On Nov 13, 2008, at 11:27 AM, Darin wrote:
> WayneS wrote:
>>
>> I think snorkeling is actually more fun, and I have better photos
>> from
>> snorkeling
>> than from diving, but diving has a more macho bragging rights
>> quality.
>> Something
>> I need to acquire as I get older and more seasoned.
>>
>
> Snorkeling definitely looks like a lot of fun too,
Oh, it is ;)
> but I'm not a very good
> swimmer and just always figured I'd be better off with an air tank
> than a
> flimsy little tube to breath. I could also see how snorkeling could
> make
> underwater photography easier than diving, since there would be
> more natural
> light available closer to the surface than a couple hundred feet down.
Depending. Snorkeling does not allow (me, at least) much time for UW
photography. Especially when photographing living creatures, the
"sneaking up on" aspect and the "waiting until they turn just the
right way" is taking more time than I can reasonably hold my breadth
for ;) But light-wise, the deeper one gets the more light does one
have to bring along oneself.
>> Belize is very loose on requirements for diving,
Yes -- unfortunately. I've, for that reason, never been diving
there...dealing with decompression accidents (even if it's that of
somebody else) is just not fun, and Belize et. al. are way too lax on
safety for my liking. The term "cattle boat" is sometimes employed to
describe the diveboats there, and reasonably so....
>> and you need to
>> watch yourself. I know some people, with maybe one or two days
>> of training, taken out to the Blue Hole for a 200+ foot dive. Crazy
>>
> Sounds like a good way to weed out some idiots.
Now, there's a good description of that particular dive.
200ft+ dives are not to be undertaken likely - that's about where one
will start flirting with oxygen toxicity and n2-impairment, if one
dives with regular air, and incurs real decompression scheduling in
any event. And so any sane diver will either say "nahh, I'll skip" or
will do so only in a team, on mixed gasses and with equipment that I
doubt that you could get on your run-of-the-mill-Belize-boat. Depth,
unfortunately, is a compensatory measure for a certain segment of the
male diver-population.....
> I've got way to much common
> sense to think myself capable of that kind of dive with that little
> training. Not to mention I'd be way to chicken!
My best dive was at Okinawa now many years back. I was diving with a
local marine biologist who was off duty near a beach some early
morning before she had to be to work. Max depth was 5m/16ft, and we
were usually above that for the bulk of time -- but we had gas for an
eternity, plenty of morning light, a rocky-canyony-environment with
an extremely dense and curious local population of puffer-fish, moray
eel and such.
Man, that was a great dive: warm water, plenty of light, no deco-
obligation, no complicated equipment to drag along, plenty of stuff
to see and plenty of time to explore. Plus, I was in great company
with someone who could upon surfacing and having coffee on the beach,
tell me all about the habits and habitats of the various underwater
friends we'd encountered.
>> I actually had some problems after 4 dives and had to stop. 130-150
>> foot dives are easy to come by, but my body had a hard time adapting
>> and I had to stop after the 4th dive in 3 days.
>>
> If you don't mind my asking, were the problems related to the
> pressure, or
> was it something else?
I would not pretend to know what Wayne's issues were, and I'm not an
M.D. nor do I play one on TV - or even on this list (I leave that to
Charles ;) ).
But four 130-150ft dives in 3 days would -- for me -- imply that they
would all be run as true decompression dives, preferably using oxygen-
rich mixes for the (albeit short) decompression stops. I know that it
is claimed possible to do such as a sequence of "no decompression
dives", and that it's done all over the world all the time.
However if I do not do appropriate stops I just end up feeling like a
wet newspaper -- in perfect "health" as such, just extremely fatigued
and worn out.
Adding a couple of decompression stops along the ascent, and
ascending very slowly (especially the last couple of meter, where it
be extremely slowly), and I'm ready to run a marathon upon surfacing
-- in full form. If I can, I pony a Nitrox bottle for the deco, but
that's just an extra margin.
I'd almost bet that if the problem is "feeling wasted upon
surfacing", and this feeling is cumulative, then it is -- absent a
medical condition, of course -- a matter of ascending too fast.
Thomas
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