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I think this should form part of the OW course. Diving is all about risk management and providing people the suitable tools to manage that risk should be there from the start. The simple "Overheads will kill you" does nobody any favours imho. As a UK diver, we get fairly used to diving in...

Good to see civilisation slowly coming over the water - IMHO there is nothing that will ever come close to a lift for ease of use and safety (for crew and divers alike). Most reputable dive boats here have lifts and I absolutely love them. Even in rolling seas, they beat ladders by a country...

I personally have AI (Shearwater Perdix + AI) and love it. Having TTS (time to surface) isn't a huge consideration but having all the info on my wrist (NDL, gas remaining, depth) is amazing and very useful. No matter what I am doing during the dive (holding a line, running an DSMB etc), all I...

Personally, ignoring all the advice to go for "perfect weighting", is that you need the wing size that you need at this time. Yes it might be what some people consider oversized but at the end of the day who cares what other people think? As @Jim Lapenta says, how quickly are people finning to...

There are too many factors for anyone to suggest the perfect DC for anyone else - I would suggest that, in this day and age, a dive computer is almost a necessity. While you can dive with a bottom timer and a depth gauge, it is not the best way to dive now. Historical resistance to dive...

As a couple of others have said, it is worth mention that, unless you have racked up a mandatory deco obligatin due to depth/duration then the safety stop, while good practise, is not in any way a requirement. Unfortunately a lot of people, possibly down to the way they have been taught, treat...

One popular amongst my group of divers is- "Put your hand in a crack and can't get it back - that's a moray"

Another + for Subsurface. Has so much functionality including a host of things you will probably never need. You can manually log dives (or sync when you get around to buying a DC), add geographic detail, photos, video, diver info, weighting info, suit info. A great plus for me is that once...

I have to agree with most of the posts above - it sounds like you are not best suited to group lessons. Group lessons are ideal for people who are confident in the water and have no underlying issues but they rely on everyone being able to pick up skills very quickly. Instructors doing these...

We ascended as soon as we realised that we had missed the turn (which was probably a few minutes later so we were pretty sure we had already drifted a good way beyond the correct point and the boat. Given that we knew we were drifting at a fair rate (it was a drift dive), we knew that any...

I understand your reasons for doing it and they are certainly valid.

Apologies for the late response but I think it is worth a comment. Unless you have a deco obligation, if things are going south (north in your case lol), then omit the safety stop. If you discover you are drifting and especially if you are not sure of how quickly, a safety stop could put you a...

Why did he feel the need to pull you down even if you had been struggling to descend? Surely the better option would have been to ask the question rather than grab you. The onus is on the instructor to make sure things are right - not you as a trainee. I would personally have given the waggled...

First OW dives can be scary and being nervous is a good thing most of the time (it shows you respect the situation of learning a new skill). Your instructor, quite frankly, is an idiot and dangerous to an extent. What he did could have lead to a panic attack with an unsuspecting diver. You...

I would definitely try to get to the bottom of what is causing the problems with equalising. Is it a physical ear issue? If so get an appointment with a suitably qualified ENT (preferably one with diving knowledge). They will diagnose if they think equalising is possible. If it is not a...

Originally released in 2008 but revised in 2014. Most of the concepts are still valid but anyone who is interested in He on/off gassing (ie tech divers or instructors) should be keeping themselves up to speed on general developments in thinking such as gradient factors etc. I would agree...

I tend to wear the drysuit onto the boat (less to carry on) but it is likely only up halfway if it is at all hot. Once we get near the site, it gets pulled on the rest of the way as I gear up and my buddy zips me up (rear zip). The rest of my gear will be under the bench (normally there are...

I guess the mindset here is different - we are trained as autonomous divers so even first dive out of OW, I wouldn't have thought twice about going for a dive with a buddy without a DM. IIRC I bought most of my gear after OW dive 4 so probably my 5th-8th dives were spent trying new gear and...

It is an important concept for divers to get - after the relevant time (allowing for on gassing/ off gassing), we are all saturated at whatever the ambient pressure is at whatever height/depth we are at. At depth we on gas as we go down at a certain rate depending on tissue category and after a...

I have to say that, irrespective of any comments regarding units, Deco for Divers is a book that ALL divers should try to read. It is not a technical or scientific manual (which he readily admits), it is an attempt by a very experienced technical diver to explain what are often VERY technical...