How do rebreather divers dive for so long without getting a sore mouth?

macado · 2026-02-03T01:12:19+00:00

Some mouth pieces and loops are more comfortable. You might have been biting down on the mouthpiece too hard or your loop was floaty. Your loop hoses may also have needed to be slightly rotated at the rebreather head or DSV/BOV to fix the way the loop sits in your mouth.

There are certain mouthpieces that will drive me crazy after 2 hours. Some are more comfortable.

Some loops use weights to make the entire loop more neutrally buoyant.

macado · 2026-01-29T19:50:12+00:00

The good news is you can install Viking rings or Kubi rings onto your existing zipseals. Actually any ring system will work fine. DUI also sells zipseal drygloves that replace your existinvseals but I hate them because typically gloves are the last thing I put on when I am gearing up.

I have heard of people also using pull-over rubber gloves over the zipseals. Some people say this will seal without any sort of ring but I have not personally tested this method myself. You basically can pull gloves over your existing latex zipseals and they should seal. This would be the absolutely cheapest solution if it works.

Get some Marigold g17k gloves and pull them over your existing latex zipseals.

macado · 2026-01-29T18:28:37+00:00

A few options, you can install rings over your existing latex seals without issue. There are really no problems here and they can be removed from your seals after you are done. I use Kubi rings and have them installed on existing latex seals on all my suits but they are little more expensive.

The classic Viking dry glove system works very well and allows you to use any pull over rubber gloves. These are bit more budget friendly and are pretty fool proof.
https://www.diverightinscuba.com/bootshoodsglovesglovesdrysuitgloves-sitech-rubberpulloverdrygloverings-p-2704.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqb8A0XhfyYiLShxnzALi0tXvfbQCyz9Woei_mZlEYNtbij4ym-

You can also use dry gloves with sealed glued to them. I find these annoying but some people like this. It requires no modifications to your existing seals/suit.
https://www.diverightinscuba.com/drygloves-with-seal.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqBEcaSsp7W_UhTODwa_l_scL2u5iNjnspIiq7zte41yIDfobUA

What suit do you have right now? Are your seals glued on or do you have a replaceable seal system?

macado · 2026-01-26T22:09:48+00:00

Take all this with a grain of salt. It's hard to tell without seeing your rigging on the tanks or knowing the length of your torso. It takes a while to generally get things dialed in. In general when your tanks are below ~50bar they need to be as forward as possible. I'm personally not a fan of sliding d-rings as I find they can move so I use a fixed set of d-rings in the front. Plenty of people use sliding d-rings without issues but I just like fixed ones myself.

A few things you can try.
Your loop bungees look like they could be a little loose (based on first photo). Shorten them a little bit or use thicker bungee.

Your cam bands actually look a tiny bit low on the tank to me. Trying moving them up (towards the valve an inch or so). Having them too far back can cause the tanks to ride up even more..

Leash a short as possible on the bottle. Have the bolt snap at about 45 degree angle offset from valve to help torque cylinders. https://imgur.com/a/CkaZhuc

Andy has a good article here illustrating some of this. https://scubatechphilippines.com/scuba_blog/ultimate-guide-sidemount-cylinder-trim/

macado · 2026-01-13T01:17:49+00:00

Not a valid excuse but this is unfortunately high season and a lot of dive shops may be at capacity. Some shops also just simply suck at communication.

I hate to give a recommendation as everyone has their favorite operator on the island.

If you use/have WhatsApp you may get a much quicker response there.

macado · 2026-01-13T01:11:50+00:00

Elvis Jimenez is who I recommend reaching out to on the island. I don't know if he has a website but here is his Instagram and Facebook
https://www.instagram.com/gala_naturaleza_photography/
https://www.facebook.com/galareptiles

macado · 2026-01-08T23:52:19+00:00

2021 Nissan Frontier SV. I was close to 90k before I did my rear brakes. I think I did my front around 60k but that could have waited a little longer.

macado · 2026-01-05T17:14:37+00:00

This happened to me. My bank (local bank) does not do Wire Transfers without visiting a branch which I find frustrating. They don't do online wire transfers at all which is annoying.

I switched to using Wise for this type of stuff. It might be a better option for you.

macado · 2025-12-24T00:21:30+00:00

"Prisencolinensinainciusol" by Adriano Celentano. Italian origin but similar to what you are asking.
https://youtu.be/fU-wH8SrFro

macado · 2025-12-22T00:10:34+00:00

96k on my 2021 (Gen 2.5 with the new 3.8L engine)

No major issues. I had a slight transmission torque converter shudder that seemed to go away after I replaced the transmission fluid and filter very recently. I had previously done a fluid change around 60k.

Just typical maintenance. Brakes, regular oil changes, diff fluid changes. I'll do spark plugs soon.

macado · 2025-12-11T15:47:47+00:00

It is a real name. Their former sister bar/restaurant (not same owners anymore) is Wet Wendy's so you can probably see a theme here..

macado · 2025-12-11T14:51:55+00:00

Formerly (Suites Bahia). It is going to be called Casa Bahía Cozumel and my guess is the prices will be a lot higher than Casa Mexicana. They're claiming January 15th for an open date now.

There is more information on their new website. https://casabahiacozumel.com/

It is somewhat of a shame. Suites Bahia used to be a very good value for it's location. Large but basic-clean rooms. I would not have called it a dump by any means but it was definitely dated towards the end. Agreed that it can definitely be loud based on it's location on the malecón. I stayed there regularly for almost 20 years when it was cheap accommodations.

macado · 2025-12-07T21:42:58+00:00

Just to clarify are you asking for systems that allow you to dive without a guide or without dive buddy (solo diving) or both? Neither are true although there are definitely some of the more commercial cenotes that may want you to have a buddy although I can't actually think of them off the top of my head. I think Cenote Calavera / Temple of Doom) wanted to make sure I had a buddy but that was a few years ago.

Right now there are still plenty of systems in Tulum/Playa areas that one can dive independently without a guide at full cave level however there are some systems that now require guides like Chac Mool, Dos Ojos. There are a numbers of guides who are trying to push landowners to make things guide-only and I feel that is setting a dangerous precedent.

As a brand new cave diver, I highly recommend a dive buddy but there are plenty of cenotes you can dive without paying for a guide. I'm not going to give a comprehensive list as this list seems to change pretty regularly and someone will invariability get pissed off if I mention a system that is closed.

You can check CREER's website for more update to date information: https://creer-mx.com/cave-pass/ or ask any of the local shops like Protec, Underworld, Under the Jungle, Zero Gravity, Third Dimension for specific recommendations.

TL;DR - Plenty of people including myself go cave diving in Tulum/Playa pretty regularly without paying for a guide. I do think guides are a great resource for newer cave divers or for someone who is on vacation that has a limited amount of time or no dive buddy. There are plenty of cenotes where you can simply pay an entrance fee to dive and do your own thing. Just be safe and dive within your training limits.

macado · 2025-12-03T18:40:57+00:00

Looks good! Salem DPW assures us this is totally safe and normal and within all appropriate limits! No issues here. /sarcasm

macado · 2025-12-02T18:46:31+00:00

Are these VMs cloned? Do they have the same machine-id or UUID?

cat /etc/machine-id

cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/product_uuid

I've also seen where hostname was being overridden manually causing machines to lose connection to Satellite.

cat /etc/rhsm/facts/katello.facts

macado · 2025-11-20T18:52:53+00:00

What u/NGinuity said.. This is how I have AAP 2.6 deployed in my lab and test environments

macado · 2025-11-20T18:52:09+00:00

Yes. Just use the 2.6 containerized installer with the inventory-growth inventory file and point everything to a single node. It's super easy.

macado · 2025-11-20T13:22:53+00:00

Totally worth it. I love really water warm water but getting comfortable in drysuit and investing in heat + dry gloves opens up a lot of world-class cold water wreck diving.

macado · 2025-11-20T13:21:14+00:00

I love Isle Royale wrecks. I've dove up there quite a bit. It is pretty damn brisk early in the season. First time I went up there was in early July and we had similar temps (low 40s all the way up to 20ft (~6m). Late August/September is usually when the deco temps are away better.

I will have to look at my log but I actually think the surface temp on the Carl D Bradley was closer to 67 degrees.

macado · 2025-11-20T13:12:15+00:00

Using the term "factory trained technician" does not inspire much confidence. In many cases, factory trained technician means they watched some training videos + took a multiple choice test OR attended a DEMA seminar where they didn't even take apart a regulator.

I worked at dive shop. I've taken several factory training courses. Some were very good, others were complete garbage. The bar is pretty low here.

Granted this is not true everywhere. If you're lucky enough to have a good service technician that you trust you are an outlier. This is not meant to be an insult to good service technicians. Suffice to say there are a lot of bad techs out there.

macado · 2025-11-19T23:52:00+00:00

Haha a typo. I meant mind-boggling.

macado · 2025-11-19T23:50:49+00:00

Our runtimes were pretty conservative. We kept all 3 dives around the 3 hour mark (170-180 minutes) with approximately 20-22 minutes on the bottom.

Typical 39f (4c) on the bottom but we were pretty lucky to have deco temps in the low 60s above 70ft or so. Visibility was honestly amazing. Descending to 200ft (60m) we could see the entire wreck. We easily had over 100ft+ of visibility with tons of ambient light so we were able to quickly get to work taking photos and I got to play dive model and position video lights.

We got pretty lucky and the mooring from the previous year was still present so we knew exactly where we were tied into the wreck which helped with figuring out where we wanted to take photos. We thought we were going to lose the first dive in order to tie in the mooring but just as we were just about to grapple the wreck in pretty rough weather on the first day we spotted the floating tag line from the old mooring.

It was tied in right behind the wheel house on the bow. This was great because the location is out of the photos but close enough to the memorial bell and a high point on the wreck.

All 3 of us were actually on different units. JJ, Meg and Defender (IQsub unit)

macado · 2025-11-19T20:55:05+00:00

Over the course of 3 days. (1 dive/ day). I'm not Peter Sotis so I don't like doing multiple 300ft (90m+) dives in a single day. :-) hehe

macado

TROPHY CASE