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There was a storm coming in so vis was garbage, but at least we got one dive in. A few of the standard NorCal suspects. Nothing crazy but it's been a while since I did cold water evangelism.  Snubnose sculpin  Heart crab  Patch of Corynactis DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Feb 12, 2023 |
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Feb 12, 2023 08:15
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MMania posted:About to pull the trigger on a Shearwater Peregrine: I have 47-year old eyes, the rumble will let me ignore other divers' beeping, and wireless charging sound great. I'm never going to do anything technical and hate wearing watches so I don't think any of the more expensive computers would be an upgrade. Anyone have particularly good/bad experiences with either Shearwater or this particular computer? I have a perdix and I love it. I only have a perdix because I am slowly trying to move technical and the peregrine wasn't out when I bought it. I have friends that use it and love it. MrNemo posted:I've got a canister light for UK diving that I will always take with me as a standard and a nice little backup torch on the harness. When I'm travelling I'll always bring that backup with me, light is a bit strong and focused for tropical diving but it's a good form factor and pretty small. I like having a bright light in the daytime in the tropics so I can get someone's attention if needed. I don't do it, it's more of an in-case-of-emergency thing, but gives me the warm fuzzies.
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Mar 24, 2023 21:36
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:Any FL divers here who've gotten a cavern (not cave!) certification? Florida has a number of dive sites, mostly springs or karst windows, with a cavern environment. Of course, go further and you're in a cave. I want to safely explore these places but I'm really not that interested in full cave. Cave diving, besides the expense and difficulty, is just beyond my threshold of risk. The cavern environment is more interesting to me anyway, since you can still see natural light. I have friends who have, but I haven't. I dive to see the life, so caving doesn't scratch that itch for me. Technical diving maybe, but only to go see some life somewhere I can't get without it. On that note, I got in the water today and realized I haven't posted pictures in a while. It was a beautiful California day topside, underwater it was not the greatest. A fuzzy 15' viz, 5'+ surge, and 49F water. But I saw some cool stuff and got in the water and saw some folks, so it's all a win.  A turban snail climbing over some feather duster worms  A moss head warbonnet. This was the find of the day, they're quite unusual (we're on the Southern end of their range), and they're normally buried in a hole so you can just see their face. This guy was lovely to see as I whipped by in the surge. I can get a much better view of him now than I could at the time.  Maroon snails have these psychedelic eyes  I remember diving with someone in the tropics who was super excited about telling me about skeleton shrimp and where to find them, with the same energy he'd use to talk about a spot where you can see mandarinfish spawning. It was adorable, and I didn't tell him we have them absolutely everywhere.  Pinto abalone side eye. I feel like this area is abalone central, they're less common both north and south of me.
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Apr 30, 2023 07:47
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Red_Fred posted:Sorry for the double post but I really need to get around to getting a pair of backup lights. Ideally they would be: I use these: Princeton Tec Impact XL Maxbright LED Flashlight https://a.co/d/8ph9RiW They are cheap, small, fit very nicely on my harness straps, and I had them when I did my fundies tech upgrade and the only question the instructor asked was if I had rechargeable batteries in them (no is the right answer for backups). You'll need some bolt snaps. I think I reused the cords they came with but can't recall. They're twist to turn on, so you'll have to make sure they're unscrewed enough that water pressure doesn't turn them on, like any of that type. I mark them so I know how far out to go.
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May 26, 2023 07:39
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 Snubnose sculpin eating another sculpin, from this AM
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Jun 11, 2023 06:10
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Red_Fred posted:Stay within your limits, close to your buddy and ensure you’re checking your air all the time. Good advice. Here's a sculpin having a good day and another fish having a bad day. 
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Jun 23, 2023 00:19
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I passed GUE Tech 1. I learned a lot, but man their written training material is hot garbage.
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Jul 9, 2023 06:06
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ploots posted:in my experience, AOW was a refresher of the stuff you should have picked up in OW, and PADI specialties are a way to extract money from people who like to collect merit badges. If you don't need a refresher, the only value of AOW is checking a box: it's often a requirement for liveaboards. I found rescue useful. I do wish buoyancy was drilled into everyone a lot better.
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Jul 18, 2023 02:58
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poisonpill posted:Sorry for barging in but I just wanted to confirm that this makes sense after getting Open Water certification: It's best to just do a bunch of dives, and then certify for the Deep Adventure Dive if you want to go deeper, right? What's the "Search for Sunken Galleons" certification people ultimately go for? IMO: do OW, dive a bunch, then do advanced (which does deep) and do buoyancy as one of the specializations. No idea what Deep Adventure Dive is, but if you're worried about the scuba police you don't need to be. The goal isn't to get "legal" to a depth ASAP, it's to build the fundamental skills ASAP.
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Jul 19, 2023 19:59
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MrMojok posted:Have any divers in here ever seen a White Shark? Or have any interesting shark stories? In CA I've seen a good sized blue shark, and a sixgill once off of the Channel Islands, but never a white. Divers see them rarely. Open water swimmers and surfers are the ones that see them, and occasionally get hit.
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Jul 19, 2023 20:42
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Trivia posted:My parents went to South Africa to do the cage dive. Said it was cold as gently caress. I'm a big cold water diving evangelist, but even with good gear if you're just sitting around not moving you get real cold.
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Jul 20, 2023 02:10
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Trivia posted:Yesterday the water here was 30 C. We consider 27 to be cold. I like it better  The easier diving and larger proportion of vacation-only divers in tropical destinations means that I see a lot more egregiously bad divers and stupid risky poo poo in a warm water destination than cold water ones. I dive for the life. Being able to tolerate cold water means that the world I can explore underwater is larger than if I could not.
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Jul 20, 2023 03:23
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ploots posted:What are cold water places you’ve enjoyed? God's Pocket in British Columbia is a resort off the northern tip of Vancouver island. That area gets really strong tidal currents, so you need to dive at slack tide, but the currents carry huge amounts of nutrients so the density of life is incredible. It's hard to find a single spot that doesn't have *something* growing on it.  The Channel Islands off of Southern California are beautiful and quite varied. The life changes as you go north/south, but also quite a bit as you go east/west towards or away from open ocean. You have kelp forests, rocky reef, and tons of fish. I love doing liveaboard trips out there.   The Poor Knights islands in New Zealand are similar, but even better protected. They're incredible for a California diver because the life is so similar, but very different. It's like alternate universe California. Because they've been protected so long, and are a bit out in the open ocean, the density of life is really incredible too. It's a magical place, and I'd love to go back some day. If I had to pick one place in the world to dive over and over again, it would be the Poor Knights.  Tasmania is less protected, but also quite beautiful. If the Poor Knights are alternate universe southern California, Tassie is alternate universe northern California. And they have these wild looking things:   I do most of my diving around Monterey, California. There're beautiful kelp forests, and tons of critters around to marvel at.  In cold water diving the conditions aren't always great, and the visibility can be poo poo, but honestly that's part of what makes it fun. You never know how it'll be until you get in the water, and there's so much going on.
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Jul 20, 2023 08:14
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General rule is that the instructor matters far more than the organization for an open water certification
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Jul 20, 2023 19:34
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Kesper North posted:Anecdotal, but most dive trips I've been on had a mix of PADI, NAUI and SSI divers and nobody had any issues with someone not recognizing their cert. Same. Only time I ever saw a card questioned was when someone had a CMAS card and the person looking at it had never seen one before or heard of the agency. Ended up being fine. They're motivated to accept the certification, it isn't the same as a passport or something.
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Jul 20, 2023 20:36
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It's definitely different. It's easy for me to go from cold to warm. I get that going in the other direction is harder. If you're ever in northern California hmu and I'll show you some kelp critters. Red_Fred posted:I’m from New Zealand and can confirm that the Poor Knights are very good temperate/cold water diving! To be fair I’ve only done one liveaboard there so really need to get back. I'm jealous, what an incredible place. If it wasn't the opposite side of the world I'd go there all the time. I dove with Yukon Dive in 2017 or so. They were great.
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Jul 21, 2023 02:41
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ploots posted:Is there good shore diving around Monterey or is it primarily boat based? I have some vague plans to dive there in the fall, might reach out for tips if the plans solidify. There's good shore diving. Point Lobos state park is my go-to, but it requires a reservation. San Carlos Beach/The Breakwater is usually pretty protected and is a nice dive. Can be crowded on weekends. Boats can obviously get further out, so they're great too. And easier. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Jul 21, 2023 |
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Jul 21, 2023 19:22
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ploots posted:Spreadsheeted out the cost of buying doubles. really glad I looked into an underwater camera setup earlier this week to set a thoroughly unreasonable reference point. I always think of how much I spent for my first car... I snag cheap tanks when they appear even when there isn't an immediate need. So when I wanted to go doubles I had two steel 100s I paid $150/each for.
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Jul 23, 2023 05:38
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I did GUE's Tech 1 class and was stoked to dive on the tech charters that the local GUE club does. Turns out they require a scooter. I really shouldn't be as bummed out as I am, but I am.
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Sep 12, 2023 05:17
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Trivia posted:Sounds like an excuse to buy yourself something nice! Yeah, no. Adding a scooter to all the other poo poo seems like a hilariously terrible idea. Plus the $$$$$ I'm pretty anti-scooter in general. Comparing scooter diving vs. normal diving, at least the way I see people do it here, seems like comparing cruising down a trail on a motorcycle vs. taking a slow stroll through the woods.
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Sep 12, 2023 16:24
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I have a Shearwater Perdix and I'm very happy with it. Easy to read. Configurable. Doesn't have a bunch of built-in restrictions (doesn't lock you out, you can change mixes whenever, etc.). I know there's a Perdix 2, so I'd look for a cheap used Perdix 1 since I can't imagine wanting it to do anything more.
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Oct 20, 2023 02:12
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Squashy Nipples posted:I have tons of shore dives, but at your level of experience I can't recommend doing it without a local guide. You don't have to charter a boat, you can hire someone for guided shore dive, which tends to be cheaper. Seconding this. Don't even feel like you have to find someone who gets paid to guide. An experienced local diver might be down to just show a newbie around, I certainly would. If you offer to pay for gas or buy lunch that's awesome. Trivia posted:I don't recommend diving as a buddy team until you have at least 50 dives experience under your belt. As a general metric. If someone is looking to dive where they live, then I think they may be better off tracking down local divers than paid guides. At least around here guides are probably *less* experienced than the serious local divers, and it also introduces the diver to a community of people to dive with for fun, rather than a business transaction. DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Mar 28, 2024 |
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Mar 28, 2024 03:45
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Ropes4u posted:We return to Bonaire for the 10th time or so next month it’s everything I could ask for in a dive location but that is changing. Some friend just returned and said the bleaching is definitely worse this year. That's sad to hear. I was there in 2015 and really loved how it was truly just diving. The diving was easy, and the whole island revolved around it. It seemed like the overhead compartment was 50% regulator bags. I keep meaning to back but time off is limited and it's a big world out there... DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Apr 2, 2024 |
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Apr 2, 2024 05:09
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MrYenko posted:We got passed by the submarine tour while we were diving YO-257 off Honolulu. It’s kinda surreal seeing something man made that big moving that fast underwater. I had a tourist submarine go by me in Guam. I could see vague silhouettes so I waved, and I could see a bunch of people waving back, which was fun.
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Apr 22, 2024 22:22
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Trivia posted:My gf uses a travel Zeagle and my god that is the lightest BCD I've ever held. My steel backplate goes around the world. I love that stupid thing.
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May 2, 2024 08:16
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