I am picking up a new hobby, and have begun buying equipment. While I was out in Hawaii, I dove and had an absolute blast. So, I have begun buying equipment here in Virginia. I guess there is quite a bit to explore around here (several shipwrecks, and lots of interesting ecosystems to check out), and the fishing is supposedly extraordinary (Flounder, Croaker, Spadefish, and a bunch of other species that are 24"+ are plentiful here). Thus far, I have explored Craigslist to get my start. I discovered that buying new equipment from the dive shops out here is OUTRAGEOUSLY priced, so I would much rather go used. I found another service member in this area that needed money, so he sold me a Scuba tank, BCD (Dacor Nautica vest with hard back), and the regulator set (Dacor Quantum with primary and secondary regulators, and a nice gage set with depth gage and compass). He really needed the money, so he dropped the price to $275 delivered to my door. The tank needs Hydrostatically tested and Visually inspected, but I am sure it will pass (it has 3000psig of air in it right now and externally looks like new). I also purchased; Some fins: http://www.ebay.com/itm/25101661798...NX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_500wt_1054 A mask: http://www.ebay.com/itm/25109840751...NX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_500wt_1287 A dive marker: http://www.ebay.com/itm/17065443438...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_1983wt_1270 And a dive light: http://www.ebay.com/itm/12094671255...NX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_767wt_1270 I also bought some soft weights (mesh bags with lead shot, 3 4lb bags and 3 2lb bags). I already have a 3/4 wet suit (5mm, ScubaPro, fits me perfectly) and a pair of Scuba dive booties (Scubapro, high top with soft rubber soles). I also have a pair of Scuba Diving earplugs (small rubber finned plugs that fit perfectly in my ears). I know that there are plenty of other things that I need, but I'm just trying to get the basics down so I can safely dive. The regulator set has a small dive computer that determines ascent/descent rates, and time limits to ensure the bends don't set in. I am planning on keeping my depth well under 100 feet for now, until I can learn my equipment well and know my own limits. Have any of you spearfished before? What are the basics of it? What all do I need to purchase to spearfish efficiently? I am not looking to do this as a definite source of food or profit, just as a fun hobby. What are the laws regarding spearfishing? What licenses are required? Can any of you think of anything else that I should purchase? Anyone have any stories of Scuba diving? What were the best places to dive? ~Will Courtier~
You already learned the big lesson, that the local dive shops are crooks! The markup is incredible. I would go to my local shop to browse, then go home and buy the item for 40% less online. But then my local dive shop closed... The only other thing I would emphasize is SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY! You're a new diver, and frankly I would recommend you get 50+ more hours with a trained master before becoming the most experience person on the boat. Open Water certs for everybody else in your party, and at least Advanced Open Water certs for you. You're a sailor and obviously have your wits about you, but being relatively unskilled with even less skilled noobs in tow is a recipe for disaster.
I refuse to take anyone else out diving until I get quite a bit more experience under my belt. I won't have it on my conscience that I injure or much worse kill someone. I am just exploring the hobby on my own until I get completely comfortable with everything. I have also looked into getting my certs. For me to get the open water cert it's only $250, and will cost another $250 for the advanced open water course. I intend on getting both, just need to get the free time! The price is FAR cheaper than it was over in Hawaii (~$1200 for the basic course alone, with just two days of classroom instruction and 3 days of diving). I'm just barely getting my feet wet (no pun intended), so I know there's a lot to come. Just looks like it's going to be a lot of fun for not too terribly much cash. It also looks like it is just another good skill to have for later in life (both recreationally and professionally). ~Will Courtier~
Diving solo is kinda risky too, but if you're going to do it I recommend Spare Air. An octo won't save you if you have a valve or seal failure on your primary tank.
Ha! Like I tell the kids, "In the event of a zombie outbreak we don't need to outrun the zombies. We just need to outrun Mommy..." But yeah, I personally had a regulator / tank malfunction, and at 80 feet down I would have been dead were it not for the dive master being right there. I might consider diving solo in shallow water, aka <40 feet. But even then I'd carry a Spare Air.
I was an avid diver/hunter. I strongly recommend getting a PADI certification w/advanced diver endorsement. The basic teaches just the basics: breathing/nitrogen rates, nuetral boyancy, accent rates, basic emergency proceedures, etc. But the advanced cert gets into navigation, deep diving (<133'), search patterns, recovery, and night diving (awesome!). I used to hunt every weekend and come home with a cooler full of fillets, abalone and rock scallops. all I ate was fresh seafood. A few events made me decide to give up diving. Starting with the advent of a ab diver getting attacked less than 100 miles down the coast and it was captured on vid. then the divemastewr and his wife were diving a rock 10 miles out and were aproached by a humongous white and forced to jet to the surface from 80'. Both got bent and fortunately were able to be evavc'd to a hyperbaric by the coast guard. their diving days were supposed to be over but the divemster kept diving after that. A month later I jumped over to the dive boat from a buddy's boat as I missed the launch and watched as a whole dive party came popping out of the water with a huge 8' long shaddow chasing them. I thought it was a shark at first but then realized it was the monster ling cod i took a poke at a week earlier (and was glad i missed!). i used to dive solo all the time when close in because the reef was only 25-30 feet depth and my tank was usually only the 70. There'd be no way to get enough of a nitrogen build up at that depth and that tank duration to get bent if I had to jet to the surface. Besides, with the usual viz of 8' we usually lost our dive partners in a couple minutes anyhow. The final straw was after a first dive that yielded some awesome fish: 35 lb. ling cod, a huge 25 lb cabazon and some huge black snapper, I came in, changed out tanks and went back out. The surge picked up to imposible levels in the time it took me to do a 200 yd surface swim. It was like bing inside a cloths dryer. My compass was totally unusable and the water got so churned up the viz was < 5'. My air intake was outrageous trying to fight the surge and I ran out when I got tangled up in a kelp bed. I managed to free myself and get to the surface where i was able to inflate my BC by mouth. The swells went from 4' pre dive to over 9' in the short time I was under. The surface swim was fuct so I headed to the nearest way out of the sea: a 100 yd. swim to the rocks. When I got there, I road a swell onto a flat rock and busted the shit out of my BC. It was the only really bad dive I made in two years. My BC is still broken to this day because I started to think how risky all the diving was having great whites in the same water I dove in while dragging 30-100 lbs. of dead fish around with me all the time. One of my biggest phobias is to be eaten alive by a big fuckin fish. EDIT: As MSP mentioned, there's nothing like running out of air at depth. You only run out on the inhale, not the exhale. I was at 90+ and ran out, one second breathing like normal, the next split second no air. It takes 90+ seconds to safely reach the surface. I looked up and that looked like a long, long way up. I started up and slowly "hummed' making sure I was slower than the smaller bubbles. It was weird, I felt like I was always going to run out of hum bubbles, but never quite ran all the way out as the compressed air in my lungs expanded. The hard part is to decide whether or not to drop your weight belt when you reach the surface so you can float long enough to get you mouth to you PID and inflate your BC. I've emptied my tank a few times and managed to not panic or drop my weight belt. It's easy to run out when you're busy spearing fish and follow them to depth without realizing it. My ears equalized with a twitch of my jaws and it became an automatic function so going deeper couldn't be judged by my ears.
Wow, you got a hell of a deal. Diving is great, I just did it for the first time back in the Philippines a year and a half ago but it really is a whole new world under there
Did you get in any night dives? That'd be tits in the tropics. I did my best one in Avalon. It was so cool diving those forests of giant kelp at night with 120' visibility. My buddy and I pissed off a huge assed moray and it came after us. have you ever heard anyone LOL underwater? Then we nuetraled 7' off the bottom of the reef and cut open a couple glow stix and it beaded up in 1/8" beads. We lay on bottom, turned out our lights and watched the glowing beads slowly settle down on us. It was way better than any acid trip I've ever been on. The bottom was crawling with thousands of spiney lobsters that had glowing dots on them.
Well, my equipment arrived! Got my fins, mask, dive light, and also a dive flag buoy (pocket buoy, pretty cool design). My weights are in the mail, and should be here by the end of the week. Might start playing around this weekend! ~Will Courtier~
How do you get tanks filled without being licensed? All the dive shops and people with 4000psi compressors around here are extreemely picky about that.
Buying one of those, or a Zuba, would be awesome. http://www.zubadiving.com/page/about?xg_source=activity
personally? I'd like to try a zuba system. The trade-off, would be the freedom of movement and difficulties in Pacific surge prone waters. Lakes, gold dredging, and bays/tidal pools would be cool though.
Check out this one. Shore or boat based obviously, but pretty affordable. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
I've seen systems almost identical used by ab and scallop divers that paddle out 1/4 mile to the rocks in ocean kyaks. I even have a pic somewhere. Can't see the hookah, but this is a really neat set-up for those sheltered waters. Hyperthermia is the only limitation on bottom time.....other than fuel/battery charge. yes, that is bird shit on those rocks . That water is 25-40' depth. actually fairly good spear fishing for greenling, cabezon, snapper and lingcod. Mainly just smaller fish and shellfish, but a few good seafood type munchies can be had. Those areas are also great for freediving with a spear. The water temp was 45 degrees when I took this plung :
Looks like the motorized floating units are about 3 grand. http://www.scuba.com/scuba-gear-152/030873/Air-Line-Model-R360xl-Hookah.html
Since a lot of paintballers now run high pressure compressed air systems, they will fill tanks without a cert. Just gotta convince them that it's being used to equalize across otherr smaller bottles. A lot of paintballers do this to avoid constantly paying for recharging of tanks. ~Will Courtier~
For that price, you could get a dredge with a hookah compressor and kill two birds with one stone. http://www.goldfeverprospecting.com/keulmi4dr.html
Finally got around to snapping a few pics. Scuba Pro SubGear Action mask. Made for smaller faces, so it fits me perfectly and is pretty damned comfortable! Promate Wave Snorkeling / Dive fins. My feet are fairly small, so I needed something that really fit well yet were fairly stiff. It looks like these will work quite well for me. Underwater Kenetics Super Q eLED rechargable dive light. I absolutely hate having batteries go dead on flashlights, so I figured this would be a decent choice. It's insanely bright, small, and the battery lasts 4 hours during continuous use. I tossed a lanyard onto it and afixed it to my BCD. I also received my dive weights today (3-4lb soft dive weights, and 3-2lb soft dive weights). I dove in Hawaii with 10lbs, and was just a little light. I'm figuring I'll dive with 12lbs and see how it goes. I figure if worst comes to worst I can always inflate my BCD to maintain neutral buoyancy. Might have to take a walk down to the beach and try out some of my new toys! Oh, also. My buddy in Hawaii that I dove with gave me a Basic/Advanced dive certification reference book (pretty in depth, with good descriptions). I'm starting to scan through it and pick up pointers that will hopefully get me on the way to my certs. Hoping to get a good head start in learning before I head out to the school. ~Will Courtier~
Oh, also. The buoy is inflated using some balloons that came with it. I am looking to pick up some beach balls for ease of inflating/deflating. Everything fits into that tiny bag, and it can be clipped to my BCD for a surface swim to the dive spot. Then, I will be able to blow it up and have some fun! It's a pretty cool design, in my opinion. ~Will Courtier~
Dive buddy. Always. This is not optional. One day you will find yourself in a situation somewhere when you need a buddy. Most notably if your high pressure hose (gauge) bursts your tank will empty in 2-3 seconds. I would encourage you to get professional training from one of the major certifying associations. That would teach you things such as proper breathing rhythms, how to properly care for and use your gear, buoyancy control (one of the hardest to master), and how to respond to emergency situations. The above being said, I would recomend Florida, Hawaii, Cancun (underwater people statues), Great barrier reef is apparently still alive, and my personal favorite the red sea (specifically Sharm-el Sheikh, Egypt). I'm biased to warm water destinations. I just learned how to dive in Jan 2010, now am a divemaster with just under 400 dives, 250 of those I lead divers. Take care of your gear and get your training done! And dive with a buddy!
Also, i know you just got done buying all that gear (and we like to call that beginner gear!) but... Here is what after countless dives I've settled on as being the totally awesome shit for me personally. Fins: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mares-Plana...ltDomain_0&hash=item53ebcac9e9#ht_2985wt_1284 A note on masks: This is arguably the most important piece of equipment you will ever own. Take your time and find the right one. Spend a bit more if you have to. They dont make the one i have anymore but here is one that is pretty damn close: http://www.tusa.com/us-en/Tusa/Masks/M-210_PANTHES Its low volume so you have to use less air to equalize that air cavity on decent and mine fits like a glove, I almost dont need a strap. Regulators: I started off on the scubapro MK 25 http://www.scubapro.com/en-US/USA/regulators/products/mk25s600.aspx and still have it. Its good. I graduated up to an apeks set: http://www.ebay.com/itm/APEKS-XTX20...ltDomain_0&hash=item4ab5a53895#ht_3081wt_1397 which i now swear by. The air delivery at depth is silk smooth and instant. I use a mares dragon vest with the weight pockets. Honestly they have given me issues in the past so I now use a separate weight belt. Still not happy with the vest just haven't found something better yet. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mares-Drago...ltDomain_0&hash=item3cc93ad7f5#ht_1414wt_1397 Lastly I wanted to talk about regulator valves and adapters. In 'merica we like to use the A frame or the 'international' adapter. It works. It also has issues with the O ring being tank based and will leak more than the other variety which is a DIN adapter. The din adapter screws into the tank like a bolt and the O ring is regulator based (people tend to not abuse their regs, but care less about tanks). It is common in the middle east and europe. The perk of your A frame or "international" is that you can also get one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Scuba-DIN-t...ltDomain_0&hash=item2ec04d9bd4#ht_1113wt_1397 and you can have your own personal one (most shop adapters suck massive cock and are heavily abused meaning they will leak much more). Its really a personal decision at this point but i suggest that you get a personal adapter if you plan on traveling with your A frame regs. The reason I cover this is that if you have to fly you are generally restricted wieght, and divers will opt to leave their tank and weights at home since you can rent that cheaply at the vacation spot. Good luck and have fun!
Try some real man's dives off the PNW coast. After that, everywhere else is a cakewalk. I hold a PADI advc.cert. We (dive club) used to take trips down to Avalon every so ofter and laugh at how the pussies dove down there. We're talking no hesitation to swim 9' swells after getting through 8' waves watching the girls down there have a hard time slipping off the rocks into 18" swells. We did our divemaster proud.
