Relatively new diver here. I keep hearing about the condition of the reefs around the world and mostly the carribean and am worried. What to do about it is for another post. What I'm looking for today is how to optimize my travel to see what I can before it all goes to shit.

Some basics...I live on the east coast US in the mid Atlantic region. Me and my wife dive together and are interested in colorful coral. Bigger marine life is great too, but the spectacular array of color is what we are really after. We don't have an unlimited budget, but we aren't handcuffed by price. If there is a must do, we can swing it.

So...given the state of the world's reefs, where do we need to get to immediately? We've been to roatan (loved it, but it seemed like it's heading downhill) and FL. We were looking at a few local dives (Carolinas to keys) throughout the year with a big trip to SEA early 2025, but I'm thinking the reefs there are in much better condition than those closer to home. Would I be better off putting SEA on hold for a bit to get to the places that are in much more danger of being dead in a couple years? I hear Belize and Cuba are still viable, but is it worth getting to bonaire or other closer places before we lose them?

Or am I blowing things out of proportion and these reefs may not be as bad as I think? Pretty sad that we have to think ahead of the domino's falling. I'll answer anything anyone needs as far as additional info goes and thank everyone in advance.

So....to get the best in the time we have

Hi,

I'm a relatively new diver and I'm just looking at gear.

I currently own the following gear:

• Tusa Ceres Mask
• Tusa snorkel
• Tusa Switch fins
• Tusa rock boots
• Shearwater teric dive computer
• Scubapro mk25 Evo first stage
• Scubapro D420 second stage
• Scubapro S270 second stage (octo)
• Miflex hoses & SPG
• Mystic 5mm full wetsuit
• Otter drysuit
• Otter hood
• Line cutter
• Scubapro DSMB
• Scubapro mini reel (15m)

Tbh, I wasn't expecting to buy so much so quickly, but I've just joined my local BSAC club and they don't rent gear so I've had to go out and buy a load!

I'd ultimately like to go for an Xdeep BPW, but I'm thinking of buying a secondhand BCD to get me going with this new group. I've found an Aqualung Wave on eBay for a good price and wondered if anyone dived it? Or any other good makes to look out for? It needs to be suitable for cold water diving.

I can find the DAN one ut my instructor wants me to fill in the PADI one does anybody have one?

I am a long time diver who is fine with the no-frills dive resorts / liveaboards for good diving. My partner has less experience diving and would likely only want to dive for 1-2 days (vs. full week). We're looking to take a vacation soon where we both can dive on some days, but flex with other activities (e.g., pool, fun activities outside of scuba). I assume many of you have similar situations -- where did you go? Where would you recommend?

Are there any wet lenses that go over the dive case of an action camera (bonus if it's for the Osmo Action 4 or Ace Pro) that allow closer focusing? Wet lens for easy mounting and unmounting underwater as the need arises.

Action cameras are great at being convenient and capturing wide shots of schools of fish and the environment, but their minimum focusing distance and wide lens means they can't capture individual fish very well.

This puffer was not small, but just to get it to fill 1/3 of the frame still required the camera to be moved inside of its minimum focusing distance which caused the fish to be out of focus.

Hello!!

I’m travelling to Koh Tao next month , any recommendations on what dive shops?

I’ve heard good things about roctopus and la bomona!

My partner is getting his OW and I’m getting rescue dive cert!

Any other recs!

Thanks!

We live north of Jacksonville. Ive got 37 years diving experience. However until a few weeks ago I had no idea this area was such a great place to dive for meg teeth.
I'm looking for someone familiar with different spots to try, as a dive partner, or at least to give me a little 411 so I can go out occassionally for fun myself.
Thanks!

I am looking to do some diving and think it would be cool to go meg tooth diving. How does that work. Can a person just walk from the beach and then sift through the water? How does a person look for teeth or do they just randomly go through the sand? Any advice would help.

Have used the app plenty times with no issues but now it will not save my videos. Will load to 9% then crash. (photos work fine.) plenty iPhone / iCloud storage. Have reset phone. Could anything else be causing this issue ? TIA

Which one to buy dji action 4 or gopro 12? I am in dilema.

Truli wetsuits, which featured wetsuits for women with unusual shapes (overweight, thin, tall, short, busty, etc) is apparently going out of business and remaining stock is on sale at reduced prices. If you're hard to fit in wetsuits, it might be worth giving them a call.

I've never used one of their wetsuits, but they have a good reputation.

https://www.truliwetsuits.com/

Hi friends,

Buying my first pair of travel fins. Looking for barefoot. One of my ankles blew out last year — still weak and doesn’t enjoy super stiff fins.

Recommendations for travel-worthy fins?

I will be going on a vacation to bonaire during summer with the goal of snorkeling and diving.

I currently wear glasses with -1, meaning I'm able to see rather okay without them, but definitely don't have 20/20 vision.

I know that diving masks make things appear bigger and closer. So my question is will this somewhat make up for my -1 vision.

I'm looking for recommendations for a reef safe(r) sunscreen that is relatively inexpensive. Ideally priced similarly to 'regular' sunscreens. Please don't come at me, I'm just trying to get my travel mates to switch to reef safe and they aren't gonna go for the $15/3 oz sort of options that pop up on Google. I know a lot of you have probably already done the research so any specific recommendations would be so helpful! Also, we're Irish. Almost totally devoid of melanin, so we need some high octane shit. No tips needed about hats, rashguards and such, we've got those in the arsenal already. Thanks!

EDIT: I so appreciate the recommendations! And the laugh from folks getting on their rashguard soapbox. Takes all types, I guess.

I'm from the US and I'm planning to go to New Zealand for 2 and a half weeks at the end of this year/beginning of the next with my dad. His mom is from there and we've both always wanted to go there. I'm planning to dive with him in New Zealand but I also want to go to Australia for 4 days while there in order to dive in Australia as well. My relatives live near Lake Taupo on the North Island so I would be flying from Auckland. Where should I fly to in Australia for diving and is it worth it when I will be diving in New Zealand as well? I figure if I'm going that far I might as well go a bit further, given the reputation of Australia's diving.

Following my previous post another question: How do I find the best school?

I live in Asia so any country will do. I would say (and I apologize for this, I know it sounds wrong) that I would trust more a school with western staff as locals often have this relaxed attitude towards everything and I’m an extremely anxious person and it always freaks me out, and living here I often witness too many small things that bother me (e.g. not caring about the environment as much, corals, safety).

If you have recommendations for Indonesia would be great. Any budget. I’d love to support a female-owned business as well or one with a good cause.

Recommendations from other anxious panicky people are welcome :)

Getting certified in a few weeks. My biggest concern is finding the ability to dive when u don’t have a buddy. None if my friends dive and my wife has zero interest. We are in the Midwest where diving isn’t particularly common. We take vacations and cruise quite a bit. Is it a problem to go on scuba excursions and trips as a solo? Will people be paired up with me randomly or how does any of that work? I’m not opposed to taking dive focused trips by myself, but also don’t want to be a third wheel everywhere

Hey! Going to be in Puerto Vallarta with a big group in a few months. We are staying at the Hard Rock there. Was wondering if anyone has any shop recommendations nearby!

Thanks in advance :)

A friend is considering doing her OW on an upcoming vacation, and asked if divers can just rest in the water vertically, head down. I said yes, but that they hardly ever do that. Then I realised I don't know why not.

Anyone been to both of these shops? I'll be around there late May/June and trying to decide who to do my AOW with. At first I was going to go with Purple Dive. Their center looks really nice, and I like to support smaller businesses. Both seem to know what they're doing (based on reviews) 😀 Prices for both are about the same. Both seem to take 4 divers max per DM. Purple Dive seems to have a bit more reviews online than Scuba junkie but I've read good things about them and their different locations here in this sub. Both are very responsive to messages. I'm quite new to diving so I don't know what else to look for, of course I'd prefer to be there in person to check them out myself first..

Only big pro that SJ has over Purple dive is that they offer accommodation. purple dive doesn't seem to have a lot of good options nearby, and I don't drive. I'm ok with hiring a driver/group tour or something for on-land excursions but I'd prefer to just be able to walk to the dive center.

I guess that could be a deal-breaker for someone but I'm just...so bad at making up my mind 💀 I'd be grateful for any recommendations.

I know that a lot of the world's coral reefs have been hit hard. I want to go on a scuba diving trip to see a healthy coral reef while they still exist.

For those of you who recently went diving, did you go diving in a healthy or unhealthy coral reef? Where would you advise making a trip?

Ready to plan next trip. A friend went to the Bahamas to dive with tigers and hammerheads and loved it. I'm open to this but what recommendations do you have? I would also like to stay in a fairly nice place. Not sure I'd want to do a liveaboard. I'll go most anywhere, but warm water only.

The hog d3 vs aqualung helix compact pro. Thoughts arguments for one of the other.

Hi Everyone,

I just signed up for my open water Padi course. I've started the e-learning part of the course and will be doing my first confined pool session next week. I'm just beginning to feel overwhelmed by all the information. What if I forget? Or what if I panic? I understand that there is a buddy system but I dont want to let them down if I forget something or panic under water, especially once we do the open dives. I'm a very anxious person and a big part of why I'm doing this is to challenge myself and overcome my fear of deep waters. I'm hoping as I go along, it will begin making more sense to me but any useful tips or advice would be much appreciated. I will be honest with my instructor regarding how I feel but I'm scared that my anxieties have already gotten the better of me and I haven't even really started.

Hey everyone! I know in the community the obvious answer to this question is "yes," but wanted to run through my specific situation with you and get your feedback. I am a pretty competent non-certified diver, I've gone diving on 4 occasions in various locations with most having 3+ each. The most recent was with my fiance in Hawaii. Which brings me to my reasoning. I don't envision ever diving without her, and she is perfectly content with the touristy dives. So is there any advantage to me actually getting certified if she most likely won't? Additional context, we have trips planned this year to Jamaica, Thailand, Bali, and the Maldives, so some pretty amazing dive opportunities. Thank you!

EDIT: Just wanted to clarify, I am well aware that I am not at the level of a certified diver and that I would gain a lot of skills, knowledge, and confidence by getting certified. My question is more, what would the situation look like if my fiance only wanted to do the resort dives and I didn't want to go without her? There's a lot to be gained by getting certified, but would I really get to use it if all I will be doing will be resort dives? Thanks again!