Underwater MP3 player
- Thread starter nevian
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nevian, I see your profile shows 0-24 dives, as does mine. If that isn't accurate, please ignore my post.
As a new diver, I'm using this forum as a learning tool. As with any forum, each individual must separate the valuable from the inane. The advice to a new diver concerning task overloading makes sense to me. Maybe later, along with U/W photography music might make sense (for me). I perceive the advice given by some as valuable, even if delivered in an "aggressive" manner.
There are other areas I'm much more knowledgeable in than diving. If you posed a forum question about a product, the use of which could cause a problem, I would likely explain the hazards to you. Diving, not unlike flying is not inherently dangerous, but tolerates few mistakes.
As a self-proclaimed forum veteran, I would think you would know not to alienate other members in your first postings. Lighten up. Listen ten times more than you speak or post. My advice, take it in the spirit given... or not.
As a new diver, I'm using this forum as a learning tool. As with any forum, each individual must separate the valuable from the inane. The advice to a new diver concerning task overloading makes sense to me. Maybe later, along with U/W photography music might make sense (for me). I perceive the advice given by some as valuable, even if delivered in an "aggressive" manner.
There are other areas I'm much more knowledgeable in than diving. If you posed a forum question about a product, the use of which could cause a problem, I would likely explain the hazards to you. Diving, not unlike flying is not inherently dangerous, but tolerates few mistakes.
As a self-proclaimed forum veteran, I would think you would know not to alienate other members in your first postings. Lighten up. Listen ten times more than you speak or post. My advice, take it in the spirit given... or not.
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Howard or Net Doc may want to look in to what allowed links to "magically" form on big "sell" words...my mention of a specific kind of music player actually created a link to a retail site with Amazon....Almost enough of a cooincidence to connect this occurrence, with the arrival of some "new individual" that thinks listening to music while scuba diving is cool....or. a "cool way for him to make money".... Just saying 
I don't like this kind of marketer, or marketing, at all.
I don't like this kind of marketer, or marketing, at all.
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Dan ... Skimwords is a "feature" that was added in the last major upgrade. I created a thread about it in here some time ago. I was told there's a way to turn it off. Once told about it, I just decided that if Pete can make money on it, I can live with it (in this case) ... to my concern, he deserves to make something for providing this playground we call ScubaBoard. But that's just my take on it.
To the OP ... the advice, while not very diplomatic, is well-intentioned. As a new diver, you need all the sensory input you can get until your skills and awareness develop to the point where you can run on "autopilot" ... and even then there will be times when removing your audio input to your surroundings will present drawbacks that will increase your risk factors. As long as you know that, you're an adult and can make your own decisions about managing your risks. However, as a new diver, I think adding music to your underwater experience is a blatantly bad idea. I'd recommend putting that idea on the back burner until you've racked up some dives.
As for underwater MP3 players in general ... my attitude is that as long as they don't interfere with other people's experience, it's purely your choice. But your choice should include the following two considerations of the other divers in the water ... (1) that they not have to "listen" to your music, and (2) that they do not have to intervene on your behalf because you didn't hear something that you should have.
As long as you can meet those criteria, enjoy your music ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
To the OP ... the advice, while not very diplomatic, is well-intentioned. As a new diver, you need all the sensory input you can get until your skills and awareness develop to the point where you can run on "autopilot" ... and even then there will be times when removing your audio input to your surroundings will present drawbacks that will increase your risk factors. As long as you know that, you're an adult and can make your own decisions about managing your risks. However, as a new diver, I think adding music to your underwater experience is a blatantly bad idea. I'd recommend putting that idea on the back burner until you've racked up some dives.
As for underwater MP3 players in general ... my attitude is that as long as they don't interfere with other people's experience, it's purely your choice. But your choice should include the following two considerations of the other divers in the water ... (1) that they not have to "listen" to your music, and (2) that they do not have to intervene on your behalf because you didn't hear something that you should have.
As long as you can meet those criteria, enjoy your music ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
TartanFrog
Contributor
WOW! So much for this being a "flame free zone." I don't really agree with the idea because it minimizes already difficult communications, but ...
Howard or Net Doc may want to look in to what allowed links to "magically" form on big "sell" words...my mention of a specific kind of music player actually created a link to a retail site with Amazon....Almost enough of a cooincidence to connect this occurrence, with the arrival of some "new individual" that thinks listening to music while scuba diving is cool....or. a "cool way for him to make money".... Just saying
I don't like this kind of marketer, or marketing, at all.
Dan, it's a skim link and has been discussed several times in Site Support. Here is a recent thread with additional links and info and instructions on how to turn the feature off.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/site-support/400456-scubaboard-running-skimwords.html
i appreciate constructive and positive comments, i do. i don't appreciate people insulting others in order to deliver advice. and the people i directed my attention to were people just spitting out personal opinions that my post didn't ask for. really, if you don't have something positive to say, don't say it at all, it's a simple rule.
for the other posters who provided actual experience as to why music underwater is not recommended, we should open up this discussion. personally, i enjoy sports of all kinds and i always accompany those experiences with music. i rock climb, i hike, i backpack, i mountain bike, i swim, i run, i surf, i snowboard ....among other things. in all these sports i listen to music. one can argue that in order to be safe, i shouldn't hike with headphones on because i lose awareness of my surroundings, a lion at my back, or a rock falling, anything. same with biking.....maybe another rider comes up behind me and i don't hear him, a car is about to hit me, etc. the same thing can be said about any sport. in essence, listening to ANY sound other than your immediate surroundings takes away from your auditory awareness of your surroundings. i don't argue this... i understand this. what people fail to explore here is that, as with any sport, there is a trade off and balance to everything you do that accompanies your sport.
in backpacking, when you compare my gear and how i use my gear, it greatly outweighs whatever i lost from listening to music. you might even say the music itself is a positive gain since it helps pump you up and helps put you in a zone. the decisions from waht to buy to what to pack to what time to leave to how loud to listen to my music to when i should have my music off or when to have it on..these are all decisions that impact that overall safety level of my backpacking experience. the listening to music is but ONE component of the overall checklist of items i have to consider.
in biking, the same type of decision making is done. generally, i don't listen to my music full blast because it would be a bad idea in most routes i bike. when a lot bikers are around, we don't listen to the music. it's not safe...everyone knows this. even in running marathons, you don't wear headphones to listen to music. but if you're running a trail with minimal contact i guarantee you NO ONE WILL THINK IT'S BAD IDEA TO LISTEN TO MUSIC. look around, you'll see people left and right doing it. again, you need to measure the balance of decisions you've made that, OVERALL, will tip the balance one way or the other.
now as for scuba- it is my opinion the same principle holds. i could have opted to purchase a dive computer that only measured pressure.... i didn't, i opted for a wisdom 2 to help me better gauge, better warn and better guide me through a dive. i bought a suunto dive computer wrist watch to backup the wisdom. while some people don't bother getting certified before diving, i did. i took the time to learn the basics of a sport i was about to begin. i've been diving with a group and we practice visual communication before every dive because we realize we're still new. i don't drink the day before a dive, maybe you do. my tanks are hydro'd and VI'd maybe yours aren't. my gear is all top quality gear...maybe yours isn't. i know my limits and don't put myself in difficult diving environments...maybe you don't. these types of choices should be the norm but they're not....and i consider myself among the type of athlete who respects his sport. if i feel i can listen to music safely underwater, you're just going to have to believe it. only god knows how you must imagine yourself listening to music underwater. perhaps you're assuming listening to music at full volume, perhaps you think device volume cannot be turned down when necessary or shut off when you need to shut them off, maybe you think without knowing that the music is going to travel miles interfering with other divers! again, as with ANY SPORT, there are a LOT of components that make up the overall safety level of a sport...and my overall setup and execution of THIS particular sport, carries way more safety than the average diver.
anyway, enough said...if we are going to continue discussing the safety impact of listening to music underwater then maybe we should start another thread specifically for this. and to Dan: i'm not a marketer...as someone more experienced in this forum than you let you know, it's a feature of this forum why your keyword was linked; you should be more careful to insinuate or assume certain things before knowing the facts.
back to the question.............
I STILL WOULD APPRECIATE VERY MUCH if someone can recommend an underwater MP3 player that can withstand pressures down to 100'
thanks,
nevian
for the other posters who provided actual experience as to why music underwater is not recommended, we should open up this discussion. personally, i enjoy sports of all kinds and i always accompany those experiences with music. i rock climb, i hike, i backpack, i mountain bike, i swim, i run, i surf, i snowboard ....among other things. in all these sports i listen to music. one can argue that in order to be safe, i shouldn't hike with headphones on because i lose awareness of my surroundings, a lion at my back, or a rock falling, anything. same with biking.....maybe another rider comes up behind me and i don't hear him, a car is about to hit me, etc. the same thing can be said about any sport. in essence, listening to ANY sound other than your immediate surroundings takes away from your auditory awareness of your surroundings. i don't argue this... i understand this. what people fail to explore here is that, as with any sport, there is a trade off and balance to everything you do that accompanies your sport.
in backpacking, when you compare my gear and how i use my gear, it greatly outweighs whatever i lost from listening to music. you might even say the music itself is a positive gain since it helps pump you up and helps put you in a zone. the decisions from waht to buy to what to pack to what time to leave to how loud to listen to my music to when i should have my music off or when to have it on..these are all decisions that impact that overall safety level of my backpacking experience. the listening to music is but ONE component of the overall checklist of items i have to consider.
in biking, the same type of decision making is done. generally, i don't listen to my music full blast because it would be a bad idea in most routes i bike. when a lot bikers are around, we don't listen to the music. it's not safe...everyone knows this. even in running marathons, you don't wear headphones to listen to music. but if you're running a trail with minimal contact i guarantee you NO ONE WILL THINK IT'S BAD IDEA TO LISTEN TO MUSIC. look around, you'll see people left and right doing it. again, you need to measure the balance of decisions you've made that, OVERALL, will tip the balance one way or the other.
now as for scuba- it is my opinion the same principle holds. i could have opted to purchase a dive computer that only measured pressure.... i didn't, i opted for a wisdom 2 to help me better gauge, better warn and better guide me through a dive. i bought a suunto dive computer wrist watch to backup the wisdom. while some people don't bother getting certified before diving, i did. i took the time to learn the basics of a sport i was about to begin. i've been diving with a group and we practice visual communication before every dive because we realize we're still new. i don't drink the day before a dive, maybe you do. my tanks are hydro'd and VI'd maybe yours aren't. my gear is all top quality gear...maybe yours isn't. i know my limits and don't put myself in difficult diving environments...maybe you don't. these types of choices should be the norm but they're not....and i consider myself among the type of athlete who respects his sport. if i feel i can listen to music safely underwater, you're just going to have to believe it. only god knows how you must imagine yourself listening to music underwater. perhaps you're assuming listening to music at full volume, perhaps you think device volume cannot be turned down when necessary or shut off when you need to shut them off, maybe you think without knowing that the music is going to travel miles interfering with other divers! again, as with ANY SPORT, there are a LOT of components that make up the overall safety level of a sport...and my overall setup and execution of THIS particular sport, carries way more safety than the average diver.
anyway, enough said...if we are going to continue discussing the safety impact of listening to music underwater then maybe we should start another thread specifically for this. and to Dan: i'm not a marketer...as someone more experienced in this forum than you let you know, it's a feature of this forum why your keyword was linked; you should be more careful to insinuate or assume certain things before knowing the facts.
back to the question.............
I STILL WOULD APPRECIATE VERY MUCH if someone can recommend an underwater MP3 player that can withstand pressures down to 100'
thanks,
nevian
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Nevian, I can't provide any recommendations about the player ... but I would like to address the rest of your post.
Like yourself, I am a very music oriented person. I love listening to music while I'm doing things. But I don't take music underwater with me ... not even as a pretty experienced diver.
The difference between diving and all those other activities you mention boils down to environment.
We're not designed to be underwater. All those other activities you mentioned occur in an environment in which we have spent, essentially, our entire lives. Because we're used to that environment, inhibiting one or more of our sensory inputs has little impact.
Such is not the case when we place ourselves in an environment we aren't designed for ... particularly one in which awareness and equipment are so inextricably linked to our survival.
The equipment we use to go underwater limits our senses. We've grown up accustomed to having a peripheral vision that provides our essential awareness of what's going on around us. Putting on a scuba mask removes our peripheral vision, and limits the scope of our visual feedback. Our other senses are also inhibited by the underwater environment in various ways, and we rely on them less for our awareness. Hearing becomes an increasingly important part of our awareness because it's the one sense that actually improves underwater ... although in a way that reduces our sense of where it's coming from.
Developing a sense of awareness underwater is a learned skill ... similar in some ways to when you learned how to drive (and for many of the same reasons). Until those awareness skills become very well-developed, it isn't generally a good idea to be inhibiting them anymore than you absolutely have to.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Like yourself, I am a very music oriented person. I love listening to music while I'm doing things. But I don't take music underwater with me ... not even as a pretty experienced diver.
The difference between diving and all those other activities you mention boils down to environment.
We're not designed to be underwater. All those other activities you mentioned occur in an environment in which we have spent, essentially, our entire lives. Because we're used to that environment, inhibiting one or more of our sensory inputs has little impact.
Such is not the case when we place ourselves in an environment we aren't designed for ... particularly one in which awareness and equipment are so inextricably linked to our survival.
The equipment we use to go underwater limits our senses. We've grown up accustomed to having a peripheral vision that provides our essential awareness of what's going on around us. Putting on a scuba mask removes our peripheral vision, and limits the scope of our visual feedback. Our other senses are also inhibited by the underwater environment in various ways, and we rely on them less for our awareness. Hearing becomes an increasingly important part of our awareness because it's the one sense that actually improves underwater ... although in a way that reduces our sense of where it's coming from.
Developing a sense of awareness underwater is a learned skill ... similar in some ways to when you learned how to drive (and for many of the same reasons). Until those awareness skills become very well-developed, it isn't generally a good idea to be inhibiting them anymore than you absolutely have to.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
RonFrank
Contributor
I looked and could not find a player that was good past 15'. They had them in the past, but they must not have done well as there are quite a few players that you can swim with, but nothing meant for diving good to say 130'. I did not even see anything used, but ebay is not as good as it used to be for finding cool stuff.
ucfdiver
Contributor
I own an idive300 and bought an older ipod device just for that. For me, 1-2 hour or longer decompression obligations are easier to endure while listening to music or watching a movie.
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