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In the cold water configuration I am always negative in fresh water (maybe just barely neutral when the tanks are close to empty), without carrying any lead. The steel tanks plus the canister light are that heavy. And that's why I usually end up with a bit of air in my wing and dry suit, no...

Sidemount diving is highly individual, and what works for one person might not work for another. Having said that, let me tell you about my experience and how I ended up with two distinct rigs, one for cold water diving in the Great Lakes, with steel tanks and drysuit, and another for the caves...

I have both, the Contour and the Razor. I use them for very different diving: The Contour for cold-water dives with drysuit and steel tanks, the Razor in the cenotes with AL80s and wet suit. Hybrid solutions where I use one harness with the other kind of tanks has always been suboptimal for me.

Me, too. I was just about to welcome you with some cookies...

A 15 day surface interval - I hope you survive! We ought to be tracking surface time like OTUs, and if it's just for our mental health.

Sorry to hear that, but it's not uncommon for the western shores of Lake Huron. I get blown out on average every third time I book a dive on one of the boats there. But the wrecks there are definitely worth it!

I think you're not too far off for the dives and conditions that you describe. A GF High of 90 is perhaps a bit on the aggressive side when you do that many dives per day, I'd dial it back to 80 if I were in your position (I use 85 in warm water, but generally don't do more than three dives a...

I would advise your friend to train to become a faster swimmer. Not to out swim the shark, mind you, just to outswim his buddy in such a situation. Maybe the shark will settle for the easier prey...

Thank you, Andy, for pointing this seemingly trivial issue out. I really wish it was as easy to change my physiology and the environmental conditions as easily as I can change the parameters on my computer. Wouldn't it be nice if I could shave twenty years off of my age, or heat the Great Lakes...

There are two fundamental aspects to your question. First, what kind of dive profile, and consequently Deco/NDL are you comfortable with. There is no universal answer to this, only you can decide. There are very aggressively algorithms, especially when it comes to multiple dives, like DSAT. On...

There seem to be two effects at play here on the physical side: first, you are trapping some bubbles under you, moving you up because of the increased buoyancy. Second, the water below you has a lower density because of the air bubbles, which means you move down. I'm not sure what the net effect...

I don think think this "invention" will be going anywhere. Manually pumping up those cylinders is a lot of work, for very little gain. I can't imagine that there are a lot of people who are too lazy to get certified to get real tank fills or too cheap to hire an instructor for a DSD experience...

As someone who has taken a lot of courses, but who is not an instructor, I don't feel particularly good about instructors who "go beyond the standards" in the sense of requiring (and not just offering) additional skills for certification. There is an expectation going into a course that it will...

As it was already said, it's the instructor. Primarily. Agency a distant second. I have taken a number of PADI classes, and all of them except one fell into the "good enough" category. I got out of it what I expected, the course was taught safely and competently, but nothing beyond that. The...

I had once a weird experience with that one. The dive boat required AOW. As usual, I showed my highest card, IANTD Full Cave. And they told me that they really need to see AOW instead. Fortunately, I had that card on me as well.

That's not quite how it works in practice. Almost all dive boats will take you to sites in the 100' to 130' range with AOW and relevant experience. And if you shore dive you can do whatever you are comfortable with - there is no scuba police down there.

Congrats! Hope to meet you some day on one of the Great Lakes dive boats.

Now, if you ever do a nude ice dive, that would be rad!

Actually, all commercial helium is of very high purity, because what they sell in cylinders is the boiloff from the liquefaction process. At those temperatures any contaminant has long frozen out and is trivially removed. That's why there is no low-purity, unsuitable for breathing, helium in the...

Well, there is one alternative: helium recycling. Also known as rebreather diving in our circles. During the last helium shortage many medical and scientific users invested in helium recycling facilities, and if this trend continues, it will eventually justify rebreathers just from a cost...