Questions, Questions

[Hockeynut]

Hi all,
I have not dove in 10 years almost,(what the heck was I thinking) and I have a few not so important questions.

1. Should a guy not buy gear off the internet? I've seen warnings and stuff but I can't figure out if they're just trying to spook a person into paying high buck.

2. Is sherwood stuff junk or is it ok? They seem to have cheaper priced stuff, so just wondering if it's worth looking at.

3. Is there a way to guess how much weight to start with? I understand all the factors but don't remember what I used before and would like a starting point.

4. What happened to skin diver magazine? Someone once bought me a subscription for xmas or something. just curious


5.How many dives should I do before i think about advanced open water? Like i said, It has been 10 years and I did not have very many dives logged.(15 maybe) I am taking a refresher course soon and am planning on diving as much as possible through the summer. I'd like to upgrade but I don't want to rush into anything.

6. Will the U of M gopher hockey team win a third straight NCAA championship?

Thanks in advance for answers.

 

[H2Andy]

holy molly... you've touched on enough hot buttons there to keep this board a-buzzing
for the next seven weeks...

you could do a search under each item you ask about, using keywords judiciously, and
get much better answers than these, but here's my take:

1. Should a guy not buy gear off the internet? I've seen warnings and stuff but I can't figure out if they're just trying to spook a person into paying high buck.

lots of people buy off the internet all the time. quality is
the same. service ain't so good. prices are usually much,
much lower on the net. unless you feel a moral obligation
to spend your money locally, you can save lots of it by
shopping on line.

2. Is sherwood stuff junk or is it ok? They seem to have cheaper priced stuff, so just wondering if it's worth looking at.

dunno. i have a sherwood logic computer i love. that's the
only piece of sherwood-made stuff i have.


3. Is there a way to guess how much weight to start with? I understand all the factors but don't remember what I used before and would like a starting point.

very rough rule of thumb is 10% of your weight. you will probably be overweighted, but can start trimming from there.


4. What happened to skin diver magazine? Someone once bought me a subscription for xmas or something. just curious

they went kaput. too lazy to figure out who bought them
(i think they got taken over by somebody or other, but
the short of it is that the november 2002 issue was the last one.

i seem to remember there was a deal or something, but
my memory is horrible and i couldn't find anything quickly.


5.How many dives should I do before i think about advanced open water? Like i said, It has been 10 years and I did not have very many dives logged.(15 maybe) I am taking a refresher course soon and am planning on diving as much as possible through the summer. I'd like to upgrade but I don't want to rush into anything.

AOW is not really advanced anything. it's more of a remedial
course for OW. I would take it after about 20-25 dives.
if you wait longer, you might not get much real benefit out
of AOW. Also, take AOW so you can go on to Rescue, for sure a must-take class in my view.

6. Will the U of M gopher hockey team win a third straight NCAA championship?

what's hockey?

 

[Michael Schlink]

Buying gear off the internet has only one advantage, lower price. Cost of ownership is not the same as cost. I think all divers should try to support their LDS if at all possible.
I have Sherwood gear that I'd sell you. It's good quality but not great, there is much better but that depends on how you are intending to use it. I won't dive with Sherwood because I have better.
The best way to determine how much weight you need is to get in the water with your gear on and do a weight check. It all depends on the diver and what gear and suit your wearing.
Skin Diver has gone but there are similar mags. out there now. Dive Training & Rodales Scuba Diving
AOW is designed for you to take right after your OW. After you complete your refresher then sign up for your AOW as soon as you can do it. You can certainly dive until then but the sooner you get with an instructor the sooner you will sharpen your skills. An instructor can get you up to speed faster than trying to do it yourself by diving.
I checked with my crystal ball, bet the farm on the gophers, heck borrow money and bet that too.-Dive Safe-M

 

[Stingray81888]

1. it really depends on what a person. Some people wouldn't trust buying expensive stuff on the internet (Like me and my dad) and others do. So its really your choice.

2. Almsot all my gear is sherwood. Its a good and reliable company. Sherwood Maximus is a great regulator and so far has taken a good beating on beach dives. Sherwood Wisdom is a good computer. I have a Sherwood Avid which is a good BC but i would go with a back-inflated or wing from another company (my opinion), especially if your going tec diving.

3. same answer as h2andy

4. they're gone.

5. Its just basically expanding your horizon in diving. The only really advanced thing about it is the deep dive but i would wait till after at least 15 dives.

6. i love hockey but not into college hockey

 

[scubafool]

? #1 I've got 5 dives on my BP/W's purchased off the net. They haven't disintegrated yet. Point being, as my esteemed colleauge & partner in crime Andy said, you get the same stuff off of the net as you get at your LDS, at a lower price. But the flip side is, you don't get to hold it in your hands & play with it before you buy. And some say that you don't get the service benefits buying off of the net that you get buying from a liscensed dealer. I dunno, when my Genesis GS2000 reg set (purchased from the local LDS) had a problem, it still cost me $70 to get it repaired. And this was less than a year after I bought it.

?#2 I also have a Sherwood Logic computer. Other than the one button operation, I like it just fine. My frequent buddy dives a Sherwood Maximus regulator, and the both of us together all at the same time can't overbreathe the thing @ 100'. Also, they seem to do real well in cold water. Do a search on Sherwood Maximus. You should find a thread in which a member named Sherwood Tech provides several different links. One of the links was to the results of some Navy testing in which the Sherwood seemed to do really well. Unless I disremember incorrectly, the only regs rated better for deep/cold diving were the Poseidens. After one dive wearing my BP/W's, I've now officially retired my ancient Sherwood jacket BC. However, my buddy dives a Sherwood Avid jacket BC that she seems to think highly of.

?#3 Now that is a really tough question to answer. It's going to depend on a lot of things. How much exposure protection you will be wearing, how overweight you are or are not, how much padding the BC has, whether you are in salt or fresh water, etc, etc, etc. Start with plenty of weight, but make sure you can loose it if you need to. Then, as you breathe your tank down to a lower pressure (500-600 lbs), experiment in a shallow area. Take off weight until you can get neutral or slightly negatively bouyant with no air in your BC. This way, you will be able to control your ascent at the end of a dive (when your tank is the most bouyant in the case of an aluminum, or least negatively bouyant in the case of a steel) in the shallowest part of your dive. The last few feet of your ascent is when your wetsuit will expand the most & cause more positive bouyancy. It is really important that you can come up slowly at this point. If you don't feel like you can, use a LITTLE more weight. You can always get rid of the weight during a dive if you absolutely need to. Dumping your weights to ascend, however, should be the last resort.

?#4 Dunno. Maybe whatever he said.

?#5 What he said about the not-advanced-anything. Depends on what you want to dive as to whether you need the card or not. Some charters are gonna require it for some dives. If you are doing 30' deep shore dives with experienced divers who can help you with your skills, you might never miss the AOW card & class. If you want to start moving up the certification ladder, however, sooner or later you are probably going to need it.

?#6 Dunno. What he said.

 

[Diver0001]

1. Should a guy not buy gear off the internet? I've seen warnings and stuff but I can't figure out if they're just trying to spook a person into paying high buck.


As the others have said, lots of people do it. What I'll add is that you could encounter some bickering about warranties if you want to get something fixed.


2. Is sherwood stuff junk or is it ok? They seem to have cheaper priced stuff, so just wondering if it's worth looking at.


Their regulators are behind the curve. The first stages are among the best of the best but the 2nd stages are no where near as good as the best Aqualungs, Apeks, Scubapro's in terms of dryness and breathing effort. The net result is that their regulators fall into the OK category for me but no higher. They are, however, extremely reliable. I don't know about their other gear.


3. Is there a way to guess how much weight to start with? I understand all the factors but don't remember what I used before and would like a starting point.


Depends on the suit you're using. We need more information.


5.How many dives should I do before i think about advanced open water? Like i said, It has been 10 years and I did not have very many dives logged.(15 maybe) I am taking a refresher course soon and am planning on diving as much as possible through the summer. I'd like to upgrade but I don't want to rush into anything.


The refresher course is an excellent idea. Don't wait too long to take AOW. I would think 20 dives is more than enough.

R..

 

[Gary D.]

Sherwood is a truck. Not a sports car but a truck.

Our dive team has tried almost everything out there and over the past 20+ years and we have settled on Sherwood as the most reliable trouble free regs for our conditions.

They get about everything slammed at them. Ice, H2O temps over 90f, sewage, gas, oil, ? chemicals, fire residue and about anything else we can expose them to. The only failures can be blamed on us and not the regs.

Just remember truck.

Gary D.

 

[yessic]

Hockeynut,

I'm a PADI instructor. As a starting point for weights, I usually start with 10% of your body weight. Get in a pool with that amount of weight on while wearing your mask, fins, snorkel and exposure protection. You should float at eye level with a full breath in your lungs. When you exhale, you should sink. If this doesn't happen, add or remove weight. Later, as you get more comfortable in the water, you will remove more weight.

As far as AOW. The goal is to give divers a little experience doing different types of dives. I would suggest taking the class as soon as possible. As an example, the class will teach you the basics of how to do a night dive or a deep dive correctly before you pick up any bad habits.

Hope this helps,

Yessic

 

[PolsVoice]

Everyone else has talked about buying equipment from online retailers, so I figured I'd address the "other" online marketplace, EBay. I buy scuba stuff from Ebay all the time, you often get things significantly cheaper, and since I'm not underwater to look good, I really don't care much about aesthetics (although you will never see me in a pink and ecru wetsuit... ever.) The only exception to this is that I don't buy life-support equipment on Ebay. No regs, no cylinders, no RASs. I just don't trust anonymous divers enough to put my life in their hands.

I'm in the middle of an AOW class right now and am loving it, I took it almost immediately after my OW, for three reasons: a.) It's a step towards getting into some light tech diving. b.) the course instructor threw in Nitrox certification and c.) like H2Andy said, rescue is a good thing.

Don't know anything about any of your other questions, other than the 10% ration for weights... that's what I've always been told as a starting point.

Peace be with you,

- PV

 

[DandyDon]

BTW, I didn't see this brought up in the other posts, but if you haven't been diving in 10 years, I'd suggest starting over with the same OW course as one who never has. This sport can be dangerous, very dangerous, but we prefer to do it safely...