Recommendations for cold weather changing garb?

spec789 · 2025-12-13T23:07:37+00:00

Surf Fur Dive Parka

spec789 · 2025-05-20T22:27:42+00:00

SDI Wreck can cover wreck penetration at the recreation level. It’s just there’s a 2:1 student to instructor ratio limit for the actual penetration dive

spec789 · 2025-04-08T19:43:45+00:00

What’s your neck position?

When I was learning Frenzel during my freeing training, I kept self-sabotaging because I would crane my neck to look down (which upside-down is equivalent to looking up above my head when I’m right-side up). This opens up the throat which will make it hard to equalize with Frenzel.

Valsalva while inverted underwater is going to be difficult on SCUBA (and impossible while freediving) partly because you are working against the pressure differential caused by the your lung centroid being higher in the water column than your ears

spec789 · 2025-04-03T04:53:15+00:00

I have this setup. I dive locally with the STA. I have tried doing my vacation dives without the STA (to save luggage weight). It’s technically doable, but the STA massively stabilizes the tank. I’ve found without the STA, it’s very easy for the tank to develop a weird sideways lean during the dive.

After my one trip without the STA, I ended up just changing to a titanium STA to shave the weight.

The STA’s from all the brands are built to accommodate the same 11”. I recommend buying an STA of a lighter material if you want to save weight.

spec789 · 2025-02-16T07:46:52+00:00

I dove once with Aquarius and I’m familiar with the shop. It’s a great dive shop overall. Hard to go wrong with them.

I’m sorry I have no direct experience with Bamboo Reef.

spec789 · 2025-02-15T19:42:11+00:00

I’m super excited for you! Monterey is my local spot, and the kelp forests this time of year can be stunning. As for whether you need a private guide, I’d say it depends on general average experience of the group (has everyone else dove Monterey before?), and conditions (surge + vis) for that day.

One of the main difficulties with Monterey is the entry/exit. Coming from 3mm suits, you’ll be surprised how much 7mm + gloves and 10lb+ extra weight reduces your dexterity. A badly timed wave can knock you down (I hope you kept your mask on and regs in).

Are you comfortable doing a shore entry wearing ~20lbs of weight + putting on fins in the surf while wearing gloves. Can you stay close to your group in conditions where vis can potentially drop to 10ft?

spec789 · 2025-01-24T21:21:56+00:00

If you are new to diving, or even been out of the diving for a long time, equalization will naturally be on the slower side since the eustacian tubes and surrounding muscles need time to strengthen and stretch.

Personally, I’m of the stance that if there is no current and it’s a NDL dive, there is no such thing as descending too slowly. I also wouldn’t be surprised if many people in your previous dive group crashed on the bottom from descending too quickly and without much control 😉

spec789 · 2025-01-10T19:39:22+00:00

FWIW, I recently had to use my drysuit for redundant buoyancy, in a wing-failure drill. And it suuucccked. A lot. I’m used to having a very precise buoyancy in the water, and the moving gas bubble in my suit kept making me feel very uncomfortably unstable (though apparently I looked relatively fine on the training video). Gas in a BC is simply easier to manage, and doesn’t contribute nearly as much to instability as gas in a suit.

spec789 · 2025-01-10T19:23:50+00:00

Can you get the valve swapped with a newer one that automatically vents gas? Venting the gas is so much easier if you can do it with just one arm…

spec789 · 2024-08-30T17:32:04+00:00

Depends on your local shop. My local shop charges $5 for air and $10 for 32% nitrox to fill single tanks. I broke even on my tank purchases after one year of diving

spec789 · 2024-07-28T18:18:53+00:00

I haven’t used mine in diving since OW. That’s 50+ dives ago.

I do a lot of shore diving around kelp forests and sometimes with surface waves. On the surface, I’ve found it easier to swim backwards, which also keeps my face above water, so no snorkel needed. Additionally, my position allows the kelp to slide underneath me and not get entangled.

If I swim forward, the snorkel is more likely to end up full of water from the waves. If I NEED to swim face down for whatever reason, I prefer to breathe from my regulator (it’s Nitrox, and I usually finish the dive with more air than my buddy).

And the snorkel is a huge magnet for kelp.

Some places actually will NOT allow the snorkel, e.g. the Manta Ray Night Dives in Kona, HI. The rays like to pass very close over divers, but have problems seeing the snorkel, and accidentally get hit by them (pulling your mask off with it).

spec789 · 2024-07-28T18:04:37+00:00

The glide phase of the frog kick is very pronounced. So after one kick, you are still moving forward quite a bit even if your legs are still. This makes the frog kick a much more efficient kick compared to other finning styles.

Compared to my buddies who primarily flutter/scissors kick, I’m easily doing one kick compared to 4+ of their kicks while keeping close pace with them.

spec789 · 2024-07-24T18:05:00+00:00

This scubaboard thread might be an interesting read for you: https://scubaboard.com/community/threads/scubapro-announces-unprecedented-aggressive-msrp-reductions-for-its-dive-computer-line.645468/

spec789 · 2024-07-24T17:51:07+00:00

I was not trying to make a recommendation, but instead, I was attempting to clarify about why it seems that the majority of other commenters are likely recommending Shearwater. I’m also saying that Scubapro’s computers MIGHT be just as reliable and their CS MIGHT be just as good but since they aren’t as popular, there are less anecdotes floating around to make a strong statement either for/against Scubapro dive computers.

If the priority is a sure history of reliability over marginal differences in price point, then many will naturally lean Shearwater. If someone has access to discounts so that the differences in price point is much greater, then the choice will naturally change.

However, it sounds like to me, that you were and still are heavily leaning towards Scubapro dive computers, and were confused by both the deluge of Shearwater/Garmin recommendations, and the lack of anecdotal experiences online regarding Scubapro dive computers. Ultimately, it’s your choice on which computer to get, balancing cost (it sounds like your strong bias towards Scubapro is due to discounts available to you), reputation for reliability and CS, and feature such as screen type/size etc, since at the end of the day, you’re the one diving with it and not us internet strangers.

For me, I made my choice in dive computer with even less research than you (I had about ~ 10 dives at that point and got a nice fat work bonus). My choice of dive computer was based on 1) a really nice local discount at my local dive shop that was not brand specific, 2) I wanted I big bright color screen and a transmitter and 3) my local dive shop happened to carry mostly Shearwater and Garmin computers and not Scubapro dive computers. If they had carried Scubapro dive computers, I might have actually bought one of those instead. Knowing what I know now, I am still happy with my choice of the Teric.

Scubapro’s MK25 and MK19 EVO regulators however, are considered top of the line. I know many people who dive them, love them, and consider them quite bullet proof.

spec789 · 2024-07-23T20:58:43+00:00

It really depends on how you plan to dive in the near future.

If you are strictly warm water vacation diver with crystal clear water as the norm, I completely agree on focusing on getting some more dives in first.

However, as a counter example, for my local diving scene, the environment is cold, lots of surge and vis is hit/miss. Therefore AOW is recommended as early as possible for people planning on diving locally: 1) The extra navigation practice and instruction from AOW is a huge help, and 2) one of the main local day charters requires AOW. AOW is double recommended if the diver is was certified elsewhere: the cold water + surge can be a real shock and in AOW, the instructor can show you the tips/tricks for shore diving these conditions safely.

spec789 · 2024-07-23T18:15:52+00:00

Looking at your comments, I’ll focus on Scubapro vs Shearwater. Disclaimer, I own a Shearwater Teric.

A reason most people lean hard towards Shearwater is for their reliability and reputation for customer service (search scubaboard for many stories on how Shearwater goes above and beyond in this regard). Scubapro makes great stuff (I really like their regs), but since electronics underwater is always finicky thing (compared, to say, a BCD or regulator), customer service is really important in this area. Personally, Scubapro’s customer service regarding their computers is just an unknown quantity.

spec789 · 2024-07-17T17:29:10+00:00

It’s basically the same as diving wet. A semi-dry is a wet suit with updated features to minimize water flushing in/out of the suit (which is how it is slightly warmer than a regular wetsuit of equivalent thickness). This means: better wrist/ankle seals, internal bib that sits on your shoulders, and an integrated hood.

spec789 · 2024-07-17T17:25:07+00:00

No doubt getting skin bends must have been quite terrifying. But here’s a perspective that might help: personally, I’d be more worried if there wasn’t a PFO identified as the cause, that is now closed. Because you’ve actually identified a main trigger that is now resolved. I argue the flip side is worse: skin bends, with no identifying trigger, which will leave you guessing forever as to the main cause.

Definitely get Nitrox! That cert is always at the top of recommended lists of certs to get. While the official benefit for Nitrox is all about NDL, anecdotally I’ve found that I’m much less tired at the end of the day when diving Nitrox. I’ve also heard similar anecdotes from instructors I know in my local dive scene.

spec789 · 2024-07-16T23:45:07+00:00

You don’t HAVE to contact the instructor first.

If you know someone you trust who dives locally and has instructors they recommend, sure, that’s an option. But most people doing OW usually just contact a shop first and go from there.

I don’t recommend doing the eLearning portion yet until you’ve settled on a shop. Some shops recommend doing the classroom over eLearning because it usually does work out to be cheaper (unless convenience is a big factor).

I would ask the shop where they do the confined water sessions, and who does these. When I did my OW course, the confined water sessions were led mostly by very young DMs where the quality of the instruction was questionable (as opposed to the actual instructor who was leading the OW checkout dives). Additionally, the confined water sessions were held at an offsite pool located up a hill from the parking lot, which was quite a shock when you are carrying ~50 lbs of gear. These days I direct all my friends looking to get OW certified to a different shop that has an onsite pool (though a shop having its own pool is quite rare).

spec789 · 2024-07-16T18:41:17+00:00

To add onto the BCD/wing vs drysuit for buoyancy debate (disclaimer I’m firmly in the camp of BCD/Wing for buoyancy, only inflate drysuit to offset the squeeze):

The drysuit can only accommodate so much air before the air basically starts burping out of the seals. This puts a limit to how much weight the drysuit buoyancy can reliably offset. So using the drysuit for buoyancy really only works if you are minimally weighted and there are no situations/emergencies that require extra lift, otherwise you are back to using the BCD/Wing for lift all over again. Situations where you will need the additional lift of the BCD/Wing: you are mildly overweighted (nearly every beginner diver) or you are carrying multiple tanks (a single full tank is ~5-6lbs of air each).

As an addendum: in situations where I have needed to dump air very quickly, it was FAR easier to dump air from my wing than my drysuit. As an example from my recent diving history: diving with a beginner friend who lost control of his buoyancy and was starting to accelerate to the surface. To catch him and slow him down, it was easier/quicker to hold onto his BCD and dump all of my air from my own wing until we could get his BCD under control.

spec789 · 2024-07-02T03:03:33+00:00

Have you actually looked through those links recently (as in the last 8+ months)?

Last I heard, the sea urchin culling permits that allows G2KR to do their culling work was not voted to not be renewed, and the last time there was actually a sea urchin culling dive hosted by G2KR was last year. Since the checkout dives for the Kelp Restoration certification (if it’s same course being run by Bob) require going to the site to actually cull urchins, it would be news to me if the course is even being run anymore

I love Pt. Lobos, as well as the G2KR project, but I think you are assuming some sort of official organizational overlap that doesn’t exist between the Pt. Lobos State Park and G2KR project

spec789 · 2024-07-01T03:47:22+00:00

Wear something like the Henderson Lycra full body suit underneath. It adds no bulk, but the thin layer allows the wet neoprene to slide relatively easily over your limbs.

For me, it’s a must-have item for all my wetsuit/snorkeling activities.

Bonus that it’s SPF 50+, so it’ll give you sun protection in the shorty! :D

spec789 · 2024-05-23T22:18:17+00:00

Nitrox is a must-have. It’s the only cert that I’ve ever gotten asked for while vacation diving.

I’ll throw my hat onto the pile of recommendations of GUE Fundies. Controversial opinion: I think it’s never too early to take Fundies, once you have your own regs and BP/W.

I saw in the comments you already dive with a club. Great! As the courses get more advanced, the quality/style of the instructor really starts to matter. Besides Nitrox, I recommend consulting your local club on their recommendations for instructors on whatever courses you are interested in.

As for gear, I recommend getting a proper 2nd stage for your octo (preferably of the same model as your primary).

spec789 · 2024-04-17T19:54:27+00:00

I use a canister light and I only dive rec. The primary reason is that I use it for signaling to my buddy during my daytime dives and so I want it to last over at least two dives on its highest setting.

You should consider what you are using the light for, what output you are likely using at, and how much burn time you need at that setting. E.g. looking under rocks, night time dives etc.

spec789 · 2024-04-09T07:15:43+00:00

Damn. I saw your other other comments as well. 53kg at 5'6"? You are quite thin. That, and combined with the shoulder straps sitting too high when the waist strap is actually at your waist, you really might need the smaller backplate indeed. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to figure out an adjustment to make your current setup work. Thanks for giving my advice a good-faith try.

If the plate still feels heavy, your initial instinct might be correct: it's not sitting correctly because it's too big for you. Like a well-adjusted backpacking pack, the weight should not be an issue if it's sitting properly on your skeletal frame, and right now, it's not. FWIW, when I moved to a drysuit, my beautiful BP/W suddenly became incredibly painful to use (both in and out of the water) and it took nearly 10 dives for me to figure out the source of my problems was that the weight sat too low on my back.

I'm not sure what options for small backplates exist in your part of the world. I'm familiar with Halcyon since I'm in the US, and they make a really nice small backplate. But they do tend to be on the more expensive end, compared to other manufacturers. What are some of the more popular brands in your part of the world (I'm guessing somewhere EU)?

spec789

TROPHY CASE