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I'd take a good reputation on Scubaboard above a paid for listing on the PADI website any day. :)

The PADI website has a list of instructors who have had their teaching status revoked. It's no secret.

Only PADI professional level cards need to be renewed each year. Recreational level c-cards do not expire (with the exception of GUE cards which must be renewed every 3 years).

At least 200 dives and several training courses too soon. Wrecks are death traps for those who don't know what they're doing. Put it like this, I have PADI Rescue, DSAT Tec Deep, GUE-Fundamentals and am a Divemaster doing work experience and have nearly 250 dives, and it's too soon for ME to...

Sorry to tell you, but if you're getting tired from air dives and not nitrox then you have a problem with your ascents. The tiredness comes from sub-clinical bends - bubbles in your blood which do not cause symptoms requiring treatment but which are nevertheless to be avoided. Next time try a...

Shame, chances are it was not fill-monkey's fault. Probably some diver brought an unclean tank in for filling. Personally, if I was filling tanks in a dive shop I'd want the tank owner to stand with their legs astride the tank whilst I put the oxygen in. That should focus their minds a bit... ;)

This is quite common, I think. Taking a quick look through my dive club database I see that, of 35 divers who have tech or cave training, 27 are also Divemaster or higher. At least one agency (GUE) requires its recreational course instructors to hold a certificate in either technical or cave...

Provided you maintain PADI membership and receive material updates there is no time limit. In fact PADI probably has no way of knowing whether you are insured and teaching or not. If your PADI membership has lapsed then it will depend on how much the standards have changed since you were last a...

Hydrocarbon contamination is unlikely to cause a tank explosion. What it will cause is an oxygen fire. Under high pressure pure oxygen many materials which we normally think of as non-flammable (or at least difficult to burn) become highly flammable. This can include much of the tank valve and...

I think I'll probably end up going with the Salvo for the simple reason that it's about €1,100 while the equivalent Halcyon is €1,700. I really don't understand how Halcyon ever sells anything. Every time I go to buy some new kit I seem to start by looking at the Halcyon but end up...

If you can find it, watch the documentary "Tuna Cowboys". Watching the divers wrestling blue sharks and mako sharks out of a net is great TV. Certainly makes the idea that sharks are automatically dangerous look silly.

But the parent is not trained to teach diving. How many parents do you think would hold their kid underwater if they tried to bolt for the surface? How many can perform in water mouth-to-mouth at the level an instructor needs to? How many know the skills well enough themselves to spot when...

Yeah, I mentioned to a PADI Course Director that I was getting into DIR diving. "Ah" he said, with a look that suggested he was about to impart some great wisdom, "you know that DIR is just marketing for Halcyon equipment". :shakehead: I've also had exactly the same piece of "wisdom" from a...

Indeed, to put it into perspective, cars kill more than 200,000 times as many people each year as sharks.

This is true. I was forced to promote my buddies today to honorary DIR-divers so that I could dive with them. :D

I was looking into taking the IANTD Advanced Rec. Trimix so I can squirt some Helium into my tanks when doing North Sea dives around 30-32m but I was told by the instructor that my current training was insufficient to take this course and I would need to do IANTD Advanced Nitrox first. I...

You'll probably be pushed to find anything much more reliable than a DS4/ATX50 combination (or XTX50). These regs are also relatively kind to the wallet.

Yeah, but if he wasn't rescued it might have been a few days before the card got cancelled... :D

I'm kind of surprised by that. I've often thought that the latch style lids look a bit vulnerable (compared to things like the screw in Greenforce lights, for example). But I've been told that it's not a problem because once you're underwater water pressure will keep the thing sealed even if the...

Get the gear, join a dive club and go diving a lot with more experienced buddies. You can improve your diving a lot simply by slowly pushing your boundaries and getting advice from others.