Posts
4029
Joined
8/15/2006
Location
Erie, PA
US
Scuba?
Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
Scuba? He’s the mgr of the Triumph Motocross Team 🤣
It's been a long time for me. Love it but just didn't have the time to keep doing it. One day, I think I'll get back into it.
I just free dive while spear fishing. Always wanted to learn scuba. Which brand of gear are you thinking in regards to regulators and BCD equipment?
I always think of that movie when I hear scuba.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
I scuba dive.. love being in the ocean. Last dive was 2 yrs ago in the Maldives. I got my son into it, as the wife wants no part of it. This is me (far right), my son (middle) and a friend at the dive shop in Grenada a few years ago.
Local shop deals in Aqua Lung. Probably looking in that direction.
Any good reason to BUY gear? We go through stages where we dive often then years go by without getting wet. Probably because I've/we've been spoiled with awesome dive locations and now it's like, if it's not a great place, not going to spend the money. But as far as gear goes, if you go to a reputable dive shop, they have good stuff. Having said that, IF we were to invest in gear, I think I'd like to have the full face integrated mask with comms. When we finally get to Maui, I do expect we'll invest in gear other than mask and fins that we have now.
https://www.diverightinscuba.com/ffmscoms-c-36.html
TM
Good stuff. Love their masks.
Do you guys use spit or soap spry to keep from fogging?
TM
I use a defogging spray if available. If not, spit it is!
When my daughter was in 4th grade(ish) they had an in school invention convention. She wanted to make goggles with fog wipers. So off to the drawing board. I helped her make a pair that had wiper inside and an arm that protruded through the side of the goggles. When you were in the water you could push the little protruding arm down and the wiper articulated about the pivot point clearing the inside of the goggles, just like on your car.
Note: Her first scuba dive was at 10 years old
TM
Cigarette lighter. Light amounts of heat burns the lubricant on the lens off.
While that might be good for a virgin mask. We use either spit or diluted soap spray every dive. even after the mask is years old. Can't imagine there'd still be lubricant on after a few dives. Where did you learn that trick?
It’s for a new mask but, will also help long term. I heard about the lighter trick on a spear fishing forum. That lubricant is often the reason the mask fogs up if it isn’t burned up. It’s a silicone lube they use. It doesn’t come off just being in the water.
Here’s a how to link
https://youtu.be/w57ERHcd40g?si=HQY7oMcTGvRYC2UC
Jaques Yves Cousteau was always a big hit. My Uncle was a big diver, he was in National Geographic, and dove on the Andrea Doria and retrieved a porthole back around 1965.
When JC died, we made a big stainless steel cross welded onto a tank. My buddy took it out off the coast of San Diego. It was stolen within 2 months.
Pit Row
I took all the courses and did everything to get my license except send my paperwork in about 30 years ago. No idea why I didn't send it in. The reason behind getting the license in the first place was for work. Our family was doing marine construction and we needed someone to be able to go underwater to change props on our barge and stuff like that. winter came and I put if off and forgot about it.
I was recently talking to a dive master, and I think I'm going to go ahead and retake the classes and get certified. I was completely unaware how good the diving is right off the coast where I live. He told me about diving the artificial reefs (sunken ships) 5 miles offshore in Daytona with pretty impressive fish, including Goliath Groupers which I've always wanted to see.
You know the old saying, everything makes sense if you know. I never understood how so many people die in sunken ships. TILL the first time I was in one. Someone kicked a bit to close to the bottom and POOF! ZERO visibility. And it doesn't clear up. All that rust and silt that just sits and accumulates over time until someone disturbs it. It's such a fine silt and there's no current in the room to take it away. Very easy to be so close to the door and not be able to find your way out and run out of air.
TM
Well, you can go to Cancun and stay at a resort and Jose will train you 20 minutes in the pool. And the next thing you know you're out in the ocean! 😲
Like all of us, we've all made mistakes in life and that probably was one of my bigger ones, as I've always had a hard time equalizing. example, when flying.
Well, when Jose took us out in his boat, there was about 7 of us and we jumped in the water and the other 6 did not have a problem getting down to the ocean floor, it took me a while as I was feeling the pressure... 😵💫
I eventually got down to the ocean floor and yes, it was pretty cool, but it went by fairly fast.
On the plane trip home. My ears were hurting pretty bad.
I've had real bad Tinnitus ever since, that was about 25 years ago. I really regret doing that as it's jacked my life up as far as good sleep.
I don't dive but I love to snorkel. I was kind of involved in this incident and it kinda made up my mind that snorkeling was good enough for me. I provided some links to the story because all the news articles don't tell the story of what actually happened. Here is how it went down from my memory and view point of being there. I was on Lembongan Island, a smaller island about a 45 minute boat ride from Bali. I was there about 5 days and there was only a day or 2 that I didn't rent a boat and driver. I fished and snorkeled with my wife. There are 3 islands there close and I was at a place called blue point. The snorkeling and diving are amazing. During this day, I went 3 miles in about and hour and never kicked a fin. Just watched the coral and fish go by as I drifted over the coral reaf. It was a lot of fun and a lot of current. I stayed in water that probably never got over 15 or 20 foot deep. Off to the right it just drops off and that is where a lot of the dive boats dive. Not far past that it drops out into the abys 8000' in areas.
I was snorkeling and the current was strong. There were a few boats near us and one of them was this team of divers that went missing. Where I told you it dropped off to the right was also the current shelve that swung around the island and the current splits right in that area. What happened to these divers was they went with the current in one direction and when they didn't come up their boat searched in the opposite direction as they were swept out to sea. The survivors were missing for 3 days.
This happened about 3 in the afternoon. This is the crazy part that is not in any of the news articles. The dive party were all Japanese and they came from Bali, easily over an hour away. The 2 dive masters lived on Bali but they were not regular divers off Lembongan island. They owned a dive business that dove around Bali, not Lembongan. When they were to surface and they were not found the boat was supposed to alert all boats in the immediate area of missing divers. He did not. I'm not sure of the times but after 10 minutes they are then supposed to alert the coast guard. He did not. The boat driver searched around without notifying anybody until he got low on fuel. He then left and went all the way back to Bali, refueled then returned. He did not notify anybody of the missing divers until 7 PM that evening according to this article. https://en.antaranews.com/news/92745/missing-japanese-diver-found-alive BUT! at 7AM, the next day, I had just eaten breakfast and was putting my stuff on the boat when the calls came through there were missing divers. It wasn't until we were on the water that my captain informed us that it was one of the boats beside us the day before. IDK. But the article says 7PM. I don't think that is accurate because we didn't know about it until 7 AM and we were getting information live.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-15/an-seven-japanese-divers-missing-in-indonesia/5262422
This story is closest to what actually happened because it mentions the boat running out of fuel.
https://www.thetimes.com/article/women-divers-vanish-off-bali-jqbv03z3hjg
I didn't know this but I guess there was a trial over it.
https://scubaboard.com/community/threads/captain-of-boat-carrying-japanese-in-bali-diving-accident-goes-on-trial.482383/
Current is the one thing that will catch you and, bite you. I love snorkeling/spear fishing. The first time I ever swam in the Puget Sound I was caught off guard. I was getting tired and, figured after loading my stringer, I better swim back to shore. Stuck my head up see where my friends were since they were fishing from the shore and, started swimming in their direction. After kicking for what seemed like forever, I stuck my head back up. I was swimming out away from the shore. The current turned me so gradually, I didn’t even realize I had been turned around. I ended up swimming back to shore with my head above water the whole way back. I think being on a huge flat is why I didn’t realize it. I was only in about 8’ of water and, the depth never changed going out.
My first, real, WTF moment spear fishing..
I have no problem swimming around the outside of a wreck but going inside has me a little on edge. When I took my final checkout dive the lake was set up for scuba testing with some points marked, a habitat that you could swim into and a small sailboat with cabin. I swam through that from the cockpit and out the hatch and even a little boat like that in 30 feet of water got my attention. I did not feel comfortable at all.
If you're on the bottom or looking down, notice the ripples on the sand, usually parallel the shore. They can help keep you in the same direction.
I have taken the "Resort Course" in the islands, and this was supposed to go no more than 20 feet down which I'm sure is boring for those guys. There was no one else in my class and as soon as my instructor saw me clearing my mask, he asked me if I had experience, and I gave him my quick rundown. He ended up taking me down about 50 feet and we had a good time.
Never heard that before. It makes sense. But, now that you say that, it’s mostly small pebbles up here in the Sound. Almost like 3/4” minus crushed gravel. The water up here sucks. It’s typically 5’ visibility during the summer. During the winter time-early spring it’s nearly gin clear and, 41*. Pick your poison I guess. Everybody I knew who spear fished, gave it up. Everyone I know who scuba dives, takes pictures of fish.I avoid them.
My having others to learn from is very limited aside from my own time in the water and, reading.
Our son in law is scuba instructor (although he drives a truck for $😂) Yesterday we took the grandkids (almost 4 & 5) snorkeling for their first time. We went to La Jolla cove “to see sharks”. Aside from a couple mouthfuls of water learning the snorkel it went great. Saw lots of sharks, I should clarify they’re 4-5 leopard sharks that seem to have zero interest in the thousands of people there to see them. Saw a guitarfish, a couple big stingrays and lots of little ones, lots of fish. I think the kids are hooked. Chance when I got certified 30 plus years ago the ripples in the sand going parallel to the shore was one of the first things they taught us. But yesterday I found a couple spots where that wasn’t necessarily true lol. Great guideline but if I’m that lost I’m going up to have a look lol
Hahaha ^ picture attempt denied
Post a reply to: Scuba?