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You could also try a DUI classic weight belt harness. With a weight belt harness you can use any fin you like and put a lot of weight on the hips (instead of the waist like a regular weight belt), that may be the perfect place to achieve good trim depending on your body shape. Heavy fins can...

The Mares MV Octopus works upside down, is cheap and good. The Mares brand is popular in Europe where it's cheap and you get it serviced everywhere, but since you're from Arkansas better check first if a local dive shop offers Mares service and about the prices. Better don't mix brands between...

I think it depends mostly on how tall the diver is. A short diver with long narrow doubles has them inconveniently riding on his buttocks. A tall diver with short wide doubles will be top heavy. There are of course many variants of steel tanks available, but the most common situation is...

I agree agency standards change over time, but not that every agency has to offer the same program and I still see the inconsistency with GUE team diving philosophy, and DIR idea of keeping things simple. What's wrong with specializing in a niche and offering good focused OC backmount training...

IMO swivel turret and 5th port is nice to have and I'd like that option for sidemounting if I'm buying a new reg anyway, but it's not a must-have and you'll be able to make your current reg work for sidemount. There are many degrees of freedom: you can rotate the tank a little, rotate the 1st...

What will change in a few years? You can take cavern/intro/... class in sidemount today. I don't expect GUE to change their position on sidemount though, for other reasons. They are deeply invested in project oriented team diving, where every diver should have the same configuration so that...

It really depends on the country. In Germany, VDST shows decompression tables and gas planning already in DTSA* (first card, like OWD). So you have to calculate a gas plan for staged deco already to pass the OWD class, but due to the limitation depth to guided dives and 20m, DTSA* means NDL...

Went to DIVE LOFT KRK - Diving Center on Krk island in Croatia | Diving Courses, Boat Dives, Full Day Diving Trips, Discover Scuba Diving with a group of friends three years ago and it was good.

NDL diving and deco diving are different because of the safety stop. For calculating NDL in rec diving, a GF of 85~95 is usual in dive computers and it's OK, because the 3min@5m safety stop has a big impact. Say you set GF=90 and use the 13min NDL time at 30m. (PZ+ for example gives you 16min...

recreational openwater sidemount is often chosen because of back pain. Only few advanced divers go into so narrow caves that they need sidemount for technical reasons. When you're 30 and fit then twin 12l tanks mounted to a steel backplate with installed p-weight lead seems to be acceptable to...

Sounds funny but doesn't make sense in my opinion. Since there are so many different deco models, tables, computers, conservatism settings, ... one diver's NDL dive is another diver's deco dive. There's a big gray area here going from NDL diving, light deco, lots of deco, ... Very different...

If all you need is more gas for contingency, you might as well take a larger tank and leave the pony at home. The point of the pony is that it is an independent source of gas. When does that make a difference? For example a cold water backmount diver who isn't able to shut his valves due to...

Obviously divers have different personal subjective opinions on what level of safety they need, and two divers often disagree in that regard even for the same dive under the same conditions. So you may discuss the objective differences say between a pony bottle and a mono tank with an h-valve...

The instructor effectively charges you for his time and hence course prices strongly correlate with the number of dives, number of training days, classroom hours, required for the class. Gas costs are the same, books, and agency fees differ a little but not so much. Some agencies split courses...

I can't see a reason why BPW would be a problem. Some jacket BCs are very similar to BPW. But I expect the instructor will require ditchable lead such as a weightbelt when you're in a wetsuit, no p-weights screwed to the backplate. Anyway, better ask the instructor before booking the class.

I think you make it too hard for yourself. You're from Rotterdam (according to your profile)? Join a local club, go wreck diving in North Sea, Scapa Flow, Red Sea, Arenzano, Croatia, ... Why not take Fundies and book a one-week tour on a tec-friendly boat in the Red Sea with twin tanks for a...

Recreational Trimix is not a prerequisite for ART according to IANTD standards; Deep Diver and EANx are. The instructor however may require more. My ART instructor for example wanted to see Essentials or similar, or OW SM class before ART. He said he had too many recently self-taught...

That's interesting. So you use GFhigh to determine NDL time, and start deco calculation with GFlow only after NDL time is over? That would cause some weird effect in a dive computer: just a second after NDL time is over, suddenly a long deco plan is displayed with many stops, starting at a...

I wouldn't be so sure that 100% is actually better than 80% for first aid. While elevated O2 supply is certainly highly recommended for DCS, hyperoxia also brings disadvantages such as brain vasoconstriction and reduced cardial output, that limits its positive effects. In life support after CPR...

The impact of 50% vs 100% (one deco stage) on the needed amount of back gas is also considerable. In your example with EAN50 you need 2709l back gas on the bottom and 487l during ascent to 21m plus 1300l EAN50. You also want to be able to bring an OOG buddy to 21m and hence have at least...