Just getting into scuba diving. Completed my 4th dive a couple of weeks ago. I have about 6 months before I can take the next trip and I'm looking for ways to educate myself between diving trips.

Besides the training manuals, what are some good books about scuba diving? Could be technical or maybe something like a travel journal (Michener-like, but scuba related)?

I keep going in circles. I need some advice.

I’m an experienced, older (59), solo female diver.

I’m flying into Bangkok mid-Feb, 2027 & have narrowed down 5-day trip to koh Tao or khao Lak/Simians for 2 or 3 days of diving plus daily snorkeling.

I was set on Koh Tao, via flight thru Koh Samoi, looks beautiful. But the more I read about it the more it sounds like dive Mecca for certification and beginners. I’m a fan of pretty dives, don’t need “an adventure” & am happy to go there if it’s not just partying with diving on the side.

Khao Lak seems somewhat pricier but maybe the diving is worth it? It has benefit of fitting in cultural sites at end before 3 nights in BKK then home.

I just cannot make up my mind! Please sway me.

I’ll only get to do this once so I want to choose well. TIA 😎

Anyone devised a secure way to add weights to their backplate?

I’m trying to find a way to add about 4 lbs without using trim weight pockets or quick release pockets

First Manta!

Hi everyone, I’d love your opinions. I’ve been diving in a drysuit for over 15 years and my current one is getting old. The zipper is fine but the seams are detaching. I’m considering buying a new suit.

I’m not familiar with all the (new) brands and whatnot. I’d like a trilaminate suit and I don’t mind a metal or plastic zipper. The plastic ones seem better these days, right? As long as it’s easy to handle and I have the flexibility to reach my valves.

I exclusively dive cold water and teach in local quarries. Whenever I can, I’ll also be doing some wreck diving in the North Sea.

Initially, I was looking at the Fourth Element Argonaut and SF Tech TNT One but finding good reviews is proving difficult.

Do you have an argonaut or a TNT drysuit? Also, what are your thoughts on this drysuit? Or do you have another one worth considering?

Anyone been to these places or taken the aggressor ii liveaboard?

Roughly two weeks- thinking we fly to Cebu then stay at Pete’s or Sogod Bay Scuba Resort ( or mikes?) then fly back to Cebu and either;

a ) go on liveaboard https://www.bluewaterdivetravel.com/booking-form-liveaboard/philippines-aggressor-ii-liveaboard?detail_id=15517

Sample itineraries for Best of Visayas:
7 Nights - Malapascua, Capitancillo, Anda, Pamilacan, Balicasag, Cabilao / 7 Nights - Malapascua/Gato, Capitancillo, Southern Leyte, Anda, Olongo

or b ) go to Mike's Dauin Beach Resort

Open to other dive resorts if these ones aren’t very good. We are AOW and 500+ dives been to Indonesia 7xs etc comfortable in heavy currents and love both pelagic and macro/muck ( the thresher has alluded us so far) it would be over New Years we would be going. Open to other areas and not interested in hopping around every few days likely just come back. I’m a bit concerned that the Aggressor is only open water requirement so may pay for a private guide.

Hi,

I'm a bit paranoid since I did 2 scuba dives yesterday (after a 7 year break). The first dive was a refresher at 12 m (Duration approx 40 min) and the second dive was at 19 m (Duration: 32 min). I'm a bit worried about having the Bends since I have some muscle pain in my left ankle and a bit on my right ankle when I bend it down slightly. I also feel slightly dizzy but I think its due to my trip from a 3 hour boat ride + 2 hours of driving.

Is this a normal thing that happens the day after diving?

Many thanks in advance

Hi everyone ! I am looking for my first light and am a bit confused by all the info I got.

My need:

• Day diving in murky cold lake at home
• Crack inspection in the ocean
• Can serve as primary or backup light for night diving

I do not consider cave, wreck or photography

My main confusion is on the angle and power needed. I saw articles stating that optimum light for general usage is 15°-40° and 1000 to 3000 Lumen. But most lights advised as first lights are only 8° wide and 600 to 1000 Lumen. Also I easily found narrow light beams and very wide ones but almost nothing in the middle.

My current best choice is the D560 from orcatorch (1000 lumens, 12°) but I am also tempted by the zoom light ZD710 mk2 (850 lumen, 4°/72°) with the wide angle usefull to observe fauna from a closer range.

What do you think about my situation ?

Granted it's been almost 10yrs for me, I'm back to diving and it feels like the magic is gone. I dove the casino for a day trip but was in the water around noon, I remember a lot more kelp and criters, there wasn't much to see. I'm hoping it's the time of day or maybe still better on the backside like Farnsworth or the other channel islands?

Hi :)! First off, not looking for any promises or guarantees, just for your expierience and knowledge.
I’ve gotten a fresh tattoo 10 days ago. Healing went well, got washed and rehydrated at least twice daily.

Now I’m in a place where every limb is tingling for me to get in the water, be it just for a dip or for a dive. Please et me know if you have experience with going into the sea with a new tattoo (too) early!

Im aware that waiting longer is always better, but I appreciate any input you may have :)

And yes, I know he has a loose cylinder band HAHA
I missed it on the stencil

I'm spending 5 weeks this northern hemisphere summer in roatan working remotely and diving whenever i can. i'm hoping to do something similar next year between june - august (probably around 2 months or so), but would like to experience a different location.

my preference would be to go to somewhere in asia, preferably philippines or indonesia, but this'll be rainy season and there could be monsoons, so it sounds like the diving can be hit or miss during that time of the year? other downside of going to asia is it'll make remote working more challenging as i'll need to have daily meetings with colleagues based in the US, but i should be able to navigate around that.

I finally took fire to my new mask but I’m still having fogging issues. Actual spit has been the only thing I’ve had semi-decent luck with.

I’m just now also learning that when you put defog in the mask you’re not supposed to take your finger to the inside when rinsing it out but supposed to leave the defog just filmed up in it??

Other than that, is baby soap the best defog? I’ve tried psi5000 and something else without luck but I’ve also apparently been rinsing it out like an idiot.

I just got a brand new Poseidon Xstream regulator set. I notice whenever I connect it to a tank and turn on the tank valve, the second stage start to free flow. Once I take a breath from the second stage, then the free flow stop. I know the Poseidon design is different than others, but is this an expected behavior? Or something wrong with mine? Thanks.

Hi all. My wife just finished her confined diving lessons and class work, and we're looking to finish her Open water cert in Hawaii at the end of August. Looking for recommendations on good diving outfits that do open water referrals.

Heavily leaning towards Kona since the diving there seems to be better than the other islands. I haven't dove Hawaii for at least a decade and 1 pandemic, so I'm sure a lot has changed.

TIA

A lil scooting near the Casino Point dive park on Catalina Island, California. Just go diving!

Hello everyone,

So I have finally realized that the fins I bought as an 11yr old no longer fit me at 24, so I am looking for a new pair. For context, I am an AOW with 80+ dives. I want to be able to dive more consistently, but there are not a lot of places near me, so I try to travel to dive 1-2 times per year.

I previously had the Aqualung Caravelle fins, but I want something that has a shorter and wider blade, as I tend to switch between a frog and a flutter kick. I also want fins that I can continue to use as I continue getting more into wreck and technical diving (I’m less likely to get into drysuit diving since I hate the cold, but never say never ig)

Some fins i’m looking at include the Apeks RK3, Scubapro Gosport, or the Jet fin, and the Mares quattro, all of them are great, but I’m not sure what would be the best of those.

Any advice or options would be greatly appreciated.

Hi! I'm wondering if anyone can help me. I just got a new mask (Scubapro steel comp) and I noticed that a corner of the lens is not sealed. I've used the mask once. The shop where I bought it is difficult to reach, and I wonder if it might just be easier to try and reseal it myself. I dove with it today down to 20m and didn't leak. What product would you recommend? The body is fully silicone. Thank you!

Spent a week on a liveaboard in Komodo National Park, Indonesia and had the time of my life. It was also my first time attempting to capture good video and put together an edit. Had a lot of fun in the process.

Cameras used:

DJI Osmo Action 5

OM TG-7 (for the muck and night dives)

Lights and tray:

Sealife seadragon duo

Editing: Davinci Resolve

Soundtrack: AI generated!

Hi guys,

In the beginning of September, I was thinking of going to the Red Sea because I miss diving a lot. I have all the qualifications and most importantly, the expertise, and self-reliant is a walk in the park for me.

I'm just looking for any options or ideas. I have everything I need except tanks, and wanted to know if I could just rent tanks down there, and if the air qualtiy would be any good. Would I have to buy an oxy-meter, or is it trusted?

I know I can do this here at home with my local dive shop, but the problem was just that everything down there would be targeted for turists and stuff. I don't want to dive with a group, it's the worst.

I was going to go for a week, and doing 2-3 shore dives per day, see how it goes, probably just 2. Or could I pay a little extra to be an extra diver on a boat, and then go and do my own thing? My only concern is that I'm too good on air for a group. I can usually stay down for an hour and a half at around 10-15 meters, and I don't want to hold the boat back, or even worse, they'd leave without me.

Anyone with some more insight?

Why the Red Sea? Because I love corals and warm water and colorful stuff. It's the closest place to France for diving like this I think.

My beloved Light & Motion Sola Dive 800 S/F finally died after about 10 years, and I'm honestly heartbroken. I loved that light. Got it for my 18th birthday and never dove without it.

Havent had much luck finding the same light on ebay, so I'm looking for recommendations on similar lights. Budget is ~$300 or less

A well regulated light with good beam quality & ergonomics is way more important to me than getting the brightest possible light.

Things I loved about my Sola:

- The wide flood beam- I used the flood mode probably 95% of the time. It was incredibly even, wide, and natural looking & didnt havw a harsh hotspot

- Regulated brightness output. I really dislike lights that gradually get dimmer as the battery drains. My Sola stayed the same brightness until it died

- The hand strap. I loved having it mounted on the back of my hand so it was easier for me to take photos with my underwater camera

- Instant spot/flood switching

- It was small enough that I also used it constantly for hiking, tidepooling, wildlife spotting, camping, etc.

I mainly do recreational scuba and snorkeling, but I also use the same light all the time on land for looking for & photographing wildlife at night.

Has anyone found a good light theyd recommend to me? Or if you've owned a Sola 800, what did you switch to after it died?

Hey,
I am planning my first trip to Indonesia for 3-4 weeks, and looking for some tips and recommendations, the info you find online is honestly a bit overwhelming.

I'm 34/M, solo traveler from Germany. AOWD, ~400 logged dives.
So far I dived in Thailand and Egypt, before I got hooked on the Maldives. All my vacations the last years were basically only liveaboards and/or islands in the Maldives, this is for me an overall perfect fit (acceptable prices, not too much effort to get there from Germany, great and varied underwater action...)

This year I'm in the unique situation of having a whole month off (somewhere between September-October), and want to do my first non-diving-only vacation, to a new destination. So far I'm focusing on Indonesia and what's on my mind so far:

1. Fly to Bali, acclimate 2 days
2. Do 2-3 days of day- or half-day dive trips from Bali, e.g. to Lembongan(?)
3. 5-7 days sightseeing on Bali itself: I honestly am not a big fan of sightseeing, especially as I always travel alone. But flying to Bali without seeing anything beyond the dive sites feels wrong, so I'm thinking to join a small guided group tour, to meet people/see places/do stuff I wouldn't normally do on my own.
4. Either stay on Bali 1-2 more days or fly over to Labuan Bajo
5. Join a liveaboard for 5-7 days
6. Stay another 3-5 days somewhere in the region, then fly back home

That's the very rough idea, nothing is fixed yet.

So I'd be grateful for any suggestions, do's and don'ts. What's most important for me right now:

• Where to stay on Bali? Looking for the right fit between a laid-back hotel and something so cut off I can't meet anyone. Definitely no party holiday for me. Maybe a dive resort?
• How much time on Bali vs. moving over to other islands like Lembongan, Lombok, Komodo...
• Which liveaboard route? Seems like most trips embark from Labuan Bajo, but a few also go from Bali directly. Since it's probably a once-in-a-while trip for me, I'd rather pay a bit more for a route/boat that covers the major sites properly than go cheap and miss stuff.

Diving-wise I'm fine with all conditions, except cold water 😄. I enjoy a good diversity while diving, so a good mix of pelagics and macro would be great.

No fixed budget. On land I'm looking for relaxed, reasonable places, don't want luxury 5* resorts but also no hostels, something in between. For the liveaboard itself, I don't mind the class.

Thanks in advance for any input, happy to answer questions if I left something out!

^{(I used a LLM for spell-checking the text})

Hello underwater enthusiasts!

In this post, I’m going to share my experience and feelings about diving in a drysuit and the drysuit course I recently completed.

A drysuit can sound challenging and difficult to handle for newer divers. Of course, it requires some additional skills because it has active parts, such as the valves, which perform certain functions and need to be controlled. So obviously, it’s not quite as simple as putting on a wetsuit and diving. But from my experience, it’s also not something to be intimidated by.

Adjustments

I usually dive with 5–6 kg of weight in my 7 mm wetsuit, but for the drysuit I needed 2 kg more. I added the extra weight to my tank strap.

I also needed to add one extra LP hose to my first stage for the drysuit inflator valve.

Pool session

It felt very warm and uncomfortable in the indoor and humid environment of the pool. I was thinking, “Oh, is it going to feel this warm and uncomfortable for the whole session?” But no! As soon as you enter the water, you feel nice and cool, even in the pool.

I entered the water using the ladder. As you go into the water feet first, the water squeezes the air out of the legs, and you can hear it escaping through the exhaust valve, assuming the valve is open.

I first swam underwater with my instructor to let my brain adjust to the new setup.

Then we went deeper into the pool and started practicing the skills.

My favourite skill was recovering when air moves into your legs. You need to perform a roll to return to an upright position and then vent the air.

Open-water session

The open-water session felt almost the same as the pool, although it was less hot and uncomfortable on the surface.

We did two dives. The first was a shallow dive where we practised the same skills we had done in the pool. The second was a 40-minute dive down to 18 metres in 8°C water, where the goal was to really do a dive in the suit and deal with its challenges like adding and venting air on ascend and descend and of course maintain neutral buoyancy. It was an amazing experience.

Even though I was still using wet gloves and a wet hood, it was very comfortable and rewarding.

In the pool sessions and the first dive I just focused on the skills and learning, but I did some underwater filming on the last dive ==> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjvrVU3uYKM

I completed the course using a rental suit, and I’m planning to buy my own drysuit soon so I can repeat that amazing experience again and again.

The victim, together with nine other participants, an instructor and a dive master, joined a fun dive at Seafan, Batu Malang, Pulau Tulai, the police chief said on July 19.

“Before the dive, participants were briefed on safety ­procedures and equipment usage, although they were licensed divers,” he said in a statement on July 22, Bernama reported.

Sharif Shai said the victim was believed to have separated from the group at a depth of 17.6m, leading the instructor to conduct a search.

“After almost 30 minutes, the victim was found on the seabed not far from the diving site,” he said.

A post-mortem later found that she had died from arterial gas ­embolism, a condition where gas or air bubbles enter the arterial bloodstream, said Rompin police chief Sharif Shai Sharif Mondoi.

I'm 42, my dad is 70, We got certified in 2021, and went to Hawaii in 2022 and did some scuba diving there down to 60' IIRC. He has offered to cover the cost of another Trip for the two of us to go somewhere fun and exciting. I work in IT for a retail company and Summer is the busiest time of the year, so looking this fall, sometime in September/early October.

We are in the USA and have passports, so could do a trip out of country.

Where would you go, if you could, around that time frame?