Muck Stick?

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freed1ver

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Hi,

Anyone have any experience using a muck stick. We'll be heading to Lembeh and was wondering if anyone has used these. Is it just any stick or is it a special device?

Thanks,
Mike
 
It is about a foot long length of 1/4 inch stainless steel with a loop on the top. I don't think as a guest you would need one as your dive guide will show you the critters.
 
You can buy in almost every dive shops in Indonesia.
I bought one too
it's very useful! sometime you need one for yourself during the muck diving ( for example: to move away the crinoid, when you want to take a pic of crinoid's shrimps.
 
It can be also useful for photographers to steady themselves when taking a picture. The guides will often use it to bang on their tank to get your attention.

Do as many night dives as you can at Lembeh. It's great fun and amazing things can be seen. We saw a star gazer eel buried in the sand that suddenly shot out in to the water. It was about five feet long. (Use your imagination to visualize what that looked like!!!!!) Our guide Opo was laughing the whole rest of the dive.

Nudi Falls is an excellent night dive as it has coral which will be feeding at night on a mini-wall as well as a shallow bottom for muck. A great all in one site, day or night. Octopus and Cuttlefish abound at night as well. And lots of crabs.

Unlike Bunaken which has big tidal change and deep walls Lembeh has only a small tidal change (trust me, you don't want to walk back a long way to shore at night) and plenty of sites that are shallow and makes night diving easy most anyplace anytime.

We found Pantai Parigi dive site (middle of Lembeh Island side next to small village) to be excellent (and shallow) for night diving. Lot of crabs and large Spanish Dancer Nudibranchs (Hexabranchus sanguineus) come out at night. We saw a crab spawning. My local guide and I had never seen that before.
 
It is basically just a stainless steel stick that divers use to stable themselves or communicate with other divers, like pointing at things etc.
 
We now have Muck Sticks for sale online (Worldwide) and direct from us in Tulamben, Bali.
Muck Stick 1.jpg
 
Funny that Jeff.I was looking around for some new one's before Christmas as i will be in Indo for a few months shortly and i alway loose some or give them away and i ended up getting a few like this http://www.godive.net/images/detailed/1/SPS.jpg with the option of putting one of my wrist straps onto them also.

I really like yours.best one i have seen and with measurements on the stick and the small clip,so you can clip onto your BCD before you exit the water or when entering the water Excellent Muck stick and reasonable price,will sure be getting one off you when i am in the area of Tulamben.but won't be giving it away :D
 
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You can make them quite easily yourself! My brother made me a few with parts from Home Depot if you live in the states!
 
IMO such sticks range from useless to harmful. The ones with lines that allow divers to measure things underwater are nice, but:
Please don't destroy the environment ( break corals, stir up the bottom or harass rare critters) with these as we see too many divers do.
Also note to dive guides: your guests will not enjoy a dive where they hear banging all the time. By doing this, you not only unsettle other human beings in the water, but also wildlife. Big fish will run away from you. A diver who wants to see what you point at will look at what you are pointing within a short time. A diver who does not care about what you want to show him will ignore banging at best or resent it and not want to dive with you again...
 

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