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Well, the safest option is to use air NDLs and Nitrox depth limits. That should pretty much cover you. That, plus breathe it on-shore for a couple of mins before the dive and see whether you pass out from hypoxia :)

Yep, that's what I think when I see a diver with a big Rambo knife strapped to their leg, I think: "Gee, he looks cool". :shakehead:

Yeah - analog depth gauges are a lot better for this than digital ones. However, there is probably enough debris in the water if you look carefully. Even in the Mexican cenotes I found more than enough floaties to hold depth when needed.

Might depend which class and which instructor. For DIR-F you can use pretty much anything except split fins or force fins.

Bad buoyancy control is a component in a huge proportion of scuba accidents. It's certainly understandable in a newbie diver, but divers who have not yet perfected buoyancy control do need to ask themselves which dives they should be attempting.

Yeah, I don't see any signs of an SMB in the news report. If they'd had safety sausages and LP powered alert whistles they could probably have avoided their night to remember.

Well, a BP/W costs around as much as a mid-range vest BCD so price isn't really an issue unless your alternative is a budget vest BCD. For recreational diving any of the choices will be fine and it really comes down to what you like. If you are serious about tech diving though then the BP/W...

Yes, good advice. So many students have a real problem with the mask removal and replacement skill. Getting comfortable in the water without a mask beforehand will be a real help.

Ok, just to clarify, here is the PADI Instructor Manuals standard: Penetration-training dives are to be limited to within the light zone and within 40 metres/130 feet from the surface, vertical and horizontal distance included. No out-of-air drills are to be practiced in the overhead...

What I don't get is why the dive shop doesn't simply add a decent BP/W setup to their inventory.

Interesting paper - but it only talks about hyperbaric oxygen, at pressures up to 5 bar!! Breathing O2 at 1 bar for any practical time period before the first dive is unlikely to have any clinically significant effect and will also provide significant OTU and CNS clock penalties.

I guess it also comes down to what the students will do with their c-card. Let's face it, 90% of OW card holders will never own their own gear and will just dive on vacation. For these people it probably is better just to learn the vest BCD and PADI style regulator setup because that's what...

I always find it particularly useful to be able to position myself in front of the students and then have them swim towards me while I swim backwards. You have much better communication than swimming alongside or on your back below them. Let's see someone do the backkick without good trim ;)

Don't forget, you need somewhere where you can get nitrox fills between dives (unless you are using doubles big enough to do the whole day).

Bit of a girly lace type look, don't you think? :D

Neoprene wet gloves - I prefer to use dry gloves only if they're needed.

One of the more annoying things about tech equipment is the rate at which all the bolt-snaps destroy gloves. I seem to have endless pairs of perfectly good gloves except for the holes in the thumb. Does anyone know of any good makes/brands of 5mm gloves with some sort of reinforced thumb to...

Yeah, I love the way non-divers seems to think they know about some diving related danger which you won't have heard of...

Just to add, it's not really the tank that is the critical component but the valve. When oxygen filling it's the valve parts which are subjected to high temperatures due to adiabatic compression and most sensitive to hydrocarbon contamination. When I'm oxygen cleaning my valves I don't even...

As this has been posted in the DIR forum you get the DIR answer: - The lamp has to go in the hand because signalling with it is just as important as illuminating stuff with it. A Goodman handle is needed to keep the hand free for other tasks. - A cannister lamp is used to provide somewhere...