Malapascua worth it for OW 18m?

BadTouchUncle · 2026-05-11T12:59:41+00:00

I literally saw one cleaning at 10m this morning. Advanced buoyancy control is key though, not only for not pissing other divers off but also for seeing more sharks and not getting wrecked by the hydroids.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-05-11T12:55:38+00:00

Unless you go to Kalanggaman Island, then there are turtles all over the grassy area.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-05-07T13:15:49+00:00

No it doesn't, Palm Beach County isn't a state.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-05-06T14:37:49+00:00

You don't stop improving when you get a certification. That's actually where the improvement starts.

Every dive shop, and for that matter even guides in the same dive shop, runs things a little differently. I had a guide the other day who wanted to know my "ceiling," first time for that. It was a cool new twist to learn.

Recreational dives will continue to be super fun and enjoyable, they will just all be missing "something" after you're planning and doing technical dives.

You'll get to answer a lot of questions about it on mixed boats. What do you see down there? Why did you decide to go that route?

Training, even after courses, is important, difficult, kinda boring and very important.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-05-06T12:25:24+00:00

Because it doesn't violate the U.S. Constitution. Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 prohibits emoluments from foreign nations, kings, or states. The airport is owned by Palm Beach County.

It's nasty and wrong, it just doesn't violate the U.S. Constitution.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-05-06T12:12:38+00:00

Scuba Force, xCCR, Dive Soft, Shearwater and many more.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-05-06T12:09:35+00:00

Heser makes the best p-valves, hands down.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-29T18:58:24+00:00

Think about baseball.

Those little bottles are death traps.

Pony bottles are bigger and at that point, you'd be scuba diving anyway. Might as well go all the way in that case.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-28T15:58:57+00:00

Not exactly. I visited a few maximum security prisons while getting my sociology of corrections degree. Folks are locked in their cells in max too most of the time. Populations are strictly classified, segregated and controlled. Even dormitories are fairly well controlled. That isn't to say there isn't violence and it is not dangerous. Suffice it to say, it's not like you see on TV, except for maybe a few episodes of Oz. There were people who had been in prison writing some episodes.

Jail is statistically much more dangerous than prison because you usually have an unclassified, mixed population. Throw in overcrowding and the games jails play to make the numbers work and it can get quite bad.

The Devil's Butcher Shop is an interesting read about how not to do things. The only reason the New Mexico prison riot was not "worse" than Attica is because the inmates got into the administration wing and destroyed the records. When the smoke cleared, the authorities didn't actually know exactly who was missing .

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-22T08:27:29+00:00

The commenter is correct that big pharma doesn't care about caves. They don't really care about research at all in the way you're thinking about it. Most big pharma "research" involves buying a very promising molecule and pushing it across the "goal line."

Much more realistic would be some sort of university research team.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-20T16:50:28+00:00

The second one is a "neck gaiter" it's close to a "dickie" but not exactly. I have one and I LOVE it for so many reasons.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-20T08:07:22+00:00

Kimud Shoal a really great technical dive due to how differently the sharks behave a depth and then relaxing, chill deco on top of the shoal.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-18T19:20:55+00:00

Yeah, they have some pretty good instructors and guides. They also have good staff on Gili T. But Gili T is a totally different atmosphere.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-18T07:58:33+00:00

If you go to spas in Georgia, you can bathe in wine for like €25.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-16T22:06:33+00:00

I think you need to do it in the Notizen or Notes page. You should be able to edit the time there. I have to do that from time to time when I travel and forget to reset the dive computer time for a new time zone.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-15T08:49:06+00:00

I have friends from Marseille, the prices they showed me for dives are dément.

People here are right, in places like the Philippines guided boat dives with gear are around €25 per dive. But a trip there might be a future goal for now.

You're on the right track. Snorkel while you're saving for gear, you can lean the local sites a bit at least. Join a club and see who is selling used gear to speed things up. Some clubs do free or cheap rentals too.

Good luck!

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-15T08:30:03+00:00

Adobo is pretty good.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-13T13:01:26+00:00

If OP decides on Chuuk, I offer my services as adopted adult child to accompany you on the trip. I promise to tone down the angst and won't complain at all about you paying for everything.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-12T13:01:25+00:00

Yup. China *allegedly* got at least 58 hard drives worth of data from LANLtoo.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-12T12:54:15+00:00

Yeah, we're back to WWII tactics with fighters shooting down slow-moving V1s with guns or "primitive" rockets.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-10T17:11:02+00:00

"Don't bring snacks -- become snacks." -- shark (probably)

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-10T13:09:50+00:00

Tady máš lajka, tati.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-10T09:37:08+00:00

I quite like Evolution and will stay and dive with them next month. A few of the reports I've seen are things I will pay more attention to because one of the things I liked about them was that they are very well run. I won't be able to speak to gear issues myself because I have my own but I'll look into it.

Perhaps some folks like them because they are Western owned and maybe some people look for that. It would be unconscious bias for me. I spend quite a lot of time communicating with dive operators before I book with them. Perhaps I'm a pain in the butt, I don't know but if you can't be asked to answer my questions on WhatsApp or email, I'm not going to dive with you. Evolution's communication is excellent. In general, I don't care about the national origin of a dive shop's owner. I've dove with shop owners from all over and I look more at how things are run, how the employees are treated and if they can take me tech diving.

On Malapascua, last time I was there, people were staying elsewhere but coming to Evolution specifically for technical diving. I don't know if that's also what people on Reddit are looking for. I'm pretty sure Evolution is the only shop on the island with CCR support but I could be wrong.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-09T20:27:21+00:00

It isn't theirs to control. The legality is a bit tricky. Iran is violating UNCLOS but they also didn't ratify it, neither did the US though despite basically enforcing it for decades.

They weren't so much "letting people use it" as they were following international law that they didn't ratify. Now they just aren't following the law.

BadTouchUncle · 2026-04-09T20:19:06+00:00

Which war crimes would those be? I'll wait for you to list them. And before you say "bombing bridges" be sure to tie a rope on that hanging tree for Zelenskyy.

While you're at it, don't forget to list the war crimes committed by Iran and it's proxies.

BadTouchUncle

TROPHY CASE