my ongoing Zoop saga they replaced it with a Zoop Novo for about 50% off retail. Seemed good, anyone use the Novo?
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Feb 3, 2020 00:20
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Ropes4u posted:Post all the slates... For completion's sake/having every slate in the same post...                 A while back, they had a post on their fb page where they'd send these out for free, to anyone that wanted a set. These wrecks all lie between Cape Lookout and Bodie Island, but these are just the divable ones; U-576 sits in like 700ft of water, and there are a bunch more in that depth (or deeper). e: the U-85 slate fails to mention that the sub was delivering spies to US shores. When the USS Roper went to look for survivors they found bodies in civilian clothes mixed in with the uniformed sailors, and those in civilian clothes had fake american documents, american money, and the sub was picked up on sonar while it was within visual range of the Bodie Island lighthouse. Subs don't go that close unless they're trying to deliver something to shore, their main defense is going deep and hiding...and there's barely any water for a sub to hide in there. Icon Of Sin fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Feb 3, 2020 |
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Feb 3, 2020 01:37
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Collateral Damage posted:I don't find staying upright on the surface to be any more annoying with a wing. But I also use a dry suit almost exclusively. Do you wear ankle weights? Do you do most of your buoyancy compensating with the drysuit, the BC, or a combination thereof? With my nighthawk, whether I'm in fresh or salt, thick suit or a rashguard, the natural position for me at the surface is face down in the water. It doesn't take much effort to keep up right, but I have to keep gently kicking. This is one of the reasons I've gone back to wearing my snorkel on boat dives on vacation: you never know how long you are going to sitting on the surface waiting for someone's equipment issues and/or newbie trauma, so I might as well relax and stick my face in the water.
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Feb 3, 2020 04:45
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I dive with a wing and dry suit typically and I find it's very easy to lie face up at the surface. The natural inclination is definitely horizontal but face up or down seem pretty equal. When I first started diving with a wing I had one that had way, way too much lift capacity. The only really good thing about it was when fully inflated at the surface it was like lying on an air bed.
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Feb 3, 2020 10:30
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I took a look at this used Mares Bolt. It's essentially brand new and the guy is selling it for a little over 200 bucks. I'd have to buy shorts with pockets but that's no biggie really. I'm going to see if I can't try out a coworkers wing to get a feel before I purchase. My only concern is maintenance. But I suppose if it's nearly new I won't REALLY have to worry much.
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Feb 3, 2020 13:25
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I found my first giant pacific octopus today! Vis was pretty bad so I didn't see it until we were pretty close. It was monstrous  Only a few feet away, in another cavity of the same rock pile, a great big lingcod was guarding its egg cluster.
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Feb 9, 2020 04:06
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Electoral Surgery posted:I found my first giant pacific octopus today! Vis was pretty bad so I didn't see it until we were pretty close. It was monstrous Yay! GPOs are the best. Sounds like you're in the PNW?
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Feb 9, 2020 04:29
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Gonna be in Oaxaca and then Cuba with my girl in May. She's never been diving so I'd like to sign her up for a discover scuba like class and take her on an easy/high vis/shallow dive. Any suggestions?
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Feb 10, 2020 16:22
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Get a rash guard. If she hates it you can still use it when you're in the water, and it's better than all that sunblock getting on the reef.
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Feb 10, 2020 16:53
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Collateral Damage posted:I don't find staying upright on the surface to be any more annoying with a wing. But I also use a dry suit almost exclusively. I dive a plate/wing, but never with more than a 3mm wetsuit, and frequently with just board shorts and a rashguard. I trim so that at the surface, the water is about halfway up my mask, and just stay on the regulator until the group is ready to descend. If I’m waiting for the boat, I just stay on the regulator. Even 500psi lasts a LONG TIME at or near the surface. I do get a lot of weird looks, but gently caress em, it’s more comfortable than bobbing on the surface; Especially when the swells are up past two or three feet. In fact, a lot of the time, we’ll prebrief the group (if applicable,) that my girl and I will just go to ten feet or so on the down line and wait for them there. It’s way better than getting the poo poo kicked out of you while someone sorts their gear out. I do carry a folding travel snorkel, but I don’t think I’ve ever taken it out. It’s an emergency item, as far as I’m concerned. If I’m shore diving with a surface swim, I bring a standard snorkel. If you’ve never used a wing, try it. You won’t wanna go back. (Instructing or taking a class with a wing is probably a pain, though. That’s the one place where I think jackets reign supreme.)
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Feb 10, 2020 18:29
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MrYenko posted:
What should I know before buying a bp/w? I mostly dive dry suit in cold water with 32lbs of weight, my biggest concern is getting that much onto a bp/w harness. A steel plate and STA doesn't get me past 10lb. Most companies that sell bp/w setups have a stripped-down single 2" webbing harness and another model with more padding, buckles, and cinches: exhibit a exhibit b Do you have a recommendation between the two styles?
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Feb 14, 2020 06:34
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I'm also looking into a wing BCD. Any recommendations would be good. Trouble is though that I really only have easy access to Aqualung and ScubaPro retailers.
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Feb 14, 2020 10:41
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Electoral Surgery posted:What should I know before buying a bp/w? I mostly dive dry suit in cold water with 32lbs of weight, my biggest concern is getting that much onto a bp/w harness. A steel plate and STA doesn't get me past 10lb. I dive dry suit in cold water too and just made the switch last year. I actually ended up getting this Hollis HTS2 thing for a few reasons:
edit: The glaring downside is that it's waaaay more expensive. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone gets into scuba diving because it's cheap 
plester1 fucked around with this message at 11:20 on Feb 14, 2020 |
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Feb 14, 2020 11:17
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For single cylinders I dive an Oxycheq wing and SS backplate with a single piece harness. It's more or less DIR style and for twin set diving I have an IST wing I bought off eBay for cheap that I just swap on. My recommendation would be to get something basic, not because it's cheaper but just because I found it felt much less constrained in the water. General tips: make isn't so crucial, if you're going the basic route a lot of different ones are halcyon clones and so more or less all interchangeable. Don't get one with way too much lift. There's a reason to use a smaller wing for diving singles, it's less material flapping about and less air migration going on. Weighting wise, I definitely found my weighting needs went down by more than just the amount I moved the backplate. I think maybe there was less air trapped due to less material or something.
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Feb 15, 2020 11:29
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Electoral Surgery posted:What should I know before buying a bp/w? I mostly dive dry suit in cold water with 32lbs of weight, my biggest concern is getting that much onto a bp/w harness. A steel plate and STA doesn't get me past 10lb. If you strictly boat dive, you can absolutely get by with just the webbing harness. Simple does have it's perks. Where the padding is going to pay off is any time you have to wear the thing out of the water standing up for more than a minute or two at a time. Long lines to get in the water on bigger dive boats, shore dives, etc. In the water, you stop noticing the padding. I dive one of these, with the integrated weights, and a pair of trim pockets around the top tank strap. That's not going to get you close to 32lbs of weight, but you can also forgo the integrated weights and just wear an old-school weight belt with an arbitrary amount of lead. (I had to do exactly that when I left my weight pockets at home on a Hawaii vacation.) Getting the belt on is an extra step, but not a big deal. I've had a couple people comment that it has an awful lot of undroppable weight (the plate is ~6lbs and the STA is ~6lbs, and I carry 2lbs of trim weight,) but even just ditching the droppable weight, I head to the surface right quick and in a hurry, even in fresh water. MrNemo's advice one post up is excellent. I got my rig as a relatively young diver, on my (extremely experienced) better half's advice, since I knew I was going to use it a lot. If I were going to do it again, I'd probably find something more like a Dive Rite or similar, and save $400. That said, my gear might very well outlive ME, computer notwithstanding. poo poo is heavy loving duty. All of my diving thus far has been in relatively warm water, though. Never in more than a 4/3 wetsuit, frequently (much) less than that.
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Feb 15, 2020 15:10
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I dive a wing and dry suit and don’t have any droppable weights. I was concerned about this at first but diving dry means if you disconnect my harness/wing I’ll be shooting to the surface anyway. My dive shop were happy with this approach.
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Feb 16, 2020 23:37
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"Shoot to the surface if you have a problem" is a really bad thing to teach anyway. The sooner you learn to solve the problem under water instead of giving yourself the bends the better.
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Feb 17, 2020 05:05
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MrYenko posted:If you strictly boat dive, you can absolutely get by with just the webbing harness. Simple does have it's perks. Where the padding is going to pay off is any time you have to wear the thing out of the water standing up for more than a minute or two at a time. Long lines to get in the water on bigger dive boats, shore dives, etc. In the water, you stop noticing the padding. Yeah, I forgot to mention this when I brought up the padding. I almost exclusively shore dive, and some of those hikes from the parking lot are grueling when loaded up
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Feb 17, 2020 09:18
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Collateral Damage posted:"Shoot to the surface if you have a problem" is a really bad thing
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Feb 19, 2020 05:07
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One of my close friends is a technical diving instructor and tells me one of the biggest hurdles with people new to advanced diving is making them unlearn all the bullshit they've been taught by PADI.
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Mar 1, 2020 17:25
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Collateral Damage posted:One of my close friends is a technical diving instructor and tells me one of the biggest hurdles with people new to advanced diving is making them unlearn all the bullshit they've been taught by PADI. PADI especially? As far as I can tell SSI/NAUI/PADI are all kinda interchange
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Mar 1, 2020 18:07
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Collateral Damage posted:One of my close friends is a technical diving instructor and tells me one of the biggest hurdles with people new to advanced diving is making them unlearn all the bullshit they've been taught by PADI. Now I want examples.
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Mar 2, 2020 10:07
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Collateral Damage posted:One of my close friends is a technical diving instructor and tells me one of the biggest hurdles with people new to advanced diving is making them unlearn all the bullshit they've been taught by PADI. I’m a PADI rescue cert and would love to know what the bullshit is, so I don’t accidentally kill someone when I dive
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Mar 7, 2020 06:16
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let it mellow posted:I'm a PADI rescue cert and would love to know what the bullshit is, so I don’t accidentally kill someone when I dive I don't have experience with SSI/NAUI so I don't know if they teach the same thing.
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Mar 8, 2020 17:32
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Collateral Damage posted:Mainly the "drop your weights and swim to the surface" nonsense. While it may be "safe" in some situations, it's a bad thing to teach because it's something you have to unlearn when you get into deeper/advanced diving. And if you get into an emergency at 40m you don't want your lizard brain telling you to shoot to the surface. Teach proper buddy technique from the beginning. They don't teach this? They make it very clear that a buyoant emergency ascent is a last resort, basically as an alternative to drowning, and is explicitly not safe. Wikipedia seems to indicate the procedure is the standard last resort across multiple agencies based on an agreement in the 70s.
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Mar 10, 2020 04:44
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Another vote for BP and wing. I use a simple dive rite setup with a single tank adapter. Usually temperate water with 7mm wetsuit and have no issues on the surface. Setup is just light enough to take dive travelling - whole kit comes in around 23kg including a few clothes/personal items enough for a couple of weeks on a live aboard or dive hotel. I’m a bit light on for pockets but it’s generally way more comfortable than regular bcd. One unrelated issue that I have come across recently is that occasionally I get problems clearing my ears while ascending (never have any issues descending). It usually just gives me a few seconds of vertigo like lightheadedness, but very occasionally it lasts longer. The worst was during a low light crevice dive ( but not full overhead), we came up over a small ridge and then got the vertigo feeling for what felt like 30+ seconds. had a mild panic attack and had to fight to not try and bolt for it. Managed to come right and continue the dive, but it seems to have given me a bit of claustrophobia, to the point I recently ended up thumbing a dive right at the start of what was supposed to have been a ~150m swim through cave. Sucks cause I’ve done the dive a bunch of times and it’s a really great dive. poo poo sucks man .
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Mar 10, 2020 12:31
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Sticko posted:One unrelated issue that I have come across recently is that occasionally I get problems clearing my ears while ascending (never have any issues descending). It usually just gives me a few seconds of vertigo like lightheadedness, but very occasionally it lasts longer. The worst was during a low light crevice dive ( but not full overhead), we came up over a small ridge and then got the vertigo feeling for what felt like 30+ seconds. had a mild panic attack and had to fight to not try and bolt for it. Managed to come right and continue the dive, but it seems to have given me a bit of claustrophobia, to the point I recently ended up thumbing a dive right at the start of what was supposed to have been a ~150m swim through cave. Sucks cause I’ve done the dive a bunch of times and it’s a really great dive. poo poo sucks man Go see an ENT doc, preferably one with experience treating divers. Vertigo underwater is no loving good at all.
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Mar 10, 2020 17:26
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asur posted:They don't teach this? They make it very clear that a buyoant emergency ascent is a last resort, basically as an alternative to drowning, and is explicitly not safe. Wikipedia seems to indicate the procedure is the standard last resort across multiple agencies based on an agreement in the 70s. It's frustrating how much of being a tech diver seems to be about looking down ones nose. Or maybe I'm just bitter because I can't seem to get a tech pass.
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Mar 10, 2020 20:58
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I’m from Fort Lauderdale, and I say KILL EM ALL
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Mar 11, 2020 02:34
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Christ, we could’ve used one of those in south FL. Sure, you can barely find one in Key Largo because they’ve all got a death warrant out for them, but moving just a touch north to Biscayne and we’d come back with at least 50 (and up to 70) of the fuckers from 4 dives to ~80ft. One day we pulled nearly 40 of the little bastards from a wrecked pontoon boat in 12ft of water, just off Boca Chita (inside the bay). What I’m really doing is asking for help, because my old team doesn’t have enough divers to go out and get them all
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Mar 11, 2020 03:23
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Icon Of Sin posted:Christ, we could’ve used one of those in south FL. Sure, you can barely find one in Key Largo because they’ve all got a death warrant out for them, but moving just a touch north to Biscayne and we’d come back with at least 50 (and up to 70) of the fuckers from 4 dives to ~80ft. One day we pulled nearly 40 of the little bastards from a wrecked pontoon boat in 12ft of water, just off Boca Chita (inside the bay). Hit me up, I’m available Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  That Spearbot is actually a really awesome development, since it can work down to 1000’, and help clean up the deep wrecks and walls that aren’t swarming with divers that thirst for lionfish flesh. I hope they can simplify it and make it cheap enough to build in some numbers.
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Mar 11, 2020 16:07
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I don’t live there anymore, thankfully. I moved up to the outer banks, so I’ll still probably see them up there at some point  A buddy of mine spied one on the Hyde (off Wilmington, NC) and word is there’s a derby planned for some of the wrecks closer to Morehead City “sometime this summer”. I’m getting in on the fun if that comes to pass 
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Mar 11, 2020 16:35
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Collateral Damage posted:Mainly the "drop your weights and swim to the surface" nonsense. While it may be "safe" in some situations, it's a bad thing to teach because it's something you have to unlearn when you get into deeper/advanced diving. And if you get into an emergency at 40m you don't want your lizard brain telling you to shoot to the surface. Teach proper buddy technique from the beginning. Cool, but I’m trying to remember when PADI told me to do an emergency ascent from 133 feet or whatever 40m equates to. And I don’t remember that. So.... where’s the bullshit?
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Mar 13, 2020 04:32
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Icon Of Sin posted:Christ, we could’ve used one of those in south FL. Sure, you can barely find one in Key Largo because they’ve all got a death warrant out for them, but moving just a touch north to Biscayne and we’d come back with at least 50 (and up to 70) of the fuckers from 4 dives to ~80ft. One day we pulled nearly 40 of the little bastards from a wrecked pontoon boat in 12ft of water, just off Boca Chita (inside the bay). I moved to Jupiter recently, happy to kill lionfish
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Mar 13, 2020 04:34
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One upside to the current pandemic is that bonaire isn’t crowded.
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Mar 15, 2020 22:27
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