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This was our first trip, and I think we are hooked too! Although there are so many other great looking out islands to visit, and so little time. . . I didn't find the diving to be clearly better at one end of the island or the other. Every site we visited was distinct and satisfying. If we...

We completed three nice days of boat diving, for a total of five dives, in Eleuthera this past week. We did three dives with Valentine's Dive Center, http://bit.ly/NojMvk , on Harbour Island. VDC apparently developed a bad reputation before a family from Canada, the Gross' (with, per the...

I never quite got the "aluminum tanks suck because they are positively buoyant when low" thing. Seems to be me it's all about buoyancy swing, and that should be the same (i.e., the weight of air consumed) whether the tank is aluminum or steel. So I think it pretty much comes down to where you...

Basically you are getting only half the extra gas you should be getting over an 80 with a 100 filled to 3000 psi. Whether you make a stink is up to you. I didn't realize the 3300 psi thing until after my last trip to Coz. For me, going forward, it will probably depend on whether the op has...

Muscle requires more oxygen than fat, so it's not just weight that determines air consumption, but percentage of lean mass. That's what I tell myself to excuse my Hoover-esque air consumption, anyway. Whether one prefers AL 100s or steel tanks will depend to some extent on one's body type, and...

I'm headed down tomorrow to do 10 dives with Nicolas. Chose him based on reviews here. I'll try to do my own review when I get home.

But that would make a helluva interesting club.

Oh boy. :popcorn:

I believe the most basic plan only covers dives to 130 feet. But as stated above, check the terms of the policy before relying on it.

Neutral Buoyancy is a pretty good read. The author interweaves a travelogue with a history of diving. It's not a page turner like "Shadow Divers" or "The Last Dive," but it has a lot of substance and should hold most divers' interest. And nobody else has mentioned it yet. :humble:

Hah. FWIW, my cavern class was like boot camp and the instructor berated us constantly. He did so with a smile, and claimed at one point that he did the berating to see how we did under stress; there was a lot of stress. He did this not only on the surface but through his regulator. (Note to...

Thanks all. Jim, I didn't mean to criticize you in any way. It's great that you and NWGrateful offer the AOW-on-steroids classes. I just think that something like those classes should be offered by the major agencies as a matter of course (hence no need for a reference to steroids). I find...

OP here. A lot of stuff to chew on in this thread, though I don't feel like I've seen a good answer to the question "why don't other agencies offer something like this." The kind of stuff that I think is taught in Fundies -- including better buddy and situational awareness - strikes me as the...

From what I've read about GUE Fundamentals, the class teaches a lot of valuable skills that one can only get a la carte from other training agencies -- if at all. For instance, I took NACD Cavern last month. A lot of the stuff I learned will likely be quite useful in OW diving. Yet, I'm not...

I've got both an integrated octo and a separate octo (got the former in conjunction with a great deal on the BCD), and for now I'm keeping both for a weight-belt and suspenders. So while not a partisan for either approach, I do want to point out that all the folks kvetching about having to...

Found my PADI OW manual, copyright 1999. At page 158, it says that if you are OOA "and the water is 30 to 40 feet deep or less, you may decide to make a CESA." On the next page it says that if you are too deep for a CESA, you need to make a buoyant emergency ascent. I recall my instructor...

There seems to be an assumption that OOA divers always have some air in their lungs. What if you realize you are OOA right at the end of a good, deep exhalation at 100 feet (with no buddy around). A CESA is effectively impossible. If you ascend at 30 feet per minute, you might pass out before...

Judo is basically the sport form of Jujitsu, which is a combat art. Jujitsu is what Samurai used to fight if they lost their weapons. It's got the chokes, locks, and throws that Judo has, but also strikes to set them up. I train in Chevy Chase, MD, so if you don't mind schlepping from...

Japanese Jujitsu here. We do it standing up.

I've got a pair and love them. They've moved me against pretty strong Cozumel currents when necessary. It takes a bit of finning before one starts to accelerate fast, but I think that is common to most split fins.