Ask us about SCUBA (and other forms of) diving!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask us about SCUBA (and other forms of) diving!

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Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

The best and cheapest advice is not to take your own pictures underwater and just dive with somebody that has a camera rig

# ¿ Jan 5, 2014 07:03

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 11:59

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

BlueBayou posted:

Thats what I figured.

There are a few shallow wreck dives that I'd feel comfortable doing. Won't do any penetration of course.

I really need to get back to some warm water sites.

I don't know any details on the sites you are doing but I'd look into if they have mooring buoys or not. Most popular sites will. In my experience it's much easier to get used to diving wrecks if they have mooring balls because you have a set place to enter and exit, and an easy way to control your ascent and descent. If you aren't planning on taking a peek inside then wrecks like that aren't much different than reefs. With your number of dives I really would not recommend doing a hot drop or drift dive unless you have a guide because a lot more factors come into play there.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 08:59

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Yeah if you're on nitrox you tell the computer what percentage of oxygen you are using. There's nothing wrong with this type of computer, just make sure you analyze your tank if you are diving any non air gas mixture. A fully integrated computer will also tell you how much gas you have left in the tank, in other words your pressure gauge is mounted on your wrist. Also Mares is a good brand in my experience I have a 15 year old Mares computer that I use for reef diving and such and it's still ticking.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 09:46

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

All work and no diving makes Bishop a dull poster.
All work and no diving makes Bishop a dull poster.
All work and no diving makes Bishop a dull poster.
All work and no diving makes Bishop a dull poster.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2014 21:07

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Snuba always makes me laugh because it seems to have more potential danger (Your air hose is floating on the surface, etc) while also not being as versatile as SCUBA. The one thing it makes sense for is people that clean boat bottoms. Otherwise if you are using surface supplied breathing gas you are a commercial diver and already out of this thread's paygrade.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2014 10:25

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Crunkjuice posted:

Its not the depth itself that does damage to the body, its the decompression/recompression from descending/ascending that does damage long term.

One thing that's always been in the back of my mind is how fast I descend on a lot of dives. Like 3-4 atmospheres a minute fast. I either do it to conserve gas or because it's a hot drop and I have to get down real quick. I've never had any negative effects from it but umm, humans did not evolve to deal with those type of rapid pressure changes. Ascending, usually it's a quick ascent up until around 100ft then a painfully slow series of stops. There was also the humbling lecture in my first trimix class where the instructor said "we don't really know what breathing this much helium is going to do to you long term...". That said, I dive far less than commercial divers and haven't experienced any real negative effects except maybe a messed up blood vessel in one of my eyes.

Within normal recreational diving limits the car ride to the boat/beach/quarry is more likely to harm you in the long term.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 09:34

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Unimpressed posted:

Serious question, do you have a squeaky voice after diving because of it?

Not normally by the time you surface because if you are diving trimix you are probably spending a lot of time doing decompression with gasses that don't have any helium in them so it wears off. (50% or 100% o2 and such). Before... hell yes. We have equipment to analyze what the actual level of helium is in the tank but you can always be drat sure there is some in there by taking a few breaths pre dive and then talking.

Unimpressed posted:

Ha, I would totally not lower the diver's voice if I were on the boat. At least I'd get to have some laughs while they're having fun diving.

I forget the specifics but there was a commercial diver using surface supplied gas that died because the person misunderstood what he was saying over coms because his voice was so helium-ed out. I think he was relaying that he needed his mixture changed a bit and the guy misinterpreted the levels he requested.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 07:20 on May 3, 2014

# ¿ May 3, 2014 07:17

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Squashy Nipples posted:

But what happened to snorkeling fins? The ones I used to own were like maybe 6-9 inches longer then your foot? The dive outfitters gave me regular (long) fins for diving, but the fins provided by the resort for snorkeling were almost as long as dive fins, like three feet? You don't need that much propulsion for snorkleing, and it felt awkward to do the flutter-kick at the surface with that much fin. I ended up using the dolphin double-leg kick a lot, which I never used to do with snorkleing fins.

Try looking up "free diving fins" and see if those are what you are thinking of. They are far longer than SCUBA fins. Although a lot of SCUBA fins are a lot longer than your foot as well. I love the dive rite fins I bought and they are definitely 6-9 inches longer than your foot.

# ¿ May 5, 2014 23:26

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

I... I might actually get to go diving again in the next couple of weeks. It's been so long that I'm going to have to do 2 or 3 dives where I just focus on skills, not to mention everything is due for service, but god drat I need to get in the water.

suboptimal posted:

Does anyone have any first-hand experience with diving at Stuart Cove in the Bahamas? Looking for a place where my girlfriend and I can do our AOW certifications and also do some shark diving. This seems to be a pretty popular spot, but wanted to get some other opinions as to better or less expensive places.

It's mainly known for the shark diving. I can't speak to how good the dives are beyond that. In my opinion, the best diving in the Bahamas is off of Andros, which has a huge barrier reef, great wall dives, and blue holes for the people who can dive them. The downside is despite it being the largest island in the Bahamas, it's basically deserted so diving would be the only thing to do. I really like the Exumas as well but they are pretty hard to get to because it's a chain of mostly tiny islands. If you're doing AOW and are still shopping around there are plenty of places in Key Largo that can certify you, and a good range of sites. It would likely be cheaper as well. Even though they are only ~60 miles from each other there is a big difference in water clarity between the Bahamas and the Keys though.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2014 05:10

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

stratdax posted:

Anyway, does anybody have any experience with Shearwater computers? Newish company but the gear looks pretty good.

I have a Predator, and if I ever manage to get my dream rebreather setup it would have a Shearwater controller and wrist units mounted on it. They are great pieces of equipment and the company provides good customer service. I've never needed it, but I've heard stories about people being sent new computers for free when theirs failed.

They are multigas trimix deco computers though, and the more expensive models are able to control rebreathers. There's no reason to buy one if you aren't looking to go that route any time soon. Almost every computer out there is well built and can handle nitrox up to 40% and such. I've got a wrist mounted computer from 2002 or so that still works fine. Don't buy too much computer (or anything else in diving for that matter) until it makes sense.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2014 05:47

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

QuarkJets posted:

So how do you clean a BCD after diving? Someone told me that you should run fresh water on it and through it, swishing the water around and then letting it air dry. Any other recommended best practices here?

They're exactly right. Press the valve you would use to manulally inflate the BC and just let a hose fill it with some water, swish it around, then empty it as much as possible. When emptying gravity is your friend; for instance hold the BC so that the shoulder valve is the lowest point and then press the manual dump button and the water comes right back out. Same with a rear valve. Squeezing the air bladder inside the BC normally gets most of the water out. If I'm putting my gear up for a longer break I'll do that at least twice. BCs will naturally get salt water in them so rinsing the bladder with fresh water is a great way to keep them from degrading.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Jul 12, 2014

# ¿ Jul 12, 2014 22:09

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Gear chat has reminded me that all of my regs are due for service. Also all of my tanks. poo poo.

I do agree with stratdax though, lots of people buy too much stuff before they know if they are really taking diving up as a hobby. Give it some time before you buy more than a mask and fins.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Jul 15, 2014

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 16:22

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Gindack posted:

Do new regs have a longer period before service or is it always a year?

It's always yearly. The honest answer is that you could probably go much longer with a new set of regs but you never know what the equipment tech might find. For me inspection time for my regs/tanks is a big deal because I have 10 tanks I keep in service, six first stages, and eight second stages. That poo poo isn't cheap but you have to do it. I can do a lot of service on my own but my tech is much better than me at it.

pupdive posted:

ALSO thread quiz: How much do you pay for a fill, and how much do you pay for Nitrox? I have a fill cards to save gas when I don't want to haul class tanks all the way back to the shop, and my commercial rate is $2 to $3 a fill. I don't use Nitrox.

Usually I can get air for free. 10-20 bucks is what a nitrox fill normally costs me. For whatever reason pure o2 and like 30% is the same price most of the time. Trimix is stupid expensive and fluctuates with the cost of helium.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jul 15, 2014

# ¿ Jul 15, 2014 22:13

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

pupdive posted:

I would love o2 to be that cheap. I would just bring an o2 bottle on every dive. A little 6 cf tanks to kill on the safety stop, or an 80 for confined water days. I hate that it costs enough that I have to make what will probably be long term bad health decision and not take pure o2.

For me it's $20 for an o2 fill on a 40cft tank normally. I only use like 3 different shops so I can't say what the average is. I agree that having o2 is always a good thing but I think using it every dive is a little excessive. That said, when I deco dive I'll normally keep breathing off my o2 bottle (or 50% if that's all I'm carrying) for 5 minutes or so after I get back on the boat. I figure it can't hurt.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2014 17:11

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

pupdive posted:

I always wonder if certain chronic pain aspects are Nitrogen related long term (wrist, shoulder pain). I know it't not straight DCS because there is no sudden relief for either even down at 200 feet.

You know what? I need a Helium CCR rebreather! I have decided!

Sounds like you dive a lot more than me, but I think both of us are science experiments to be honest. Hyperbaric medicine just hasn't been around (developed might be the better term) long enough to do proper studies on the long term effects of stuff like diving 3 times a day, doing lots of decompression diving, breathing poo poo tons of helium, etc. Oh well. I do fully endorse getting a rebreather because screw that guy with his reasonable approach to buying dive gear. We're both too far gone for that.

On a more serious note, I do know some industry pros that keep an o2 bottle by their couch so they can breathe from it for a bit while they are relaxing at night.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2014 21:20

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

pupdive posted:

often real world tech diving is going to be single deco gas by logistics.

This is true. Most of my deco dives are my backgas and a bottle of 50% -EDIT- I like the 50% when I'm only staging a single deco tank because it gives me more emergency options. If I can get to 70ft I can start breathing from it. I know plenty of people who always clean up with o2 and that's fine with me but it's habit for me at this point.

quote:

too many people take a tech class and never do tech dives, (though they post endlessly about it on the internet).

Crap you nailed me

When I carry two deco tanks it's almost always 50% and 100% and I need all of both of them. I do agree with you though that having a tank that can toxx you anywhere below 20ft is dangerous when you have another deco tank you can switch to at 70. As far as calculating MODs for my tanks, unless it's really off I stick to 70' for 50% and 20' for 100%. The tricky part is planning your deco schedule and making drat sure you are switching to the right gas.

For me, my 50% tank is just silver, and my 100% tank is bright yellow, and I color coordinated the regs the same way. Just to add an extra layer of security.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Jul 24, 2014

# ¿ Jul 24, 2014 03:44

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

SlicerDicer posted:

I wonder if bishop is still around? I wanted to say hi when I was in Florida

heh I'm still alive, just too busy to post recently. Only got a a few days worth of diving in this summer and I'm feeling the withdrawals... I couldn't do a real aggressive dive right now without a few warmup dives to get my skills back where they need to be. Also every reg and tank I own is up for servicing (noooooooo)

I'm planning on taking a week off around Xmas and New Years to do nothing but log dives, possibly a class in cave country as well. Good to see this thread is still chugging along.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2014 03:43

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

I'm going to lose it before too long. This is the longest diving drought I've had since I was certified 16 years ago. I had a great run of tech dives going but life got in the way and now I'm basically stuck in Louisville, ky. Someone in key largo is going to ship everything but the tanks to me so after I get everything serviced I might just live at the quarry this summer

Bishop fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Feb 3, 2015

# ¿ Feb 3, 2015 07:07

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

jackyl posted:

LDC puts together trips fairly regularly and the guys at the shop seem cool. We've never aligned one of our trips with them, but have thought about it. Might be an option.

once the water in joe's quarry warms up a bit we should go diving

# ¿ Feb 4, 2015 05:17

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

The training progression divers take is air-nitrox-trimix.

With trimix you add helium to reduce the nitrogen in your breathing gas without getting an oxygen level that makes you have an o2 toxicity seizure at depth. So on a multi stage deco dive you will use the trimix deep, then switch to high content oxygen gasses like 50% and 100% when you are surfacing and timing stops. Helium can cause problems if you bolt to the surface but if off gasses quicker than nitrogen so you plan for the later.

IMO 30% or 32% nitrox is the ideal gas for most dives unless you are passing a PPo2 of 1.4

Bishop fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Feb 27, 2015

# ¿ Feb 27, 2015 04:24

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

We've had commercial divers post here but I don't think anyone has done saturation diving. As far as I understand it , the concept is that you absorb as much nitrogen and whatever else as your tissue allows and are able to operate like that. They obviously do a very extended decompression schedule when returning to surface pressures.

I've heard stories of guys who have done that and they surface and have like a 2 minute window to run to a chamber to get re-pressurized.

There's a few of us ITT that regularly do deco diving which has the same concepts, just not taken to that extreme

# ¿ Feb 28, 2015 03:46

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

I'd probably do saturation diving for a year or two if I was 20 again.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Mar 2, 2015

# ¿ Mar 2, 2015 05:00

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Trivia posted:

Are wings a substantial improvement over a vest style BC?

I've got pretty good buoyancy control but I am all for more maneuverability if I can get it.

i actually just use a vest BC for recreational dives. I've got a pretty standard DIR BP/W setup for deep or overhead stuff. I can pivot, back kick, and fine tune buoyancy better but it's not a huge difference in open water.

Things I need serviced

6 first stages
8 second stages
9 tanks

Plus my uwatec bottom timer finally died on me. Great and reliable bottom timer but you can't remove the batteries so once they are done its over. My canister light's battery might be nearing the end of its service life too which is terrifying.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Apr 16, 2015

# ¿ Apr 16, 2015 22:42

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Look up what deco model your computer uses. There are variants of both but VPM vs buhlman is a good example. If I'm doing a deco dive I'll run my shearwater predator computer using Buhlman, and a hand written plan using VPM-B. It will spit out a different deco schedule because of certain assumptions they make but they are very similar and both have good track records. For no decompression diving any of the widely used models is well tested and conservative. Spend some time going back over the tables so you keep a good feel for what is a normal max bottom time.

Computers are very reliable these days, just try and stay somewhat sharp. A bigger issue IMO is divers ascending too fast. Unless you've gone real deep and need to get up to a deco stop, it's almost impossible to ascend too slowly.

# ¿ May 10, 2015 04:15

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

O2 being narcotic compared to n2 is a moot point because if you have a choice, the partial pressure of either of them is still low enough that your personal reaction matters more. I've gone pretty deep on air and it hasn't messed with me much, but better divers than me have to use a blend. Likewise, at depths where O2 narcosis come in to play toxicity is a bigger concern.

So unless you need the benefits of one mix over another, use whatever you react better to

# ¿ Jul 8, 2015 05:33

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

pupdive posted:

Also East Coast wreck divers are for real, so when they say don't miss the mooring line, they mean it. They are not pulling up to come get you

mooring lines are for glorified snorkelers that won't jump in a half mile up current to hot drop 200 feet, hopefully hit the wreck, then launch a SMB and drift 7 miles on deco while the boat hopefully spots and follows your marker

Bishop fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Aug 1, 2015

# ¿ Aug 1, 2015 04:33

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Gromit posted:

I bought a blunt-tipped titanium dive knife that straps to my leg. I know that a smaller set of wire cutters or shears or whatever they are called that fit in a BCD pocket make more sense, but it's something I've always wanted and makes me feel like 70s James Bond when I'm strapping it on.

im going to sigh as a draw my katana before slicing through moon jellyfish on my next drift deco

# ¿ Oct 24, 2015 02:44

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

Is hanzo steel stainless?

The ironic giant knife is actually a thing I've seen on boats over the years. Also old school dudes who got certified at the Y 40 years ago can pull off the leg mounted sword. I'm the guy with $2 Grocery store steak knives with the ends filed down. I'm not insufferable enough to call them "line cutters :smug:

" instead of a knife though

# ¿ Oct 26, 2015 03:34

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

DIN can handle higher pressures and has a lower profile so the stage does not get in the way when you're playing with custom setups. Yoke is easier to connect, can handle the pressure normal tanks use, and is the recreational standard in North America. I personally use both. I have 4 tech first stages (two back gas, two deco), and a single tank setup with a yoke first stage. Din to yoke connectors are easy and cheap but it adds failure points and can be awkward to use. I'd say yoke is the way to go, and if for whatever reason you want to convert the regulator to yoke, you can order the parts for most models

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 03:01

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

I think we all agree that yoke is a solid and safe choice for most people. When for whatever reason I have to use a DIN to yoke adapter on a tank it's bulky and awkward. In lots of places you're only going to find yoke tanks. Finally, buy a good first stage and the conversion kit to DIN is cheap and easy for a gear tech to install.

Which is funny because you couldn't pay me to use a yoke on doubles or stage tanks, but the realty is yoke works better for most people.

Bishop fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Nov 3, 2015

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 04:35

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 11:59

Bishop: Aug 15, 2000

pupdive posted:

Unfortunately that misplaced confidence in using a cave diving methods in the ocean has cost some people a pretty high price recently. People die diving for all sorts of reasons, but when you break it down, it's when people think they have a superior system or are superior divers, they lose respect for some basic safety procedures, and the ocean itself.

And in the end, the ocean wins, if you think you can beat it. Caves can be beaten by a system, the ocean cannot.

As far as having a long hose goes, I've never seen a downside. A couple days of training makes donating it while switching to the octo tied to your neck a reflex, and I don't see how having too much hose would hurt in an OOG situation. Makes it less likely the OOG diver has the reg yanked from their mouth and such. Also the way you loop a long hose around you keeps it out of the way. I'm not sure I've ever snagged that hose while it's wraped around my torso/neck in a normal diving scenario. I do understand your point though: "cave divers do it" does not end an argument about the best way to dive in the ocean. My opinion on that is that cave divers have a lockdown on the right way to do overhead diving in what amounts to a static environment. The flow of a cave won't suddenly change the way an ocean current does.

I think they take it too far when you have everyone obsessed with being in the horizontal fins above head position during drift ascents and such. There's no real point to that besides showing off your buoyancy/trim control in that environment. And really why does it matter what cave divers think about recreational setups. To this day I use a jacket BC and single AL80 tank when doing shallow reefs because it works fine and why waste time getting my tech rig set up for a dive that has no need for it.

Comfort underwater and basic skills are far more important.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2016 00:37

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