Hey from Queensland Australia!!!

[Asho2345]

Hey everybody, long time lurker, first time posting. My name's Ashley, and I'm from

South East Queensland. Have been diving for about 15 months. Absolutely got the 'diving bug '. I plan on eventually going into cave and rebreather diving as well as Sidemount. I live in a land locked city, so I have to travel a few hours to do any diving but I try to at least dive once a month. Anyone else in the same region? Anyways, hi to all of you, glad to finally be posting. I currently dive a BP&W (Since about my 5th dive). Currently it's a HOG Red AL Backplate with HOG STA and webbing with a ScubaPro S-TEK 30 Wing. My computer is a Perdix 2. Regs are a HOG D2 1st stage with a HOG Classic 2.0 2nd stage on a long hose (2.1M) and a HOG Zenith 2nd stage on a necklace as my alternate. With a Swift transmitter attached. The places I usually dive, I use a 5MM Enth Degree Men's Eminence wetsuit (mine, brand new, not a hire one).

 

[drrich2]

Welcome to ScubaBoard. Only around 15 months into diving, and you're already diving a back plate/wing setup, a Perdix and know what a rebreather is. You've dove right into the recreational dive hobby in a big way.

 

[Asho2345]

Welcome to ScubaBoard. Only around 15 months into diving, and you're already diving a back plate/wing setup, a Perdix and know what a rebreather is. You've dove right into the recreational dive hobby in a big way.

When I fall in love with something I tend to learn absolutely everything I can about it, thanks for the kind words, any advice for someone who's just starting out?

 

[drrich2]

any advice for someone who's just starting out?

Scuba isn't intuitive for me in-water, and I'm not athletic, so you may be much more a natural than I am.

Suck up all the head knowledge as quickly as you wish, but take the in-water progression slower. We don't know what we don't know. In-water, your brain is task loaded with buoyancy maintenance, diminished peripheral vision, lack of auditory situational awareness/directional hearing, operating in a 3D environment (rather than walking on a horizontal plane topside) and has gas supply remaining, current depth and perhaps NDL in the back of the mind.

It's a lot like a desktop computer with a browser with a bunch of tabs open, anti-virus software running, and more...and if you suddenly need to deal with an emergency situation, it can be like throwing a video render into the mix...your computer seemed to be running fine, the task is expected to be within its capabilities, and yet somehow it becomes the last straw.

There are things that sound like no big deal to conceptualize sitting here at my desk that can just about stall my brain out in-water, or tasks that sound like no big deal that I might be unable to do (like if you jump in, go down and realize your forgot to turn you air on; surely reaching back and over to turn your air valve shouldn't be too hard, right?).

And panic can blow a rational mind. It takes time to dive enough to have some screwups and surprises to get a sense of how you react to them, the good and the bad. The Accidents and Incidents section of SB makes for interesting reading.

 

[Asho2345]

Scuba isn't intuitive for me in-water, and I'm not athletic, so you may be much more a natural than I am.

Suck up all the head knowledge as quickly as you wish, but take the in-water progression slower. We don't know what we don't know. In-water, your brain is task loaded with buoyancy maintenance, diminished peripheral vision, lack of auditory situational awareness/directional hearing, operating in a 3D environment (rather than walking on a horizontal plane topside) and has gas supply remaining, current depth and perhaps NDL in the back of the mind.

It's a lot like a desktop computer with a browser with a bunch of tabs open, anti-virus software running, and more...and if you suddenly need to deal with an emergency situation, it can be like throwing a video render into the mix...your computer seemed to be running fine, the task is expected to be within its capabilities, and yet somehow it becomes the last straw.

There are things that sound like no big deal to conceptualize sitting here at my desk that can just about stall my brain out in-water, or tasks that sound like no big deal that I might be unable to do (like if you jump in, go down and realize your forgot to turn you air on; surely reaching back and over to turn your air valve shouldn't be too hard, right?).

And panic can blow a rational mind. It takes time to dive enough to have some screwups and surprises to get a sense of how you react to them, the good and the bad. The Accidents and Incidents section of SB makes for interesting reading.

Thanks, I really appreciate the advice, I have had a couple of Screw-ups/accidents, including an OOA situation on around my 5th or 6th dive, was totally my fault, me and my buddy were heading to the exit point (shore dive) in about 0.5M viz and he had the compass, I ended up losing him on the way back and instead of doing the correct thing and looking around for a minute and surfacing, I decided I was only 10-15 metres away from the exit so I kept going, little did I know I got turned around and eventually I felt my hoses run dry (of course just as I exhaled, then no more gas ) luckily I'm pretty calm in emergency situations as I've had to deal with a lot of them in life, I did an emergency swimming ascent (blowing what bubbles I could on the way up), but as I was driving with a new setup I couldn't quite reach my DSMB, and I lost a $200 Apeks spool and boltsbap in the process, I also totally forgot to orally inflate my wing to establish positive buoyancy at the time, luckily I managed to get to my DSMB at the surface and used it for both buoyancy and visibility for boats, of course just my luck, literally as I ran out of air I spotted an Eagle Ray, I actually ended up about 50 metres from the shore. Afterwards I had a detailed debrief with my buddy. I learnt a lot from that experience though and am a lot more careful now. I also bought a AL40 stage/pony tank after just in case, but mainly I am extra conservative now on every dive, as well as having a compass on my Perdix 2, it was definitely a valuable learning experience. I have also been practicing my long hose deployment and swapping regulators, as well as shooting my DSMB (letting the captain/skipper know first of course), as well as lots of other skills. I have also been working lots on my trim and buoyancy which I feel like I'm getting a lot better at, as well as my frog kicks, modified frog kicks and helicopter kicks. Also I have been improving my SAC rate and I'm seeing a pretty good difference in all of those aspects.

 

[Pressurehead]

Welcome.
Where in SE Qld?
" I live in a land locked city".
Toowoomba would fit in your " so I have to travel a few hours to do any diving" and City.
Enjoy.
PM sent.

 

[Asho2345]

Welcome.
Where in SE Qld?
" I live in a land locked city".
Toowoomba would fit in your " so I have to travel a few hours to do any diving" and City.
Enjoy.
PM sent.

Right on the money

 

[happy-diver]

I had a joint in Drayton, swapped it for a joint 350 steps from the water at Alex even got some cash out of it

Suggest you work towards doing the same one day

Hello!

If I'm up there this winter I'll get in touch, you can camp at my joint do the Brisbane

Brisbane Scuba | Brisbane QLD

Brisbane Scuba, Manly, Queensland. Gefällt 1.398 Mal · 85 Personen sprechen darüber · 660 waren hier. At Brisbane Scuba we offer a variety of local & overseas dive destinations. Trips designed and run b

www.facebook.com

 

[Asho2345]

I had a joint in Drayton, swapped it for a joint 350 steps from the water at Alex even got some cash out of it

Suggest you work towards doing the same one day

Hello!

If I'm up there this winter I'll get in touch, you can camp at my joint do the Brisbane

Brisbane Scuba | Brisbane QLD

Brisbane Scuba, Manly, Queensland. Gefällt 1.398 Mal · 85 Personen sprechen darüber · 660 waren hier. At Brisbane Scuba we offer a variety of local & overseas dive destinations. Trips designed and run b

www.facebook.com

That's awesome! That's the dream hey, yes definitely let me know, that would be really cool, keen to surround myself with experienced divers I can learn from such as yourself