>>85309
Any good dive sites out of Texas/Alabama?

>>85309
>And the obvious question, what's better? PADI or SDI?
As a professional PADI is the best agency to have if you want to find work because it's the one with the most market share even if their support and systems suck ass, simple as.

As a recreational diver it does not matter what agency you get certs under because they are all internationally recognized under the same ISO standards.

>>85388
Good to know

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Just bought a 13 CF Catalina Tank to refill my HPA tanks with for use with paintball guns. It's used and needs Hydro/VIP - how soon should I expect it to esplode? Do I really need to pay some scuba faggot $50 to look at my new tank? That's what I paid for the whole thing... Also did I get ripped off? Picrel.

Furthermore, if it's 13 cubic feet does that mean it's 156 cubic inches? That means I can fill my 48 ci HPA tank with this scuba 3 times before the scuba is depleted, right? How do I know when it's full? Since it's 3000 PSI should I just pump it to 3000 PSI and consider it full? Thanks.

>>85587
When was it last Hydroed?

>>85669
Heh... Looks like it was made in the mid 90's and there's no hydro sticker on it. Pumped it to 500 PSI and it seems okay. I think I'll go for it - not gonna pay $50 to hydro a $30 tank. Hopefully if it explodes I don't get injured. Unless someone in this thread has a horror story about their tank bursting.

>>86185
>Carry a pressurized bomb on your back while exploring the most uncharted part of the world which is known to have all sorts of monsters.
>Oh, and there's no air

>>86175
The weakest link is the Valve and yes those things have absolutely come flying off and they are like a slug round coming out of a shotgun.
If it hasn't been hydroed in 30 years I wouldn't take the chance honestly.

>>86185
It's equipment intensive and can be made out to sound really bad like >>86200 does but in reality it's probably the calmest "extreme sport" out there.

it's solid

>>85587
>Furthermore, if it's 13 cubic feet does that mean it's 156 cubic inches?

No. One cubic foot is 1728 (12x12x12) cubic inches. So a 13 cubic foot tank would be 22,464 cubic inches.

>>87850
I am three inches tall and let me tell you I would be fucked.

Deep records?

>>88127
Does it really matter?
Tec diving is more a logistical and financial barrier than a skill issue.

>>85309
So just got out of the army and SCUBA has always been something that as interested me, how are the career opportunities? I am an leaf if that makes

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>>88628
if that makes any difference*
Fucking hit submit by accident here is a funny image to make up for retardation.

Got certified in 2019 to dive on vacations. Pretty solid hobby.

I don't recommend diving through hotels/resorts unless they require certification. Spent 20 mins of a divd waiting for newbies to reach the 30ft bottom and surface.

>>88628
The pay is shit unless you've been in the industry for awhile and have skills that are hard to come by like being qualified to service gear.
Don't have any experience with commercial diving in non-tourism industries.

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>>85309
>Hairy or funny stories?
>My first ever dive I ever did was at a location called "The Poor Knights".
>An island chain off the coast of New Zealand, it's quite famous as a nature reserve and religious site, and you can get fined thousands for even setting foot on the island at all, so the whole place has huge animals.
>So, dive instructor takes us down. This is a guided dive, because I'm not trained ATT. >Takes us around, gets comfortable, lets go of us to find cool shit.
>Does actually find cool shit, moray eels, rare creatures, even a turtle from the tropic currents.
>One of the more common ones? Picrel.
>A bit less bright and more blue, but the size of a small child.
>Now I'm thinking to myself 'yo this is either a Stonefish, or a Scorpion fish. The venom from these things can leave you in debilitating agony for weeks, can easily be lethal if not treated quickly, and is the most painful and potent fish venom in the world, and the blue-r ones were always the stonefish.'
>Scorpionfish have spines, stonefish have these barbs in their mouths they can shoot out at passing prey or things they find scary or dangerous.
>This one is the size of a small child, backed up into a small cave.
>The diving instructor is about three feet from its face.
>We're at least ten meters down, and I'm sitting on a rock, not panicking, but thinking to myself "Okay, so when this dude gets stung, how do I go about rescuing him safely without giving him the bends or letting him accidentally drown himself due to the pain?"
>He does this multiple times.
>Get back up to the surface and have a debrief and all.
>Casually drop this fact to him. He finds it touching, but hilarious, and elaborates to me on the local climate causing patterning changes making the scorpionfish look blue.
>Also tells me that I'm way too competent for a discover dive, and that the next time I see him, I'd better have a scuba license.

>See him at the same place, a year later.
>Have my scuba license.

>>92144
Instructors are taught to be prepared to deal with the absolute biggest retards you can possibly imagine (AKA Chinese Tourists) on DSD dives so when they get anyone that's actually normal it's basically a gift from god.

>>92144
>"The Poor Knights".
Ha I've dived there, it is amazing and a legendary location anyone should go if they have the chance, when I went I saw 2 huge rock lobsters

>>88628
When I was learning to become an open water diver there was a police officer on my course who was learning to dive so he could be the guy who does searches in bodies of water (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_diving) so you could maybe look into that, it'd fit with some of the skills you have from the army I bet

>>88127
are retarded. below ~350FSW you're already breathing super hypoxic mix and you're ongassing helium faster than nitrogen. Your risk of oxygen toxicity or HPNS go up exponentially. Gabr is a liar and Gomes is fucked up, and everyone else is dead.

Wrecks are fun

>>88628
Dangerous and high paying.

Specifically saturation divers and underwater welders etc..

Unless you wanna go with instructor but I'm guessing too many people doing that already

>>94487
Being an instructor only pays well if you have some rarer qualifications like being a tec instructor or a service technician.

>>85587

there really are retards on this site. 500 psi will maybe maybe give you 15 minutes of dive time. Not worth setting up all the gear to dive for 15 minutes. get a fucking job

How safe is drift diving with a charter? Never done it before, so I'm a bit anxious. Only going down to 70-90 feet. How do I stop being a bitch about it.

Any good diving in Alaska?

It's fine

>>96218
He says he wants to use it for paintball guns not diving at least read the entire post before making yourself look like a retard.

>>96522

It's safe. As long as your remember your training. You can't worry. The changes of something "getting you" down there are slim to none. You don't get nervous driving to the site, but you are far more likely to die in the car than underwater. The boat ride can be gnarly if there are swells. You will have to gear up and move to the back of the boat while the boat is rocking. Getting back on the boat can be a pain if the boat is rocking. Hopefully the boat has a christmas tree style ladder, so you don't have to worry about removing your fins before getting on the boat. You will be fine. Make sure you are correctly weighted, so you can get down, but enjoy the time down there.

>>96522
How much you paying?

>>85309
I just took my first 2 dives in Jamaica and got certified. I wanna dive more!!! Jamaican bros said I had gills and never panicked or got weird. I loved it guys

Scuba diving is not extreme, it’s relaxing if anything. More like hiking or riding a bike, that way I feel like it belongs on /out/. Also 4chan beers can only afford mcdojo memberships and skateboards, diving is too expensive.

>>98437
Scuba diving is one of the sports where you can be eaten. Its relaxing 99.9% of the time, but then you get the teeth

>>96551
maybe if you want to work

>>92192

It's the same at skydiving places, or shooting ranges that allow tourists.

They all have a set of "Chinese, simplified" instructions ready to go, dumbing everything the fuck down.

>>85309
We should have a spearfishing general

>>98438
Freediving is extreme.

Scuba becomes extreme after some depth I guess

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thread is lacking pictures
i'll post some from my trip to mexico

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>>99918

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>>99919
nurse shark that was hiding under a rock

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>>99922
went diving in some cenotes, was pretty cool but my camera kept spazzing out because of low light conditions

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>>99923
and the usual turtle

>>99923
>>99922
beautiful! what camera you using?

>>100172
Canon Powershot G9 with an old and bulky Ikelite case

How pricy is scuba diving (license, equipment, oxygen etc...)?
I want to do some stuff related to diving but I don't want to spend a lot of money. Should I just go diving?

>>85309
>Which is better?
BSAC , PADI is a tourist diver badge.

>>85309
GUE is best

>>101183
Join a club all you pay is membership and then you get to loan the gear. Maybe pay for air bottle refill and the entrance fee to dive site

>>102100
I don't think there are "clubs" where I live, which is weird because I live in southern Italy and I thought scuba was common here.
The only thing I found is a school, they get you a diving license but you have to follow lessons at the end of which they'll bring you to do 6 dives.
I dunno

>>85370
your bathtub maybe?

>>102669
Italians are more ballsy and will take freediving instead of the troublesome scuba.

Follow the freediving path anon.You will be happier

>>103087
I'd like to but I'm alone, the danger of blacking out isn't exactly a problem, but the cost of renting a boat everytime I want to go see a cool reef is too high unless I bring more people. With a school I would at least solve this prob

spent the last 2 weeks learning how to dive with work, love it. BCDs, Dive comps and Regs expensive though :(

>>99923
>>99919
what camera are you taking these on?
Appreciate the pictures!

>>103087
Ocean Freediving as a hobby honestly isn't logistically viable unless you happen to already grow up with connections.
Not enough people do it for it to be commercially viable to run boats (unlike Scuba) so your relying on having friends that have boats or having one yourself.

>>103898
Or you can enter throught the shore like most spearfishermen do.

Ofcourse it depends where you are you might have to swim out alot to find some depth, or you might just have to swim a little bit.


You are completely right in it not being a viable business

>>104276
Depends extremely heavily on where you live, if your spearfishing without a line sure but if you wanna just do freediving on a line your pretty much shit out of luck without a boat (The list of places in the world where you can get any kind of real depth from right next to shore while still having ok conditions is very, very small), you can't realistically swim a float line very far out.

I saw a 1 foot long leech in a lake scuba diving in and staying on the shore because the water was frozen and I didnt have a wetsuit.
Saw a 1 foot long albino crayfish too, it swam away, very trippy animal, unlike the leech which was fairly creepy. I swam next to a 7 feet long salmon once which had like 8 or 9 salmoness with it, very cool chad fish.

>>85388
>>85309
>PADI or SDI?
The answer is CMAS of course.
>>88628
Diving with/for tourists is basically a student job. You can set up your own shop, but the ones I know barely break even and have to add other activities.
Archeological diving is for volunteers, unless you manage to become an archeologist (good luck).
Saturation, welders etc. are well paid but it is hard on the body. Find yourself some in-between: police diving to find bodies, or defuse underwater bombs (lots of them in Europe). Or make it a plus on your resume if you want to work on boats or around water (pool repairing; aquatic zoo, whatever).

>>96522
Literally did one as my first dive outside of OW, bring a DSMB and stuff to stop seasickness

>>107906
I saw a manta ray while spearfishing, its tail was about my height.

Its wingspan maybe 4 meters.

Most impressive thing I've probably seen

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>>88628

Re-enlist as a Clearance Diver or join the Navy toons as a Port Inspection Diver. Get the feds to train you for free.

>>85309
so are the SMACO from aliexpress legit or better go to a licensed store and spend 3-10 times more

I've always been interested in ocean stuff and diving, but I live in a land locked city, and the deepest body of water is the local water park. How does one get into diving either recreationally or professionally? How can I get started?

>>109843
Landlocked cities generally have diving clubs, that's how good scuba is. Mine uses pools, and travels several times a year to the sea.

>>109840
If you knowingly buy life support equipment from China you deserve whatever you get.

I want to get into underwater photography. Is the Olympus TG-6 really the objectively best option? My scuba shop shills it as if it's God's gift to man, but honestly, when I tried it, I wasn't that impressed with the image quality.
Also, are underwater housings for normal digital cameras really a meme that will brick your equpiment? I have a Nikon that I love (can't even remember which one, it's old as fuck) and I keep wondering if I can't just take it underwater but I'm scared to lose it.

>>89493
My local dive shop guy used to be a commercial diver. Never wants to talk about it and when he does you can hear the anger in his voice. A lot of shit must've happened for him to go from rolling in $ from hazard pay to running a shop that barely breaks even.

>>114032
A really good housing is basically mandatory if you want to really get anywhere with underwater photography.
They are build hard and meant to hold expensive kit inside them.

Is it normal to get a bit of amnesia after dives?
Just did my first deep dive of advanced OW, went to about 75ft. I only remember small snapshots of it and overall really can't account for what we did the entire 30 minutes.

>>114033
> A lot of shit must've happened

I can guarantee you 99% sure it was a woman that happened. Or a woman AND a baby lol

solid

>>114033
Hazard pay is a meme.
Commercial diving pays well because there are fuck all places in the world that can give you the qualifications for it so it's a very gatekept industry you pretty much have to luck your way into. (Being raised in one of the few places that does it etc)
That's basically all industries that pay well.

>>114032
>>114298
Okay I'm very new to this; would a GoPro not suffice for this?

>>86200
>being a massive pussy who is scared of the ocean

>>92192
Lmao ! I’m dead
I should get my cert and get some gear and start pumping money from chink tourists
How much does it pay normally to be a diving instructor ?

>>117513
>How much does it pay
Fuck all.
Don't do it unless it's something you really want to do.

Princess Penny's Pinnacle is the best dive site in Grand Cayman. Don't fall for the Kittiwake meme - it's not that great and there's some fatass tourist who will fuck it up.

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>be me
>just a bog standard private in the army
>id never even thought about scuba diving
>sargent im friends with tells me hes going instructing on an army dive camp for 2 weeks on an island asks if im interested
>fuck yeah
>he gets me selected
>end up going to an island in the middle of summer for 2 weeks to learn how to dive
>dive 2-3 times a day
>its an army course so i get paid the whole time
>drinking pints in the local pub every night
>go home obsessed with diving

man i love the army

>>117512
>being a retard that doesn’t respect the fact that the ocean minus everything that lives in it which could kill you, is still a patently non permissive environment.

I hope you drown on a full tank

>>98125
taking your fins off and throwing them at people on the boat is the best part

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I'm an autist so bear with me. How do I gently but firmly explain to my scuba shop that I DON'T want a career with them without ruining my relationship with them?
I work in the medical field and know all about emergency med/first aid so they kept pushing me to be a rescue diver for them in exchange for being able to dive for free. I did the course, and honestly I fucking hate it. I want to enjoy myself, not work all week babysitting retards and then go and babysit more retards on my days off. Idgaf about the money either. Should I feel bad for potentially depriving them of the most qualified rescue diver they can possibly get?

>>122883
Don't waste your time if you don't want to do it, med school pays much much better than this does anyway.

May I ask where you are from by any chance? location really matters in how dive shops treat their customers.
Like emergency scenarios where your skillset would be useful basically never happen so I'm surprised they even care enough to try and grab you.

>>121888
>>121888
The Key West Facility?

my guy- you made that sound like a walk in in the park lol>>122883
>>122883
Just keep saying no and explain your case when pushed

>>123419
>>123423
Thanks anons
>>123419
>where you are from
South Africa, but the part of it that's got all the big dive sites and retarded tourists so you do get a small but steady trickle of both diving and marine life injuries, I guess I see their logic

>>115591
dive nitrox

What are the most fun SSI specialties? Don't care about useful, just want fun

Suite

>>85309
this might be a stupid question but can you just have a really long flexible snorkle with the end on a boey as a cheap alternative to scuba?

>>107906
i regret looking up what a giant leech looks like i dont want to go scuba diving anymore

>>109840
>>113117
every day im more surprised by whats available on aliexpress

I love diving. I got started doing dry suit alongside my OW and it was a blast. Made the 55F waters of puget sound totally bearable and there’s so much to see there.

>>127669
It doesn't work for two reasons.
The first one is that the tube would compress to unusable levels at depth
The second is that you can't suck air down a really long tube your lungs just don't have the power to do that.

Really long underground tunnels have large fans inside them to keep air circulating through them because if they didn't then the air would eventually get stale, it's the same principle.
I don't blame anyone for asking this question though because explaining why it doesn't work takes a bit of physics talk.

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>>128567

>>99647
Yeah but nobody does it or talks about it on this board. I remember there was one thread months ago and it did OK but only because spearos invaded it

>>127759
i also dive in the puget sound, what sites do you do?

Anyone know what regulations govern getting paid to dive (in the US)? Looking to start a data collection business and include diving as one of my methods- seems like a grey area since it isnt recreational training, and it doesnt fall under the scope of what is generally considered "commercial" diving. GUE has a few trainings for scientific diving, data collection, and photogrammetry so my plan was to start there. That being said, even if I'm trained I dont wanna get sued or assfucked by the government.

Any ideas?

>>85309
>Whats better? PADI or SDI?

GUE

Best wrecks in Florida? (anywhere in FL)

Would anyone recommend getting certified in your local large river with the intention of eventually vacationing and then having your certification ahead of time? There's a dive shop here that does that in the Columbia.

>>131520
FFESSM :)

>>85370
Texas: find someone who can take out out to the oil rigs off the Galveston or Corpus Christi coast

>>132499
Are you comfortable swimming in a river ?

In theory, you might have an advantage over others if you learn to dive in a river with a current as it could be tricky for those who arent strong swimmers.

Where are you thinking on vacationing ?

>>132499
Not a good idea.Depending on the River you have shit visibility through swirling sediment,reduced reaction time through the current if somenthing unexpected happens and additional exhaustion if you have to stop for whatever reason.
Given that newbies also cant tare for shit and are often preoccupied with handling their equipment this gives you extra risks with marginal benefits...its juts too many aggravating factors imo

>>92144
I had a similar experience, without the cool story.

Did my first give last year (guided) in Vietnam. Guide was super cool, we bonded over weight lifting on the ride up to the spot etc.

After the dive, we swapped contact info and I promised to get my open water so that I can come back and dive with him. Planning to do it this spring in Egypt, probably.

Tahiti's fun

Splish splash

>>121888
>>109818
>>94487
What other, less difficult to get into, dive job are there? And how would I get into any of these jobs without any military experience? I'm a open water diver with a SSI deep certification and 95 dives, diving is the only thing I enjoy that I've gotten into that hasn't been forced onto me or done to please others
>>99918
This is Mexico? I thought dugongs were only around in Melanesia
>>128567
Where's this?

>>128567
Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Great people and country

Technicly not scuba but still diving
I've done more than a bit of snorkeling during vacations as well as going deeper down.
Now I want to try it a little more serious and stay down longer with some attempts at apnoe diving.
What kind of ballast would be best?
Looking around I've found two styles that would make sense:
1. Neck mounted "pillow" style filled with lead bbs
2. Waist mounted solid pieces on a belt

Now I want to practice a bit in a pool first before I dare diving in the sea.
What would be a better choice?
Also I've heard these pillow style things can leak lead, do they even still use actual lead in these things?

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>>140529
Depends what waters are you diving in, cold?
How thick is your wetsuit?
For a person with 70kg on a wetsuit of 5mm, 5kg is enough.
If arround 5-6kg I'd recommend using it all on your waist, preferably on a silicone or rubber belt.
If you need more weight then I'd use a vest like picrel. Forget the neckweight.

I strongly recommend joining a freediving training group (pool), you will develop the skills you need and you will learn alot, not to mention the great people you will probably meet.
I did it and now I'm addicted to freediving

Lads what SEA country has the best diving + has a reasonable amount of English speakers?

>>140584
My plan is to train a bit in a pool first to get used to it, so no wetsuit and no salt water for now.
My weight is about 65 kg.
How much weight (roughly) should I try starting with?
Maybe 1,5-3 kg?

>>140948
If you are not using weitsuit or anything else that makes you buoyant then 1kg is enough.

>>141158
Thanks, I'll give it a try

Good waves

>>140776
>what SEA country has the best diving
Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Only been to Indonesia though but Malaysia and Philippines has a lot of famous sites

Anybody scubad in SEA

Anyone have any thoughts on IANTD - training with them currently. I'm doing the Essentials Course. My background is with BSAC

>>107953
I can second the bit about archaeological diving. I'm pursuing it as a career choice, but even breaking out of the terrestial field to get into maritime is rough. I've got a field school coming up, but I don't think I'll be able to actually dive for a living until I'm out of grad school. For now, I stick to shovelbumming.

Just got my OW cert last week and was wondering if I'm rushing through things in getting my Advanced OW cert in the next month or so? I'm really paying to go on more dives and figure it's a bonus I get a cert that lets me go deeper.

>>148728
The sooner the better, lad.

tfw no buddy

ANONS I WAS ROBBED! All my gear stolen!
Sad story here. I live in Hawaii, and I work as a dive instructor in order to pay for graduate school. Anyone whose ever spent time in Hawaii knows property crime is a horrible problem.
I work as a dive instructor, and I got to work last week and noticed my gear was gone, and it appeared my trunk had been tampered with.
My BCD, my regulator, my wetsuit, my fins, my mask, my dive knife, flash lights, everything was gone. The dude also stole a moped that was parked on the property. The cops found him, but he had already sold everything and used the money for meth. He's in jail now. But I've had to spent $3,000 this week on new gear, some of which im unfamiliar with. Since I'm an instructor and thats how I pay my bills, I'm expected to have a full gear set.
WATCH YOUR GEAR GUYS!!!! Do NOT leave it in the trunk ever

>>148728
I'm an instructor, I've taught dozes of advanced This anon> >>149347 is right
If you don't have to wait because of certain obligations, and you want that cert get on it pronto, also the advanced course is actually the easiest

>>140776
Thailand or Indonesia are your best bet, Thailand is better for beginners. My ex taught diving in Phuket and I've spent time there as well, English is almost the dominant language in these tourist hotspots

>>85309
Same mask I have to wear when your mom tells me to go scubadiving. Too fishy

>>151232
I hear ya, guy. I'm in Honolulu and I lock even my slippers to my bike when I go for a casual dive. Even then, dudes prowl around prepared to break locks and shit. I get my fill of scuba at work, but I have tanks and everything I'm afraid to use.

Is there any place I can go to learn useful/practical diving? I like looking at fish and corals, but I like diving more if I have something (real) to do. I thought about spearfishing to clear out lionfish, but I don't know what else really is on the table.

>>151496
Yep there are schools you can attend to earn commercial diving certs for a myriad of trades such as underwater welding, salvage ops, saturation diving, the list goes...

The common denominator is that they're dangerous but also highly profitable

>>151232
That sucks, bro. My heart goes out to ya. Was it a methed up native?

>>151733
>>151429
I do the same fuckin thing with my slippers. The first year I moved here 7 years ago, I had a camera, phone, a pair of head phones, a backback with nothing in it, my ex got her wallet stolen all in the same two months.
Yep it was a meth head!!!! They stole my neighbors moped too. Worst part was I was working for a really small dive operation, we didnt have a shop, so i lost my job. Luckily I got a better dive job that lets me rent gear. I've already bought a BCD, mask, SMB, dive knife, still renting a reg and fins.
Fucking tweakers man, they've ruined this state. I would legit not mind paying taxes to give them free legal meth, and just corral them in some building where they cant leave till their sober. They commit all the crimes when theyre either high or in withdrawal.

>>151429
Also dude, I work at a Honolulu dive shop too. I get because its 4chan u might not want to say. I'm an instructor at Island Divers.

>>98438
homies never gone below 150

>>98438
also not only do I dive for free because I'm an instructor, I actually get paid decent money, and my shop gives me and a friend (usually my girlfriend) free dives, free rental gear.
Also joining a club is cheap, and buying used gear isn't really any more expensive than climbing, surfing, mountain biking, skiing/snowboarding gear.
You can buy a shit BCD, a shit regulator with a gauge attached, a used mask u can find for free, same with fins, a filled tank is cheap and if you're staying around 30ft and arent a panicked diver that can last you easily an hour underwater (most people don't even like breathing compressed air that long)
SCUBA diving is just below skydiving in terms of risk. The diveshop I work at had a kid, like a fucking child, at the bottom of the 80ft ocean dead with the regulator out of your mouth. One second of panic and u knock the reg out of your mouth and take a panicked breath youre fuckin dead. You panic and dash to surface, you're fucking dead, stay down too long youre risking death or paralysis, do dives too quickly together paralysis death or the chamber, same with doing too many dives in one day, theres gear malfunctions, one hose fucks up and it can fill your BCD with air immediately shooting you to the surface and ur lungs explode

>>151233
Thanks just took my course this past weekend in Arkansas. Was able to get the deep dive out of the way but thunderstorms cut it short onsunday. I'll finish the rest of the dives locally and then I want to take Rescue Diver afterward. I caught the diving bug. I'm planning a trip to Kentucky later in July.

>>151792
I'm with the Atlantis submarine operation offshore Waikiki

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What's going on in this threa, guise?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRj0lymMMGs

>>152321
I was working on the north shore now I'm woking in Hawaii Kai. I think we dive at a site you guys go to. Is that the fuckin giant submarine that goes to a 90 ft reef site? I just dove that site a week ago, instructing on no sleep and adderall and wasn't prepared to see a sub and it scared the fuck out me

>>152238
If you're doing these courses in fresh water, you're going to be a way better diver than someone who learns in fuckin bora bora with 100 ft viz, and 86 degree water. I had my first paid instructing job in minnesota, and frequently did ice diving and dove in lake superior. I live in Hawaii so my job, at least in terms of the diving is way fuckin easier and safer. You definitely need to make a trip to florida, Id recommend blue heron bridge in florida, or the wrecks off palm beach during goliath grouper mating season. I've dove almost every continent except Antartica and thats still some of the best diving ive ever done. Last time I was there the coral formations on both sites were incredibly healthy and there was a ton of cool unique marine life.
If you caught the diving bug in fresh water, then you're the real fuckin deal but you should absolutely get in the ocean.
Also, just do continuing education with PADI. As a PADI instructor its relatively easy to switch to SSI, but you have retake the entire instructors exam to switch from SSI to PADI. I actually prefer SSI's model of teaching because you can complete the skills in any order.
But if you love diving, please continue ur diving education. Becoming an instructor got me more pussy than my masters degree.

>>132499
As an instructor I would absolutely advise against getting certified in a river, do you mean you're using the river for the open water dives and assessing skills? Does the dive shop have a pool? The viz is prob shit, so is the current I can't imagine you could do fucking anything, ive done a ton of drift diving but unlike a river you actually have visibility and space and as an instructor I would never asses any skills in a current unless the skill was related to currents

>>151496
You can always do commercial diving. I think your intention to reduce the lionfish population is probably where you should concentrate given what they've done the entire fucking western atlantic, theryre finding lionfish, a fish you used to find in raja ampat Indonesia has made its way to fuckin Maine.
Either through PADI or SSI get some deep training, and find some spearfishers, and you can make bank and really help the ecosystem by killing those fuckers by the garbage bag. Its really fun to dive and just slaughter them. Its rare that genocidciding a fucking fish is considered a very good thing

I'm currently living in Pattaya and I'm interested in getting a scuba certification. For a PADI Open water course of 3 days they're asking 16.000 baht, which is like 410 euros. Is this a good price? What should I be expecting to pay if I want to get my own gear? Seems kind of pricey, they sell aqualung stuff here but it's like 30.000 baht for a BCD and regulators are even more expensive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Uqc20z_dY

>>152786
I'm a PADI instructor and that is is pricey its usually around $250 USD. Maybe that comes with gear and extra dives tho?

>>153481
It's a 3 day course with 1 pool day and 4 ocean dives split over 2 days where they take you out with a speedboat to see some coral reefs. It includes rental diving equipment including a dive computer.

sad

>>85309
Ok

>>85309
What

>>85309
What

>>85309
>Which is better?
Whichever is more available so you can get your base certs, then do literally whatever you want. Turns out all the information you need is easily found for free so all you need is the gear and you can just dive whenever and wherever however you choose.

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So, you know that classic 80's toy laser gun sound montage? Anybody know why someone might hear that underwater?

It happened diving with one other diver, who did not hear it, off the south shore of Oahu. No other boats in the vicinity. Given the location, some distant military vessel is a guess, but there's also no actual reason to think that.

Wasn't a dive computer, watch, camera, or other personal device. Anybody got a guess?

>>85388
As regards to training, there is a saying in the scuba realm: choose the instructor, not the agency

>>152622
thanks i finished the remaining dives I needed for my AOW in Kentucky this time around at this really nice dive quarry near fort campbell. Now I wanna knock out the Rescue course next. Bought a BCD and Regulator from the dive shop i'm taking classes at.

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Can't find weight for under $5 a pound which is fucking robbery. Have picrel for a belt and need 40lbs for what im doing but this belt is pinching my suits for hours at a time. Any good suggestions to replace this belt with one that has weight on the outside so doesnt pinch? /xs?

>>158166
Okay fedboy. Nobody calls it a bcd and only one type of anon capitalizes proper nouns on thos website. You're gonna get fired.

>>85309
any recommendations for a mask similar to the now-discontinued DeepSee Omni? That is literally the only mask that fits my broken/misshapen and large nose.

>>158422
What kind of braindead retard are you?

>>85370
Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and and Stetson Bank off the coast of Texas offer some amazing diving, just sucks they're a little deep down

how good is baby shampoo cut with water as a defogger? heard some other divers mention it so i bought some and a spray bottle

>>158855
I mean....I called you out and you confirmed my suspiscions.

>>159078
i drink gatorade any flavor (but i think grape works best) and just spit in my mask. Works every time.

>>98438
Scuba diving has a low rate of injuries compared to other sports like mountain biking, but it’s statistically one of the most lethal sports in existence. It’s like skydiving, stuff rarely goes wrong but when it does you’re probably fucked.

>>159078
Only defogger you will ever need is your saliva.
If you mean to pre clean your mask to remove the chemicals that cause it to fog up even more then I recommend using toothpaste (abrasive one) rub it untill it dries then wash away with dish soap.

I want to try scoobing

I completed my divemaster last month and haven't purchased insurance yet. Can anyone recommend me some policies?
I'm with SSI and based in Australia if that is of relevance.

headed to mermet springs this weekend. really excited to just have some fun dives and no expectation of passing a course. I'm trying to take the rescue diver class next in Oct hopefully the water isn't too cold where I live .

>>159415
just don't dive past 80 feet, there is a reason why the navy strictly set its standard operating depth for divers at about 85 feet.

>>160961
I'd look at the fine print on your standard insurance. Any dive insurance you'll get is supplemental to your primary insurance. Some primary insurance DOES cover medevac/air-evac trips to a decompression tank.

>>160961
>>162109
Are dive insurance policies through the roof costwise?

>>158931
Neat!

>>163477
Dont think so. The amount of people that actually need to be helied out to a deco tank is obscenely small compared to the amount of people insured. Same with a extreme mountainsport insurance which is only like 40 euro a year but way way way more risky.

I just found out I might be able to apply for an internship and get an instructors license with NAUI. it's not a sure thing but should I do it?

>>163625
Sounds fun

I ran outta air diving once

>>165521
Did you died?

>>165527
Yeah I'm a ghost

Any videopro's here who can share some knowledge?

I'm looking to maybe get a tray and videolight for my gopro hero 11. My girlfriend wants to use the footage for tiktok, so standards are not super high, but would be nice if the footage looks good (and yeah i'm aware that editing plays a large part in this).

We'll be doing our diving on a liveaboard in Hurghada, Egypt this oktober. I guess the visibility will be pretty good and we won't be doing many dives deeper than 18m (60ft). Is a light even needed in these cases?

If yes, i'm currently looking at the Sea Dragon 2000F with the tray included. Looks like an easy all-in-one solution that's not too bulky either. At 350eu it's also pretty much the upper limit of what i'm willing to spend, but i'm also happy to keep the money in my pocket.

Would be nice to get some imput on this!

>>160961
Most dive centers I have seen provide insurance for their staff, which is relevant since SSI doesn't let you conduct pro activities without a dive center affiliation unlike other agencies.
I'd check DAN first if you aren't looking for a job.
t. aussie ssi instructor

>>92144
Cool story. Had a similar experience with my discover dive guide. He told me the same thing at the end.

Got my cert a few months ago in Malta and my instructors were brilliant. Also helps that one was a hot middle aged Iowan and a 22 yo dutch medical student

just got back from classroom portion of Rescue Diver course. will be doing over the weekend and am looking forward to it. hopefully the water isn't too cold this late in the year.

Can anyone recommend any Halloween-themed diving? I've done underwater pumpkin carving the last couple of years, but I'm looking around to see what else might be available.

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I just got my open water certification and saw some videos of cave diving and it looks pretty cool. Me and my buddy are planning on giving it a shot, any tips for noobies?

>>174364
Just an open water won't be enough for cave diving. You will need a cave diving specialty and your advanced open water at the least. Just ask your dive centre what courses are required.

>>174364
Most cave diving has a massively imbalanced ratio of risk and effort to reward

>>174916
Yeah it's not like Clanker's Cavern irl

>>157475

you can narrow it down by trying to identify the frequency of the oscillation and then comparing that to the RPM range of common DC tool motors and the like. Just as likely you had a hallucination or heard gas doing weird stuff in your inner ear or something.

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Anybody ever heard of thos oxsea/oxair bottles?

Are they safe or are they going to get some dumbass drowned?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmRDY0zmWbg

>>179969
The bigger issue with these cheap amazon warehouse bottles is not the safety of the actual product, but the person using them.

You don't need any dive training or knowledge to buy one of these so the likelyhood of some retard that thinks swimming underwater is no different to surface swimming getting their hands on one and getting injured one way or another is very high, theoretically if you know what you are doing they should be no more dangerous than diving normally (more on that later in my post)
I remember ages ago when some scam product that claimed to be a second stage sized underwater 02 scrubber got millions of dollars in sales despite being physiologically impossible to engineer, there is certainly no shortage of idiots who don't know any better to take up these kinds of products, that's an extreme example but the point I'm making is there is plenty of illiteracy in underwater activities to go around.

With how bloodthirsty liability lawyers are in the US im surprised these products even exist there but I see them all the time, probably comes from China to evade that so I wouldn't even trust their construction at that point.

>>144194
I can vouch for Philippines, I do live in this shithole after all. Ive only been around to the 3 places below, though im sure there are many other places around you can dive. For a weekend you can drive 2 hours down from manila to anilao (I know some resorts will drive you straight from the aiport) and easily spend several nights over there. Ive probably logged somewhere near 500 dives here in the past decade, good coral reefs, great blackwater diving site, and great micro as well if thats your thing.
Besides that, theres also malapascua though i went there almost 6 years ago, so i dont remember much
Big kahuna here would probably be Tubbataha, Palau, you will have to spend a week on a liveaboard though. Unfortunately it is slowly getting worse due to le climate change. I dont see as much stuff as I did a decade ago, but still, I means its Tubbataha, the reef there and the biodiversity blows anilao if you're lucky with the season
I did also dive in subic once, though nothing I remember at all except maybe some wreck sites, nothing too fancy, biggest thing there was an old US armed cruiser from the early 1900s I think, USS New York.

>>101849
what about NAUI?

>>183878
Not that anon but recreationally who you are under doesn't matter (as long as its not some shitfit agency nobody has ever heard of) and anyone who can argue otherwise doesn't know anything.

>>184120
Thanks Anon. I signed up for beginner lessons with NAUI a month from now. Any tips and tricks for someone who has never scoooba dived in his life?

>>179969
Looks like a disaster waiting to happen and something for failed freedivers.

Anybody ever dived an underground cave/spring?

>>186766
i dunno if that counts but i took a trip to an indoor pool and tried by accident the artificial cave tunnel they had there to train people that get their cave certs.
It was an experience for sure, i'm lucky i had plenty air still and instead of panicking i started laughing when i realised that i could turn back and had to crawl backwards to the entrance.

This thread has existed for two years

>>184492
same as everything else - listen to your instructor.

Learn to slow down. Hold your breath and get normalized to the fact that you don't need to rush because even if the reg pops out you have 20 seconds before you even feel light of breath

>>139780
Manatees bro

Seventh

>>187807
Thanks fren

>>151792
Oh hell yeah dude, I did a few dives with them early last year. It's been too long to remember the instructor's name but I'm sure you know him or are even him. It was my first real dive after getting my cert and everyone was super chill and helpful, 10/10 experience

>>186766
Not yet but I'm going to check out some cenotes this summer, I'm excited!

Anybody surf in Delaware?

All options?

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Is the padi open water licence worth it?
Got a cheap place where I can get it for 280€ outside of high season, the place is not ugly but it's almost dead in terms of fauna.
Already dived in thailand and mediterranean sea, thailand was great but I don't see myself purchasing my own gear or anything like that, it is quite an atractive bonus when going on vacations, I'm thinking about going to Philippines this or the next year.

>>193643
I almost forgot. The price is for 4 dives + 1 dive in enclosed waters (swiming pool or beach) all the gear is included.

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>>193645
Additionally, both times I got to dive I got painful ear infections. I also did a lot of snorkeling during the same days and dived to 3 to 4 at the very most, holding my breath. I suspect that I did something wrong maybe going to fast down and up or maybe too many times and I screwed up. Any tips to avoid that? Ear ifections can get very painful and ruin some of your vacation days.

Have you notice a drastic decrease of wildlife in your usual diving locations? Maybe it's just me but in less than 20 years some Mediterranean beaches have become basically dead, octopuses are totally gone for example.

Pics from my thailand dive at phi phi.

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What no one tells you about scuba is that its so fucking cold once you go more than 20 feet underwater

>>193645
Thats really good. Here in california ita more like $700

>>194537
Even with an expensive ass wetsuit?

>>194599
I used a cheap 7mm suit and was freezing in 50 deg water

>>194537
Thailand was surprisingly warm, I had never experienced such a difference in temperature regarding sea water of a different country. It was also very comfortable since it allowed to dive with short sleeves for arms and legs.

>>193643
Already started with online content, first dive late next month.

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I did it. I got my scooooba certification.

Wat nao?

>>195103
Well, congratulations, partner. What continent are you currently on?

>>195127
California

>>161914
>mermet springs
hello fellow Midwesterner

>>195147
Most major cities in Cali have dive shops that you could book dives through

>>195335
>>195147
Any good wrecks out of CA?

>>195431
No idea! PCB has some wrecks which were nifty. Cali is known for the Kelp Forest though

spearfishing

Newbie here, is it okay to use free diving wetsuits for open water diving? Looking at truedive and bestdive's products at the moment

>>194716
Online content done, first dive soon.

>>198334
First dive done, it was a bit of a disaster, we got too cold while doing the exercises and started shaking. GF was at her limit during the entrance to the water due to a lack of control and unbalanced gear, also, when removing the mask underwater. She also got motion sickness at the end on the surface and ended up puking at the car. My mustache was inconvenient for the seal of the mask, I got wax plugs in both ears.
Overall, it has been the most uncomfortable dive I have done by far.
Next one soon, if I can remove the ear wax and my GF doesn't kill me first.

>>195431
Depends on where you are. There's a few in Santa Monica and San Diego has it's own Wreck Alley.

>>158421
Sand bags

>>199002
Second dive went much better, we had some rain but the sea had almost no waves or current, all mandatory exercises done, GF did much better and only paniked a bit at the start but after that she was ok. We struggled a bit with the flotation exercises, but it was easier to manage while swimming. We saw a tiny baby moray.
The gear specially the neoprenes are rubbish my sleeve had so many holes that was about to fall off.

>>199744
>>199002
Good to hear it's getting better each time. Your girl sounds a bit high maintenance tho.

Is it a good idea to bring my scuba diver gf to my certification? Will she get the ick if I die in front of her?

>>200202
She might puke like this guy's chick >>199002

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>>199744
Third dive done.
I think the dive center I picked is not trustworthy. They advertise the open water course with 5 dives but the first 2 dives share the same bottle so in reality you get 4 bottles, 3 dives + 2 half dives.
We have not finished our course yet but for the dive of today we were 7 "experienced" divers + me and my GF + instructor. So basically almost no attention from the instructor and far from the 4:1 ratio. I mean is it even allowed to go 9:1 with unlicensed people? Luckily my GF did great this time and thank goodness we paid close attention to each other isntead of relaying on the instructor because we almost runned out of air. At the end of the dive after 45 minutes we had 15 bar at the very most.
Maximum depth was 15,5m it has been a bit of a circus with 3 people having issues with their gear and stopping all the time, or other people bunching up to see a the sparce wild life at the rocks.
Is it possible to fill a complaint to padi? Doesn't seem the kind of organization who cares about anything else that isn't money.

How difficult is it to find little gold treasures scuba diving?

Always had good luck getting trinkets from the water. Ots in my blood
Ive wondered if i can retrieve treasure if i scuba dive

Isnt there a mini scuba mouth kit anno 2024 that u can just dive for like 10 min

>got my scuba license at 16 through SSI
>I'm in my late 30s, would like to get a new picture from this half of my life at least

How hard is this to do? I don't live near where I got it and the scuba shop is no longer in business.

tel me plz

Like most of the times I go swimming I come out with blood leaking from my body, its not even funny anymore. I will cut myself, one way or another
Sometimes I dont even notice know why how or what. Most times.

I can feel cuts in my body if im swimming, its ridiculous.

Anyone else have this issue?

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Subhanallah subhanallah subhanallah

>>85309
Gonna be stuck in Pensacola Florida for a while and I'm trying to get into scuba to hunt lionfish
Are there any guides online that I can follow?

>>202327
Stay away from the coral

>>200671
Does your state have a regulatory department for scuba diving stuff?

>>88127
Retarded question. For most divers it's 40m anyway.

>>121888
To any anons wondering: this will not be your experience in the army. It is hard, grueling work, and you need to get really lucky to be assigned to something/somewhere interesting.

>>85309
I'm looking to get a pair of decent spearfishing/freediving fins. besides for cressi, who makes good stuff? What about open heel vs full foot?
currently looking at some cressi pro lights.

>>99918
>>99923
NEAT

Autistic question but is it possible to find a GF through a dive trip? Friends have told me it isn't a bad idea.

>>204235
Most divers are middle aged men. I have never been in a diving group that had women my age over the hundreds of dives I have logged. It's a very male brained activity.

>>157475
>It happened diving with one other diver, who did not hear it
>Anybody got a guess?

some combination of mild nitrogen narcosis induced auditory hallucination with gas moving around in your body/eardrum

t. non-diver

so I bought all my own gear and just started diving so far 6 dives in and having lots of fun I'm a FL native so I have access to great diving

I've looked into all the info for safe diving do I really need OW? should I just spend the money on a decent boat and open up lots of new diving for myself or spend the money on training thats freely available online?

>>197964
Its fine fine as long as it keeps you warm and you have your buoyancy right

>>206068
>guys, do I really need to spend $200 to get the bare minimum certification needed so that scuba shops won't tell me to fuck off when I ask them to fill up my tanks?

>>179969
I never understood the idea of attaching a gigantic air volume to your face, no weight whatsoever to compensate, and trying do dive with it. These masks are made for your fat mom to slowly cruise at the surface, and they're fine for that, but little else.
Suboptimal concept and a disaster waiting to happen, either from the quality control from cheap ass chinese copies (because, if you don't want to put the mild finacial effort to actually train OW, what are the odds you will pay for the original brand?) or lack of training from people who want to circunvent actually having to be taught something before diving.

>>206068
You're a valuable lesson waiting to happen for everyone else out there who will survive your stupid ass.

>>204235
I got my sexy dive instructor that way. Bragging aside it's at least as good as any other group activity to get laid.

>>132665
FFESSM est un troupeau d'intégristes :)
Les cours étaient tellement arides quand j'avais regardé.

>>206825
>>206951
a shop already fills my tanks and the price is 500 for ow in a group 800 private
also what precisely did you learn in the ow class that i can't look up online and already do on my own? does taking the ow class somehow preclude you from being an idiot?

>>204235
Only if you become a dive instructor and hit on your students

>>174364
Get VERY good at swimming quietly, surgically, and technical. Get rebreather certs and training, use them a lot in open water. Save a ton of cash for extra gear and training, you're going to need it.

Above all else - have a realistic expectation of why and how. Why do you want to do these cave dives? Just to check them off the list? To show people you did them? To explore super tight areas? To challenge your diving? How are you going to become a cave diver? How are you selecting your caves? How are you choosing your gear and why?

The mental perpetration for cave diving to be done safely is not something to take lightly. It's as dangerous as BASE Jumping, and should be approached the same way - reckless and dumb people die easy and quick.

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I think I fucked up my brain. During my certification dive, I had my first-ever panic attack on my third dive. I was pretty sure I was going to die back rhen. However, I surfaced safely, following all safety stops. I didn’t feel anything immediately after that. But the next day, I started experiencing shortness of breath. I brushed it off as stress from diving, I thought.
It's been days since I got my certificate, but I still have symptoms of shortness of breath and feel extremely weak. I'm pretty sure that panic attack flipped a switch in my DNA and triggered an anxiety disorder in me. I swear I was a normal person before the dive; now I keep having anxiety attacks. I always thought anxiety was just an excuse made by Redditors.
But now, I'm just really tired. I can't breathe properly anymore, and my hands always feel numb. I missed a lot of my uni classes. I get anxiety for no fucking reason at all. It's an incurable neuronal disease. I wish I had never gone scuba diving.

>>209189
Call DAN https://dan.org/about-dan/contact/

>>209230
No it's not DCS. If it was, it would've showed symptoms after the dive. It's been days now after my dive.

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>>206962
>does taking the ow class somehow preclude you from being an idiot?
80% of people that dive with a OW license are retarded. 100% of people that dive without a certification are retarded.

>price is 500 for ow in a group 800 private
Do the group, 500 isn't that bad for a cert assuming all gear is included. How are you going to afford taking trips, renting/buying gear, etc of you can't even afford a basic training?

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>>209189
>>209230
I went to the doc and just got diagnosed with panic disorder. Thanks scuba diving, now I am mentally ill.

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>>209288
>>206962
>>206068
So I'm the uncertified OP now freshly certified and the OW class is clearly meant for lemmings and children. went through the whole course learned almost nothing I didn't already learn/study up on before diving, saw someone wig out of a mask off and someone failed on the 50ft swim breath hold
If my GI bill from the military wasn't paying for it i would not have gone but now i can fill my tanks anywhere and can get into the cert places which is cool i guess

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>>209402
>So I'm the uncertified OP now freshly certified and the OW class is clearly meant for lemmings and children.
Ofc, it's tailored for the average person (or lowest common denominator) like everything else in life. PADI is a business but for the average person a good idea to learn how to operate basic equipment. This is a sport where if you fuck up too badly, you're dead or in the hospital.

>I didn't already learn/study up on before diving, saw someone wig out of a mask off and someone failed on the 50ft swim breath hold
I, no joke, got certified with a guy who didn't know how to swim. On the 300M swim requirement for OW, he doggy paddled the entire distance, the instructor and I had to wait forever for him to finish. He struggled to tread water for even 10 min too. In open water with waves, guy probably would've panicked and drowned, yes he got his cert btw.

>If my GI bill from the military wasn't paying for it i would not have gone but now i can fill my tanks anywhere and can get into the cert places which is cool i guess
Maybe you're lucky and can drive to the beach/fill your own cylinders somehow, I live in-land and north so decent scuba diving (not a quarry, pond, or river) requires significant travel for me. I don't even own a cylinder, I rent them at dive shops wherever I'm visiting because taking a AL80 cylinder on an airplane doesn't make sense and they ask for certification before they let me rent a few tanks. For many, especially those who rent gear/tanks, you have no alternatives.

>>209365
This is something that you can overcome - sadly the FDA vetoed the MDMA therapy but that seriously would have worked.

What caused the panic attack?

Don't know if this is the right place to ask but is there a way to see PADI's annual profits? My most specific and autistic anxiety is that diving won't be that much of a thing in the future due to economic reasons. I recognise that it was always more of an expensive activity but I've been shocked at how many random people I've met on the internet who did it on holiday once.

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>>209434
>What caused the panic attack?
Nothing caused it. I can clear my mask just fine. I think I did well. I didn't panic and pull off my regulator underwater (happened to me on a previous pool dive). I don't think scuba diving caused it, I might be just mentally ill. Looking forward to my next dive.

Hitting Malibu Road today. Nice beach dive, if the waves aren't too rough.

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>>209434
>MDMA therapy
>Rolling balls 50 metres underwater

Not sure that's the best idea...

Lobster season opening up in Cali at the end of the month. Who's going down? I've got two days planned out on a boat for the opening and following night.

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>>210013
You don't just throw out lobster pots?

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Is scuba diving a niche hobby?

open water certified through NAUI today
yippee

>>200671
In the end we gived the place a last chance, we waited until the beginning of low season to make the last dive and avoid another overcrowded experience.
GF got a another panic attack while putting the neoprene since she remembered the other negative experiences and she actually hurts her fingers with the neoprene god knows fucking how. She is not forced to do this.

This time the owners of the center paid close attention to us, in case we needed help or had to do something better.
The dive experience was finally similar to what I experienced at other sites.
Get in, swim for a bit without incidences, see some fish, get out. Nobody got too cold, visibility was decent, no 9 people pushing each other trying to see a miserable seahorse, no issues with the gear or huge holes on the neoprene, we didn't run out of air.
GF lost most of the fear to dive that she got during this course.
At last it's finally over, I can take my licence and fuck off to a place worth diving like the red sea or south asia.

>>209141
Not him but to be honest looks dangerous as fuck, most caves don't even have cool fauna to look at, sunken ships and some structures look appealing but most of those are not that big to begin with and you can dive around them with a safe distance, it's dangerous too but caves don't look worth it at all.

I got my first intro class on Friday bros! I have butterflies, kind of like before I flew out for basic training, even though I know the scuba instructors will be much kinder.

Why don't you pussies do cave diving?

>>212669
Boring and nothing to see.

>>212669
Well, turns out I just finished a week ago September Sidemount + Cavern diving in Mallorca.

If anyone here wants to do it, i'd recommend not doing a combo course as I did. Doing the cavern incident management stuff while not being comfortable yet with the sidemount is mentally exhausting as fuck. I've never been that happy to get out of the water. I would rather do sidemont, take a few days to get used to it and have a few enjoyable dives, then do the cavern training. By itself the training is demanding enough, I did up to an hour and a half underwater doing nothing but managing crisis after crisis.

Once finished i did a few more recreational dives with the sidemount rig before getting back into cave dives (Pollença bay in Mallorca has some great sites), shit was much more manageable.

>>212697
I love the feeling when you reach some cathedral like room. Eerie and peaceful.

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>>85309
>she scuba dives
is there a bigger red flag?

>>212697
the big open room caves look fun like devils hole but you can't dive those

>>85309
Does the water pressure prevent boners? I'm trying to find the world record for deepest coom but google sucks and when I type 'scuba' in the porn site all you get is people in pools

>>214012
it's too cold once you get below 60 feet of water to even think about sex

>>214010
I'd love a GF to dive with.

>Got certified for OW
Now what? The scuba store that trained me keeps recommending I go on a tropical vacation but I don’t have money for that shit. I just want to train my basic skills right now but I don’t have anyone to go with.

>>214142
If you live in cali you can schedle tours to catalina and such

Lobster season in Cali, but I've only brought one back so far. I tried the break wall outside of Angel's Gate at night and it was practically barren.

>>214071
you think you do but you don't

>>214602
Why?