Private diving in JP...

[Sniperx]

Went out for the first dip today.

Paid my 400y boat fee to this island park. Fiancee and I hauled our gear out to a good spot. Hobby fisherman walks but and grumbles something about diving with tanks will make everyone angry...I wanted ask...why? Think I'm going to find your line and unhook your fish? Didn't have any collecting or hunting gear in sight or even on the island...but oh well. Wasn't even near anyone fishing, purposely went around them as to not scare their fish or get in the way.

-2 outside BTW with wind....

Getting suited up....pull the zipper....POW...damn POS plastic zipper broke. The zipperhead with the leash attached to it broke from the lower pieces of it. All that prep and hauling for NOTHING. I was zipping up as I was walking down to the water. Damnit it all to hell. So went to the local shop, their going to look into replacing it. Anything over 80usd and I'm dumping it for a new one. Curse the crook that sold it to me. I now will always check for metal zipper heads......

 

[Izu]

Allo,

Permanent rez Tokyo diver seeks to increase dive buddy pool for diving Izu, Oshima, Oki, Guam etc. Me Gai, wifey J. Have ins with most sites, interested in diving with similarly minded humans who enjoy diving intelligently while avoiding the local "guide" fees. No agenda, simply diving.

4649.

DJ

 

[Sniperx]

Going to be sad when I leave here..going to leave this cherry dive shop behind. I depressingly dropped off my suit at the shop the morning of. The next day I went in to check pricing, figuring on 30usd and 2 weeks. To my surprise....it was done, with a new stainless YKK zipper head, new metal stoppers, and a small rip on the inside was glued up. I said how much...about to die because I didn't authorize the work or know the cost......500yen (5usd). I'll go back and have them redo the cuff on my suit...the ding dong before me cut them off for some obscure nudnick reason.....

 

[Sniperx]

Well, went to first spot yesterday. Small spot near Hojo....a fishing town. My fiancee and I geared up and hopped in. She was in a dry suit, I in a 7mm. Water was 10.3c. 6m visibility. LOTS of seaweed, more than expected, partly due to low tide. We hit a max of 2.7m depth. My fiancee went out with her drysuit and 4kg of weight...seemed a little light especially for a drysuit. Asked her why her wetsuit weight and her dry suit weight were the same....said the instructor set her up that way. Well....my thinking was right...she spent most of her time on the surface, until I got her a rock to haul around. I got to make fun of her....a guy with only 2 hours under his belt can get neutral and neg but a 30 dive vet couldn't.

Another person showed up, he was snorkeling with weights and such, he was spearfishing and collecting. I can't see how thats any different than picking it up by scuba or hauling in 10 fish on a line. Might go back there to pick up some sea cucumbers....apparently they were the good kind.

A side note. If you don't have it...get google earth. And if you can find a way, get google earth pro...it has realtime GPS tracking. I'm using it to find possible dive sites near parking areas. I've got our next couple sites already picked out. Its very useful to measure parking to spot, shore to spot, and size of possible site. You can also spot underwater rock formations easily. I've got a really cool waterproofed tablet PC rig with GPS running so I can find our spot easily, make notes on what was there an recall them at anytime. VERY cool.