Professor Aronnax
Registered
Aloha, no ... mai au Hawaii,
A buddy of mine (well, it's complicated, he's my friend but also the the father of my son's girlfriend) has decided that he and I should make a trip to the Galapagos. This has been on my bucket list for a long time, I've been most everywhere else at one time or another, but never there. I am a very experienced diver, an experienced traveler, but a complete novice when it comes to recreational dive travel. He is a relatively inexperienced diver, an experienced traveler, and has zero recreational dive travel experience. He will come out here to Hawaii for a couple of weeks for a skill tuneup with a colleague of mine.
We're not time limited and while we don't want to waste money, it is not a big issue.
We'd like to dive and see the terrestrial sights and perhaps make a side trip to Machu Picchu. I would be grateful for any advise/shared experiences.
I have some specific questions:
A buddy of mine (well, it's complicated, he's my friend but also the the father of my son's girlfriend) has decided that he and I should make a trip to the Galapagos. This has been on my bucket list for a long time, I've been most everywhere else at one time or another, but never there. I am a very experienced diver, an experienced traveler, but a complete novice when it comes to recreational dive travel. He is a relatively inexperienced diver, an experienced traveler, and has zero recreational dive travel experience. He will come out here to Hawaii for a couple of weeks for a skill tuneup with a colleague of mine.
We're not time limited and while we don't want to waste money, it is not a big issue.
We'd like to dive and see the terrestrial sights and perhaps make a side trip to Machu Picchu. I would be grateful for any advise/shared experiences.
I have some specific questions:
- When should we go?
- What type of suits should we take?
- He needs to buy a full set of gear ... at least whatever he should be taking with him. Suggestions would be appreciated.
- I have all my own gear, but I tend to favor the tried and true, I don't want to freak the divemasters out but left to my own devices I'd be using a Cyclon 300 (OK, I don't like it, but I'll bring a spare second stage), SPG, a Nemrod horse collar with a bottle, duck feet, swimmaster wideview mask, farallon snorkel, suit. gloves, booties, weightbelt (I assume I can get lead there), cam-pack (old style backpack). What must I replace?
- I do not care for computers, I've thousands of dives on tables and I'd like to continue that way.
- I'm going for fun, I plan to take a very good topside camera, but I really don't want to be bogged down with housings and such. What's a good compact modern photo setup? Stills are fine ... I'm no "HERO."