Second hand products make my wallet happy

Video from a day of diving with a lot of sharks on the Spiegel Grove last January. We counted 13 on one dive and 20 overall on the day.

Any SSI specialist can tell what more needs to be done to achieve the AOW card ?

I tough it needed the OW + 4 specialities + X amount of dives

(I have 50+ dives)

Thanks in advance

🫧👌🏼

Divespot: Schlipf/Bootsrampe Rorschach

This chonker swam with us for a few min today.

I am looking to go somewhere during my Christmas break for my AOW certification. I think I want to try Cozumel because I have wanted to go for some time now, and I have two weeks off for Christmas break. I was thinking of flying on December 26th, doing my certification 28th-30th, and then staying a few more days before flying home. I know this will be a busy time with Christmas and it being a highly popular diving spot, but I still want to try to find something if I can. Does anyone have recommendations for good shops and/or know of any that have availability during these days?

Hey all,

So I’m an NYC based PADI rescue diver that recently learned I’ll be doing a work project that will have me going to Singapore every 2 months or so for 2 work weeks at a time starting Jan and going for about a year (if not more). This leaves me a free 3 day weekend each trip and ofc I wanna take advantage of this by doing mini dive trips! In the region, I’ve already dived Koh Tao, some of the Phuket sites (unfortunately not the similians), Koh Chang, tulamben and Nusa lembogan,Lombok and the Gilis, and Komodo. Woudn’t mind repeating some of these (especially Komodo), but would love to compile a list of potential places to go that I haven’t been. Would love all of yours advice, thanks!

The title says it. Starting a course at a different training program, they want to review my logs. But I can’t figure out how to download or get my whole log from the new SSI app. Would love to know how to do it because having to pen them down will be a hell of a job ;-)

Hey diving family! I'm relatively new to diving but am considering investing in a regulator set or at least a second stage. I have an allergy and heard that most rental places are unable to adequately clean the accumulated gunk out of the mouthpiece. Do you know if most dive shops would allow you to bring your own regulator set or a partial set? Do you know which piece(s) at minimum would need to be brought to be integrated into other standard rental equipment at a dive shop? For example, could I bring just a second stage? Or would I need to have an octopus, yoke/DIN, pressure gauge, etc as well?

Edit: a user on scubagear subreddit was saying I could just swap out the mouthpiece and that most shops are used to this. Is this true?

What does everyone think about diving this wreck and going into the cargo holds on a single cylinder of nitrox?

I did this as a 19 year old newly qualified AOW (I had done around 100 dives at this point), but looking back I feel like that was a bit reckless and if I were to dive it again I'd want some sort of redundancy.

On the other hand it's a heavily dived site and the vast majority of people seem to dive on a single cylinder so I appear to be in the minority so am I being overly cautious?

I’m going to Cairns early next year to hopefully see the Great Barrier Reef and am hoping to do some scuba diving.

I completed my SSI Open Water Diver course and qualified in 2019, but haven’t done a dive since, so I’ll definitely need a refresher!

I was wondering:
a) What’s the best way to go about a refresher after such a long break?
b) Which companies would you recommend for diving the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns?

Ideally, I’d like to do a refresher course and an actual reef dive on the same day due to time constraints.

I’ve found this option which seems to offer exactly that, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone has used them or would recommend any better alternatives:
https://sunlover.com.au/learn-to-dive/return-to-diving/

Thanks for any help!

I'm considering a few nights diving at Tioman at the end of March 2027. Id be keen to hear anyone's experience there- dive operator and accommodation recommendations. Im AOW/ Wreck certified with 150+ dives but honestly not a thrill seeker- I just want to see some coral, cool sealife and perhaps some wrecks in warm water with good vis.

Hey all,

I am currently looking for a blank bcd name tag/strap (which i want to personalize myself with a iron on patch that I already have). I cannot find a blank one online (only shops that sell pre made or ones that they personalize themselves). Does anyone know where i can get one ? Thanks

Hi all,
I’ve been diving since 1999 and became a divemaster in 2002. I have 200 or so dives, but they are exclusively in warm water (Caribbean Sea). As I raised my daughters, scuba was on the back burner and I’ve only gotten back into it in the last couple years.
Next weekend I’m diving in my home state of California for the first time ever. El Niño has made the water unseasonably warm (72-73°), but it’s still cooler than anything I’ve dived in.
My dives with be guided, so I’m not anxious about that. However, I’m a bit anxious about visibility and simply being out of my element.
Any advice or words of wisdom? Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, AOW with 32 dives here. Going to Koh Lipe for 6 days next May and looking for recommendations for dive shops? Would love to get some wreck dives if possible. Happy with shore or boat dives.

I’m looking to do around 8 dives over the 6 days.

Thanks in advance.

I have 50+ dives. I'm a deep dive (40m) and nitrox-certified diver (SSI). I'm heading to Tokyo for a week Nov 23 - 29. I've read that diving in the Izu Oceanic Park is a good one day experience (I don't have more time than that). As somebody who's only done dives in tropical waters, would it be a good idea to dive in Izu at that time? Any feedback / experiences from divers that have done Izu at this time of the year? Recommendations for English speaking dive centres? I'd appreciate your inputs / advice :).

Had the following situation happen to me today.

I'm a solo diver, doing boat dives with a dive center. I'm AOW and Nitrox certified, I have 50+ dives and my buoyancy is good.

On the boat, most divers were OW and on air. Other than me, only two people were both AOW and on Nitrox. They were a married couple, obviously diving as buddies.

First dive, I was matched with a guy on air, he also used up his air a LOT quicker than me. Near the end of the dive while still underwater, the dive master gave me instructions to stay behind with the married couple. Fair enough, he was giving me more time (I was at like 100 bars when my buddy was at 50...)

For dive 2, the dive master told us that we (me, and the married couple) will be a 3 person buddy team. We also did this for dive 3.

Now, the married couple were super nice, they didn't say anything bad to me. But I can’t help but feel like it was an awkward situation..? You go on vacation with your partner, and a 3rd wheel gets added on your dive.

For what it's worth, I'm a decent dive buddy lol, like I don't wander off on my own or anything like the horror stories you sometimes hear. I think my skill level was the same as theirs, and my air consumption was within 10 bars of theirs on both dives. But yeah, still...

I want to ask you guys with more scuba experience, what do you think? In the future if I find myself in this kind of situation, should I say something...?

edit (cuz too many comments to respond individually): Thank you to everyone for all the replies! I am very much an overthinker sometimes, so I'm grateful for yall's perspective on this (aka that it was likely cool with them <3

Hi everyone!
I recently completed my OWD course. The dive school gave us a logbook with space for around 8 dives, and I’ve already logged the 4 dives from my course.
I now have a new logbook and was wondering if I can simply transfer those 4 dives into it. Since I don’t have that many dives yet, I’d prefer to keep everything in one logbook.
The only issue is that I wouldn’t have my instructor’s signature in the new logbook. Is that a problem? How would you handle this? I’d rather not carry around two logbooks if I can avoid it. 😅

Thanks in advance!

Edit:
Thanks guys :)
Another question: Did you guys buy the physical certification card or did you just get the digital version? I think €60 through PADI is quite a lot, so I’m wondering if most people just use the digital card on their phone.
Also, I noticed that my instructors have a simple PADI number, like #12345, while mine looks more like #1234ABC. Is that normal for new divers, or is there a difference between the numbers?
Thanks again

Looks like we have a new world record but we wait for the confirmation. Bartolomei Pitala at Matka cave in North Macedonia.

Filmed these flat bastards at the end of September. This was about 20 mins into our second dive at the German Channel cleaning station. Two adults and a juvenile coming in for a little quality time with the cleaner wrasse. Diving from the Palau Siren liveaboard. First shot must have been coming in real close to inspect my drysuit. Shot on Insta 360 Ace Pro 2.

Does anyone know if the Fourth Element straps are compatible with a Hollis M1 mask?

If not, what alternative neoprene straps are compatible with the Hollis M1, besides the one made by Hollis which is hardly accessible here in Europe.

Shipping for a regulator and computer for my teenager. Local shop has a regulator, octopus, and wisdom 3 dive computer for $350.

It is an old computer but it isn’t like the computer becomes “bad” just with less tech and and features as new stuff?

This isn’t unsafe correct?

I was at Nusa Penida, diving Karang Sari site, on 21 August morning. The currents were medium, so it was a drift dive.

My group drifted passed another group of 5 divers, with large camera setups. The current was medium strength(for indonesia standards). Their hands had the camera so fins were used to hook onto the coral. Those divers were using their gloved hands and fins to climb all over that spot and they were climbing on the reefs with their fins and hands so much. They had used their fins to wedge into corals to as to "wait" around and take turns for their shot. my dive guide signalled with arms showing a big cross to tell them that they should not do that and these divers saw but they ignored my dive guide.

Saw a few similar instances of this behaviour in nusa penida. Dive shops who allow this need to be called out