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Hello goons, I am currently working on my 1* CMAS and it's time that I start amassing gear before we leave the pool. Are there any strong opinions either way concerning yoke/int vs DIN first stages? DIN seems to have the upper hand in safety (and I live in a relatively cold country so that may be marginally more attractive) but is waaaayy less available second hand, and as I understand it it's also not available in Asia/Australia on tanks that much.
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Sep 24, 2021 10:50
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 10:54 |
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Thanks goons. I bought a whole set second hand, which included an Oceanic yoke reg, but the seller hadn't touched it in 2 years. The diving shop I went to for inspection tried to sell me a new set rather than service it because the lines supposedly looked bad and the rubbers would definitely need replacing. Didn't like his tone though, so I found a recently serviced secondhand Aqualung Titan instead, and will try to sell the oceanic or see if a friend wants it. Are inserts in DIN tanks to put a yoke on them decent, or something I might as well skip? I saw some mention of different types based on max pressure rating?
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Sep 29, 2021 16:21
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Trip report: the diaphragm cover on the octopus crumbled into sadness while in the pool, and the only shop I can find will cost me more on shipping than the actual part  Everything else about my gear seems to work fine though! Half considering 3D printing the cover with flexible filament, but that's probably not the best way to avoid a Darwin award... Trivia posted:Yeah new hoses and a service kit aren't nearly as expensive as a brand new reg set. Good thing you asked here before becoming a sucker. He ballparked the servicing to €100 and €120 for the hoses. "For only €100 more...you can get the cheapest new option" did not work on me, unfortunately for him 
Leandros fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Sep 29, 2021 |
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Sep 29, 2021 23:07
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SuitcasePimp posted:You could just put the Oceanic octo on there as a stopgap.... it probably works fine enough for octo purposes. I mean, test it of course before your buddy actually needs it and make sure it doesn't free flow. Or just go full FYGM and remove it, who are they anyway trying to take your air? The Aqualung set hasn't arrived yet and was serviced 2 weeks ago, so I think it'll be fine. The Oceanic octopus cover is the one that fell to pieces, and I just found a thread elsewhere with people complaining about exactly that. A poster there also made a 3D printed cover, so I reached out to them and will try to print one. Wish me luck!
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Sep 30, 2021 15:05
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Leandros posted:The Aqualung set hasn't arrived yet and was serviced 2 weeks ago, so I think it'll be fine. The Oceanic octopus cover is the one that fell to pieces, and I just found a thread elsewhere with people complaining about exactly that. A poster there also made a 3D printed cover, so I reached out to them and will try to print one. Wish me luck! Aqualung just arrived, and the purge cover is cracked here too  but the plastic doesn't seem like a weird non-rubber elastic that will crumble, I think it just cracked under abuse. No biggie I think, but the 2nd stage does allow for breathing (albeit with some difficulty) while not pressurised. I removed the diaphragm cover and the diaphragm seems to be incorrectly installed/dislodged (on the right): Is this something I can fix myself? Considering this diaphragm is held in place by this weird combed ring, I assume it's a bit less trivial than the Oceanic one.
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Oct 1, 2021 12:20
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Relax goons, as I said, I didn't feel comfortable doing it myself. I went to a shop and the dude just unscrewed the retaining ring by hand, reseated the diaphragm and fastened everything again. Checked it for leaks and all is well. It's not like I would've opened up the first stage or hosed around with the other components, but these steps aren't very complicated.
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Oct 3, 2021 20:46
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Probably long shot, but any tips for diving schools/shops near Split in Croatia, one of the islands off the coast or near Ploce further south-east? Ideally something combining rental for certified and introductory for uncertified? I looked for Croatia itt but nothing since 2016 so maybe people have since had some experiences they can share
Leandros fucked around with this message at 17:11 on May 19, 2022 |
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May 19, 2022 16:56
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So a neighbor of mine had his motorcycle stolen out of our common garage last month and I didn't realise both my air bottles were stolen until he received word about it from the officer handling his case. I just picked them up and one seems to have been treated fine. The other one however, was apparently chucked under a random person's car, who didn't notice until driving off, and racking up €2400 in damage. The coating has a pretty good scrape, the net and rubber foot need replacing, but it seems entirely fine otherwise. I'm still submitting it for testing and replacement of all the damaged components, and obviously holding in 230 bar would require a sturdy construction anyway, but it's still nuts to realise that an item like this is so resilient 
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Dec 27, 2022 17:44
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I finally went scuba diving somewhere more southern than Belgium and oh my gently caress it was worth the money and wait  . Our dives were probably relatively uneventful, saw some schools of Barracuda, 2 moray eels and 2 octopuses, but man being able to see tens of meters in salt water is so exhilarating. The water being warmer than the tropical aquarium I once went to was also awesome. What I did notice, though, is a new hatred for tourism. A friend and I went in for our advanced certifications, him having done PADI OW on a similar trip, me having done my CMAS 1* at home over the course of a couple of months. He kept on doing PADI, I got talked into doing SSI, whatever all good. However, even though it'd been more than a year for me and he had 10 dives more on his belt, I felt way more comfortable handling my gear and myself than him. Not touching the floor, not kicking up dust, etc. We often had 1 instructor guiding us rather than looking at how we performed, and so any specialties we officially have done hardly felt actually examined. In fact the only thing we discussed was the fish identification one and it involved pointing at some random fish in a book. Also both the PADI and SSI learning environments offered me essentially no novel information. Not that the CMAS book was that much better. I'm not sure what I expected, obviously you want to accommodate people with existing, tight travel schedules, but there should be some possibility of failure. At the same time, quite often the instructors would get extremely close to animals with their camera (like removing rocks from an octopus nest entrance, filming it from about 2 cm with an array of LED lights). I found it kind of a disrespectful way of handling nature, but I guess most customers, especially those just doing fun dives, would prefer to have that kind of experience (and footage), and so over the years the feedback has made them do that. It's clearly not a goldmine so I don't blame them for catering to the worst kind of diver, but it has made me realise tourism is satan. Next up will be Crete, Malta or Yucatan
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Jul 17, 2023 22:46
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Yeah that aligns reasonably with what we thought, though the friend also wants to do wreck dives and being certified for at least 30m helps there. Turns out they can never fill a boat for the only cool wreck as it's 39m down so he was let down a bit. I originally wanted to advance because being a dive master for friends sounded nice, but most people chickened out on this trip so it seems a bit pointless now. I'll probably finish my 2* at home because I only need to do drift and rescue dives to get there, and those are nice to have done. Just need to get used to the grimy garbage again.
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Jul 18, 2023 00:00
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Trivia posted:Yeah. I see a lot of new instructors just take students for a "fun dive" on open water dives 1 and 2, instead of drilling buoyancy practice for the majority of it. Save the fun for dives 3 and 4. This is what it felt like. We were just going along with the fun dive group and they basically told us to watch for fish and check our air consumption, which, no duh. I must admit I am not a genius at buoyancy, but coming from 11mm of neoprene, the 5mm I had on now was peanuts to keep under control while passing the ~5m both ways.
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Jul 18, 2023 12:14
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2 participants in my diving group almost canceled their trip because there were reports of a shark sighting 3 weeks earlier, somewhere on the same island we dove in. We didn't see any 
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Jul 19, 2023 23:54
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 10:54 |
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Where I live it's both cold and visibility is <10m. You prepare for the worst, so any warm touristy place will be an upgrade. Plus you don't feel like the loving Michelin man with just a shorty Vlvs 10-15mm neoprene. I always have more problems taking it off though, seems to slip on easier when dry for me.
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Aug 13, 2023 16:56
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