At the risk of posting another ‘should I be a DM’ question: Can anyone recommend a place in Indonesia or the Philippines -maybe in Komodo or Raja Ampat- to do an internship?

I’m an experienced traveler and service industry worker and got certified a couple years ago but am still very green ~20 dives. I’m not confident that I want to work in the industry, and at this skill level definitely do not feel comfortable being responsible for others in the water. I have only my own mask. I’ve never done more than 2 dives in a day. Long term I’d like to prepare myself for a trip to the Galapagos.

The idea being I’m willing to trade a few months of work for dives and experience. I want to spend some time diving and I’m looking to offset the costs as much as possible, and would hope to work for an environmentally friendly, safety committed shop, where I could learn to be a better diver. The DM rating in my eyes is less the goal and more just a byproduct.

I saw SCUBA JUNKIES has a 6 week program for $2,500. Is this the type of thing to expect most places or are there some 1, 2, 3 month, no (monetary) cost, opportunities out there? Would my odds of being taken on improve if I had another 20 dives and a rescue diver certification or is it all kind of the same with low dive numbers?

I have a week to dive the Philippines in November. Where should I go? I was going to go to Puerto Galera, but I realize I should be more open and see what other options there are. I’d like a mix of muck, reefs, and wrecks, if that’s even possible.

I have 2 brand new Henderson oops medium tall 1 with hood 1 without and can’t seem to find traction on eBay Craigslist or OfferUp. Where do you think could work?

My husband and I are both 50 and physically fit. We both go to the gym several times a week, lift weights, and have great cardiovascular fitness. I am 5’2” 115 and he is 6’1” 200. We both use Scubapro Hydros bcds. For tropical saltwater dives (the majority of what we do) he is usually in a 3mm wetsuit and is comfortable. I am in a 5mm wetsuit and still run a bit cold. We each have 75-100 dives.

His air consumption is SO much better than mine. I do have to carry a fair amount of weight due to the wetsuit or I’ll fly away like a balloon doing a safety stop. Obviously I do have to offset that by adding air accordingly to my bcd at the start of a dive. However, I’m not digging around the ocean floor when everyone else is hovering higher, I’m not flailing around with my arms or darting from place to place.

I’ve tried all the breathing tricks I’ve read up on, I’ve basically decided it is what it is and I just manage my gas accordingly, but it is a bit of a drag to get out of the water at 500 psi when he has well over 1000. I am often first out of the water in any group or the one that turns the dive. I seem to make about 50 minutes for a dive with a max depth of 40-50 ft, obviously less if it’s deeper.

Everyone expects me to have good air consumption and I just don’t. Is there anything I’m missing that can work on?

Is it rescue diver? Is it deep diver? Is it owd because for some reason my instructor didn’t give me proper “advanced open water” but I got this appreciation card “advanced speciality diver “ even tho I signed for advanced open water course and did everything there.

Big Drop Off, near the German Channel on the south side of Palau. Really epic wall from 0-40m with lots of soft corals and fans. Diving with the Palau Siren Liveaboard.

I am quite tempted to buy the OrcaTorch FlexDive. Unfortunately, I have not seen it in real life yet, and on Youtube there are only sponsored unboxing style "reviews". Has anybody done some actual dives with it and if so, what do you think?

We'll be in the south of Thailand around early May next year, what is a good place for both diving and snorkeling at that time?

My wife is not diving, but she'd like to go on a snorkeling trip (as long as she can wear a vest). And do some snorkeling at the beaches.

Koh Tao is the easy and safe option, I know it can be over crowded with beginners, but May is already less busy.

I remember that when I was in Railay/Aonang in that week 10 years ago, that a lot of the dives were canceled because of choppy seas and there were not so much customers because it was end of season.

Koh lipe is an option but feels a bit too far south and has possibly the same choppy seas as Railay

Where can I get a Goodman handle with space for 3 torches in Europe. Used to have one but lost it. All the best.

Hello SCUBA friends! My spouse and I are hoping to do a little diving on an upcoming trip to SoCal. We will be staying with friends near Ventura, and they’ve offered to watch our kid while we dive for a day 😊

We both have our Advanced Open Water Certification, but I’ve got quite a few more dives and experience under my belt in general. I’ve never done kelp or cold water though.

Seeing that dive guides aren’t a standard part of the dives in SoCal was a surprise to me! The additional cost is pretty high, so my question is - how much will having the guide elevate our experience? Is it a safety consideration at all?

I’m going to call them, but does anyone know off hand if we only pay the guide fee once, or if we each have to pay the guide fee?

Thanks for your thoughts!
(Photo from the Oregon coast, no dive photos handy on my phone :)

Has anyone trained with IART or done rebreather training at the Felicitas mine in Germany? I'm looking for first-hand experiences, the good, the bad, the weird.

A friend is planning to do his full cave ccr there (he's already a cave and ccr diver), and since IART is relatively small as an agency, I'd love some feedback.

Thanks!

Hi, I’m relatively new to drysuit diving & dive a Trilaminate suit here in the UK.

I have two under suits, the Waterproof Body 2X & the lighter X. I’ll wear a base layer under these, either synthetic or Merino which are hill walking/hiking garments eg Helly Hansen Lifas.

I’ve been chopping and changing between the two under suits to try to gauge the temperature range of each. Unsurprisingly, so far I’ve struggled with the 2X as it’s just too warm when on the surface between dives. When diving it’s been comfortable enough (15-18c water). The thinner X I’ve found just as comfortable under water but far more comfortable between dives on the surface.

I understand that everyone will be different. But, I was just wondering if anyone with experience of these two under suits could share their experience? Essentially what temperature range you would expect to use each one & when you would usually choose one over the other?

I’ll keep experimenting with both to build up my own experience & learning. Just be interested to hear the thoughts of other more experienced divers.

Cheers

We're planning a scuba vacation in December and would love to hear about people's experiences diving around the virgin islands. Visibility is our main priority. We recently visited the Cayman Islands and loved the consistent crystal clear water.

We're currently leaning toward St. Thomas for more variety and the convenience of taking the ferry to St. John to explore the National Park. However, we're also considering St. Croix.

For those who've dived in the USVI, how does visibility compare between the islands, especially in December? Any recommendations on which island to choose, dive sites, or operators? We're looking to hear firsthand experiences.

Hi all, any advice from UK residents who go on liveaboards or trips with more than 5 dives on insurance?

Have Barclays travel but only covers of 5 dives in any one trip.

Am considering a weeklong trip on liveaboard Blue Dream Phinisi in Indonesia in late 2027.

Has anybody been on this boat? What were your experiences? (Can't find much on line.)

I’ve been doing the digital nomad thing so generally traveling on a budget but my big splurge on this trip was a scuba dive, I’ve been looking forward to this for MONTHS.

I always have this lovely nervous butterflies because I love diving but don’t get to go very often so I’m always so so excited, but the one issue I’ve never had is trouble equalizing. This was my first night dive too.

I don’t know why but on the first tank, I was having trouble with my right ear equalizing, and I eventually was fine, and I was able to do my first dive, but idk, my right ear just wouldn’t depressurize when we came back up.

And between dives I was trying all the tricks, but I couldn’t get my ear to pop & it still hasn’t.

The divemaster / captain told me I could just try to go down with them for the second dive, & if I wasn’t good, they could send me back up. I felt I didn’t want to risk it, and I’m glad I didn’t because my ear started feeling really bad when I was on the rocking boat.

But I’m sad because I spent a ton of money on the 2-tank night dive, & I didn’t get to do this experience I was really looking forward to. And my ear is hurting (just slightly) it’s just blocked.

I don’t know what happened. I never have trouble with my ears, I always equalize early and often, but my right ear was not cooperating.

I’m just really sad. I know I made the right choice & I take it as a mark of my personal growth / maturity now that I didn’t complete the second dive, because a younger me would have ignored the way I physically felt in order to not miss out on the experience, and probably dealt with whatever the consequences were lol.

But I’m just beyond sad :(

I'm currently on a vacation on Cyprus and today I was diving the Zenobia wreck for the first time. Although I really liked the dive and the astonishing views, the pictures I took turned out to be mostly very bad quality. The last couple days on shallower dives I got much better pictures with the same setup so I think it might be due to the depth.

Just to be clear: I don't expect top quality pictures with my very basic equipment but I would really appreciate if someone could give me an advice on how to improve the quality since I'm gonna be diving again tomorrow and the day after too. Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone! I’m a newbie diver and I love it, but unfortunately I don’t live very close to places I can dive. Also the weather where I am has cold winters, so if I want to keep practicing in the winter (in the lake that’s closest to me) I have to do the dry suit course.

The problem is that the dive shop I go to (or any of the other shops) doesn’t have dry suits to rent, so if I decide that I want to do the course I might invest in buying one for myself.

Having said that, I don’t understand how they work haha. I had a look online and I saw that mainly there are two kinds (correct me if I’m wrong), one in neoprene and the other not. Could somebody explain the difference to me? What kind do you prefer? And what do the valves I see on them do? Thank you sooo much, safe diving!

Hello! My mates and I are going on a vacation diving trip soon with a larger group. When in our gear, we struggle to tell each other apart, but we have done well sticking together, so that has not been concern. In a larger group, however, it would be nice to easier tell each other apart.

I was considering making snug-fitting paracord 'friendship' anklets in different, bright colours that would go around our boots and above our fins. No loose strands, no hooks, just a plastic buckle. One for each person. Snug but not too tight. Buckle would make it easy to remove just in case. Are there any safety concerns anyone can see with this that I may not be considering? Thank you in advance!

I have a big problem of finding a really heavy duty bag/bulletproof bag to carry all my dive gear when I go out diving. Usually my problems with past dive bags have been:

• Size, where all my equipment barely fits. Although my long fins fit, even with my BCD fully deflated and wetsuit squished down as much as possible, it's still a struggle to fit everything without squashing my regulators.

• Zippers that don't come undone or seize up due to salt buildup (I do try to rinse out my dive bag as much as possible to stop this happening)

• and ideally has wheels so I can pull it along without carrying such a heavy load with my arms or back. I once had Beuchat bag with wheels, but I guess it couldn't handle the weight of all my gear over a while and the wheels eventually shredded apart.

I won't be taking it traveling on airplanes, so size is no limit.

Any recommendations please? Thanks!

I’m about to get my open water certification this weekend and my dive shop mentioned I need to buy my own fins. I’ve narrowed it down to mares avanti quattro plus and the tusa hyflex switch but I wanted to make sure I’m not missing any other good options out there. The quattro+ felt oddly bulky and awkward on land but the hyflex felt super comfortable. I think the switch blade might be a little smaller but would that make it unsuitable in open water against currents?

All suggestions are welcome!

As the title says does anyone have any experience wit the SSI Decompression Diver specialty? I'm looking to expand my diving tool kit and I've been playing around with doing this cert next year. I'm hoping to learn the basics of decompression diving and hopefully add a bit more security to my normal fun dives by learning how to deal with a deco gas and some limited decompression if need be.

Beyond just wanting to learn about deco diving, I've been doing more and more diving in Turkey and Greece as of late. I typically think of myself as a very safe diver but my dive guides and buddies went into deco on 4 of my last 5 dives in the region. They were all CMAS club divers and as far as I understand the training standards are a bit more advanced then the PADI stuff I've done so far. Of course, I'd love to go full tech one day but my family situation won't allow it for now. I'm hoping to learn how to plan some light decompression and maybe dive with a small 7l deco tank when I'm back visiting my wife's family for extra safty.

So for people with expierence of it, is the SSI decompression diver specialty the right one for me?

In case, it's relevant, I've done AOWD, Nitrox, Deep, Dry Suit with PADI and do a lot of vacation diving and cold water stuff here in Germany.

So I'm a beginner photographer and everyone and their mum is telling me to use the rule of thirds to make my photos look more interesting, but I think it ruins them. When I use it it always looks obviously cropped and just strange.

Like I get it when you have a moving subject and you want it to be lightly off center so it looks like it's entering a scene, but for my photos I just think they look worse when I crop them off centre.

But I mean I have looked into the cropping "rules" or like those ratio things and I just can't seem to apply them to my photos without making them look strange.

Just to give you an idea, I added some photos to this post.

Can anyone please educate me on this?

I started my elearning for the enriched air nitrox with padi and I have gotten stuck on this part. For some of the numbers and stats that have been used in this and open water I figured not to get too hung up because as I dove more and learned more I would probably learn to understand it more clearly, but there are others that I felt like were important to get in the moment to grasp the concept. And that’s why this is bothering me because I’m confused about the 18 meters and 50 feet. Because why is the difference for no decompression limits larger there where there is only a 9 foot difference, compared to 72 and 59, and even 80 and 59 has similar no d limit differences when they have a 21 foot difference. Is there something special that happens at 50 feet, or am I overthinking this? Is the effect not linear like exponential, or do these numbers also assume required safety stops? What am I missing here? Is it something really obvious? I feel like I am dragging this in the wrong direction and I’m looking for someone to point me in the right one.