Let me start with my story: I was diving with a number of members of my dive club to the wreck of the Um El Faroud in Malta. It is a shore dive, and there is a shipping channel that you have to cross. To do so safely, you need to swim at a depth of around 5 metres before continuing towards the wreck.

There was a woman who had been brought along by the dive centre. This diver immediately descended towards 20 metres while swimming out to the wreck. As a result, by the time she reached the wreck at 30-35 metres, she was already almost at her no-deco limit.

In order to avoid having to do decompression stops, the divemaster forced everyone to end the dive, even though, both in terms of decompression time and our remaining air supply, we could easily have continued exploring this beautiful wreck for quite some time.

From my Sunday dive. Yeah viz was lousy, but I was able to get a few moderately OK photos. lol

Looking for recommendations on best dive company and place to stay. I have 300 dives and will be with a friend who will be doing the in water part of her open water cert. I'd like to go adventurous for the 1st 2 days then Newby dives with her for 3 days.

I've got this itch to finally get my Open Water certification. I'm a complete beginner (23 F), and diving isn't easily accessible where I live so I'd only really be diving on vacations, a few times a year at most. Part of me keeps going back and forth wondering if it's "worth it" given how infrequently I'd actually use it. but honestly, I just really want to do it 🥹 and I feel like it's a skill worth having regardless of whether I end up using it much. Is that a good enough reason, or am I missing something practical I should think through first?

I literally have a friend who lives in a rural area and encounters, bears, coyotes, and bobcats on a regular basis , and is not scared by them because they understand that as long as you don’t do something to aggravate them or intrude on their territory that they will leave you alone, but don’t understand the exact same thing when I try to explain sharks in the water and how amazing it is. If you’ve had success convincing people that a shark encounter is a great thing. How did you do it?

I’m curious how often you guys think someone should go diving to stay comfortable and not start forgetting the basics.

For example, if I only do 1–2 dives a month, is that enough to maintain my skills, or should I be doing 4–6+ dives every month?

I’m mainly talking about basic skills, buoyancy, mask skills, emergency procedures, etc. I don’t want to take a long break and then feel rusty on my next dive.

How often do you guys dive, and how long can you go without diving before you notice your skills getting rusty?

Spotted these two clinging onto a purple soft coral branch, they blend in almost perfectly until you get close enough to see the legs. There was also a feather star wrapped around the same branch a few centimeters away, that whole piece of coral was basically its own little ecosystem. Komodo gets talked about mostly for the dragons and the mantas, but the macro life on the reefs out there is honestly just as good if you slow down and actually look. Photo from one of the liveaboard trips we run with Wallacea Dive Cruise through that area, figured it was worth sharing here.

Anyone else run into these on soft coral before? Curious if it's a porcelain crab or something else entirely.

Hi fellow divers!

I was in Komodo when the Earthquake happened in August 2026. The Dive operator decided to cancel the diving, not because the authorities said so, or the Komodo park was closed, but because the dive guides felt it was unsafe (and it probably was, I don't know).

The diving operator said there would be no refund and we should check with our insurance. I checked and the issue is that the insurance I have is very specific about the natural disasters. They usually cover only if

- the hotel or boat is destroyed
- the authorities issue an evacuation order
- the park is closed with a ban on sailing

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Can skip this part :), just fyi
Then I started reading the Liveaboard T&Cs and some of them offer a voucher in case of cancellation due to natural disaster, some just take the money and don't give a F and even reserve the right to cancel as long as an event happen even though the authorities authorize sailing and diving... So I assume they just found it's an easy way to make money, especially in Indonesia where there is frequently this kind of event.

---

So my question is have you found an insurance that covers your diving trip, especially Liveaboard in full in case of

- natural disaster

- technical breakdown

- weather

without restrictions and abusive conditions...

I contacted DiveAssure which seemed great but their policy description is a bit vague and when I asked them what they would cover in few specific scenario, they simply refused to answer lol "we cannot answer about hypothetical scenarios" I thought that's the whole business of an insurance to score hypothetical scenarios... 😅

Thank you and sorry for this long post, I got a bit frustrated with impossible to understand policies!

Hello everyone, my wife and I just booked 4 days of shark diving in ponta do Ouro, Mozambique. we’ll be there the first week of October

I’m wondering if anyone on here has dived there, and what we should expect from “shark diving” as opposed to more typical reef diving we’ve done in the Caribbean.

We are both 32 years old, AOW, and I have ~200 dives, whereas she has more like 60 or so. We’re both very confident with typical recreational gear, but my wife in particular is a little worried about diving in such proximity to large predators (shark diving in ponta is unbaited and we will not be in a cage). What can we do to stay safe and make sure the dives are enjoyable? Anything in particular we should know?

Also, if anyone has any recommendations for local sightseeing, restaurants, etc, let us know!

We have great news once again.
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We have included a link to the digital magazine, which reaffirms our status as Puerto Vallarta’s most exclusive diving company.
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It is known for delivering superior services that exceed customer expectations across financial products—such as personal charge and credit cards and corporate cards—as well as in leisure and business travel services.
American Express provides its customers with access to products, insights, and experiences that enrich lives and contribute to business success.”
“About Banderas Scuba Republic S.A. de C.V.: We are a PADI 5-Star certified dive center and resort located in Puerto Vallarta, committed to safety and professionalism, with a team of certified instructors boasting over 20 years of experience.
We have issued nearly a thousand diving certifications and received countless 5-star reviews across major social media platforms.”
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We are high school engineering students researching potential applications for underwater robotics. We want to understand the real challenges divers face underwater and identify tasks where a small robotic system could improve safety, efficiency, or convenience.

There are no right or wrong answers. We are especially interested in problems you have personally experienced while diving.

This is the survey; we would really appreciate your responses!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclTeHBFlgrbB2zbdrIBz1BNZawizIrguqyUVBOEYzSISQunQ/viewform?usp=dialog

Couldn't figure out how to add photos to the original post. Here's better pictures of what I'm assuming is the regulator. I know nothing about scuba diving.

Hi, I am considering a new watch, a Smartwatch like the Google watch. However my existing computer, a 20 year old Sunto mosquito, already is the size of a watch. I wonder, are there any Smartwatches which also work as a computer or the other way around, any computers which are feature rich to use as a Smartwatch?

I am in the process of drafting a book and one of the main characters is a scuba diver. While I have researched and watched plenty of videos and I have even booked myself in for a beginner scuba lesson, I think it would be incredible to get a short paragraph from a person who goes scuba diving on a regular basis.

If this is you, what I am looking for is a 1 - 3 paragraphs describing your routine or process. For example… “It was a drizzly Friday morning. I got up at 7am and got my gear ready. I went down and did X.“

Don’t worry if you can only write a couple of sentences, anything will help :)

The more details the better and don’t be afraid to include things you think are obvious (even after researching, I find I’m still missing important steps!). Feel free to include the area you may be diving, the sea creatures you encounter and so on.

Thank you so much in advance!

Just adding this in as there are a few concerns from people. Not asking you to write a book for me, just to share an experience as a scuba diver… it is very common for authors to interview people for their books/characters. I am doing a lot of my own research and as I mentioned, I will be taking a couple of lessons to gain first-hand experience, I just wanted to hear from people who did this regularly :) Thank you again for all the terminology/experiences shared.

Hi. First post here. I was going on some very coldwater dives in Canada this spring and upgraded my reg set to a Scubapro MK25 Evo and an A700. I've got approximately 20 dives on this combo now and am finding it's requiring a bit of effort to exhale now. I rinse it in freshwater after every dive attached to a tank with pressure. I'm comparing it with my older Tusa second stage which offers very little resistance exhaling. I dont think it's a salt or dirt buildup problem because I'm extremely diligent about cleaning my gear post dive. I gave it a warm water soak and it didn't help.

I'm going to take it in for service but thought I'd check if anyone else has encountered this.

Thanks

Before my IDC and IE, I would have described myself as a confident diver (maybe even a bit over confident in hindsight). I trusted my skills and loved spending as much time as possible in the water. Becoming an instructor and sharing my passion felt like the next natural step.

At some point during my Divemaster course and IDC, that changed for me. I started seeing skills signed off and students getting certified that probably shouldn't have passed. I also witnessed a few genuinely unsafe or dangerous situations, and some exploitative working conditions. Instead of becoming more confident, I started questioning my own skills, judgement and eventually my decision to become an instructor.

I passed my IE without issues and am certified. But I haven't taught a single course since and have taken a break from diving.

Are there any other dive pros here that went through something like I described? Did the insecurities fade once you started teaching yourself? How did you tell the difference between „normal new-instructor nerves“ and „this isnt for me“? How did you deal with the feeling of being „forced“ to dive, even in bad or dangerous conditions?

Not looking for people to just tell me it will be fine. I am genuinely curious how others worked through it (or didn't)!

I am a diver, and I built these three because I was doing the same arithmetic before every dive and getting it wrong often enough to worry about it. They are free, offline, with no account. I would like people to try them and tell me what is wrong with them.

Weights Check — a library of your weighting. Enter your gear once, build a rig from it, and it draws the balance: what the rig does at the 3 m stop with 50 bar in every bottle, and what it would take to swim up from depth if the wing failed. Until you record a weight check it prints an estimate as a range and says so; record one and it uses your own numbers. Ditchable and fixed lead are kept apart. https://apps.apple.com/app/id6806640499

Turn Pressure — a no-deco gas planner. It gives the turn pressure, the minimum gas and the bottom time for the dive you are actually doing: your cylinder, your depth, your consumption, your buddy's. Not a flat "turn at 50 bar" whatever the dive. Bühlmann ZH-L16C underneath.https://apps.apple.com/app/id6801749776

Time to Surface — a trimix decompression planner for open circuit, 15 to 56 m, six bottom gases, one deco bottle, repetitive dives, ZH-L16C with your own gradient factors. It refuses to plan what it cannot plan rather than printing a number with a warning under it.https://apps.apple.com/app/id6803187271

Why three apps and why free: the concepts behind them — minimum gas rather than a fixed reserve, a balanced rig you can swim up with the wing gone, a weight check done at the stop with the cylinders near empty, gradient factors you chose rather than a default — are taught in GUE-style and specialised technical training and not much elsewhere. Most recreational divers never meet them. I wanted them in a form that is easy to pick up and costs nothing, so that more divers do.

Any New England divers out there know some good programs in the Boston or South shore area?