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So will I... Twenty-eight dives from now :D

Perhaps the question isn't how to ditch the weight but how much of the weight must be ditchable? If you are properly weighted or even a little overweighted you may only need to ditch some of your weight in an emergency or have some of your weight ditched for you when you are being rescued. if...

Slightly OT: If it's bright yellow, I tend to assume it's a piece of emergency gear, just like a yellow second stage. So I personally would use a yellow bottle for a pony and a galvanized steel bottle for deco or some such. Which is probably a consequence of being a fashionista n00b...

Okay, this is where I personally draw the line in "Basic Scuba," although you may find others willing to get into it. I am trying to describe what I do and why I think it's a benefit. How it works and whether you have confidence in it is a much more complex subject. Please note that I have not...

What I find interesting about that thread is a basic assumption that an agency should teach a single protocol that must work for a diver just emerging from their first OW class right through the end of their career. Whereas in theory at least a PADI OW diver should not be doing dives deeper...

I was hinting at this when I said: If you do a dive in such a way that your protocol calls for a different "nitrogen group" after your surface interval, you have not completed your off-gassing before making the next dive. Whereas if you do more off-gassing in the water, you are presumably...

One of the more interesting points from the article linked above (and which I quoted) suggests that padding the tables has had no effect on DCS incidences. The variance seems to come form how we manage our ascent. Perhaps Minimum Deco is more optimal than safety stops, perhaps not. But how we...

:D Absolutely correct, sir! :D Well in truth I was trying to keep this to the discussion of why I adopted this particular ascent strategy without getting into how one calculates the limits of when it can be applied (namely that given a certain average depth, what is the longest dive you can...

Fascinating! The opening two paragraphs:

I'm a n00b, perhaps I've already forgotten my training. Please help me out: What is a "traditional emergency stop?" I remember the term "safety stop," and also the delightfully oxymoronic "mandatory safety stop." But "emergency stop" does not ring a bell...

Why ever not? What is more basic than how to plan a dive, how to dive a plan, and why? To be precise, I said: And I will provide the anecdotes. I log my dives and I log when I have any of the following in the 24 hours after a dive: Excessive tiredness, muscle soreness, aching joints, or a...

"Minimum Deco" is the most common name given for a practice of making a very slow (10ft or 3m per minute) ascent from approximately one half of your average depth on dives that most people would call "No Deco" dives. Another name you'll see is "One Minute Ascents" (which I find incredibly...

Reasons I choose to do Minimum Deco (or something approximating it): Provided that conditions are pleasant, off-gassing in the water is better than off-gassing on the surface. If I overstay my welcome and need to do some actual deco, I already know how to do it, I just need to adjust my...

OT: I believe you are quoting the gospel according to PADI. As it happens, I am an unbeliever in the expression "no deco dives." While I am under the NDLs suggested by PADI's tables, I typically make some kind of stop starting at half of my average depth and every ten feet thereafter. I try to...

I'm also a fairly new diver, and I have felt very uncomfortable doing many of the standard drills like mask replacement and recovering a lost regulator at one time or another. I second what others have said: Practice, practice, practice. The more I practiced, the more comfortable I became with...

Let's assume I notice my BT has failed. I estimate my average depth and time based on knowledge of the terrain, gas consumption, and the last known reading I trust. So I thumb the dive and want to do my stops on the way up. That's kind of what I had in mind, and only in a situation where I am...

I carry a small open bottom SMB and finger spool in my pocket on every OW dive. Recently, I was diving with a bottom timer and I noticed it was screwy... I was on a 60' reef and it said I was 16' down. It was a group dive so I hadn't bothered with a backup BT (a mistake I will not repeat). In...

No sparring needed! AFAICT this thread has included lots of useful information, advice, and shared experience. That ought to be a positive for anyone who hasn't already made up their mind about whether to use a pony or SpareAir. It is fun to laugh about how we repeat the same old, same old...

This resembles what I've read about the thinking behind independent doubles. With a single reg on each of two tanks, you have the simplest possible setup. If whatever you're breathing fails, you breathe from the other and END THE DIVE IMMEDIATELY. Since your only reserve is whatever is in the...

I'll see your :popcorn: and raise you a :coffee:! I admire this way of thinking.