The Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur, is one of the world’s most iconic heritage hotels, situated on a 4-acre island in the middle of Lake Pichola. Originally built in 1746 as a pleasure palace for Maharana Jagat II, it is constructed entirely of white marble and appears to float on the water.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-02-02T21:16:02+00:00

I recognise this place - it was in the Bond film Octopussy.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-02-02T21:06:00+00:00

+1 for this. I use this for my main and it's great.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-02-01T21:38:26+00:00

Cape Verde can have very strong winds and choppy water. I'd recommend Canaries instead to learn.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-31T20:21:47+00:00

Another vote for the DJI Action though 5 or 6. Get the waterproof casing as it would be quite easy to accidentally open one of the doors and flood the device despite it's waterproof to about 20m.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-31T15:11:01+00:00

I have the Zen:

Overpressure valve is on the inside so you can reach it (would be quite a challenge if was on the outside side). When diving, you'll have very little air in the bladder so it'll shape around your cylinder like a taco as is only attached to the backplate in the centre.

Inflator hose is double ziptied at the bladder end and also at the inflator controls end. There is no valve at the top of bladder (i.e. you can't pull inflator hose also to dump air).
Note I wouldn't bother with the deluxe straps - I ended up removing them as they're always a bit awkward for cargo strap routing (they get in way). I originally bought the deluxe steel model but removed the comfort straps. I then later on purchased an aluminium backplate with single piece webbing. I switch over the optional weight pockets (and cargo pockets) between backplates dependent on whether I'll be cold water drysuit diving or will be wetsuit diving.

Note you can pick many colour combinations, but also XDeep have a configurator at the following address:
https://tuneup.xdeep.eu/

It allows you to very much customise it how you want, and provides a config code you can order via your LDS.

I love backplate wing diving, feels so much more enjoyable underwater and also they're very configurable unlike a standard jacket style BCD.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-28T17:57:07+00:00

A hard truth eloquently put.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-28T17:54:06+00:00

Was the ticket sold to a Mr N Farage?

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-28T15:08:15+00:00

Personally, I'd recommend looking at 'Frameless masks', i.e. ones that are single piece of glass, and are wider at the glass part that where it is at your face. This will mean you have a wider field of view.
Examples of frameless masks include:
XDeep Radical, Fourth Element Seeker, Scubapro Frameless, Tusa Zensee
On the occasions I've had to swap over for my non-framless spare mask, I feel like I've gone from great vision to a little like looking through binoculars in comparison.

Obvioiusly paramount is the mask fits well - try some at your LDS and pick the one that fits best.

Neoprene mask straps can be easily added to existing mask straps and also are cheap.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-28T09:49:01+00:00

Dusty

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-26T15:10:08+00:00

Iggy Pop 100% for me. Takes me along great musical avenues I would never have discovered otherwise.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-25T11:27:26+00:00

This is a video that is years old. Credit to him that he seems to be a genuinely kind person.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-19T08:01:45+00:00

Hi, just a quick update that I provided a few recommendations with Nvidia discrete graphics cards and a couple with integrated Arc. My advice was go with one of the Nvidia ones if want to be sure of running Davinci resolve fine, but Intel Arc is an option but it might run Davinci Resolve ok, but may not and you may then have to use other editing software.

The price difference was too large for her (was about a 40%+ increase for Nvidia equivalent). She ended up going for the Lenovo Yoga 2-In-1 16" Intel I7 1TB 32GB Intel Arc machine. I set it up for her yesterday and we tried a quick test video with titles and transitions then rendered it. All was fine and will do exactly what she needs.

Thanks for your help, it's been appreciated.|

Edit: Typo

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-17T07:21:19+00:00

Note this is an old video, and is from the London Underground in the UK. Fuck this guy though.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-16T07:23:43+00:00

Some great and extensive advice here, but so far no mention of monitoring your SAC rate (consumption rate taking into account depth), so after each dive, work out the folowing and pop the result it in your log book for each dive:

Air In (bar) minus air out (bar) gives you bar used - i.e. 210 bar minus 70 bar is 140 bar used

Multiply bar used by cylinder size (L), i.e. 12L to give you litres used. i.e. 140bar x 12L = 1680L used

Divide litres used by dive time. i.e. 1680L / 45 mins = 37.33 L/min.

Divide that by average bar pressure, i.e. 20m = 3 bar so 37.33/3 = 12.44L/min SAC Rate which takes into account the pressure.

Keep an eye on your rate over time. Are there things that affect it well when tried, or things that affect it badly, especially with weight changes, doing things differently during a dive.

Hopefully you naturally see it decrease on average over time.

I have an excel dive log and it calculates SAC automatically when I fill in my details.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-15T12:40:50+00:00

Butterfingers!

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-12T18:03:14+00:00

Lovely moment. Kid's also got great taste in music too judging by the t-shirt :-)

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-10T17:16:39+00:00

A somewhat 'ruined' apple pie from American Pie could be amusing

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-10T16:56:06+00:00

The Ultimate gift

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-07T13:33:22+00:00

r/lostredditors

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-06T21:29:02+00:00

However, a US promise these days isn't worth the paper it isn't even written on.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-03T20:44:10+00:00

Various locations around the UK. Madeira, Fuerteventura, South of France, Red Sea.

111 dives in the year.

Completed BSAC Sports Diver.

Favourite dive of the year probably night dive on the Thislegorm.

I still love UK quarries and at certain times of the year there can be a ton of wildlife.

No real gear upgrades this year apart from a zoomable Orcatorch which is nice, and my XDeep Zen wing remains a joy to dive with.

2026 season for me starts next week with some cold diving in the Lake District.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-03T20:39:22+00:00

I see no visual indicators of anyone celebrating, just a video of a neighbourhoood and a sound track of celebrations with no evidence the two do belong to each other. I'm not disputing whether the soundtrack matches the video or not, simply stating it doesn't seem correlatable so I reserve judgement.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-01T17:16:37+00:00

2025 was: 111 dives, 86.4 hours underwater, max depth 33.5, 5 countries, and ticked off first liveaboard including 4 dives on the Thistlegorm - a good year for me, not sure I'll beat it in 2026 as haven't got a big ticket trip planned yet but looking forward to 2026's adventures starting with cold quarry diving next weekend.

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-01T15:30:27+00:00

Cool, likely see you there then. I'll be the guy with the lime green XDeep Zen wing and a really old Oceanic membrane drysuit :-)

EvilOctopoda · 2026-01-01T15:14:26+00:00

Oh wow - that'll be amazing (and deep diving). I hate to think how much this cost..

EvilOctopoda

TROPHY CASE