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Hi all,

Just found this board and it looks cool so decided to join :)

I am 26 year old and living in Abu Dhabi, UAE. I started diving in 2000 when I was 18 and took my PADI OPen Water and Adv. Open Water Courses. This was in the North East of England so getting good diving weather was hit and miss so in the following 3 years after qualifying I only got around 50 dives. I then took up Skydiving so whenever there was a good weather day I spent my time hopping out of planes rather than in the sea with bad visability and a low chance of actually getting wet! So, Scuba Diving kinda went by the wayside and Skydiving took over. Move forward to 2007 and I emigrated to the UAE which is year long good weather! I have recently taken up Scuba again and am loving getting back into the sport.

So thats my story, look forward to progressing further and having fun!

Lee

10 dives ago I switched to a backplate and I'm having trouble adjusting my continuous webbing harness. Background: I dive in cold water, ware a thick undergarment and CF200 drysuit.

According to manufacture's guidance, I should be able to touch the top of my backplate with my finger tips. I should also be able to grab the shoulder Drings and remove the shoulder straps.

Web Demo: straptightnessoff

My shoulders are broad and I find that when I adjust the shoulder straps so that I can reach the top of the backplate, I am unable to pull the shoulder straps off.

Has anyone else experience this and what solution have you found?

Thanks

Hi,

I've been contemplating a dive trip to the Philippines but want to make it more of a combined holiday/dive trip rather than a deticated dive trip. I'd rather be able to get around and check out some tourist attractions as well as doing some diving.

Cebu has struck me as a possible destination but I have little knowledge of the dive locations close to Cebu city. I was thinking of staying in Cebu city and travelling to the dive sites around Mactan Island. Is this a realistic option? Any other suggestions?

Thanks
Splint

High tide schedule - 9:04 AM

Entering the water 8:20 AM - 8:35 AM, diving Blue Heron Bridge (water temp - 76 - 78F vs. Venice Beach, 61-64F) ...

Exit the water 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM....
----

Party to follow...

I'll bring BBQ Pulled Pork...

Anyone else interested?

I have G9 with the Ikelite housing. I loved it, but want to go further. Budget restraints mean I can't have everything I want, so I need advice on what to get next.


1. Strobe
2. WA lens / flat port

Dollar for dollar in added benefit, which is the best "next" purchase, with the end goal being to have both a WA wet lens and a (singular) strobe - Im not likely going to have dual strobes.

The next dive trip is March to Hawaii if that matters at all.

So, I'm starting to do dives deep enough to overcome the Interstage pressure on my COPIS. Around 250', ambient pressure, and the IP of my first stage equalize, and it's no longer possible to add 02. There are various ways of overcoming this problem, but I think I've found a pretty slick one. Curt and Mel at Silent Scuba managed to find some really cute 3cf cylinders, about the size of a wine bottle, and I rigged one directly to my backplate:

Hey there folks, just thought i'd show you this Rebreather i recently (lol... after

a couple of years working on it) got done with. Been on about 3 dives with

it so far, all in about 5-15' of water dive. Actual underwater time on it

each dive was about 45min to about 2 hours. I'd generally dive with it for

about 10 - 15 minutes at a time then resurface. Wow man i tell you,

rebreather bouyancy control is *difficult* the first couple of dives. The

work of breathing isn't too bad on it, but during the dive 2/3 the wob got

*hard* all of a sudden.

When i got home, come to find out, the coupling that connected the

corrugated hose used in the counterlung to prevent CL collapse (per the CJL

patent prints) came loose from
the main o2 elbow, just simply press fitted it back on, no dis. assy.

required... i KNEW i should have welded it in, instead of just a

press-fitting. Anyway, 90% of it is made out of ABS plastic.

God i love ABS... it's beyond my understanding how it stopped being the

mainstream plastic... you can weld/melt this stuff with a soldering iron any

way you please. PVC is probably easier to make, and less expensive, if i

were to take a guess, but you can't weld it, at least, not without highly

specialized equipment. As seen in the photos, i've also sewn some WWII-esque

coveralls. Boy howdy what a relief they were... during the dives it was

about 90+deg f and my wetsuit is 7MM and it's too small for me AND i live in

Georgia, so add that all up...

The first two dives i used only 500 psi out of one d cylinder, and that was

only because of a leak that i corrected, the last dive which was off and on

for 3 hours or so (i didn't dive the hole time, of course, but i spent

atleast 1/4 the time underwater) and when the dive was over, the pressure

guage didn't fall below 2000 on the other d cylinder (which was max

pressure) pure o2 = economical. I stopped using the reg in the pics, and

started using a cheap medical "click" style reg which was perfect... when

you get low just turn it clockwise all the way for a bit, then

counterclockwise, then clockwise again for 3 clicks... it was much more

compact too.
the radial scrubber (with 8-12 mesh sodasorb) has lasted all three dives...

that seemed kind of odd to me. Need to check the color of it before next

time i suppose.

I should say this rig is about 95% complete, i've still got the face mask to

do, but i'm half done with it.

I'll try and post some closeups of the loop later, the dive was tiring, and
these pics were all i could muster at the time.

I'll be visiting the in-laws in Deerfield in the end of December/beginning of January and I would like to do some diving around Deerfield (looks like there are plenty of interesting dives around the area), I've got a few questions and I'm sure somebody on SB could help.

What's the average water temperature at this time of the year? Any thermoclines? What kind of exposure protection do people usually use?

Anybody can recommend a diveshop / boat operator in the area? I'm not sure I'll haul all my gear to Florida just for a few dives so I might be looking at renting some. Also, I'll be alone (GF doesn't dive...) should I expect any trouble finding a buddy on the boat? (this hasn't been a problem for me other dives I've done in the past but it'll my first time diving in the US... just wondering).

How busy is it around that time? Should I try to book in advance, or should I be able to arrange that when I get there?

I'll be visiting the in-laws in Deerfield in the end of December/beginning of January and I would like to do some diving around Deerfield (looks like there are plenty of interesting dives around the area), I've got a few questions and I'm sure somebody on SB could help.

What's the average water temperature at this time of the year? Any thermoclines? What kind of exposure protection do people usually use?

Anybody can recommend a diveshop / boat operator in the area? I'm not sure I'll haul all my gear to Florida just for a few dives so I might be looking at renting some. Also, I'll be alone (GF doesn't dive...) should I expect any trouble finding a buddy on the boat? (this hasn't been a problem for me other dives I've done in the past but it'll my first time diving in the US... just wondering).

How busy is it around that time? Should I try to book in advance, or should I be able to arrange that when I get there?

Hi all cave divers! I am excited to announce the birth of a new forum JUST for cave diving and all its related topics. From equipment to technique, training, accident analysis, science, mapping and imaging it it all there (well it will be when we start using it!).

The site is Home - CaveSpotz and is similar in design to Dave Sutton's NoBubbleDiving site...in fact if you are already on his site you can log on using the same password and username.

Jill Heinerth and other well known cave explorers are helping on the site as SME's (Subject Matter Experts) so please drop in and have a look. You can use the site to create your own user groups e.g. for your club, bunch of dive buddies, to plan a trip or anything else.

There will be a few bugs along the way but please be patient and come help me make the site really worthwhile. It's high time cave divers had a site like this just for ourselves!

Hope to see you there!

Harry

while trying to set up tec rigs for a shop on roatan, i was going to O2 clean the the cylinders. there was no global tec blue stuff, or even simple green available (i know, i know, not a great choice), and they refused to order any. when i asked what i should use, they told me to use regular bathroom degreaser (called sno ball i think), not even food grade. needless to say, i refused to clean the tanks, and refused to tec dive with the people involved, better safe than sorry. apparently this is the standard practice on utila and roatan for O2 cleaning tanks. i would guess that its also used for regs, tho i doubt these were ever O2 cleaned to begin with (i brought my own clean regs with me). does anyone know anything about cleaning with bathroom cleaner? is this completely unacceptable (my reaction), or am i overreacting? like to hear peoples thoughts on this...