Fly N Dive:
I'm going over to ireland for the 3rd week in june and am staying in a place called dingle. i hope to do some diving, but i dont know what to expect. if anyone could help it would be great. Din vs yoke, and other diferences .... thanks, i cant wait.
I haven't been to Ireland diving yet but I can address the thing about tanks. All the tanks I've seen in Europe are both DIN and Yoke compatible. It's basically a DIN fitting with a removable "insert" to make it yoke compatible.... so whatever you have for regs will work.
Tanks are also made of steel here. Aluminum tanks are rare. Sizes are measured in the fluid volume of the cylinder instead of the amount of air it will hold. For example, a 10 litre tank is approximately equivalent to an AL80. For most recreational diving a 10 or 12 litre tank is sufficient. You'll have a choice of long or stubby versions. Also the tanks are a little heavier. At the end of a dive they'll still be a shade negative, which will mean you need less weight than you usually would.
One thing you might want to check if you rent a stubby tank or a 15 litre tank is if your cam-band goes all the way around the tank. American BCD's have shorter cam-bands and it might be a little too small for a tank with a large diameter.
Weight is measured in kg instead of pounds. 1kg is about 2.2 lbs.
You'll have other issues with the metric system too. Depths are measured in metres and pressure is measured in bar. If you bring your own computer/gauges then you won't have a problem with yourself but you'll have a problem signing pressure and depth during the dive. You'll need to take the time to work something out.
Further, there are some small dialect issues:
Rib = Zodiac
Pot = hyperbaric chamber
dry bag (or tea bag) = drysuit
blob or deco-buoy = safety sausage
trim vest = bcd
that sort of thing.
You've probably heard most of these terms on scubaboard already. The difference is people here really talk like that.
Have fun.
R..
