outlook of a sprout

[DivingPrincessE]

Hey all; I just wanted to post my outlook on something. Now mind you I'm so new I'm not even green i'm a sprout

So you're freely admitting that you are the newest of newbies, and yet feel that those with thousands of dives have no idea what they are talking about? Interesting...

FWIW, I bought a bunch of gear after I got certified and it has now ALL been replaced after I spent some time, you know...actually diving.

Had a rear inflate BCD which was the first to go. The Halcyon BP/W makes horizontal trim much easier and it's so much less cluttered. Plus I LOVE not needing extra weight.

Had Oceanic Delta IV/FDX10 yoke, I hated the way it free flowed on the surface and breathed wet. It's gone and now have SP MK25/S600 DIN with the G250v as a back up bungeed.

You are coming across (to me) as pretty arrogant acting as though you know better than people who have been diving for years or decades. Perhaps if you stick mostly to quarry diving in IL, horizontal trim and OOA donation won't be as much of an issue for you. Otherwise, it will be interesting to see if you're still diving the same gear a year or two from now

 

[RJP]

now let's see how long it takes this post to burn to the ground.

Split fins? Figured now is as good a time as any to remind everyone what happened to me last year...

When my buddy and I were diving the U-869 on air with John Chatterton and Richie Kohler last year, my buddy's split fins silted the place up so bad that I couldn't find my Spare-Air. I got so nervous I mistakenly hit the "up elevator" lever on my SeaQuest i-3 BCD. Ordinarily, this would have sent me shooting to the surface, but fortunately some monofilament got tangled around my Air-2. When I cut the line with the 11" knife strapped to my calf, I mistakenly poked the purge valve in my HydrOptix mask. I tried to use my tank banger to get my buddy's attention, but by that time he had gotten one of his suicide clips tangled up in the retractor I use to attach my dry snorkle to the transmitter of my air-integrated wireless compass, which I bought on-line instead of at the LDS that I stopped supporting ever since I signed up for e-learning. I believe that was right about the time I had the regs I bought at Leisure Pro serviced at the local Jiffy-Lube but didn't actually test them myself before going on a special "Storm Tracker" live-aboard trip that I signed up for because in addition to free nitrox they were offering a special "take Fish ID, get your OW Instructor cert free" promotion. Unfortunately I missed that trip because of the systemic fungal infection I contracted when the Halcyon p-valve I installed myself in my cave-cut trilam dry suit failed while I was solo-diving for golf balls without a scooter. Which I only did for the money, ever since the captain of the boat I DM on started making me tip the passengers $10/tank on every charter that I work.

I'm writing a book about it...

Shallow Divers: The true story of two Americans who risked everything to solve the mystery of every "you're gonna die" cliche on ScubaBoard

Ironically, it seems that Gary Gentile is now claiming that I actually did not experience EVERY cliche myself, based on a series of interviews with the girlfriend of the brother of a guy I shared a room with on Spring Break in 1987 and is now threatening to expose the REAL story of how all the trouble started when Walter kept radioing the Coast Guard to ask whether he could log pool dives as "real dives".

I will happily refute Gary's assertions in an on-line interview on ScubaBoard, wherein I will respond to any and all questions with "get a BP/W" while wearing my mask on my forehead.

:d

PS - it's not the agency, it's the instructor!

 

[hartl0602]

I went to the thread you linked and didn't find any discussion of BP/W or drysuits there, so your point is kind of lost using that as an example.

you're correct they don't mentio
n it, that's just the first thing i thought of

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Split fins? Figured now is as good a time as any to remind everyone what happened to me last year...

When my buddy and I were diving the U-869 on air with John Chatterton and Richie Kohler last year, my buddy's split fins silted the place up so bad that I couldn't find my Spare-Air. I got so nervous I mistakenly hit the "up elevator" lever on my SeaQuest i-3 BCD. Ordinarily, this would have sent me shooting to the surface, but fortunately some monofilament got tangled around my Air-2. When I cut the line with the 11" knife strapped to my calf, I mistakenly poked the purge valve in my HydrOptix mask. I tried to use my tank banger to get my buddy's attention, but by that time he had gotten one of his suicide clips tangled up in the retractor I use to attach my dry snorkle to the transmitter of my air-integrated wireless compass, which I bought on-line instead of at the LDS that I stopped supporting ever since I signed up for e-learning. I believe that was right about the time I had the regs I bought at Leisure Pro serviced at the local Jiffy-Lube but didnÃÕ actually test them myself before going on a special Å´torm Tracker live-aboard trip that I signed up for because in addition to free nitrox they were offering a special "take Fish ID, get your OW Instructor cert free" promotion. Unfortunately I missed that trip because of the systemic fungal infection I contracted when the Halcyon p-valve I installed myself in my cave-cut trilam dry suit failed while I was solo-diving for golf balls without a scooter. Which I only did for the money, ever since the captain of the boat I DM on started making me tip the passengers $10/tank on every charter that I work.

I'm writing a book about it...

Shallow Divers: The true story of two Americans who risked everything to solve the mystery of every "you're gonna die" cliche on ScubaBoard

Ironically, it seems that Gary Gentile is now claiming that I actually did not experience EVERY cliche myself, based on a series of interviews with the girlfriend of the brother of a guy I shared a room with on Spring Break in 1987 and is now threatening to expose the REAL story of how all the trouble started when Walter kept radioing the Coast Guard to ask whether he could log pool dives as "real dives".

I will happily refute Gary's assertions in an on-line interview on ScubaBoard, wherein I will respond to any and all questions with "get a BP/W" while wearing my mask on my forehead.

:d

PS - it's not the agency, it's the instructor!

Way to bring back the classic. Btw, I know what you're really doing. You're just trying to get the most thanked post...AGAIN

 

[Damselfish]

Sounds like you can think for yourself. Excellent.

It's true some divers who have been diving a long time can have good advice that is worth listening to. It's also true there is often a lack of recognition that not everyone is in the same environment or has the same needs as them.

 

[rstofer]

From personal experience and observation, I have seen (or heard of) a lot of people moving from Jacket BC to Rear-Inflate BC to BP/W over a short period of time. You will almost never see anyone move in the other direction. Maybe they start with Rear-Inflate and skip the Jacket step. Personally, I used a Jacket BC for a very long time before jumping to a BP/W. I don't plan to move back.

Similarly, you will see people move from wetsuits to drysuits. I'm not sure how many move back. I haven't made the move yet but I probably will. Or, at least, a couple of our herd of 4 divers will make the transition. I'm too old to make it worth spending the money.

Fins? Who cares? Split fins are probably just fine unless you do penetration dives. But I couldn't do a frog kick if my life depended on it so it doesn't matter what kind of fin I use. I used a flat blade for many years but now I have a set of splits. If I decide to try Rocket fins, I'll just buy them. They're cheap compared to everthing else.

There's a wide range of gear on the market. After looking at it, I have decided that nearly all of it is designed for resort divers. That's the market. Divers that take a couple of trips per year to warm water.

Just because the vast majority of SB divers will recommend BP/W's, drysuits and rocket fins doesn't make them right. But it sure doesn't make them wrong! In almost every case, they've been there, done that, spent the money to upgrade and realize they could have skipped a few steps.

Richard

 

[hartl0602]

My point; pondering this question I have come up with this; I donÃÕ really have a point, more of a morel.

The morel being that newbies are easily molded, so be gentle. I see the suggestions to start with a bp/w and you won't regret it, I even saw someone so bold as to strongly suggest that the diver in question return all the gear they just bought; but what gets me is that I'm sure most of these people started in a BC. Who's to say that you would be the same diver you are today, if you had not made the equipment choices you did along your path. TS&M would you be the same diver had you not had the difficulties you did in your pool session? Or the leaky dry suit in your open water checkout? I don't know(not to single you out, but i've read your journal and recomend all new divers do, fun read) Would I be as confident with computers if I didn't cut my teeth with Microsoft dos and all those lovely text commands? Maybe. Would I be comfortably taking a screw diver to, well anything if I hadn't done it to all my toys as a kid? Probably not. (God I ramble, if only I could do this in person) I analogize this as such if when growing up you're told from a very young age you WILL run the family business when you're old enough, you never really give much thought to what you want to be when you grow up? Or the fact that you can take the most docile animal in the world and make it attack on site.

To be honest with you I think the current environment actually deterd me from posting my equipment questions; I instead chose to research on the internet and via my LDS. Fact is i've actually been second guessing my gear choices till recently, which is why I guarded each and everyone of them in my original post, I'm happy with them now, the bc got good reviews in this months sport diver, my reg performed beautifully according to scuba diver magazine. I just don't think that's the way it should be; nor do I think many of you believe that; what I do believe is that from time to time the pot needs to be stirred and I think things like this need to be brought to the surface in an odd and strange way (my specialty) to prompt conversation. Pull out those closet BC users, let the split fin users come out from under the covers, its "personal" equipment and it should be that, "personal". Why didn't I go the try before you buy route, fact is I'm shy and I'm not going to ask someone if I can borrow their stuff, such is life.

Well i've rambled enough, and probably haven't clarified a thing, or have I?

If I come across as arrogant, i'm sorry, I'm not trying to be, it's just the need to put up a shell (it's a mental thing). I am one of the calmest and (what's the opposite of arrogant) people you will meet and actually take everyone's advise into account, hell I even listen to the guy at the bowling ally that may know nothing about new balls and techniques; this just came across as something that needed to be exaggerated. On top of that it took a lot for me to post it, guess I'm just starting to feel more comfortable here.

 

[knotical]

Some of us old-timers who have been diving for a while give good advice. Some not. I'm usually part of the non-vocal minority in this area, but here goes:

The following is not intended as advice, either good or bad: -

I started in an "aqualung" consisting of a cylinder, a double hose reg, and some straps. We added a mask, fins and lead. It worked fine. No snorkel, no BC. Lots of equipment has come along since and I've tried most of it. Some made diving better, but none of it is a magic bullet.

I dive locally with a jacket BC, and travel to the tropics with a small back-inflate BC, because it's lighter to pack than my jacket. I tried BP/W and didn't particularly like it. Too fussy, and the center of gravity was too far back for my taste.

I dive with paddle fins while in my dry suit because they're the only ones I have with big enough foot pockets, but they're clunky.
I use splits locally when not in a dry suit, because they give me the most acceleration for the least effort.
I travel with Force Fins because they're small, put no strain on my ankle tendons, and work for me almost as well as my splits.

The following is intended as advice, hopefully not all bad: -

Your equipment is just a bunch of tools, folks. Some tools are better in some circumstances and for some people than others.

If you're going tech, consider tech people's advice – there's definitely something to be said for using the same configuration as others with whom you're diving in those environments. If you're not going tech, do what works for you. The differences aren't all that great. A decent diver should be able to dive comfortably in any decent equipment.

And back to not giving advice again: -

A vocal minority of folks here on ScubaBoard do seem to have the fervor of recent religious converts for some equipment or practices, and take every opportunity to promote them. I mostly ignore them.

 

[Oyster Diver]

Princess I bet he is still using the same regulators a year from now. Now, like you, I did change most of my gear I initially purchased so I understand where you are coming from. I did upgrade to the same SP regulator as you and really like it. The important part is to keep diving and watch what other divers are using. Have fun.

You are coming across (to me) as pretty arrogant acting as though you know better than people who have been diving for years or decades. Perhaps if you stick mostly to quarry diving in IL, horizontal trim and OOA donation won't be as much of an issue for you. Otherwise, it will be interesting to see if you're still diving the same gear a year or two from now

 

[scubadada]

So you're freely admitting that you are the newest of newbies, and yet feel that those with thousands of dives have no idea what they are talking about? Interesting...

FWIW, I bought a bunch of gear after I got certified and it has now ALL been replaced after I spent some time, you know...actually diving.

Had a rear inflate BCD which was the first to go. The Halcyon BP/W makes horizontal trim much easier and it's so much less cluttered. Plus I LOVE not needing extra weight.

Had Oceanic Delta IV/FDX10 yoke, I hated the way it free flowed on the surface and breathed wet. It's gone and now have SP MK25/S600 DIN with the G250v as a back up bungeed.

You are coming across (to me) as pretty arrogant acting as though you know better than people who have been diving for years or decades. Perhaps if you stick mostly to quarry diving in IL, horizontal trim and OOA donation won't be as much of an issue for you. Otherwise, it will be interesting to see if you're still diving the same gear a year or two from now

Nice pompous, arrogant, condescending post, that's ScubaBoard. I don't get the purpose of the OP either, but that's no excuse.

Good diving, Craig