climbing and diving

[Espinosa]

i am a noob here but i had some questions and some things to mention.

first off i have been lurking and watching what goes on around here and i must say i am quite impressed. nice work by all of you on an informative forum. i have had my experience with some not so nice ones.

now to the point of my thread.

i am headed to phuket, thailand for a rock climbing vactation next year and decided to get my OWC and plan on diving on my rest days. any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

just a bit off topic but my father works with the UN and is stationed in east timor for the next year or so.

he emailed me today and sayin that he was getting certified over there by some aussie's. so now we are planning our trip together to meet in thailand. i am soo excited and feel the need to blab about it.

the main point of this thead is to get some info on the diving in phuket.

any other climbers out there feel free to get in touch, i find alot of personal similarities in climbing and diving...

thanks in advance

scott

oh yeah i hope this is posted in the correct area, umma noobie so forgive me if i am outta line.

 

[sumguy]

My dive buddy visited Phuket last year, but that was before he was a diver, so... He said the water was hot; not warm, hot. You've probably searched the web already, but just in case, here's a site: Diving Phuket
I'm sure you'll love Thailand.

Oh, this may be a stupid question, as I'm not a rock-climber, but this won't be done at any real altitude, will it?

 

[Espinosa]

first off thanks for the link, i missed that in my searches...

no all at sea level and only short technical climbing.

i often have the problem of useing rock climbing terms with non climbing people. i am sure the scuba community might do this as well as i see it as a very passionate sport. forgive me for that.

maybe that is a different thread? when a "sport" or "passion" consumes your life and you spend most of your time associating with people involved in that "sport" or "passion" you tend to find yourself communicating in a way that is confusing for some. sorry for that.

me spending my normal weekend rock climbing...

can you insert images to this forum???? if not i am sorry...

EDIT: guess not, visit the link if you want...

 

[scuba-sass]

Hi Espinosa,

Welcome to the boards, and best of luck in your diving and climbing adventures!

I have one concern - you mention you'll be diving on your non-climbing days. Since you haven't done your Open Water Certification (OWC) yet, you may not know this, but it is highly recomended to avoid strenuous excercise after diving. It has to do with off-gassing, which you will learn about. Keep this in mind when planning your vacation, and you might want to discuss your plans with your OWC instructor.

Good Luck!

Scuba-sass

 

[Welshman]

Espinosa

I wasn't aware that there was any rock climbing in Phuket. However, there is some excellent climbing in Krabi - huge limestone cliffs. When I was there in January 2001 I was told that the French World Ladies Climbing Champion was there. You have to go by boat to many of these cliffs. There were certainly many climbers most days. The cliffs were situated near Ao Phra Nang beach - between there and West Railei beach. You can also dive there - I did my OW certification with Phra Nang Divers who were very good. The diving itself is OK but not great - but quite a good place to learn the basics. Water temp is 78-82f although visibility is not great say 10-15m - it's better the further out you go.

You can reach Phra Nang Divers at:

www.pndivers.com

and there is also a climbing website:

www.simonfoley.com

As for Phuket I dived there this January/February with Phuket Scuba Club at Kata Beach South. I can strongly recommend them. Excellent instruction and a great atmosphere. You can reach them at:

www.phuket-scuba-club.com

Phuket and Krabi are about 2/3 hours apart by road.

Hope this helps

Regards

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by Espinosa
no all at sea level and only short technical climbing.

It took a second to figure out what "short technical climbing" could mean until I saw the pic.

Nice shot. (Pardon to the others that don't climb as I drift off a little!) Was that a sit start or standing start? What was the difficulty?

can you insert images to this forum???? if not i am sorry...

You can either do it the way you had with a link to a website, or you can actually upload the image as an attachment [see the 'attach file' field below the options when you are posting.

 

[Sue]

Hi there and welcome

I used to climb a lot and did some rock climbing trips, but since I took my first diving certification I don't do it anymore.
In what concerns diving & climbing that depends on your climbing level. I've seen in your picture (is it in Flagstaff?) that you're bouldering and that's very strenuous, so it wouldn't be wise to do it after diving.
You should read something about diving physiology (decompression theory) and then judge by yourself.
My advice: if you love rockclimbing don't get diving certificated - you might stop grabbing the rocks! he he

Cheers

Sue

 

[Espinosa]

Originally posted by funky__monks



Nice shot. (Pardon to the others that don't climb as I drift off a little!) Was that a sit start or standing start? What was the difficulty?

sit start, V4ish

hmmm this is some good information to take into consideration. the total trip is going to be two weeks and the whole time will not be spent just climbing.

with some rearranging i should be able to get the best of both worlds? maybe a week of climbing, a couple days traveling, a couple more days diving? with the correct timing and spacing between events i should be able to avoid any problems.

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by Espinosa

with some rearranging i should be able to get the best of both worlds? maybe a week of climbing, a couple days traveling, a couple more days diving? with the correct timing and spacing between events i should be able to avoid any problems.

Most likely. I'd actually be interested in hearing what Dr. Deco would have to say on the subject. I would think you could plan out a decent day starting with climbing and then diving afterwards, so your not following up your diving with climbing. But for multiple days you could still end up with some trouble. I'm sure we could get some recommendations on the time between diving and strenuous exercise. Of course it's all _theory_ and it's definately more of a risk...

-Jeff

 

[Kayla]

well, I don't know a whole lot about rock climbing, but welcome to the boards, and I hope you have a great time on your trip!


Kayla