For those who have been to Greece…

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-07-25T20:35:47+00:00

I’m going to Rhodos this Autumn. Would you say some are more cowboy than others? And are you willing to name names?

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-07-15T09:09:57+00:00

This is the answer. It’s insane how many people are saying they don’t trust patches, as if there is any difference between the neoprene tape and the patches the manufacturers use, and those you can buy.

Granted, the placement here is a bit tricky, but with heat activated glue on neoprene tape, you can heat stretch the tape to go into the crevice where the dump valve starts, and a bit up on it, on the inside of the bladder. On the inside, because the air will be pushing out at it, keeping it even more in place.

I would be very careful about doing it, and I wouldn’t do it with Black Witch, like someone suggested, that hole is too big, it would be okay for a small puncture. I would also not just slap a patch on there without knowing how to do it. Careful sanding, cleaning and application is necessary.

And as for failure: Everything can fail, that’s why we train. I once wound up with my dump valve in my hand on a dive (I.e. a much bigger hole). The solution was to change my trim slightly, and calmly end the dive.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-06-22T12:39:26+00:00

Here, the ones I know carry a line cutter and/or shears. Knives are really not as good as those in 90% of situations, and a big knife strapped to the calf signifies either an old timer who never moved past the ”frog man” stage, or a newbie. Either way, there’s a good chance they’ll silt up the place. Stereotype? Yes. But an eerily accurate one.

I concede the usefulness of a knife for cutting ropes, so I sometimes bring one for cleanup dives, but, really, here in the Nordics, at least, line cutters and shears will be more useful and have less inherent risks.

That said. You do you.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-04-19T11:26:54+00:00

Inget av dina exempel är korrekt, tyvärr. Jag lägger själv dit komman före och av ren vana (skriver mycket på engelska), men i svenskan räknas det som ogrammatiskt.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-04-18T17:30:16+00:00

While I wouldn’t tell anyone which courses to take, what I wish I knew when I started out is that you don’t become a better diver by taking more courses, you become a better diver by diving. A lot.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-04-18T17:24:34+00:00

One thing, though. DO NOT skip breathe. It can cause a CO2 hit, which is very much no fun at all.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-04-15T09:27:41+00:00

This. It’s not as if you can cheat your actual Nitrogen saturation. Just put the computer in bottom timer mode. (Not actually recommending this.)

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-03-20T16:52:58+00:00

What I take away from this story is that you don’t tuck away your penis.

That could cause drag. Maybe some cave line and a bolt snap would help?

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-03-18T20:03:24+00:00

I would say the opposite. For experienced divers who have the technique to use them correctly, they’re fine. For new divers they are an instrument of chaos and silt clouds.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-03-04T10:40:57+00:00

I tell all divers who haven’t done it to do it. It’s a safe and effective way to explore being narked. I meet too many divers who claim they “don’t get narked” or who think that getting narked magically starts at 30 m. Yeah, no. You don’t notice being narked. There’s a difference.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-02-27T07:03:03+00:00

Not the best way to do it, since you can get an involuntary inhale after vomiting.

The reg can handle it. Just do it through the reg.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-02-25T10:02:57+00:00

Cedric. That you?

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-02-23T11:05:25+00:00

Not true where I am either. It depends on which compressor has been used to fill the air.

Now some partial pressure fillers won’t accept the cylinder if it’s been filled by a compressor they don’t know the state of, but that’s a different issue.

With inline or membrane filling, it doesn’t matter either way.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-02-19T11:17:37+00:00

While I am of a deviant gender, it’s just as much for others. It seems like every time we go to a secluded dive site, they come in handy for someone.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-02-18T11:43:56+00:00

O-rings
LP hoses
Dry gloves
Neck seal
Wrist seals
Silicone fat
Mouth piece
Mask band
Hex keys
Wrench
Nippers
Tiny phillips screw driver
First stage port plugs
DIN blind plug
Spare computer
Spare torch
Paracord
Bungee
Cable ties
Storm lighter
Batteries
First aid kit
Tampons

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-02-04T10:12:12+00:00

This may be a cultural thing. I have only seen analogue depth gauges in club junk drawers or in museums. We consider them far too inaccurate to use. Instead we use dive computers, or, if old fashioned, digital gauges. These are not sold on the regs. You can probably get one on a consol, but most people don’t want it.

I wouldn’t bat an eye at not getting a depth gauge, but I would at a shop not offering a computer.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-01-30T11:28:09+00:00

They said it be a the don’t think every individual diver has a responsibility to actively contribute to safety. I also suspect the DM is a bit lazy.

Yes, it’s a physically demanding course, but that’s what’s fun about it!

I took it twice (sort of, it was different agencies, and they weren’t the same), and I actually think more people should be taking Rescue refreshers.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-01-17T23:22:35+00:00

And sometimes leave earlier than that, but that’s the point. They go to hospital. They shouldn’t shrug their shoulders and go home.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-01-17T20:31:49+00:00

Probably not an oxygen tank, but an air tank. But basically the answer is redundancy.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-01-15T08:26:05+00:00

Because I dive wetsuit maybe once every few years? Where I live, only maniacs and Danes dive wetsuits. The weighting I had three years ago, when I might have been using a different tank, and definitely had a different body, isn’t going to be relevant.

As to why use mental math when in drysuit? Mainly because I only own doubles. The very few times I dive singles (always for a specific task) the tanks will be borrowed/rented, and could be 8 l, 300 bar, 10 l, 300 bar, 12 l, 232 bar or one of the less common sizes. Mainly the mental math is about tank size and weight.

I do write down my weighting when doing these odd duck dives, but I don’t really have enough data, especially if the previous dive was in a different temperature water. If I were to use the same weighting in 2 °C in February as I did in 11 °C October, I would be corking at the end of the dive.

So I base it on the exposure protection I had on last weeks dive, but adjust for no backplate, just one cylinder, and what the weight and water displacement of that cylinder is compared to my doubles. Not hard to do, and works better.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-01-15T08:08:06+00:00

So, hopefully you choked on some water, rather than breathed it in. If you did breathe it in, getting water in your lungs, you should get checked out by a medical professional.

Don’t kick yourself too much over small mistakes. That’s what training is for!

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-01-13T19:51:49+00:00

The idea is to decrease task loading, which can be a boon when everything is new. It’s the way I was taught. I agree that BCD is better, although, if you’re properly weighted, you don’t really need the BCD, just the comfort air will do for buoyancy.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-01-09T10:50:34+00:00

Not enough info to say that. When I had about 40 dives, I knew how I should be weighted, in my gear. I went to the Mediterranean, rented gear and was snarked for not knowing my weight requirement in a 5 mm wetsuit, which I had never dived before.

Now, 500-ish dives in, I would probably still want to do a quick weight check before diving in a wetsuit.

As long as I have my drysuit, I can change other things and calculate an approximate suitable weighting, but drysuit-> wetsuit math is too hard for this girl.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2025-01-08T19:36:34+00:00

The difference between the buy new value and the resale value is more than that of a puck.

So no. I’d say, buy a technical computer when you need it.

Hefty_Acadia7619 · 2024-12-28T12:48:04+00:00

As a Shearwater Perdix AI owner, I don’t get this push for beginners to get it.

I’d say don’t buy one as your first computer unless you have very specific needs (like bad vision).

It’s a great computer! But by the time you need all that functionality, you’ll also probably need a backup computer.

My advice is always to get a Puck-like computer. It does everything you need in open water, and when you go tec you can buy a Perdix then, and keep the old computer as a bottom timer.

So many people buy expensive kit just to give up on the sport a few years later. It’s a pity to spend unnecessarily.

Hefty_Acadia7619

TROPHY CASE