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Above all, relax. There’s a lot of rubbish written about Saudi. For the most part the people are gentle and kind. The Saudis love a good joke. I lived there for 10 years (2000-2010), Searcaig a similar amount of time, and others on this forum also spent time there, all without incident. Just...

Don’t try to be smart with the Saudi visa application. Stick to the major religions, and choose one. If you are not a Muslim, don’t say you are (Religious obligations are taken seriously in Saudi, 5 daily prayers are enforced, for example, so don’t make your life any harder than it needs to...

With user replaceable battery in mind... Are OSTC any good for you? I suspect the price may be issue as you mention the retired fixed income, but they are cheaper than Shearwater. I have dived with peope using these computers, they’re pretty good. heinrichs weikamp

Use a forwarder. While working in UAE just about everyone used Shop and Ship

Important to note: you need to book in advance as the centre/hotel need to register you and obtain a document giving you permission to enter and stay in Mussandum, without this document you’re not getting in. Having said this, arrangements for this border and region change almost daily, so...

Dibba/Mussandum: if you are staying in Fuj, you can taxi up to the border. Drive takes about an hour, not crazy expensive. The border system is such that on arrival you park up and call the dive centre/hotel and they send a driver to come and collect you/escort you to the hotel/dive centre. If...

I had the chance to visit Iran back in about 2002/3? Pre Ahmedinajad days. I was working at a University in KSA and went with a group from there. Mixed group of mainly Brits and USAians. Everyone had a great time. Great place to visit if you get the chance. Perceived hostilities are all...

Europe and North Africa you can wear exactly what you would back home in the US. No need to worry about that at all. You won’t be able to hide your USA heritage, they will all be able to spot it at 100 yards, whatever you do. So just be comfortable and be yourselves. In Spain and Portugal you...

I agree 100%. DM has some new theory which is useful and in some cases important, but the wet side, blah. And hanging around Discover SCUBA courses and being a spare wheel on OW courses...boring! The skills you have to practice daily, and then perform and be graded on are the demos done for OW...

As an aside, 2 days ago I received a telephone call from HR in the oil company I worked in until evacuation in 2014. They want me back in 45 days! Good news, it means conditions are improving on the ground. Still not a holiday destination though. I hope this time the authorities can keep a...

Look a ifixit and seriously consider replacing your internal drive with an SSD, it’s pretty easy, they even sell the kits for doing it. This will by far lead to the biggest performance boost you can give your system. It will probably extend the life of your system my several years. Unless you...

Luminar are still threatening to release an update which will include a DAM. It’s hotly anticipated but means nothing until it arrives. As an aside, you really don’t need to spend the extra for external SSDs at this stage, your setup is not able to benefit from an external SSD, maybe when you...

This is all the info he gave me. Whether he’s diving from shore or a rib or whatever I have no idea. What I can tell you is that he’s middle class ecuadorian, so he’s pretty comfortable, but not really in the realms of paying tourist rates for something like diving. I suggest following his lead...

I have no idea why some people are so sensitive about various bits of kit. As for split fins, I had a pair of Atomic split fins, they were fast, really fast. Downside, they are long and heavy. For weight purposes I changed to Apeks RK3. Massive loss of power, but they fit in my bag and are a...

In OS X, isn't the camera supported by the OS rather than the app?

I've used Photo Mechanic since 2010, I'm still on 4.6.x I think. Anyway, from what I have seen and its target audience, its fast, and small footprint. I have assisted Newsweek guys working Rio Carnival a couple of times and they are running 20000 shots a night, easy. These have to be culled...

I don't know which system you're using, Windows or OS X, but I think there's an issue with Luminar on OS X. If you buy through the Mac App store, because of sandboxing, you cant use plugins with Luminar. To get round this you need to buy it directly from the developer's site. Something like...

For editing down/selecting there’s really only one choice: Photo Mechanic. It’s what all the photojournalists who are out in the field use, the conflict and sports guys. Photo Mechanic lets them get their shots culled and set off quickly. I haven’t checked the current version, but I think...

Saudi have gone on about this tourism thing for years. I was there from 2000-2010, they were going on about it then. There's even a University which provides tourism courses down in Abha. I believe that it was possible at one time to come in on a pre arranged package to dive, but you were...

If I could do it again, I’d definitely go the tec route. DM really is only for those looking to go the instructor route.