Palau vs Chuuk vs Bikini?

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Palau and Chuuk can both be done as shore based diving, making you independent of live aboard schedules. Palau has more upmarket accomodation than Chuuk and if you are with a non diver will win you more brownie points than Chuuk. You can do wrecks in Palau although they are nowhere near as good as Chuuk. They have been pretty much picked clean
 
40-60M with those certs would be grossly irresponsible, particularly on a single tank, and on nitrox is really pushing the limits of fatal oxygen levels. I really hope he gave you incorrect information. If not, you may want to take out a life insurance policy on him.

I was on the Odyssey liveaboard several years ago. They banked 28% if I recall correctly and would lean it out with air to whatever mix you wanted. I would recommend doubles and a deco class as you would get longer dives but all the guides were using single tanks and they all seemed to do just fine.
 
Amazing info! Thank you so much guys. I think I will do both ROR and TKK land based over 2 weeks. I will try to do advanced nitrox and deco procedures nonetheless in the summer locally or during one of my trips early next year (already booked Mauritius, Oman and Bali/Komodo for first half of 2019).
 
I will try to do advanced nitrox and deco procedures...

As on old school curmudgeon, I think those classes should be part of any basic Scuba class. IMHO. the understanding of diving physiology you will get is worth the investment even if you never do more than a safety stop.
 
Remember,those WWII wrecks have been down there a long,long time. Having not been there myself,I have only seen photos. At this point in time,many look more like reefs than warships.

They are still very recognizable, but are moving closer to scrap pile status. This link might be interesting to anyone contemplating serious wreck diving: Wreck Penetration
 
As on old school curmudgeon, I think those classes should be part of any basic Scuba class. IMHO. the understanding of diving physiology you will get is worth the investment even if you never do more than a safety stop.

Agreed. This is something I actually want to learn more about, instead of for the sake of certification.
 
I did 10 days on the Palau Agressor in September. Great boat and crew! I'll be going back at some point.
 
Palau has a great variety of diving but the wrecks are in poor visibility. I once dived a wreck with a survivor - Tomematzi Ishikawa. Chuuk (Truk) has wrecked freighters that you can penetrate because many are not particularly deep. A lot of fun. I spent a week at Bikini in the days when Bikini Island Divers existed. We used twinsets of air with a nitrox 80 by surface supply for deco. It's warships are mainly well-known. Not tremendous coral growth because the bottom is 180-feet deep. (Not for narcosis sufferers.)
 
I have dove – and thoroughly enjoyed – all three locations the OP was asking about, but I must say that Bikini was in a class by itself; at least it was when I dove it in 2000. When you added it all up – its location, its beauty, its history, the ships’ histories – I still consider Bikini to be the most “high voltage” diving that I have done. The whole trip just felt different from other dive trips I have taken. The saying at that time was that Bikini is like Truk on steroids, and I agree. BTW, I dove Palau and Chuuk/Truk (1.5 years/6 months respectively) before Bikini, and that order worked well for me.

Before I went I did a lot of reading about Bikini, the nuclear testing and the history of the ships. All of our dive group did. This knowledge added greatly to our experience. For anyone planning to dive Bikini I highly recommend you do the same.

When I dove Bikini the U.S. was still monitoring for radiation – growing and collecting plant and sea life samples……. There were no problems with background levels of radiation – whether being on the island or diving the wrecks. Lying in the sun that close to the equator was probably more of a threat. However, apparently there was still a problem with the soil; therefore, people were told not to consume anything being grown on the island - such as coconuts…..

The U.S. conducted a total of 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, and 23 of those were at Bikini. As part of “Operation Crossroads” in 1946, the first two tests were conducted and these were called Able” and “Baker.” It was these two tests that created the wreck diving. Able was detonated above the ships and Baker below. Baker really did a lot of damage. Twenty-one ships and small craft were sunk, but many were not sunk, including the Prinz Eugen. The Eugen ended up being a wreck in the Kwajalein Lagoon.

For a good history of Bikini and Operation Crossroads, watch Radio Bikini. A while back I heard that Netflix had it. .

If you want to see what topside Bikini looked like in 2000, just follow this link to the ScubaBoard Photo Gallery. At that time the dive operation was land based. We were a group of six divers from Kwajalein and we had fun! The video we had made of our Bikini dives is too large to post here.

. Albums for user: pazz | ScubaBoard
 
I have dove – and thoroughly enjoyed – all three locations the OP was asking about, but I must say that Bikini was in a class by itself; at least it was when I dove it in 2000. When you added it all up – its location, its beauty, its history, the ships’ histories – I still consider Bikini to be the most “high voltage” diving that I have done. The whole trip just felt different from other dive trips I have taken. The saying at that time was that Bikini is like Truk on steroids, and I agree. BTW, I dove Palau and Chuuk/Truk (1.5 years/6 months respectively) before Bikini, and that order worked well for me.

Before I went I did a lot of reading about Bikini, the nuclear testing and the history of the ships. All of our dive group did. This knowledge added greatly to our experience. For anyone planning to dive Bikini I highly recommend you do the same.

When I dove Bikini the U.S. was still monitoring for radiation – growing and collecting plant and sea life samples……. There were no problems with background levels of radiation – whether being on the island or diving the wrecks. Lying in the sun that close to the equator was probably more of a threat. However, apparently there was still a problem with the soil; therefore, people were told not to consume anything being grown on the island - such as coconuts…..

The U.S. conducted a total of 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, and 23 of those were at Bikini. As part of “Operation Crossroads” in 1946, the first two tests were conducted and these were called Able” and “Baker.” It was these two tests that created the wreck diving. Able was detonated above the ships and Baker below. Baker really did a lot of damage. Twenty-one ships and small craft were sunk, but many were not sunk, including the Prinz Eugen. The Eugen ended up being a wreck in the Kwajalein Lagoon.

For a good history of Bikini and Operation Crossroads, watch Radio Bikini. A while back I heard that Netflix had it. .

If you want to see what topside Bikini looked like in 2000, just follow this link to the ScubaBoard Photo Gallery. At that time the dive operation was land based. We were a group of six divers from Kwajalein and we had fun! The video we had made of our Bikini dives is too large to post here.

. Albums for user: pazz | ScubaBoard

Amazing! Thank you. Great pics! That must have been quite an experience!

I am not concerned about the radiation itself. I've been to Chernobyl and I am sure it is way worse there than Bikini - and so is Fukushima for that matter. Thanks for confirming that it is one of those "bucket list" worthy destinations. I am sure I will ultimately dive Bikini one day, but I don't have to rush into it in the next year or two.
 
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