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Unspoiled wonderful diving, few tourists, no shopping centers, no one trying to sell you something, few packaged tourist activities, an accessible and magnificent rain forest, boa constrictors, lack of noise and loud music, no annoying intrusions, ability to plan your own activities with the...

The D350/400 may not be as effortless when exhaling as the newest top of the line regulators, but they are not at all problematic in that regard either. I really don't notice any significant effort, and in my estimation ease of inhaling, of not being aware of any artificial sensations, trumps...

I saw some of those captured tents when I was in Poland. In connection with the topic, isn't which SP regulator is being compared an issue? I find my SP d400 and d350 better breathers than the two Atomics I've tried, especially when upside down or on my back examining the roof of an overhang.

While living in Jamaica back in the 70s I experienced nitrogen narcosis frequently. It would hit me mildly around 110 feet, but it was not in any way disabling. I was fully aware of the sensation and sometimes would amuse myself by moving up to about 105 feet where the symptoms completely...

Quite a long time ago, back in1990. I was visiting friends in Goa, and experienced what I described in Mumbai.

I once was on a very poor Caribbean Island where local people went out into the bush to defecate, and used one of the plentiful small smooth stones to wipe afterward. I did the same, worked ok, not great, but ok. When I was a kid I used an outhouse when I spent part of the summer on a farm, so...

I've always typed out my own solo certification on an index card. It indicates that I did my first solo dive in 1963, long before most agency certifiers were born, even before some of their parents were born. I did my next approximately 200 dives solo, most at night in NJ inlets for lobster. I...

Skeletal remains of crew from ships sunk by U boats off the NJ coast were taken on rare occasions by some rather thoughtless divers back in the early 60s. I saw some in a dive shop a very long time ago. I was horrified, but these early gonzo divers had no compunctions about such things. In that...

Cornetfish are very common in NJ bays and inlets in late summer, Gulf Stream strays usually caught in seines drawn through eel grass. They can reach about 18 inches before November's cold water kills them along with all the other tropical strays. The first time I visited the Caribbean I...

Juvenile French Angelfish swim in a manner quite different from juvenile Black Angels. French juveniles, especially very small ones, swim in a sort of weaving undulating series of S curves, while Blacks swim in a more straighforward darting manner. I've watched them for many decades in the...

A scuba shop owner I dived with many times in Jamaica could not swim in the ordinary sense of the word. This was true of the vast majority of Jamaicans I encountered when I lived there. Typically, those few who went to the beach would wade out to their waist, sometimes sit, but very seldom would...

I no longer dive in water much colder than 70F, so a 2mm suit is all I need, and just a skin with a 1mm vest when it's over 75F. In the Caribbean I like to dive with just swim trunks and a tee shirt because I enjoy the felling of water on my skin. I'm basically a marine life watcher, and scuba...

OK, I see your point. I stopped keeping a log about 40 years ago, and so far so good. On shallow dives I use a small SPG. I wear a slim vintage Dacor depth gauge on my wrist only because I'm fond of the little thing. Takes me back. I really don't pay much attention to what it reads. I use my...

I've done the great majority of my dives, starting back in the 60s, with just a J valve and enough weight, learned through experience, to give me slightly negative buoyancy while wearing my 3/8 inch Sharkskin wetsuit. It was not until the mid-70s that I was able to get an SPG, and not until the...

I have a new unused unupdated 109 in my parts box. It's been there since the 80s. I had a late Mk 5 first stage nearly unused, but I fitted my rare unused Mk 5 DIN converter to it when I took it apart to replace ancient soft parts. I attached another unused but completely updated 109 to it, and...

Never saw that before, but no surprise since I'm a bit of a cheapskate, regarding watches more as functional tools than as decorative objects or for conspicuous consumption purposes. I do like the idea of screws instead of push pins, though-anything to improve solidity and strength. I'd never...

Nothing, nothing outbreathes an older D series Scubapro second stage (except their limited production predecessors) , the only stage in modern regulators that really matters much in connection with breathing ease. Atomics breath very nicely, but if you are upside down or face up examining the...

When I change batteries and o rings in my watch every two years I also change the case pins which I reinforce internally and at the case with a tiny amount of epoxy. They are still easily removed and discarded with the flat end of a screw driver. The link pins I'm familiar with are not screws...

I have a big old Seiko 6309-7049 that I wear just for fun these days. I tuned it so it gains only 2 to 3 seconds a day. A beautiful self-winding movement. The watch I wear when diving is newer, a battery watch with a dial that says 'Ocean Edge'. It matches an Ocean Edge stainless steel weight...

I got a pair a few years ago for travel, and I liked them so much I now use them exclusively.