Hi,

Currently planning a trip to Australia and want to check out the GBR while I'm down there. Planning on June 2025 timeframe and am looking at the more value oriented liveaboards.

ProDive looks like they only offer 3D/2N liveboards while OceanQuest offers more days.

How many days do you think I should take to experience the reef? Obviously more is better but there's a balance for time too.

Hi everyone! My partner’s been wanting to get back in the open water for years, so I found a local dive shop that can help him do a refresher course, i.e. take the updated online class, get in the pool, and take him out on a boat. It’s his holiday gift this year, a surprise.

I’d love to put something Scuba-y under the tree this holiday that isn’t just the gift certificate. He still has his old dive knife, but I don’t think anything else. Would it be too hard to get him a basic wetsuit for winter off the coast of California to start off with before he goes and invests in something more specific or for cold water later on? He’s got a belly, too, so I wasn’t able to find any newer posts that would be helpful for that combo. Any other thoughts or tips would be much appreciated!! Thank y’all!

Hi, ill be looking to do my AOW tis summer in Madeira do you guys have any recommendations for a diving center? I see a lot of good and bad reviews with some centers so not sure which to choose.

thx

Hi folks,

I decided to treat myself and got a sharkskin top and a pant. The top is a bit tight, but I can still squeeze in. I am wondering if I should keep the top as it is or exchange for the next size. I heard from a few folks that it would stretch and you want a tight fit, but if you are using one, let me know how tight is good fit. I am 6'2" and pushing 220 pounds. However, I can also use this as a motivation to shed the extra 20 pounds I am carrying :)

Hey diving buddies, I just wanted to share with you my diving refresher experience at love diving center in patong, phuket. On December 8th, 2024, So, I was assigned to a dive master solo. We started the diving day with the dive master getting grumpy to pay an entrance ticket of 10baht (30 cents). We started our 1st and only dive without refreshing information, as if it was a normal dive. We descended to have a 14-meter depth, and I started to feel pain in my left ear, I informed the dive master immediately, and he signalled to just stay for a while till it went away. Unfortunately, that was the biggest mistake that I didn't insist on ascending to surface. After 20 minutes, we went back to the ship, and i felt dizzy and had to cancel the other 2 dives. I vomited and had to go to the hospital, and I was diagnosed with BAROTRAUMA. The amount of carelessness is not only on the ship before taking on the first dive, nor under the water pushing me to continue, but to make it worse, I was ignored on the boat with my horrible conditions, till I had to ask for a help to be walked to the shuttle to take me directly to the doctor.

I've been a member of my fire department's dive team for a few years now. Since I started, I've seen some positive changes in the realm of safety culture, going from being led by an individual who was content with diving once a year and not servicing equipment until something breaks, to a leader who tries to get us out to dive monthly, but who is still does not prioritize getting gear serviced yearly. He is not a trained equipment technician, but insists on trying to fix the majority of issues that pop up with the equipment on his own. Most of the dive team doesn't seem to be concerned, but every time we dive I cannot stop worrying about a mechanical failure happening. And they do happen on the regular. Is forgoing yearly equipment maintenance due to budget restraints acceptable, or am I right to be concerned? I've thought about leaving the team in the past, but having not spent much time around a "strict and safe" dive culture myself, I'm not sure if I'm just overreacting or if my concerns are justified. Is there any good resources out there for managing/adopting standards in a small department dive team? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Hi everyone, Can anyone make a recommendation for dive companies and/or liveabords for the Great Barrier Reef? Safety is number one priority Thanks so much!

Hello Reddit Divers,

I am newly retired, and lost my wife/dive buddy to cancer some months back. I currently live in Ohio, but have a place in Hawaii that I visit a few times a year. I'm planning on making the next few years big dive travel years with 2 to 3 trips to more exotic locations per year. My thinking is to spend 3-4 weeks in a region at a couple different dive resorts. For example, I have a 10 day trip to Lembeh in October with group I know from Hawaii, while they are limited to that one 10 day trip, I'd like to match it up with a second location before or after that week to get more bang for the buck out of that 24 hour flight.

I would like to do a trip at the end of January/early Feb, I was considering Australia and doing a week diving Ningaloo then a week at GBR or something like that. But that is not set in stone.

Preferences:

• Resorts/Liveaboards with Guided dives, since I don't have a buddy. I don't mind solo diving, but prefer to only do it in places I've dove before. And prefer not to get matched up with random folks.

• Warmer water 22-23c or warmer

• Macro critters or large pelagic, I'm a big nudi fan and love searching for them and small shrimp and crabs. I've seen many of the big animals, whale sharks, bulls, tigers, owt and a few hammerheads, but sharks, dolphins, game fish are always exciting. Not into technical diving, wrecks unless accompanied by animals.

• Places that allow you to dive you computer/air and not limit to set times.

• Land attractions are not really necessary, and no need for night life

I have around 500 dives, over 25 years, mostly Caribbean/Mexico and Hawaii.

I would appreciate any suggestions on trip destinations/ itineraries. I'm ok with dedicated dive resorts or locations where I rent a condo/hotel and just deal with a dive operator for the dives only.

Thanks for any thoughts!

Steve

Apologies if i'm breaking any rules here, but given past threads think it's OK.

Background: Flying from Bali to Sorong ahead of my Raja Ampat liveaboard in a few weeks. That's booked and not too concerned as I'm flying Garuda Indonesia. For anyone who doesn't know / is curious and planning - everyone recommends Garuda Indonesia as best airline and scuba gear friendly.

Problem: For the return flight, I'm not going to be able to take Garuda as they have very limited flight options. Couple of mysteries I could do with some input on...

Questions:

1. Flight durations: there's 2 direct flights with Super Jet Airways from SOQ to CGK. One is 3 hours 55 mins, and the other is 5 hours, 25 mins.... wut? Different flight paths?
2. Layover in CGK: anyone have experience with Super Jet Airways? How much time should I leave before my connecting flight from CGK to HND knowing i'll need to land, get my bags, check in again, go through security again. I get there's no fool proof answer but curious from folks who have done this / do it regularly what kind of timing makes sense.
3. Lion Air - not urgent. Just curious. i'm not able to search on their desktop website, mobile website, or their app. Keeps timing out. Have tried multiple devices and networks. It's been a few days. At this point i'm just not going to fly with them - but if anyone knows what's up there - very curious.

Thanks for any pointers!

Hey everyone just wanted to share a cautionary tale about DCS even at shallow depths. I went diving in a hot springs in Utah and did a one tank dive gong between 10-25 feet. Then a surface interval to replace regular air tank of 10-15 minutes and went back down for around 5 minutes l. The hot springs we were diving in was very silty so after a few brushes with the walls there was no visibility. Needless to say I got disoriented and ended up shooting rapidly to the surface from around 20feet. I didn't think too much of it since I was well within dive limits, even so I ended my diving there. About a day later I start feeling tired and dizzy but just ended up pushing through it and continuing on with my day such as working out. I started suspect DCS as my joints started hurt which prompted a trip the er and a ride in the chamber. Unfortunately that time I neglected to go in for 24 hours was long enough that I may just be screwed with my current symptoms of brain fog and impaired consciousness. TLDR: even at 25 feet you can still get long term symptoms from dcs.

Im CMAS * and havent dive for a yr now. I am planning to go back nxt yr but i am thinking if i should switch to PADI as most of dive shop in the Philippines offer PADI cert.

One of my plan is to see thresher sharks but the certificate must be AOW. I havent talked to my DI about AOW. Or if the resort accepts CMAS *

I did a trial dive a month ago and everything went well. I’m at a resort in Dominican Republic and getting my PADI. I did my first open water dive today. First of all it was amazing. I saw my first wild sting ray and salt water fish. 15 minutes in I felt a little anxious (I’m not an anxious person) but I just breathed through it. I kept equalizing my ears often and tried to anticipate. I felt that it went really well. We slowly came from 15ft ish and followed the sand upwards toward the beach all felt fine. I stood up to walk off the beach and I had a wave of vertigo hit. I could still walk but I was really dizzy. It has slowly faded over 30 minutes. Not entirely gone but it’s very very mild now.

Is that baro trauma? Nothing in the water happened except a little anxiety. Everything happened out of the water….

I dive again tomorrow and I’m a bit nervous I hope it doesn’t happen again.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Hello there,

Today i dived the first day for my PADI OW. It’s a 3 day course. Today was the theory + 1 confined dive. Tomorrow we start OW dive 1+2 and the next day 3+4. I read online that i should do confined diving 5 times… is this true? Also i kind of felt unsafe with the short amount of practice i had during this one confined dive. For example, i had trouble clearing my mask.

Pretty much the question is, is it being rushed? Like are the 5 confined dives mandatory?

Thanks in advance, Robert

I was changing out some o-rings this morning and whilst testing for leaks I noticed my new tank has a small hole in the pillar valve. I've never noticed this before. Can anyone tell me what it is and it's purpose? The cylinder is Faber steel, 232 bar, 12lt.

Hello everyone!

I'll be in Spain in the Alicante/Murcia/Cartagena region in late January until mid February and I'd like to do some fun dives. I've recently got my OWD + Nitrox + Dry Suit certification in Germany. I'm looking for shore or boat dives, I don't really have any expectations on what to see, I just want to jump in the water and practice diving while hopefully seeing some interesting fauna and flora and/or wrecks. Do you have any recommendation of dive centers in the area that will operate during the period of late January/early February?

Thank you and stay safe

I wanted to share an experience I recently had during a dive, partly to gain insight from others who may have faced something similar and to seek advice on whether I handled the situation correctly. Mostly, though, I just feel the need to talk about it.

I am a beginner diver with an Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification and about 40 dives under my belt. I recently returned from a liveaboard trip. On the third day of the safari, during what was supposed to be a calm and easy dive, I experienced a panic moment underwater that shook me.

The dive started out as expected—no currents, shallow depths, and overall very relaxing. As we descended along a wall, I noticed some mild current at the top, but it wasn’t too concerning. Everything went smoothly as we swam along the wall. However, the trouble began when it was time to head back to the boat.

As we started swimming up the wall to the shallows, I encountered a very strong current pushing against me. Normally, I consider myself a strong swimmer and haven’t had issues dealing with currents before. But this time, no matter how hard I kicked, I couldn’t make progress. The struggle caused me to breathe faster and fall behind the group. My rapid breathing eventually escalated into something close to hyperventilation.

My buddy (my sister) was ahead of me, also battling the current, so she didn’t notice my situation right away. I was at the back of the group, feeling increasingly panicked. I decided to grab my flashlight from the strap on my BCD to bang on my tank to get her attention. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best decision in such a strong current; the action caused me to rise slightly, and when I tried to deflate my BCD, I had to raise up further to release the trapped air. This made the current push me back even more.

Thankfully, my sister eventually saw my signals and turned around immediately. By this point, I had managed to descend to the sandy bottom. In my head, I knew I had two choices: either surface far from the boat in rough waves or calm myself down. Despite hyperventilating, I was aware that I still had plenty of air in my tank and that my sister’s presence could help me regain control.

I focused on signaling my situation to her and tried to slow my breathing. It took about two to three minutes, but eventually, my breaths became deeper and more controlled. Once I felt relatively calm, we swam back to the boat together and surfaced safely. I was utterly exhausted, as if I had just run a marathon.

Looking back, I know hyperventilation is dangerous because it can lead to CO2 buildup, which might cause a diver to pass out quickly. I’m still not sure if I made the right decision to stay underwater and calm myself down, given my confidence that I could do so, or if I should have surfaced immediately instead.

I’m not entirely sure why I’m writing this, but I thought sharing my story might help others—or at least provide an opportunity for feedback.

We are working for an NGO in Nigeria and will be taking a two week holiday in February. We've already done the safari thing so we thought we'd go diving. We are both certified, but we could use a refresher.

From here, we can easily fly to Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar and Turkie. Getting to Zanzibar, Tunisia and Capetown are possible too, but it'll take a lot more travel time.

My kids and I certified open water earlier this year. I like to test their knowledge on our way to the dive shop and dive site, it also helps me keep the knowledge too of course.

It is funny what info and how they retain it.

Last weekend on a boat dive someone said something about a wet suit…

my daughter says “what’s the difference between a wet suit and dry suit again?”

My son responds, “a dry suit can kill you”

Howdy everyone! I have a dive buddy friend who for years has been plagued with a massive issue. Her Mask.

She is African American and has a very wide nose common to people with her ethnicity.

The problem she has faced for years is that it seems all scuba masks on the market are designed for people with your typical White European pointed nose.

I've tried looking but haven't had much luck...but are there any masks made with an extra wide nose pocket? Or perhaps is there some custom mask maker that does some sort of custom silicon skirts for masks that could make something that will be comfortable for her and not leak because of it not being able to seal properly?

Hi there, Two years ago I did my open water cert but haven’t done any diving since. I will be in Ko Tao in January and it’s likely I’ll be able to go diving somewhere in Indonesia in March too.

In Ko Tao - should I do some “fun dives” with a school to increase my underwater experience and number of dives?

Or should I do my advanced open water padi cert?

Thanks in advance

Tomorrow i make my last dive before certification. I’m a little bit nervous. How hard is the exam?

Any tips or tricks for getting GoPro videos of stuff up close (nudibranch) to focus with a GoPro. It’s just a GoPro with no lights or anything. When I get close up the videos come out super unfocused and blurry. Thanks!

I was wondering if anyone new of any dive trips that are relatively easy to get to from Australia. I’ve done a fair few dives, I just don’t have my advanced diving cert.