Bad dive shop or is it just me

[waraebi]

So here is how you check your gear 30 minutes prior to your dive: after assembling your BCD, tank, reg, orally inflate the BCD with a couple breaths (to make sure the oral inflate is working.) Fully inflate the BCD with the power inflator until the overpressure valve "pops". Stop inflating and make sure that valve closes. Now the BCD should be fully inflated. Test each dump valve with a quick pull; make sure each valve opens and closes properly. When you are done, the BCD should still be about half full. If not, reinflate it to half full. Then let it sit for 20 minutes. Check it again... make sure it's still just half full (if it has filled itself in that 20 minutes, you have a stuck inflator valve.)

That sounds very helpful! I will try that next time!
It is very nice to get so many opinions here. I'll let everything sink in, I think I can use a lot of it when dealing with the next dive shop. Thanks again!

 

[mwerle]

I am diving in Japan. Thanks to Covid I am limited to the Kanto area at the moment. I have the chance to go to the southern tip of the Boso peninsula, Chiba, in a few weeks.
I was looking for a dive shop there. Does anyone has a recommendation, for the Tateyama-Nishiyamana area?

Hi Waraebi,

If you want to dive with more english-speaking people check out DiveZone Tokyo or Tokyo Frogs (both based in Tokyo and mostly diving Chiba/Izu). Unfortunately with COVID at the moment, fun-diving activities are quite limited. Still, perhaps if you're keen enough you might consider signing on for an Advanced Open Water certificate, which will give you options to dive a bit deeper as well as reinforce and extend your OW skills.

For Tateyama specifically I can recommend "Bommie" dive shop - although be aware that the shark dive there may require a bit more experience as the depth is around 20m and there can be strong currents. But I guess you have experience for that depth now

In general my experiences diving in Asia (spec. Japan) were an eye-opener too. Very little buddy diving, almost everything is a "guided" dive with all the divers "buddied" with the DM instead of each other, and the general skill level of the divers often leaves something to be desired. I can't comment on the average state of the rental dive gear as I bought my own gear when I moved to Japan. This is, of course, a vast overgeneralisation, and I'm sure there's some excellent shops and divers here as well, but that's the big picture I've gotten so far.

Compared to Australia where you are ALWAYS assigned a buddy, and can sometimes optionally follow a guide (but are basically expected to buddy-dive). Except for the resorts which get a lot of asian customers; there you have to do the group-guided-dive-thing (but are still assigned a buddy if you don't have one of your own).

Just different mentality and approach. One gets used to it. Highly recommend some more experience and get some more training if diving is a serious hobby for you.

Safe bubbles
- Micha.
--
My opinions and posts are my own.

 

[waraebi]

For Tateyama specifically I can recommend "Bommie" dive shop - although be aware that the shark dive there may require a bit more experience as the depth is around 20m and there can be strong currents. But I guess you have experience for that depth now

Thanks for your answer!
I am really interested in their shark dive but I don't think I can handle strong currents, yet

Getting more experienced is the key to everything under water and above, it seems. Thanks for your insight into diving in Japan. I did not know diving in groups is standard here. I only heard that they tend to harass the marine life here

 

[mwerle]

I did not know diving in groups is standard here.

Very few dive shops (in Kanto area) allow "buddy diving" (in my experience), they will almost always provide a guide.

It's also not really possible to get some tanks and just go shore-diving wherever you like. There's some rather complex agreements between the fishermen and the dive shops with the dive shops only allowed to operate in specific areas and times and having to pay a fee to the fishermen for the priviledge. I know of some first-hand stories of people actually getting attacked by fishermen when they went "off-piste" scuba diving here!

Scuba diving in Okinawa is far more relaxed; possibly due to the large US presence there.

 

[waraebi]

Sounds like the Yakuza have gone into fisheries!
Actually, if I could choose I would be diving in Okinawa. Next year, I hope.

 

[mwerle]

Lol, colloquially we do call it the fishing mafia

 

[Centrals]

Philippines is NOT very far from Japan.
Buddy diving is more or less standard and the general cost is a lot lower!!

 

[mwerle]

Philippines is NOT very far from Japan.
Buddy diving is more or less standard and the general cost is a lot lower!!

Sure, but it's still too far for a weekend.. and for most of this year we weren't allowed to travel anyway with currently no end in sight of the travel restrictions.

 

[waraebi]

Actually, I was planning to go to Cebu in March this year, but then Covid came.

But it is still on my list. At the moment you can't go anywhere outside Japan (you can, but you might not be allowed back in), and even in Japan I try to travel by car, only.

 

[ginti]

Hi Waraebi,
Still, perhaps if you're keen enough you might consider signing on for an Advanced Open Water certificate, which will give you options to dive a bit deeper as well as reinforce and extend your OW skills.

But do it with another shop

3) For the two boat dives I got a rental BCD jacket that was not functioning properly, in my opinion, But as a newbie I am not sure about that. When we descended I totally deflated the BCD (in my opinion) and I surely did not put any air into it again. But during the dive I noticed that something was constantly pulling me upwards, so I deflated the BCD again and again. And each time quite an amount of air came out of it, although I never inflated it once. I also heard some bubbling sounds from the inflator hose. I was constantly fighting for not floating upwards, I managed to do so somehow (by crawling on the sea floor), but that was really miserable. And I was really low on air after 30 minutes ( I mean, like 10 bar), which is not normal for me. It was so disappointing for my fellow divers as well.
I told the dive guide during the break on the surface. They changed the hose. And it was a little bit better at the beginning of the second dive, I even had to put some air into the BCD to stay above the seafloor. But gradually I got the feeling again to be pulled upwards, so I had to release a lot of air again every few minutes from the BCD and I think there still was the strange bubbling sound.
As a newbie I am asking myself whether I didn't handle the BCD correctly. But I've never had any problems like that with other BCDs.
For the two beach dives I got a different rental BCD jacket and that was so very different, no strange bubbling sounds and once I deflated it the air did not come back. But the beach dives were only 12m max.

During the dive, you breathe gas, which means that you empty your tanks, which in turns get lighter. Depending on the size of your tanks, you may feel this difference of weight a lot, so it is normal that you need to deflate the BCD. Also, depending on the shape of your BCD, it is possible that you didn't empty it completely at the beginning of the dive... but since you have just some dives under your belt, it is absolutely reasonable to expect that you need a bit of help in managing new equipment. Now, I am not an instructor, and I have not any idea if giving you extra kilos would be beneficial to you. But that was not a training dive, there wasn't any instructor helping you - so it seems to me that the shop just did not behave well.

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For the future, there are a couple of no-go in scuba diving; among them, NEVER dive without a tool that gives you depth and time. If you do not have a very clear plan for the dive, including emergencies, you must have as well something that tells you NDL. If you can't read these quantities, abort the dive - you will do it another day