Question for New Divers

This is directed mainly towards divers who are new to the sport, but anyone is welcome to chime in.

I have written a couple of "What is?" articles to provide answers to some of the questions that I have been asked by a lot of new divers.

The first one was a "What is DIR?" and I just finished a brief "What is Nitrox?" article.

I've thought of expanding my "What is" to cover more of those questions that a lot of BOW divers have but dont want to ask about for fear of appearing ignorant about diving.

So my question is, what topics would you most be interested in knowing more informed about?

Please be realistic. i.e. Dont expect someone to be able to explain "what is the proper procedure if I'm at 100', I lost my buddy, a shark is circling and I'm OOA."

If anyone is interested in copies of the articles I already mentioned, feel free to PM me about them.

Why not post a link to these articles? Are you planning on selling them?

we get a lot of them. Some asked by new divers. Some asked by the curious public at large.

Q. What is meant by a two tank dive? Do you go down with both tanks at once?

Q. Should I take weights, tanks, etc... with me on a Caribbean dive vacation? What is "usually" included in the price of a dive?

Q. Why do you fill tanks in a water bath?

Q. What do you put into those tanks? Oxygen?

Q. How long does a tank of air last?

Q. What do you mean by a SMB? Why/when would you use one?

How about...

1, what is trim?

2, What finning techniques combined with good trim won't ruin the divesite for everyone else?

3, Why wasn't the answer to number 2 mentioned in my OW text?

4, Why didn't my instructor know the answer to number 2?

Rick Inman once bubbled...
Why not post a link to these articles? Are you planning on selling them?

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Although several readers of my articles have suggested that I submit them for publication, I have no intention of doing that at this time.

They were written merely as a way to share some of what I have learned along the way with others who share my passion.

The first article, "What is DIR?" actually has been posted on another board. That board is more technical in nature and has a section dedicated exclusively to DIR.

Since this board has no such forum, and a lot of the members have complained about the number of DIR posts on here, I chose not post it here out of respect for them. Instead I have offered to send it privately to those who have asked about DIR.

That article was recently cross posted in a DIR thread here on S/B by someone else with my permission.

The Nitrox article has not been posted anywhere yet, as it is still in it's infancy. I have shared it with several people, and am using their feedback to make revisions. Once I am satisfied with it and make a final draft, I may post it as well.

In the interim, if you are interested in seeing either, just drop me a PM and I will be glad to share.

Drew Sailbum once bubbled...
Q. Should I take weights, tanks, etc... with me on a Caribbean dive vacation? What is "usually" included in the price of a dive?

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That is a good suggestion Drew. I will add that to the "to do" list. Do you mind if I questions off of you when I get around to it?

Drew Sailbum once bubbled...
Q. What do you mean by a SMB? Why/when would you use one?

Click to expand...

Another good suggestion, and one that I had intended to cover at some point. I also intend to do a "What exactly is Tech Diving?"

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
How about...

1, what is trim?

2, What finning techniques combined with good trim won't ruin the divesite for everyone else?

3, Why wasn't the answer to number 2 mentioned in my OW text?

4, Why didn't my instructor know the answer to number 2?

Click to expand...

1 & 2 are good ideas also Mike. I had kicked around an idea of "What exactly is neutral bouyancy?" and I think this will compliment that nicely.

In regard to 3 and 4, all I can say is

Why not see if the mods can create a forum where replies are not possible...no threads. The title of the post is the question, and the body is the reply, then lock it down. Sort of like a FAQ, but with longer, more in-depth information.

You, and other experts on the board, can submit pieces to a few mods for review and then they post it. The forum keeps growing with more and more good information.

I'd love to see a resource like that here. It could take any number of different forms, I suppose, this was the first that popped into my little pea-brain, though.

We've done something similar in the U/W Photo forum. The Tips and Techniques thread was pinned to the top so it stays there. The thread can't be closed to responses because other tips couldn't be added to the thread. We requested at the beginning that all responses be made seperately in a new thread and it's worked well. The few who do respond simply have their thread split off and started as a new one. This forum gets alot more traffic, though, the editing would be a consideration.

Another concern is the arguments that wil invariably follow when someone doesn't agree with something the author has written. I'm willing to give it a try.

I think this is a great idea and will bring it up with the other Mods.

Wow!

This wasnt exactly what I had in mind when I originally started this post, but hey, whatever works!

A recent BOW class that I was DM'ing in kept getting off track on a lot of different ideas. I thought a series of articles that I could present to them as handouts would satisfy their curiousity about various topics without slowing the class down too much.

I never really considered posting them here, mainly because I didnt feel that an appropriate forum existed. If you moderators can create a suitable forum, I would be glad to contribute to it.