User Panel
Originally Posted By Dan_Gray:
IDC cures it, but you get Ebola there. My biggest regret in diving is becoming a DM. I didn't (and don't) have IDC plans. I did it for the wrong reasons and it almost ruined diving for me. In the end, it benefited me, and made me a better diver, but I won't do the work. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Dan_Gray:
Originally Posted By Birddog1911:
I hope there's a cure! If plans hold, I'll be starting IDC at the end of August. My biggest regret in diving is becoming a DM. I didn't (and don't) have IDC plans. I did it for the wrong reasons and it almost ruined diving for me. In the end, it benefited me, and made me a better diver, but I won't do the work. |
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I judge early and harshly and gloat when vindicated. I blame technicalities or corruption when I am not vindicated. I am, after all, just your imaginary internet friend.
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Originally Posted By Dan_Gray:
IDC cures it, but you get Ebola there. My biggest regret in diving is becoming a DM. I didn't (and don't) have IDC plans. I did it for the wrong reasons and it almost ruined diving for me. In the end, it benefited me, and made me a better diver, but I won't do the work. View Quote |
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I judge early and harshly and gloat when vindicated. I blame technicalities or corruption when I am not vindicated. I am, after all, just your imaginary internet friend.
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Originally Posted By Dan_Gray:
I was closer than I'll admit to myself. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By Dan_Gray:
Originally Posted By jerrwhy01:
Almost everyone I have known who became a DM or instructor ended regretting it. A lot of those individuals were very passionate divers and quite a few ended up hanging up their fins over it. |
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Originally Posted By devildog12210:
I have no interest in chasing down the DM and Instructor training. You guys are far from the first that I have heard that from. I am enjoying diving way too much to try and do anything other than what I am doing now, which is just enjoying the dive for myself. View Quote |
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I can't really imagine why someone would want to do it. I'll just use my instructors as an example. They're a couple (guy/gal), early 50s, who each have been diving for over 20 years. They have very good professional jobs that are high stress and lots of hours. They both tell me it's actually relaxing to teach. I just can't get my mind around that. It's not like being a firearms instructor. You're teaching people in a sport that can very easily go south. You're responsible, in a life and death manner, for these people's lives. And it's relaxing? God love 'em, I could never do it. I'm not a patient person and I'd be apt to want to drown the stupid people.
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Wreck class is scheduled for late August on Lake Michigan. 3 dives - 3rd is limited penetration.
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Anyone care to share tips on packing my gear for boat diving? I'll be diving off the Sun Dog, one of DRIS' boats, 36', 6 pack. Deep class is next month.
Link I have one of the big gear duffles (not mesh) that can hold my fins, BP/W, hood, drysuit gloves/boots, hood, mask, and drysuit undies. Reg bag does in an outside pocket (although I'll have to check to see if smaller reg bag will also hold pony reg). I have a small duffle for save-a-dive kit, logbook, and a bunch of smaller items. Drysuit is in a separate (non-waterproof) bag. I'll have 2 AL80s and a 30 cft pony. I'll have to fit my snacks in small duffle. Boat provides water and fruit. I'll also have 24 lbs of weights I need to figure out some way to carry. When the big duffle is fully packed, I can barely lift it. I heft it into my collapsible cart in my living room and then lug it into the backseat of my car. My weights live in my trunk. I'm used to making multiple trips to/from the car at the quarry to the picnic table where we set up with my cart. I feel like I've got a ton of crap, but part of that is probably just because I dive dry. I don't think the Lake will be warm enough even at the end of August (wreck class) for me to wear my new 3mm. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Got 5 dives today. My 2 buddies, who are trying to bump their number, managed 10. Bourbon was more important to me tonight.
Appreciate the info on DM/OWSI. I will keep it in mind. If I don't enjoy teaching, I'll stick to diving for fun. |
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Originally Posted By Birddog1911:
Got 5 dives today. My 2 buddies, who are trying to bump their number, managed 10. Bourbon was more important to me tonight. Appreciate the info on DM/OWSI. I will keep it in mind. If I don't enjoy teaching, I'll stick to diving for fun. View Quote |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Originally Posted By Marie:
I feel like I've got a ton of crap, but part of that is probably just because I dive dry. I don't think the Lake will be warm enough even at the end of August (wreck class) for me to wear my new 3mm. View Quote |
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I judge early and harshly and gloat when vindicated. I blame technicalities or corruption when I am not vindicated. I am, after all, just your imaginary internet friend.
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Originally Posted By jerrwhy01:
It will never be warm enough so you might as well forget even thinking about wearing it until you hit a warm water destination. View Quote |
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I judge early and harshly and gloat when vindicated. I blame technicalities or corruption when I am not vindicated. I am, after all, just your imaginary internet friend.
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Originally Posted By jerrwhy01:
It will never be warm enough so you might as well forget even thinking about wearing it until you hit a warm water destination. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Originally Posted By jerrwhy01:
Originally Posted By Marie:
I feel like I've got a ton of crap, but part of that is probably just because I dive dry. I don't think the Lake will be warm enough even at the end of August (wreck class) for me to wear my new 3mm. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Buddy and I worked out diving schedule - we're diving every week for the next month. That includes both Sat & Sun of Memorial Day weekend.
I'm going to have 40 dives pretty quickly (at 27 now). |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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I'm jealous. My Key Largo trip was blown out this weekend. We are going to try and hit it again weekend after next.
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Originally Posted By devildog12210:
I'm jealous. My Key Largo trip was blown out this weekend. We are going to try and hit it again weekend after next. View Quote First boat dives are Father's Day on the big Lake. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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I survived nav. Holy fuck, that was tough.
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Originally Posted By Birddog1911:
I hope there's a cure! If plans hold, I'll be starting IDC at the end of August. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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Common Sense isn't as Common as Commonly Thought
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Originally Posted By devildog12210:
I have no interest in chasing down the DM and Instructor training. You guys are far from the first that I have heard that from. I am enjoying diving way too much to try and do anything other than what I am doing now, which is just enjoying the dive for myself. View Quote |
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Common Sense isn't as Common as Commonly Thought
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Double tap
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Common Sense isn't as Common as Commonly Thought
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Originally Posted By Marie:
Anyone care to share tips on packing my gear for boat diving? I'll be diving off the Sun Dog, one of DRIS' boats, 36', 6 pack. Deep class is next month. . View Quote I have a backpack style gear bag. I pack wetsuit in first because it's the last thing I set up/ put on. Next is regs in a coil. Mask in the coil. Bc on top. Fins are against the back of the gear bag. Weight pouches are in a separate weight bag with extra weights. Spare gear/tool kit is in a second backpack. |
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Common Sense isn't as Common as Commonly Thought
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Nav class details:
First dive was surface: 100'ft out back out for kick cycle average. Triangle with 100 ft sides and square with 50'ft sides. Then repeat all at depth. This was one hell of a workout! Second dive was hitting 8 directional points in an octagon course at the quarry, with 50 to 100 ft waypoints. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Nice!! People don't realize how important Nav is when diving. I hit my 50th dive and got my Master Diver Cert in April, and getting my Dive Control Specialist Cert this month. I've been doing a few dives a week since then and completed 6 more today. Now I'm up to 81 now and am still having fun. Gotta love EAN 40!!!
Working in the store, doing repairs, and soon to be teaching will be fun. |
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---RIP Brothers---
Nathan Bruckenthal, K.I.A. 04/24/2004 Brian Terry, E.O.W. 12/15/2010 John Capano, E.O.W. 12/31/2011 Chris Kyle, E.O.W. 02/02/2013 John Hobbs, E.O.W. 03/03/2014 |
Originally Posted By SleeperShooter:
Nice!! People don't realize how important Nav is when diving. I hit my 50th dive and got my Master Diver Cert in April, and getting my Dive Control Specialist Cert this month. I've been doing a few dives a week since then and completed 6 more today. Now I'm up to 81 now and am still having fun. Gotta love EAN 40!!! Working in the store, doing repairs, and soon to be teaching will be fun. View Quote |
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I judge early and harshly and gloat when vindicated. I blame technicalities or corruption when I am not vindicated. I am, after all, just your imaginary internet friend.
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I'm going to have around 40 dives by the end of June. Will have at least 50 by the end of July, including my 3 day Lake Huron trip.
Part of today we had no vis. I was focusing on compass and just kept plugging along. Back in October, I would have said fuck that and headed for the surface. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Who is diving this weekend? I'm at both of our local quarries Saturday and Sunday.
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Question for you guys:
I've started diving with my pony (AL30) in preparation for my Lake Huron trip and my deep class. I sling it on my left side. I clip my back tank SPG to my left chest D ring because I can't see it on my hip. I like it right in my face. But with the pony clipped to the same D ring, I have a hard time finding my SPG when I need to check it. The only option I can think of is to add another D ring a little bit higher on my left shoulder strap. Any other ideas? Another pony issue: first dive with it on Saturday I felt very heavy and lopsided. Second dive with it on Sunday, I felt a bit better, but still very heavy. It's a Catalina, if that makes any difference. Friend who dives a pony of the same size (and is sort of a long-distance mentor) said she felt the same thing when she started diving with hers. She simply rolled a bit to the right side and that solved the lopsided issue. I think I need to take some weight off. I'm going to take 2 lbs off and see what happens. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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You have a right side to clip things on...just sayin is all.
As far as being lopsidedly: You can distribute your weight so that the side opposite your pony bottle is 1-2 pounds heavier. This will present a problem if you ever pass off your pony bottle. Or you can sling it across your body with the neck clip attached to right/left D-ring and the bottom clip attached to the opposite side waist D-ring. Option 3: You can do nothing for the next 25-50 dives. After that point you'll be so sick of the thing that you'll just end up leaving it in your car and the problem will resolve itself. |
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I tried putting it horizontal across my body in the pool once. Ugh. Don't like it. I dislike having stuff across the front of my body. My instructor does hers that way (with a 19cft), but it just wasn't comfortable for me. It was comfortable in the pool and I had no problem with the positioning. Guess I just need to take weight off, period, which I need to do anyway.
I'm not planning on passing it off. It's for either me or my buddy, which means it stays on my body. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Originally Posted By Marie:
I tried putting it horizontal across my body in the pool once. Ugh. Don't like it. I dislike having stuff across the front of my body. My instructor does hers that way (with a 19cft), but it just wasn't comfortable for me. It was comfortable in the pool and I had no problem with the positioning. Guess I just need to take weight off, period, which I need to do anyway. I'm not planning on passing it off. It's for either me or my buddy, which means it stays on my body. View Quote Whenever I have a buddy and they need air, they get my primary second stage and I use the octo; the pony is for me if I have a total reg failure. |
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USMC 1977-1987
In life, there should be one goal: At the end of it, go sliding into your grave, completely worn out and used up, yelling "Holy Shit! What a wild ride THAT was!" |
I was able to take 4 total lbs off today. I'm now familiar enough with diving the pony that it gave me no issues. Don't really feel lopsided anymore. Even did a giant stride with it, and everything was fine.
I'm ordered a 5mm wetsuit. I'm very curious to see if I have an easier time diving wet than dry. It was 91 here today and I worked up quite the sweat just getting into my drysuit (with thin fleece undies over UnderArmor leggings and a wicking t-shirt) and walking to the water. Water was 46 degrees at 49 ft, which felt good. I must have had part of my undies sleeve caught under right wrist seal on both dives, as I got water inside. Right arm and right sock were soaked. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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I really need help on weight distribution to get my trim dialed in. Instructors are out of town.
The last few weeks I've really been in the "seahorse" position, head up. Not sure why. Has nothing to do with the pony as it happens on dives without pony. I've had recent times of decent trim so I know what it feel like. My weight is distributed as this: 10 lbs in waist pockets (5 lbs. x 2) and 6 lbs in upper cam band pockets (3 lbs x 2). The 4 lbs I took off yesterday were in lower cam band pockets (I had that in lower cam band pockets because I was overloading waist pockets with 2 lbs more each than they were made to carry and getting them inserted was very difficult). So that 20 lbs is on top of steel BP and weighted STA (11 lbs). I know some BP/W allow you to move the wing up or down. My Halcyon rig doesn't have that option. Also, I cannot change cam band position on STA. Cam bands are in top and bottom slots due to weighted insert. A friend who does SM suggested I take 2 lbs from each waist pocket and put them on the very top of my plate to get my head down. He said this is used often by people who SM, normally they zip tie hard weights to their plate. I only have soft weights, but I should be able to use the weight pockets from lower cam band for this, at his suggestion, for experimentation purposes. I'm open to any other suggestions. My dry suit is a bit big at the shoulders/upper chest (USIA seems to make them this way ) and instructors have theorized this might be creating a bit of an air pocket affecting my buoyancy, but I do my damndest to get all the air out, burping my suit 3-4 times, and crouching down/pressing arms against chest to get all the air out. I'm very frustrated and pissed at the same time. Thanks for you help. I'm out at the quarry next weekend. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Burping your suit to get the air out prior to drop isn't going to do anything for you once you're at depth adding gas back into it to maintain suit loft.
And really, in a drysuit, you shouldn't have any trouble getting horizontal. Pitch forward a bit and redistribute the air so that there's more around your legs. Keep in mind that you have to properly position your body for this to work. If you get sloppy and don't hold proper positioning, regardless if your orientation in the water, your legs will drop, air will migrate back into the torso, and you'll be right back to seahorse diving. What sort of fins are you using? Are they negative, neutral, positive? |
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Fins are Atomic split fins. No idea on the neutral, positive, neutral.
I keep very little air in my suit, usually just a puff or two to offset squeeze. I have neoprene socks on my suit. I use Chuck Taylors for rock boots with bungee cord laces. There is so air getting into my feet. Just checked online: the Atomic splits weigh 3 lbs for the pair. They MIGHT be positively buoyant from the quick search I did online. I'm diving the splits due to my knees, which feel so much better. Somewhere else suggested they are barely negative with the spring straps, which I have. So I'm really not sure. ETA: maybe I do just need to really pitch forward and see what happens. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Thanks, Jerry!
I put my fins in a full bathtub. They are slightly negative. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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My 5mm should be here Friday. May be diving both days this weekend so I'll get to really give it a workout.
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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First wet dives today!
Picked up my 5mm last night. Fits well. Has long ankle zippers that make getting into it much easier. Wet suit, fins, mask, boots, gloves, bathing suit went into a mesh duffle which then fit into my big gear duffle with BP/W and regs. Everything fits in that duffle except the small duffle with save a dive kit. Much smaller packing than diving dry! I'm going to test the 5mm on the 50' deep side that was 46 degrees last week to see how it does. I wanted to get the Fourth Element semi dry 5mm gloves but it was such a struggle to get them on, they're so close fitting. I didn't finish getting even one glove on. I've got carpal tunnel and it was actually hurting my hands while struggling to get them on. I ended up going with the Waterproof brand gloves that are more bulky but have a nice zip on the back of the hand. So much easier to get them on. Air temp is supposed to be around 90 today and even hotter tomorrow. I'm starting off with 21 lbs- 10 lbs of lead on top of BP/STA, and adjust from there. Will seem strange with less weight. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Squirt some hair conditioner inside of your gloves.
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I suppose it is possible to convey more ignorance with less words, but I doubt I will ever see it in my lifetime.--Bohr Adam
If LAV promotes using the slide lock/release to chamber a round after a mag change, then he should be ignored.-MP0117 |
You're nuts if you're thinking of trying a 5mm wetsuit in 46 degree water... but more power to you if you're kept warm. I'm normally lightly chilled after two or three hours in spring water (68-72) in my 5/4 Everflex, and I'm generally warm when others aren't. If it's a semi-dry, it may not be TOO bad - mine is basically a semi-dry because I'm a little large for it and it's rubberized around the neck, wrist, and ankle seals. I wasn't expecting that the first time I peed in it... there was zero water INSIDE the suit when I did it. Was pretty gross. lol
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"Shit like this is why people up-armor a bulldozer and head for City Hall." - Echo_Hotel
"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company." - George Washington |
I was just fine in my 5mm at 47 degrees at 50 ft. I'm wearing it on the lake next Sunday. I even had thin gloves on and I was fine!
Diving wet was an odd, but very freeing experience. I got ready much quicker. Less crap to haul around. It was easier getting my fins on. The 6 lbs less weight made all the difference when I got out of the water. Buoyancy was better and by arching my back/putting hands out in front of me made trim better. I even did the buoyancy course at the quarry (big shapes made out of PVC pipe and suspended from the buttom) twice, and did much better. |
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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Originally Posted By Marie:
I used well-diluted baby shampoo to lube me up to get into my wetsuit, so I'll just use the same if necessary to get into my gloves. View Quote |
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I suppose it is possible to convey more ignorance with less words, but I doubt I will ever see it in my lifetime.--Bohr Adam
If LAV promotes using the slide lock/release to chamber a round after a mag change, then he should be ignored.-MP0117 |
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