Any OcUK Divers?

[Participant]

Bombs in egypt = cheap diving holidays!

Haha love it! [From his website]. It's a good attitude. Was probably the safest place on earth that holiday.

 

[Fraggr]

PADI Open Water here. I have only been diving once, in Aqaba (Jordan). There were a load of British army there learning to dive at the same time as I learned.

I might try and get the advanced license next time I go there.

 

[Mr_T]

Padi Advanced Open Water diver here
Learnt in Thailand, did 22 dives, loved it!

Going diving in the UK (Scilly) in 3 weeks, lets try a dry suit on...

For those in the know - is it incredibly different from wet suit? ie. Boyancy control etc?

Normally you do a drysuit orientation course in a pool / quarry first... I'd seriously recommend this before getting into the sea. On my drysuit pool dive I ended up shooting straight up to the surface boots first. It's very different from diving in a wetsuit you feel really cumbersum at first.

You have some awesome pictures, especially this one

...I've always wanted to go diving

Cheers, I had a habbit of doing that kind of thing for photos until I got nipped! Lesson learnt! But seriously if you want to learn to dive, phone a local dive shop and see if they organise try dives... it'll probably be in a pool but it'll give you a feel for it.

 

[Gog]

@gog - what diving centre are you using? whats the name of your instructor? going to wraysbury for final dives?

Scubadoo's. Instructor is Phil. And yes, off to Wraysbury - hope it stays sunny!

 

[MikeTimbers]

Got PADI in Boracay in the Phillipines in the mid-90s and haven't dived since Loved it but that was when I was single

 

[Clipsey]

For those in the know - is it incredibly different from wet suit? ie. Boyancy control etc?

To start with it may seem a little strange, but you soon get used to it and it becomes second nature just like a stab jacket does
However if you get the weight wrong then you can get some serious 'crotch squeeze' which is dam annoying!! Specially if mid-dive you need a leak

 

[Clipsey]

@gog - what diving centre are you using? whats the name of your instructor? going to wraysbury for final dives?

Hey where abouts in Wraysbury? I've dived most of the reservoirs over that way (for work).

 

[reddeathdrinker]

Nope - I make commercial diving equipment instead though

 

[spirit]

theres only one that everyone uses.. www.wraysbury.ws from memory, though many of the london schools have gone to chepstow which is pretty nice (imo nicer). never heard of scubadoos.. so prolly wont know this guy

 

[Mat]

I'll probably get 15 or so dives under my belt before going for AOW.

I wouldn't really worry too much about that. The AOW adds to the OW in my opinion but does't really do anything that you couldn't already do. I did a wreck dive, a deep dive (went to 29m iirc), a night dive, boat dives and one other thing I cant remember, none of which were really taxing. I did it sooner rather than later purely to allow me to increase the potential number of places I was certified to dive. There's nothing worse than going out with a group and instructor / master and not being able to all go to the same places. Having said that, there isn't any rush for these things

I'm currently on the lookout for some new equipment... how do people make decisions on what type of BCD they get, what do you look out for?

 

[tres]

check the bay mate, always full sets of gear going quite cheap

Yeah, deep dive is down to 30m, but our instructor took us down to 40m - and had my first taste of nitrogen narcosis!

 

[Mat]

and had my first taste of nitrogen narcosis!

Weeeeee! Happy times

 

[waso_dude]

I've always really really wanted to do it.

My sister is in africa (year out) atm. Shes just done her standard training and has her advanced next week. She said its the best thing shes ever done.