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I've run more dry suit specialties than any other, and let me tell you there is a non-trivial fraction of the population that really need it. Usually by the second open water dive they're all at a point where they're not going to lose control and cork on every ascent, but not always.....

I suppose it's more conscientious to die while solo diving. Less people traumatized if there's nobody with you when it happens. Never thought of it this way before your comment. A dear friend of mine who was always a stickler for following the rules when diving confided to me that since his...

When? I'll be on vacation there in late July. More seriously, I don't know a specific instructor I'd recommend, and I'm generally speaking out of ignorance, but hey, that's what the internet is for, right? Maui Dive Shop seems to have the largest footprint in Kihei, and they're good folks...

My line with students goes something like this: Standard SCUBA equipment will do everything it can to keep you alive. (Note fail-safe modes, etc.) Dry suits don't care if you live or die. Rebreathers actively try to kill you.

Interesting. It seems I can do a bit of this sitting here in a chair and breathing very shallowly. But then I got to wondering: If I can't expand my chest volume and inhale, what gets displaced? That new air has to push something out of position, or else will increase pressure in the...

Agreed on this. My SS plate is 5.5 pounds. If you only need 6 pounds that's really cutting the margin for the ability to ditch weight in a dire emergency. I have a travel BCD I use in the tropics, but if I were to haul the BP/W instead I'd definitely do an aluminum plate.

I always joked I wanted to die at age 90, when I'm eaten by a tiger shark while diving. (The tiger shark is to ensure I'm diving in a tropical location.) Honestly, though I think it may depend on where I'm living. If I live someplace tropical, it'll be a lot older than if I stay where I am...

Street prostitution is rife at our local dive shop, so the version I tend to hear is "just think how much they'd charge for this on the corner, and here I'm doing it for free" when fastening a crotch strap.

I tend to think it does make it easier in a drysuit. But it's not insurmountable. With a drysuit, I can swap out gear, including using a different dry suit, and I still maintain good trim. I've switched to my "tropical" BCD, etc. and it's all worked fine. The only thing I had issues with...

So I looked up the details on what would need to be done. I'm going to summarize those items that really couldn't be done in advance: 1. Skill circuit: This is showing you've got "demonstration-quality" capability in 24 different skills. I'm not sure how you get demonstration quality...

It seems really hard to get this all in. My recollection, don't have time now to check, is that you have to assist with one FULL open water class and one continuing education class. Plus all manner of workshops, skill circuits, swim tests, etc.. I've never seen DM training that's been...

Seems like your judgment in both cases is spot on. In the first, there's no relevant training or experience. In the second it sounds like a qualified diver who needed reassurance of skills and knowledge they already had. One of the subjects we discuss with students learning to dive is not...

Thanks boulderjohn and lemontov for the responses. I should have added a "given" that the type of diving a given person (me or another) was trained to 40 years ago is something they have since been doing at least occasionally and definitely recently. It's not like 40 years have elapsed without...

Tangential, but since it's ScubaBoard specifically and the internet generally, here we go: What do folks who ARE experts think about old guys (like me) who had a sort of cave training or deco training 40 years ago when certified? Maybe they got a lot of experience before the modern system of...

Interesting thread! Makes me think something like Spare Air would actually be useful on the 2nd floor of my house. (I don't like it's volume for SCUBA, but I think it'd do to deploy an escape ladder. It's also something my non-diving wife could quickly use.) Tangential, but about 10 years...

Actually, this makes sense to me. They opened the tank to do the VIP and saw it was bad. Before having you tumble it, they did the hydro. That's what I'd have requested they do. Failing visual isn't that big a deal. It just means you need a tumble or other cleaning. But that can wait...

For the record, I want it known that I will "go commando" before I borrow your underwear no matter the emergency.

So you'd put a higher-rated disk on an LP intended for cave-filling? Just enough to cover the pressure of the cave fill, or substantially higher? The risk of doing that is that the tank itself blows, but that's a risk you've assumed when you overfill it. On the other hand, if you weren't...

The more I think about it, the more I think "it depends." I'd give an o-ring or loan fins to anybody. Reg sets, BCD's and computers I'd be more selective with.

A little tangential: I saw a burst disk blow out while a tank was filling at my LDS once. It was far more exciting than I'd imagined. While I don't think the tank that blew would have killed anybody, it could have knocked over a tank near it.... In this case, some guy had gotten a deal on a...