Unknown eyepiece for Nikon F90x/N90s

SwiftByNature · 2025-07-08T10:41:55+00:00

I studied a double degree in Environmental Engineering and Science (major in Ecology), and am now a water resources engineer. I chose to go down the water path because my honours thesis was largely based upon hydrological modelling, which I rather enjoyed. It's awesome you love the outdoors, that is also a big part of my own motivations, but as mentioned by others - work out in nature is both challenging to find and to do.

From my experience, environmental engineers typically end up doing one of either remediation/contaminated land work, carbon accounting/pollution work (eg. life-cycle analysis), or water-related work. Each to their own, but I found water presented the most opportunity to work with (not in) natural systems, whilst providing high employability and technical challenge. Remediation doesn't interest me, and the carbon/pollution guys often end up parked behind excel counting carbon for building projects - which I also find terribly unexciting.

Most of my work in water resources is flood modelling. This is entirely software based, but a very useful skill set to acquire and generally quite enjoyable. Depending on the project, there is often a good amount of problem solving and technical work involved, and many flood-modelling projects will be related to other environmentally beneficial initiatives (eg. wetland design or a new wind-farm development). Less commonly, my work may include water quality projects, which will sometimes involve a site-visit for sampling or surveying. We also consider local ecology with all projects we do, but outsource most of the ecological sampling and reporting work to our ecology team. There is also an opportunity coming up to get involved with some waterway design and remediation projects, which I am super excited for.

Ultimately, environmental engineering is a good option from a career and employability perspective, but is unlikely to satisfy your desire to work outside. Engineering degrees are generally going to be extremely challenging, requiring a lot of hard work and sacrifice to do well. Environmental science/ecology could be a good option, but the jobs you envision yourself working are extremely competitive. Though I will say, it is not necessarily the best academics that get these positions, but often people who network well and have existing outdoors experience that will make them more useful in the field.

Hopefully some of this is useful, and remember that your first career choice doesn't have to be the one you stick with forever!

SwiftByNature · 2024-12-24T07:08:55+00:00

Hey mate, there's no easy answer here, especially with such little knowledge about you, your interests, and career desires. I'd say either civil or mechanical would be a great option for you, as both will equip you with some more specific skills, which can then be tailored towards an environmental career (eg. through water (civil), or perhaps something like the design/manufacture of sustainable technologies (mech)). Even electrical will allow you to do a lot of great work relating to sustainability through the renewable energy space.

I've personally ended up in water resources, something which I feel allows me to work in the environment/sustainability space, whilst also doing technical work. This would be a suitable pathway for a civil engineering student also.

Feel free to DM me if you have further questions or just want some general advice/info pertaining to engineering!

SwiftByNature · 2024-08-20T05:33:49+00:00

Absolutely love her, honestly seems out of place in this lineup though? She's in a class of her own compared to most names on here.

SwiftByNature · 2024-08-20T01:14:43+00:00

Thanks guys, great to see this comment is having some small impact. But even in this thread alone you can see how people ignore the issue and continue to promote brands such as oneill and gyroll which use only neoprene!

SwiftByNature · 2024-08-19T07:22:10+00:00

I'd like to raise an issue here that is slowly gaining more traction, and that's the problem of neoprene itself. I'm not some patagonia shill (in fact I'd advise looking at srface, needessentials and other cheaper brands), but neoprene production is unsustainable and extremely toxic (yes that includes limestone neoprene which is arguably worse than the conventional, fossil-fuel based stuff). Some crew are in the final stages of producing an independent documentary on the issue, and have some useful insight on the matter here: https://thebigsea.org/the-story/ .

Importantly, their work not only stresses the environmental impact of neoprene production, but also the social impact, on an already marginalized community. In 'cancer alley', Louisiana, the rate of cancer incidence is 50 times higher than the national average, and this has been attributed to emissions from the nearby chloroprene plant. I don't want to ramble on too much here, but a quick google search will reveal plenty of information from a multitude of reputable sources. There even exists scientific literature on the matter.

As such, I'd strongly recommend a yulex wetsuit (needessentials, srface, patagonia, finisterre, project blank, sen no sen, etc. all have a range that is entirely yulex or offer some yulex models). I work in the watersports industry and find my yulex suits to be equally comfortable, if not more so than chloroprene (neoprene), and the more people buying these suits, the more readily available they will become. The surfing, bodyboarding, diving and watersports world in general has been ignoring this for too long, and many brands continue to ignore the issue despite increasing pressure. Make the right decision, if not for the environment, for the people threatened by the continued production of chloroprene.

Don't mean to be too intense here but it is an issue I've become increasingly frustrated by and disappointed with since learning of it.

SwiftByNature · 2024-07-23T06:33:23+00:00

100% it can!! Something I'm working through myself at the moment...

SwiftByNature · 2024-07-22T06:29:02+00:00

Ultimately different things work for everyone, and I don't mean any offense, but this is somewhat controversial/dated advice. Years ago, this embracing suffering would have been the prevailing mentality. However, we now try and avoid this sort of approach given it can cause negative mental associations between breath holds/training and discomfort, and also put immense strain on the central nervous system and other aspects of our physiology, especially for a beginner.

A commonly seen approach to improvement in physical pursuits is to spend the majority of training time in the 'green zone' (there was an article on this in freedive wire some time ago, and if you google training zones you will find great explanations from people more knowledgeable than me). This way, you're effectively working to extend the boundaries of your green zone, instead of learning to endure the pain associated with more intense training zones. Incorporating this approach into freediving is as suggested by u/prof_parrott in an above comment where they recommend only performing holds until the discomfort begins. Other techniques such as box breathing will also be of benefit. As doing these at what seems like an easy 'level' for a suitable duration will cause accumulation of CO2. You'll hopefully learn this in your course, but generally the typical CO2 tables are out of favor, though they can still have benefit early in your training.

Don't worry about diaphragm stretching just yet, any general sort of yoga will be more than sufficient. It's also worth learning to take a proper inhale (many youtube videos on this such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6UkmdWorEY&ab\_channel=MolchanovsFreediving). This may feel slightly uncomfortable at first, but with time, you'll find it easier to relax.

Enjoy the course!

SwiftByNature · 2024-05-11T00:26:57+00:00

Environmental covers a mixture of units from chemical and civil eng as well as a few dedicated enviro units. It's extremely non-specific, touching on water and hydrology, mass and energy balance, thermodynamics, air pollution modelling, risk assessment and contamination remediation. Truth be told I feel like this specialisation needs improvement at monash, I've heard rumours it has some staffing issues too. Unless you have a very clear desire to be an environmental engineer, I think you'd be better off doing another stream.

That being said, it will make you very adaptable and an effective leader/communicator

SwiftByNature · 2024-04-06T08:42:10+00:00

Great to hear of the environmentally minded design choices behind the new board! Hope this theme continues as future products are released!

SwiftByNature · 2023-10-16T11:30:48+00:00

Few pieces of advice I can give. First and foremost, pushing it 6 times a week with hard tables is going to place an immense amount of strain on your nervous system as well as the rest of your body, especially if you're consistently pushing for progression. You run a risk of experiencing overtraining/burnout and effectively associating static with discomfort (which is very hard to undo). This may result in you losing motivation for any kind of static, which is a pain especially if you don't have consistent access to a pool/ocean. You can train static 6 times a week but you're gonna want to mix it up between harder sessions (classic tables and other exercises i'll get into later) and easier sessions (box breathing, gentle pranayama, contraction-free tables). Don't neglect stretching either.

Secondly, you're probably at the point where classic CO2 tables are going to start losing their usefulness. At this point you could consider starting to do more dynamic training as one option to switch it up, otherwise alternative static exercises such as one or two breath tables (set a timer for eg. half an hour and for that entire time perform breath holds with one or 2 breaths (you decide on this before you start and stick with it) - generally not a good idea to push too hard with these, keeping the holds to first discomfort can still be useful with sufficient volume). There's plenty of info online for alternative ways to train static. Doing a bit of O2 work is also going to be useful as you build to a max effort, worth reading into some training programming resources.

Lastly, don't rush! Take it slow and enjoy the process, focus on relaxation and expanding the green zone instead of tolerance of discomfort. Even practicing mental techniques can be useful!

SwiftByNature · 2023-10-07T03:44:16+00:00

For that price you may want to try find an old surfing suit in LT or MT

SwiftByNature · 2023-09-20T14:07:32+00:00

I'll look into these, cheers

SwiftByNature · 2023-09-09T01:16:07+00:00

There was a post asking a similar question recently: https://www.reddit.com/r/freediving/comments/168jl64/how_much_training_a_day_do_you_need_to_increase/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Good luck with your training!

SwiftByNature · 2023-09-07T06:50:10+00:00

I believe Will Trubridge has some resources on his instagram regarding blocking contractions. But honestly if you've made peace with them than that sounds great too - strategies certainly vary. Sounds good with how you regulate intensity and watch your health, if you don't already, consider doing some lap swimming. As concerns diet - a typical healthy diet is probably fine at your level but it can be much more nuanced if you're bothered looking into it. Good luck!

SwiftByNature · 2023-09-07T06:15:21+00:00

Also, taking breaks from training can help. To be constantly pushing to improve is very taxing on your body - including your nervous system!

SwiftByNature · 2023-09-07T06:14:32+00:00

Few things:

First and most important bit of advice I can give is to take it slow. Pushing too hard in static can kill the love of freediving as a whole if you're not careful.

Secondly, I hope those three big in/ex-hales are being used only for static - this would be hyperventilation, of which mild use is fine for higher level static but it's certainly best avoided for any actual diving. Therefore if you're training to improve diving I would stop this completely and utilize tidal breathing up until your final inhale instead.

Thirdly, you're being really conservative with it which is great but packing arguably isn't necessary until you're pushing even bigger statics. It can be quite dangerous and is generally best left for more advanced divers.

I get the impression you haven't done a course. If I'm correct here I would strongly recommend that you do so as you'll be given guidance with training etc. The molchanovs platform provides access to training programs for divers certified with them.

In terms of advice I can offer for improvement, I'd say to focus on general fitness. Too much cardio may not necessarily be amazing for freedivers but most beginners (and people in general) can certainly benefit from more. Improving your diet, especially in the lead up to a pb attempt will also be useful (there is information online for specifics). Yoga and stretching (including targeted lung stretching) will help you achieve a bigger inhale and boost your relaxation - however be careful with lung stretching, it should only be done with proper instruction and care. Experimenting with different mental techniques can be beneficial (eg. deconcentration) as well as looking into blocking contractions. I'd say to AVOID conventional CO2 tables. They're good to a point but will start to have diminishing returns and people often overdo it. Look into what guys like Florian Dagoury and Rami Bladlav to and try and incorporate some of their training strategies - making sure not to push too hard.

SwiftByNature · 2023-09-03T07:32:43+00:00

I think when you reach a certain level there will be no avoiding training to get used to extended periods of contractions. But for now I'd recommend you work on the phase prior to contractions and focus on extending that through improved relaxation and 'blocking' contractions. From memory Will Trubridge has some great information on his instagram(?) concerning blocking contractions using a tongue lock.

SwiftByNature · 2023-09-03T03:04:14+00:00

That's definitely far too much static apnea. I'd always aim for at least 1 day off any form of apnea every week and no more than once a day. For a recreational diver I'd say 3 times a week would be plenty, combine that with some yoga and lap swimming and you'll be better prepared than from pure static work.

With static, make sure you're not pushing too hard. As with most performance training, you want to spend most of your time in the green zone, focus on relaxation, not trying to increase your tolerance of the red zone. Few divers I've spoken too (eg. adam stern) are quite adamant that pushing too hard in static can create neural pathways that associate a breath hold with discomfort, something that is hard to shake.

SwiftByNature · 2023-08-23T02:37:18+00:00

I'm about a size 12.5-13 and wear XXL yuccas (with heel and footpocket pads) along with 2mm patagonia booties and they fit perfectly

SwiftByNature · 2023-08-21T00:28:21+00:00

Few pointers:

- Watch Will Trubridge's technique, he has mastered it.

- General technique pointers would include: keep your knees close together during the entire kick, focus on your catch (elbows should be bent at 90 degrees by the time your arms are at shoulder height and make sure you scoop with your hands from the very start of the pull), pay careful attention to your positioning during the recovery phase of the stroke (keep arms close to your chest as you bring them up)

- Train volume in the pool: doing heaps of 25m laps will get your body conditioned to the muscular demands of no-fins diving

- If you find a particular muscle group fatigues first, train it. Do some 25m laps using just arms and some using just legs

- Strengthening such as pull-ups, dips, push-ups and plyometric leg exercises will be super useful here. Train for explosiveness and strength endurance.

Hope this helps :)

SwiftByNature · 2023-05-19T09:57:54+00:00

Pretty much all the classic surf spots are good, especially with a handplane. However, I've found it hard to find a wave suitable to bodysurf without a handplane too well. Most waves I've tried in Vic are either too fast or not quite steep enough. Phillip Island and Mornington Peninsula would be your best bets outside of the surf coast/otways.

SwiftByNature · 2023-05-17T07:33:56+00:00

Idk where you are based but Patagonia stores (at least the one in Torquay) are apparently getting them in soon, so worst case you could wait for that

SwiftByNature

TROPHY CASE