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Oh yeah ... and also note that the bends don't only result in gas embolisms in the bloodstream, they can result in bubbles almost anywhere in your body. In your joints, in muscle, in your fat ... wherever blood flows, bubbles might form (of course this would also be dependent on your dive profile).

No, you are correct in how you described it. He got the bends, which caused N2 bubbles to form in his blood and since those bubbles are a foreign body in the blood they are therefore an embolism in the strict medical definition. However the way it is described on that page viz: 'Air embolism...

Nitrogen bubbles by themselves CANNOT be caused by an embolism. A rough and dirty explanation of an embolism is as follows: the gas in your lungs is forced out of the lungs into your bloodstream, usually caused by an injury to the lungs*. The point though is that the gas you are breathing exits...

Do you get closed circuit bags without an OPV? That strikes me as kind of screwy ... after all, how much extra cost can an OPV add? emcbride81, if your sausage is closed and has an over pressure valve (like the one on your BCD) then it is perfectly safe to fill it with 'too much' air at...

You've already gotten some excellent advice so I don't have much to add wrt to the topic. I would like to chip in about the 100ft nitrox thing though. Although it is true that nitrox is best used between 60ft and 100ft, it is still exceptionally useful at the extremes of that range, namely...

:rofl3:

Oh, absolutely, very true that. :crafty: That is why I suggested in my first post that when deciding one should try them all out. I was trying to clarify and explain what I feel some of the advantages of a BP/W are over the others but maybe I got a bit side tracked. :blinking:

A personal attack? Not at all, i wasn't offended by your post. Discussion is good! Conversely, I hope you don't think I am arguing just to 'be right' or 'to win'. :D I think that my phrase 'the absolute rock solid feeling of my tank never moving' was inaccurate. What I was trying to say was...

Hmmm ... come to think of it, a hard plastic backpack plate in a jacket or rear inflate BC would probably eliminate any tank shifting issues so the stability isn't really an advantage of only BP/Ws.

No, adding a second cam band (which is not always possible) will not solve my instability problem. What I was talking about was the propensity for the whole scuba unit (BCD and all) to twist around on my back, shifting and sliding no matter how tight I made the straps. I'm serious, I literally...

I was going to get all nitpicky and remind you that 1 bar = 14.7 psi but stopped myself before I embarrassed myself. Its 1 atm that equals 14.7 psi, not 1 bar. :dork2: I was actually pondering the differences between European and American cylinder capacity systems earlier today and realised...

Some folks have mentioned the trim pockets that are available on many jacket and rear inflate BCDs. I want to point out that unlike a backplate where the weight is evenly distributed across your whole lung area, the weight in these pockets is concentrated into one (okay ... two if you want to be...

That is one moerse long snorkel SkipperJohn! And boy do I wish our pool was that clear amascuba. :depressed: Yes ... the water was not blue ... but I was nekkid so I was. Here's one that is a little less indecent. Me and my new toy, Sea Biscuit.

I would also recommend not to get to hung up on your SAC rate. While it is important to be aware of what it is, I wouldn't focus solely on trying to lower it. What is important is focusing on improving your diving. Taking the excellent advice already posted on this thread will do this. The...

A couple of times I have taken an apple into the pool to eat when I get bored. Apart from the few obligatory 'Eeeeeew, yuuuuck!' reactions I've also had a few students gesture for me to give them the apple underwater so that they can try. :shocked2:

Just out of interest, what are the other two fundamental forces? Strong and weak atomic? But what about attraction of opposite electric charges? Or is that an offshoot of magnetic attraction?

I just want to emphasize what RJP wrote here. Your job as a DM is to enable the Instructor to teach. This means you take care of things in the background so that he or she can focus on the teaching rather than having to look after and worry about students. It is your job to watch students...

Congratulations. :clapping:

It is ALWAYS your OW instructor's fault!!! </DM mode>

Well ... if you were to ask a Philosopher he would say that Archimedes Principle would be more accurate since, due to the problem of induction, we cannot know for certain that it is, in fact, a law. Additionally the definition of what constitutes a law [in the scientific world] is rather ill...