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Crunkjuice posted:I didn't think you could do enriched air for AOW since it doesn't actually require you to do any dives. You have to do Deep and Nav dives required and you get to pick your other 3. Good ones to get some skills are search/recovery, peak performance buoyancy (if you need it), photography, night. Cavern would be pretty cool experience wise. Yeah, we're doing deep and nav of course. PADI's site said enriched was just an extra charge, so we were fine with that. PPB is one I vacillate on. Is that really worth it if you have generally good buoyancy control?
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May 11, 2013 05:02
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Thanks Crunkjuice and pupdive! We've got 35 dives logged plus a few we forgot to log/stamp, so it isn't our first one post OW. I am going to look more into the enriched dive and see if it gets nitrox. Here is what PADI has to say about the most popular AOW courses:quote:These include Night Diver, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Wreck Diver, Boat Diver and Underwater Naturalist I'm up for letting the instructor pick, but not if it will include boat diver and now i think wreck diver is off the list based on the fact that its just outside a wreck... I sent an email off to the shop, so we'll see what they say.
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May 11, 2013 15:07
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We're committed on our AOW next week in St. Lucia, and there was a limited set of elective dives we could do, so we are doing Aware Fish ID, PPB, and wreck. The other two possibles were drift and boat, both of which we have done a lot of so this seemed like the best option. I know wreck probably won't be anything special, since we've been through several wrecks (including an airplane in Turks and Caicos), but it was better than boat and drift. Anyway, looking forward to adding a cert! Deep dive seems like a thing we've done with wall dives in Bimini and Turks and Caicos, but cool. Navigation will be good since we know compass and landmark navigation, but I am looking forward to learning current/tide navigation. And as dumb as this sounds, fish ID is the one I am most excited about. I love seeing all the reef life and hate that I end up googling what they are with stupid rear end search terms.
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May 20, 2013 01:45
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Sounds like fun to me! This is a thing I need to do for DM right? Looking forward to it.
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May 20, 2013 01:54
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Less fighting, more diving and photographing! Have an album with the 38 best pictures we took from our 8 dives in St Lucia (also we are both AOW now) over the past week: http://imgur.com/a/msJii And some highlight pictures: There were lots of spotted eels.  Vibrant and colorful reefs:   Near the Pitons, this resort is ridiculously expensive and each room has its own infinity pool apparently. That wasn't where we stayed, FYI.  Mrs jackyl going through Devil's Arch  And its just as impressive going through it, also shallow enough for red shift to not be an issue.  Lots and lots of trumpet fish and spider crabs:   Us at the Lesleen M and I don't think she's throwing up a gang sign, but maybe?  I only included this piture because my camera batteries died immediately after I took it, and we were like 6 minutes into a shallow dive, so you know what that means, right? loving amazing dive coming up. I had no idea. Almost immediately after taking it, the first thing I saw was a spotted moray and lobster hanging out like 6 inches from each other...  ... then my wife finds a large starfish, we see a bunch of large crabs then the DM starts doing some crazy sign I hadn't seen before and I was thinking "what the hell, it looks like she is riding a horse??? OH HOLY poo poo" And yeah, a seahorse just chilling in about 15 feet of water that was probably a good 4 inches or more long. Then some flounders and large eels and lobsters and why didn't we charge the camera the night before? We did get another shot at starfish, but these were smaller and note out in the wide open, so the picture isn't as good. also I didn't even see this, she did and took the picture but couldn't get my attention in time before we drifted past it.   More spiders  And a friendly turtle mentioned in the dive briefing. One for scale and one for how close you could get:   How could I not take this picture?  And the last underwater picture I took. Also probably the best lobster picture I have taken or ever will take! 
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May 31, 2013 20:59
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SaNChEzZ posted:So jealous. The only place I've ever seen coral banded shrimp and sally lightfoot crabs is in the local fish store Gonna go ahead and leave my idiocy there for the world to see, but thanks for the correction! We both talked about working on our fish ID, and we have that section of the AOW book, but I think it only comes with practice, practice, practice.
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May 31, 2013 21:32
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Being narced is weird. I didn't feel it in that idiotic Bimini wall dive I posted about in early May (where we stayed the shallowest at 137, and the other three, including DM, went to 170+), but I am sure it happened. I mean, I've been rock steady for a while now on buoyancy but was a disaster trying to do that and a couple stupid drills at 110 in St. Lucia doing our AOW. It rammed it home when we were playing pass the weights games at like 40' for PPB and I didn't move, yet once you put a slate in my hand at depth and ask me to trace 1-20, I forget how to stay in one spot? Apparently!
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Jun 11, 2013 01:27
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Hey, y'all, do me a favor. We have tickets to Belize in December, which is why we did our AOW recently, since we read some places require that for the Blue Hole. We are stoked about doing the Blue Hole, but now we want some advice on where to stay there. Ambergris? Caulker? Somewhere else? Help!
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Jun 17, 2013 02:11
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Thanks macado! We have zero issues with either large resorts or small island hotels, since we've done both and will do both again happily. We thought about doing Ambergris for a few days with diving, then going to Coppala for a few days to do the rainforest thing, then back to Ambergris for a few days for more diving. But, our last trip to St. Lucia reminded us exactly what a rain forest is, and that made us start thinking we might be better off with something like Caulker for the entire trip, especially since a lot of the best dive sites appear remote.
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Jun 17, 2013 02:53
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Bishop posted:I hot dropped the northern light today and drifted almost 5 miles on deco. Max depth 195. And my bottom gas was air. I was expecting some I agree, I wanted to feel narced when we intentionally went deep. The manual tells me I will feel drunk or  , but I just felt bored. 
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Jun 17, 2013 03:45
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Gindack posted:Did my first 3 open water dives this Sunday and it was infinitely better and I was way more comfortable than in the pool. Didn't see much except for a small perch. I have the Seahawk instead of the Knighthawk, but Air2 owns and you definitely want that, just make sure your buddy is aware of the differences between it and a regular second. Also work out emergency procedures - my wife has Air2 as well, and we practiced hand offs of primary with switch to secondary, hand offs of secondary and the maneuverability loss with that, etc. With a new buddy, just figure one of the two out. Second, make sure your integrated weight pouches (trim and main) and buckles are in good shape. They probably will be, since the buckle setup is nice on the Seahawk and appears the same on the Knighthawk, but look at it anyway. Next, because it is integrated weight, look at your cargo pocket capacity - and don't look at it empty, put whatever weight you'd normally put in the pocket and then see if that is acceptable or if it would screw with a slate, camera, or whatever you plan on sticking in your pocket. It is a solid choice overall, I think, but I'm somewhat biased. Of course check for fit, condition, and make sure it is fully serviced prior to purchase. E: I forgot to talk about what to look for with a reg. Check mouthpiece condition / fit, check breathing comfort, check its rating for whatever temps you plan to dive, test both stages and make sure it is serviced. For used gear, see if you can talk them into a one year anniversary free service or something. Then if you notice anything, it should get covered. let it mellow fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 18, 2013 23:21
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Gindack posted:
This may have been answered by someone better than me, but as a diver who had consumption issues for a bit til I figured it out, here's the thought that made me start getting it. Yes, you never stop breathing, but there is no rule about your breathing rate. That means exhale slowly and smoothly, inhale slowly and smoothly. So, to your question, for a cesa, break the inhale rule, then trickle your exhale - you were sending a ton of oxygen in addition to carbon dioxide in those bubbles when you were ascending. Don't treat it like a pool ascent, treat it like there are two things in the world your life depends on (and it does): 1: how slowly you can exhale 2: how consistently you can exhale Balance those and you'll be doing good. That's how I look at it, at least E: and gently caress a bunch of shark abusers. I wanna go on that dive and grab their regs and see how they like it.
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Jun 20, 2013 02:00
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Y'all have no idea, or maybe you do, how many loving times we've watched idiots run out of air on Caribbean dives. On my last set of pictures, take the dive with the big rear end turtle. Some loving idiot took their fins off because (when I asked post dive, since I spent valuable air sprinting to the, to see if they needed something) "my feet were hurting with them". Then that person didn't bother to tell anyone except they were at like 300 halfway through the stop. In Aruba last year, there was a brother/sister pair that, while they didn't take off their fins and kick hard to keep up with everyone, were just loving idiots about consumption. Every loving dive, and we did probably 3 2-tank dive days with them, one of the two of them hosed up and required a DM to lock hands and hand over the second stage. How are you so oblivious? This can kill you and it will be your own goddamn fault. Seeing this idiocy just gives me a ton of respect for you instructors and DMs, because holy loving poo poo.
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Jun 20, 2013 02:32
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I didn't mean to start a problem, everything I've seen on a guided dive has been tell the closest DM when you're at half gas and then they know when to start ascending and/or split the group, depending on DMs, skill level, etc. And earlier on, we were the ones making a T when we hit 1500, then doing the ascent and stop ourselves - my post earlier was more about the people that get sub 500 and act like its no big deal. That's what blows my mind, since it is incredibly ignorant of the dangers a large body of water holds. Also you're underneath that body of water. e: and I agree that the issue is people getting used to guided dives - look at the Bimini dive I posted about earlier with assholes dropping to 170 on a single tank of air. e2: no offense, Bishop, that was a different ball game than what you do let it mellow fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 04:45
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Crunkjuice posted:Oh god my schedule. Discover scuba 7-10 tonight. Open water 7-1 sat/sunday, discover classes 2-4, 5-7, 8-10 saturday and sunday. Good news is, the discover classes are 10 students a pop. and i'm making 30 bucks a student. God i love country clubs. Wait, some country clubs have diving? I live entirely too far north apparently. No diving at my club except when we gambled on how many balls one of those reclaimed ball companies pulled out of 18's pond. It was like 10k which is amazing and made me realize that business is viable.
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Jun 22, 2013 04:50
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Here's an interesting article on the lionfish problem.quote:I got to witness the unfathomable number of lionfish firsthand when I dove with the crew of Discovery Diving, a local scuba shop, to compete in North Carolina’s inaugural lionfish derby. I’ve never seen so many lionfish in my life. I didn’t get more than 20 yards from my starting point before I saw hundreds—literally, hundreds. My spear couldn’t fly fast enough to catch them all. On the last day of the tournament, a six-diver team bagged 167 lionfish from one site in two dives, and they didn’t even make a dent in the population on that wreck site. That is amazing. I haven't seen anything like that in Caribbean, but they are still a common enough sight as is killing them and trying to feed them to eels (which I've heard described (maybe even here??) as a dubious strategy, since all it teaches the eels is that a nice diver will bring a dead lionfish to you for dinner). But the numbers thrown around in this article are mind-boggling, especially with the amount they eat and the impact that has on the reefs they move into. Guess its time to join the hunt next time I go south to dive.
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Jul 1, 2013 17:50
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We're gonna be in Hawks Cay for Labor Day weekend, hopefully this Keys trip won't get hurricane wrecked like last year's. I've also heard great things about Hawk's Cay, so I'm ready to  Now I have to decide if I'm going to upgrade camera equipment prior to this. 
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Jul 9, 2013 21:49
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Oh poo poo, tell me about Belize. We will be there in December for 10 days on Skymiles tickets, but haven't picked a place to stay or a dive shop yet. We are doing the Blue Hole of course, thats why we did our AOW last month, but that is all we know so far. Please give us recommendations!
let it mellow fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Jul 10, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 02:49
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Unimpressed posted:Is breathing well something you can learn or does it just come from experience? Are there certain techniques or other things you can concentrate on to improve faster? Yes, you can learn it, but you have to do it after learning. Here is what got me over the hump: yeah, you never stop breathing, but there is no rule about your breathing volume. So, don't hold your breath, of course, but that doesn't mean you can't spend 15 seconds inhaling and 30 exhaling. Don't mistake "always breathe" for "make sure you breathe constantly, deeply and quickly". Constantly, yes. Deeply, yes. Quickly, no.
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Jul 12, 2013 03:17
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Oh gently caress yeah, it's almost time to do a thing again. End of the month, we'll be in Hawks's Cay for a couple days, then Key West for a couple days. Anyone have a Key West shop recommendation? The shop we've used before up and moved north.
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Aug 8, 2013 01:47
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Right on, thanks to both of you. I can't wait to get back in the water. E: if you have any comments on Hawks Cay sites, that's cool too! let it mellow fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 03:43
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I saw a mermaid fin when we dove the Denver aquarium. Every 15 or 20 minutes the divers had to go sit in the corner while there was a mermaid show. Getting ready to go play in a golf tournament, but I'll post a few pictures later today.
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Aug 10, 2013 12:56
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So its impossible that I only have one mermaid picture. Gonna go ahead and say that Mrs jackyl must have edited this roll before I copied it.  Here's me doing a thing (gear was forced, aquariums require you to use theirs).  What up?    And then after we dove the aquarium, we watched Peyton hammerfuck the Steelers in his first game as a Bronco. Moreno ran a TD right after this picture. 
let it mellow fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Aug 11, 2013 |
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Aug 11, 2013 00:44
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Yes, you should.
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Aug 11, 2013 05:38
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rockcity posted:I'd personally look for a back inflate style BCD. Having used both a jacket style and back inflate style, I vastly prefer the back inflate. It's a lot easier to stay flat and level underwater with them. Also weight integrated is a big plus if you can find it. Everything in this post is right. Plus you want trim pockets, and make sure your integrated weights are buckles and not something proprietary. Also modified bike kick 4 lyfe. And I need advice. Is a go pro better than a point and shoot? We are two weeks away from the Keys and a few months from Belize and the Blue Hole. If I'm going to take a gopro to the blue hole I want to practice with it first. So tell me... What camera do I want? E: guess I should get a gopro so we can critique my technique. That would actually own. Do I need a red filter? I'm thinking yes. let it mellow fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 03:22
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Crunkjuice posted:I disagree with this. It should be a very quick explanation to your dive buddy during your predive safety check about your weights. As long as its quick release of some sort, it will be fine. Sometimes proprietary integrated weight systems are faster than those with buckles. zeagle rip cord system. also, their trim weight pockets are dumpable too So, a major proprietary integrated weight system that my my wife and I almost bought had a recall. A goon LDS owner pointed us to another system and that was a good call by him. We dove with a couple that had that system in our Turks and Caicos trip; they had a replacement coming after the trip but had no idea what format it would take and had to hold their main weights in when slowing down or taking a negative attitude. I know you are more experienced than me, but I still say take the tried buckles over that system. I suppose the single plastic clicker is nice, but when it fails.... Oh, got it. sure lock let it mellow fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 03:47
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So it was the same thing that we wee thinking of, and that couple regretted ever buying it. Funny thing is that I was enamored by the i3, my wife thought it was just a fad, so nope. Good job by her! E:^^^. Yeah they do, but I'm more worried about red shift and strobe. E2: also focus in a thing like the blue hole let it mellow fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 04:01
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So..... GoPros are good for video, I get that. However, I want to start taking better still pictures underwater and I don't think a GoPro will do it, based on what I've read. What do I buy? We're diving the Keys next week and I would love to dry run something before the blue hole trip.
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Aug 23, 2013 03:49
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Cru Jones posted:Olympus is going through a lot of hardware refreshes and I scored an Olympus E-PL1 and Housing for 399 combined a while back. I saw a similar deal on one of their Pen Minis not too long ago as well. Awesome, thanks. This looks really attractive, but the strobe is.... $600? Is that really what they cost?
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Aug 26, 2013 03:50
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Cru Jones posted:Sad face, depends on what you're looking for. You could get some manual strobes that go for way less. But now we're getting out of my depth. Started to get into photography a couple years ago, and just making the transition to the underwater world. Yeah, I knew upgrading from my point and shoot wasn't going to be cheap, but I got all fired up when I saw your post and then I looked up the strobe and holy poo poo! It was more than the camera and housing. I did some digging and there may be a couple more options.
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Aug 28, 2013 02:19
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Just finished packing our gear and we land in EYW tomorrow evening! More pictures coming in a week or so.
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Aug 30, 2013 03:40
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Nothing about handling the sites flora and fauna? Shame on you for overlooking that. Also pick up all the aluminum cans you can find since eventually you can find a postal worker to take you to a recycling plant. Also it cleans up the habitat for the aforementioned flora and fauna.
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Sep 26, 2013 03:42
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LegatusP posted:I've been diving for about two years now (really on and off though), and I've always noticed that I'm a total air pig. Anyone got some tips on how to minimize air consumption? Yeah, the number one rule in diving you learned was what? Never stop breathing, right? That's true, never stop breathing. But that rule says nothing at all about breath cycles. Pay attention to how you are breathing now; edit: now like while you read this post. Stop and think about it for a moment. You're probably breathing veto shallow - 2-3 seconds in, 2-3 out a and not much air is being exchanged, right? Now, how do you breathe with a tank and a reg? If you're like me early on, you are exaggerating every inhale and exhale. Time to start slowing it all down. You aren't working hard underwater since you've established neutral buoyancy, so why breathe fast and shallow? Breathe slowly and carefully; the first solves consumption while the latter helps with buoyancy. Monitor your breath cycles and watch both your consumption and buoyancy improve.
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Oct 3, 2013 04:54
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Crunkjuice posted:I'm pretty sure the golden rule of scuba is never embarrass your divemaster. The whole, "never hold your breath" is also a pretty good idea i guess. Yeah, good point! DMs own and I wish you guys nothing but the best. Sorry if I said a thing that is wrong since I'm a total rookie with only like 50 dives that are all Caribbean vacation dives. I was just trying to get across the light bulb moment for us that changed our consumption completely.
let it mellow fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Oct 4, 2013 |
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Oct 4, 2013 03:58
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We're a couple weeks out from Belize and the Blue Hole, but I've got a problem. We've been meaning to upgrade our camera but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I've been doing a bunch if research over the past few weeks and have a few thoughts, but am curious. What would you buy if you had 2-3k free for a camera, housing, and accessories (including strobe and lenses)? e: I'm looking at this for ~$2k all in: http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-special-features/article/photo-pro-s-opinion-olympus-epl5/ Thoughts? let it mellow fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Nov 23, 2013 |
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Nov 23, 2013 03:48
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Thanks all for the DSLR advice but it's too late. The E-PL5 is here, as is the strobe, arm, and fiber optic cable. The housing will be here Friday, then I have a week to get familiar with it all before we leave for Belize.
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Nov 28, 2013 05:04
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In Belize and we're drinking on our balcony right now since we've got to be at a dock at 5AM tomorrow for the Blue Hole we've had good dives so far and I've got some good pictures.
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Dec 11, 2013 03:38
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Working on editing and picking photos, but uh... This sure is a thing compared to point and shoot world.  (They aren't all that good, but this one turned out really well, especially after tweaking the RAW some)
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Dec 17, 2013 23:51
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OK, got around to editing some of the better pictures.   Nurse sharks were everywhere, so I took a bunch of pictures of them.  We also saw turtles on multiple dives  What it looks like when you're about to drop into the Blue Hole:  Me at ~135 and in the Blue Hole.  What the Blue Hole looks like from the surface      This picture isn't that great, but it's notable because there is a lionfish in that crevice that the nurse is going after  I love this picture  The next few are from a night dive: Getting used to teh camera and light underwater  What it looks like doing a night dive:  You need to get close to get good pictures at night  Octopus!   Brittle star 
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Dec 21, 2013 22:40
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Kaddish posted:Just got back from a week in Roatan. We stayed at CocoView resort which I highly recommend if someone is after a dive heavy vacation. Diving was pretty great overall, though we had limited vis due to storms. Did a shark dive with Caribbean Reef sharks which was pretty neat. We're going to be there in May. There's a dolphin dive too, right? Did you do that? e: Haven't decided where to stay yet, although we've heard really good things about Anthony's Key.
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Dec 23, 2013 23:29
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