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I agree with the Chairman. Trim first. But to your question, I have known outstanding divers who needed far more weight than people think they should.

The DM got in the water to confirm they were at the correct end of the reef for the current, so once he gave the OK, it became his responsibility.

About 20 years ago I had a truly bad DM while diving with an operator with a large number of boats. Our first dive was on Palancar caves, and we dived it as a wall dive. We went over the edge, swam along the outside of the coral, and then headed to the surface, never even glancing into the...

I cannot recommend any specific instructor, but I can tell you that I think the plan is a good one. It is what I did more than a quarter century ago in Cozumel. I got great 1-on-on instruction followed by three days of diving to practice the skills. It made me a lifelong diver.

The most important fact about that is the video is time stamped 3 minutes after the captain called 911 and jumped in the water to save himself. The crew who had never been trained to use the fire equipment could have been using it all the time if they knew how.

I used Ocean Frontiers the only other time I was on Grand Cayman, but that was in 2003. They were great. My friends wanted to do the west side. We certainly know about the damage they suffered. We are staying where they suffered it the most, in Lighthouse Point. Their facilities there are not...

I should make a separate report rather than tack this onto a 2-year old thread, but this will bring some closure. After being shut out from Grand Cayman by the Covid experience, we are in Grand Cayman as I type. We have completed two days of diving so far, and so far we are sorely disappointed...

To oversimplify, there are two kinds of reef divers. Divers looking for fish primarily Divers looking for coral structure primarily. I'm mostly a structure guy.

I am going to disagree as well. Cozumel was where I did 90% of my diving for my first few years, and I progressed from a raw beginner to a decent diver during that time. I started with the small (2 boat) operation headquartered where we were staying, and it was just fine the first couple of...

Having participated in threads discussing this for the 20 years I have been on ScubaBoard, the short answer is that you are generally pretty safe. I am unaware of any case in which this has happened, and, as I said, I have read 20 years of these threads. A professional diver who just happens to...

Well, son of a gun. Assuming most people reading this thread will not know why oxygen toxicity is more of a threat in technical diving than in NDL diving, I will describe what I believe is the most common reason for it. Technical divers are supposed to plan their dives for the potential for...

What difference what it make if batteries did start the fire? If they did, a roving watch should have caught it. If the fire grew larger, the crew could have used the fire fighting equipment on board to put it out if they had been taught how to use the equipment. While that happened, they could...

It is not a translation issue. The article defined "oxygen toxicity" correctly. If there was a mistake, then it was from the original reporter in the original story misunderstanding what he or she was told and then looking up the term he misunderstood. That would be the only explanation. We...

The article said "oxygen toxicity" and defined the term. It did not say toxic gas, which is what nearly everyone in this thread is talking about. There is an enormous difference. Everyone assumes the article is wrong, and they further assume they know what the truth is.

OK, I left off a zero. 3,000 meters. You got me. You can sleep well tonight, and I will have to toss and turn in shame. Congratulations! I make typos a lot. The friendly people on ScubaBoard send me private messages so I can fix them.

I think you should contact Ratio. I hope they will be helpful. You may help them discover a problem they can fix. Quite a few years ago, when the first Shearwater computers came out, a friend of mine was using one and thought the depths were wrong. He contacted Shearwater, and their discussions...

Some friends of mine did a dive at nearly 4,900 meters, and they assumed that breathing compressed air would solve their acclimatization problems, but that turned out not to be the case. They went through their air at a shockingly rapid rate. That was a key reason for the fatality. The US Navy...

It's been tried. The company that made and sold it went out of business.

Can you get insurance while teaching for an agency you created? I know someone who has been trying for a long time to get insurance for an agency he is trying to create, and so far he has been unsuccessful because insurance companies don't like his standards.

Exactly. I have to admit I am getting more and more baffled by some of the arguments being made here.