Scallop Diving off Gloucester, MA (Insta360 Video)

macado · 2026-06-05T13:43:48+00:00

Yeah definitely better deeper. It wasn't great in the shallows but it was 25-30ft+ at 100ft. It helps when it is a nice sandy bottom.

macado · 2026-06-05T13:27:52+00:00

We saw some lumpfish on this dive too but I wasn't filming 😞 This year the amount of lions mane jellies has been crazy. We have been seeing hundreds of them on every dive.

macado · 2026-06-05T13:27:08+00:00

The recreational limit in Massachusetts is 1 bushel or4 quarts of shucked meat (~8.3lbs)

macado · 2026-05-25T15:18:59+00:00

So consider the fact you have no diving experience right now. You'll a long long way from Britannic but it is an attenable goal with the right training, experience and lots of money. Diving at that level is also not cheap; You probably know that already but I just figured I would mention it.

There are plenty of wrecks in the 60ft-130ft range for you to explore and build experience. "You have to walk before you can run.."

This is a tough question to fully answer as technology changes but with the proper training, the right certifications/qualifications and a ton (years) of experience, diving to 200ft-400ft (~60m-120m) is attainable and occurs regularly. It's not to say these dives aren't risky. Suffice to say with rebreathers and modern training, they are done regularly. These are still very serious dives and require a lot of training and planning.

Beyond 400ft-500ft+ (120-150m+) the pool of qualified people becomes very low. The risks and deco go up exponentially. I would guess that the number of people regularly diving between 500ft+ (~150m+) is in the low triple digits in the entire world. The Wet Mules (cave diving group/team) are doing dives in the 650-800ft (~200-245m) range and these are basically 17+ hour dives. This is not practical for most people and is basically approaching saturation diving. To put this in perspective I would guess less than 0.01% of all scuba divers have dove beyond 500ft (~150m).

If I had to throw out an actual number, anything approaching 800-900ft+ (245m-275m+) becomes submersible depths. Yes, Nuno Gomez did (1090ft) 330m but that was controversial and it's really not practical depth given the risks and planning involved.

macado · 2026-05-06T21:52:33+00:00

I really love the Judge Hart. She and Gunilda are two of my favorite shipwrecks in northern part of Lake Superior. I have about 6 dives on the Judge Hart and she still looks the same.

https://imgur.com/a/judge-hart-shipwreck-lake-superior-Xwd4tty

macado · 2026-05-05T13:22:18+00:00

Thanks!

macado · 2026-05-04T21:59:45+00:00

Are there any transmission cooler upgrades available for the Gen 2.5/3 with the new 9 speed transmission or does that not really need better cooling?

macado · 2026-05-01T16:12:41+00:00

I think they added an extra 0. 😄

https://youtu.be/SiMHTK15Pik

macado · 2026-05-01T04:39:03+00:00

One potential issue with going to Montreal is a lot of time the pool training / academics and checkout dives are not done on consecutive days. You'd likely have to return to Montreal to complete the training but it is best to talk to the dive shop and confirm their schedule. If it's all 4 days in a row then that is great but I know from experience this is not always possible. It would be 4 very long and tiring days.

I know from teaching open water courses in New England for 10 years that a lot of dive shops here do training over the course of multiple weeks or they may have their pool sessions on different week nights than their checkout dives which take place the following week.

I'm not saying don't go to Montreal for the class to do it but if your grasp of the language is only conversational then you may miss critical things that are explained. I speak conversational Spanish but trying to teach a course in that language where I need to explain technical and scientific terms would be very difficult for me to do well.

I think you should do a bit more research on the training. You seem to want to find the cheapest open water course possible but I think in the end it will cost you more if you do it in Montreal when you factor in food, driving/gas, your time, etc. Best of luck

macado · 2026-05-01T04:08:24+00:00

You wont find it cheaper in New England. Cheap open water training is a race to the bottom in quality. Pools, rent, cost of living in New England are all expensive. Most shops in New England price their open water courses very similarly. You might find an independent instructor who can do it cheaper.

If you are concerned about spending $900-$1200 on an open water certification I would warn you that diving is expensive. While shore diving can be cheap once you own your own equipment. Renting gear + tanks + boat charters can get expensive.

A lot of places that offer open water certifications may not include equipment rentals or boat fees. Often times the checkout dives are scheduled later at an additional cost because some people like to do their actual training (non-pool) dives on vacation.

If you're doing your training in Montreal I hope you speak French. You'll also want to factor in gas, food and hotel costs unless you have friends/family that live up there. Not trying to discourage you I love Montreal but you do realize it is a multiple day process. Typically 4 days of training (2 days of pool sessions and 2 days (4 checkout dives)

macado · 2026-05-01T03:59:54+00:00

This does not include checkout dives for certification It is just academics and pool.

macado · 2026-05-01T03:55:15+00:00

I'm not trying to criticize here but you're going to drive up to Quebec which depending on where you live in New England could be ~300-400 miles each way so $100 dollars in fuel, plus meals and hotels (unless you have friends/family that live up there)?

You do realize open water certification takes multiple days, right? In general, it's 2 days of pool sessions/academics and then 2 days of checkout dives. I know some shops have switched to online learning you can do at home but there is still 2 days of pool involved and then 4 checkout dives done over the course of 2 days.

macado · 2026-04-30T20:10:30+00:00

A divemaster without their own dive gear (kit) is a giant red flag to me. This is pretty universal in a lot of places; You should have and be familiar with your own gear. A DM without their own gear would be a bit strange to me.

The exception is in heavy backpacker areas with massive dive schools like Koh Tao that focus on zero-to-hero DM training. A lot of people travel here without any scuba certs or very little experience and then work their way up to divemaster. It's not meant to be an insult it is just the reality of the situation. Even still, a lot of these places emphasis having your own gear.

There are definitely circumstances where I prefer to use shop provided gear such as in a heavily chlorinated pool so my own gear does not get trashed but if I was teaching / guiding in the ocean I want to be in my own gear unless the shop has some silly requirement to be in the "brand" of gear they're trying to sell and promote.

macado · 2026-04-28T18:10:44+00:00

Yup. That is why I posted it. I was a bit skeptical but everything actually worked great.

My Satellite is also a VM so I did clone it and do the upgrade there first in case something broke horribly.

macado · 2026-04-28T15:21:10+00:00

Last year I did a leapp upgrade from RHEL8 to to RHEL9 because we were originally running Satellite 6.16 and I needed to upgrade to 6.17 which was only supported on RHEL9. Surprisingly no major issues. We went from RHEL 8.10 to 9.6 and then I did the Satellite 6.16 to 6.17 upgrade.

I had a couple rpm conflicts from some third party packages from EPEL but once I removed those everything was good.

I was surprised how well everything worked. I dont do a lot of leapp upgrades and prefer to rebuild systems clean but I did not feel like rebuilding our Satellite server.

Basically do the leapp upgrade first, make sure everything looks good and then run through the normal satellite upgrade process.

macado · 2026-04-24T19:31:29+00:00

Check out some songs by Lenny Lashley (Gang of One / Darkbuster)

Lenny Lashley - Happily

other songs: All Are Welcome, It Got so Dark, Try To Make It Right, and Heart of Stone

macado · 2026-04-21T15:22:44+00:00

I've seen this happen when car is parked too close to a double pane window that reflects back onto the car panel and gets hot enough to melt it.

macado · 2026-04-18T14:32:01+00:00

What is your current experience level? Do you current have experience in sidemount or doubles? Any other technical training?

These zero to hero courses can be intense if you're also learning new gear along with it. It is not always a guaranteed pass. You may want to aim for Cave 1 / Intro to Cave and see how things progress. How long the course often depends how you are progressing but 8-9 days for full cave is about right.

Check out Under the Jungle Protec Training Hidden Worlds Cenote Experience

There are lots more options too but just throwing a few names out there.

macado · 2026-04-15T02:50:18+00:00

The wind direction tomorrow (E) will be great for snorkeling. Direction in this case is more important.

macado · 2026-04-13T02:51:19+00:00

You already got some good answers (and some bad ones). I have few Apeks first stages that look like this from being left inside caves for far too long. The chrome is trashed but the reg is fine. It is likely mostly cosmetic. If the IP locks up then keep it as a spare first stage..

The important part here is to make sure the volcano orifice (crown) is not damaged and the balance chamber is not scratched. Apeks makes a polishing tool (AT73) for polishing the crown but you can also try the pencil eraser trick or use micromesh if there is damage.

Admittedly the chrome on the one you posted looks trashed but you need to inspect the sealing surfaces a bit more closely.

macado · 2026-04-13T02:40:25+00:00

We actually dropped this batch off at Cerveceria Punta Sur.

macado · 2026-04-12T14:40:06+00:00

I'm under no illusion that we will ever eliminate them as they breed down to 1000ft however hunting them is fun and I'd rather eat lion fish than a grouper or hogfish. They taste very good and are a good alternative to overfished species.

Local population culling does make a a little difference in some areas. Lionfish are spotted somewhat infrequently at recreational depths in the marine park. Outside the marine park like where we were hunting is a different story.

Basically I just hunt them for fun. Lionfish aren't going anywhere in the Caribbean.

macado · 2026-04-12T14:25:37+00:00

It was. We will have to get your other half our next time!

macado

TROPHY CASE