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My own opinion - wait until you're 15 and you can do it without any restrictions and the frustrations and temptations that will naturally arise from the restrictions. I made my son wait until he was 15 and then he was able to progress OW -> AOW -> DM -> Instructor in one smooth sequence (and...

Actually in my case it's when you build an extension to the house to accommodate the dive gear.....

New one for me, I just got back from a trip where I paid more for excess baggage than I did for the air tickets. Not flying as much as I used to and so I just lost my gold status which gave me the first 25kg of excess for free. That really pushed up the trip price.

Problem we have in Brazil is that import costs will normally double the offshore price and it would not be unusual to see a factor around 2.6 as the limited number of suppliers play supply and demand. (Typical import factors would be 6% International Freight, 1% International Insurance, 16%...

In my family we have 4 sets of Aqualung/US Divers Micra Adj regs with Cousteau 1st stages. These have been in use for many years and maintenance costs have been low. About 18 months ago I was on a trip and my 1st stage started playing up with an unstable IP causing free-flow at the second stage...

Well I replaced my 1995 Beuchat Maestro Pro in 2004 for the following reasons: - It was obviously very aggressive regarding profiles. A couple of friends using the same model did chamber rides while diving within its limits. My wife was occasionally getting skin bends while diving within its...

It's just possible that the compass is fine, or would have been considered so, a few years ago. We are in a phase of weakening of the Earth's magnetic field (as a prelude to pole reversal?) so compass magnets may need to be made stronger to overcome friction. Also if you look at the global...

Just to add to failures I previously mentioned: This weekend my SPG hose started leaking at the crimp at the reg end. At 200bar it was leaking, at 150bar it wasn't. Detected while setting up gear for the dive. The reg set only has about 2 years of use but the SPG was transferred from my previous...

Another vote for RAW. I like to make sure I have something really white in the photo. My wife's BC has a little white plastic disk, cut from an ice-cream container, hanging from one of her d-rings. It just needs to be big enough to cover a few pixels. If I take a picture of that at the same...

Well the rules on the Swiss site are similar to those applied by other airlines and are the reason I simply stopped flying with my DIY canister light. Consumer electronic devices with lithium ion cells or batteries (max. 100 Wh)Only in hand baggage Replacement batteries for portable...

In 500+ dives: One blown o-ring at depth (25m). One dive aborted immediately after shore entry due to free-flowing 2nd stage caused by 1st stage IP creep. One slightly complicated dive due to leaking shoulder dump valve - caused by pieces of shell stuck into the rubber of the valve - simple to...

This thread reminds me of a situation I regularly face and it's interesting how different retailers behave. I live in Brazil, a country with very high import and sales taxes. I'm an ex-pat and still have a UK bank account and credit cards. I regularly travel to the US where prices are much...

I have some batteries (18650 and 26650) where I removed the protection circuit because I had a couple of very cheap Chinese dive lights that had leakage problems as they were first delivered and the protection circuits turned out to be the most sensitive part of the assembly - with just a few...

Maybe I'm missing something and you can explain it to me. If you're diving FFM and your own regulator fails how are you going to take your buddy's alternate without removing your FFM first? Unless you're carrying a spare conventional mask you're going to be without a mask.

Nobody seems to have touched on the obvious. What is the OP going to do if he gets his mask kicked off or smashed in a swim through? How's he going to breathe off a buddy's alternate without a mask? Or even his own alternate for that matter? Too many "helpful" posters on this thread encouraging...

http://www.apeks.co.uk/downloads/Low_Profile_Dump_Valve_Owners_Manual.pdf It is easy, yes.

Wow, I read through that and all I could think of is that these calculations are MUCH easier in metric..;)

Just curious how you know that the SPG moves in relation to the spool o-ring. Given that there is less contact area between the o-ring and the spool, if both surfaces are lubricated I'd say there's just as much, if not more, chance of the o-ring rotating on the spool. :D

I don't know if it's completely routine but when we went to Cozumel I was surprised to see that the night dives we did were also drift dives and we were briefed not to worry about staying in a group as long as you stayed with your buddy and make sure you knew the name of your boat. So when we...

Yep, at least one light on every dive. It's often been useful for looking into cracks, caverns or wrecks even on the clearest of days.