Northwest Dive Club

Your Eustachian tubes and ears get a workout on a dive. The number and intensity of equalization you go through are way beyond 'design parameters'. You could be reacting to some micro-trauma from adequate but not exceptional equalization. Everyone's ears are different. I need to go slowly, pay a lot...

This is parking by the side of the road, and it's pretty limited. If this option is used much, it will probably cause that area to be [No Parking] zone. You have to hump gear down a somewhat steep path to a rocky peninsula. It's a fairly long swim out to the rock. It's not nearly as easy or user fri...

cloisonne shrimp.

These are the fast swimming 'centipedes' you sometimes see in your lights on a night dive, and sometimes a lot.

I can see the value for swimmer's ear. The Amazon reviews have a bunch of 5* for improving clearing. I see no way at all it could improve clearing. It's not supported by simple physics. Which makes me distrust those reviews. I have on occasion carefully applied a bit of olive oil or similar during a...

I just picked up a new pair of Doc's ProPlugs for my Bonaire trip. They have been helpful when doing 50 dives in 2 weeks to keep water out of the ear canal somewhat, which seems to lessen the beating my ears take in the process. Combine that with a bit of ear beer or alcohol and it's really helpful...

Positive fins? He already has floaty feet. One of the reasons seriously negative fins are used around here is for this problem. Attached boots inherently "can" have more float than 'rock boots'. But they are warmer (warm air can migrate into the boot) and less hassle. It's a choice. Person...

"Ear Beer" - weird name, good preventative.

Nothing. For that level of use you should have just kept using them. Most regs will go 100+ dives and/or 2+ years of regular use without servicing. Get an IP gauge to check your first stage pressure stability. If the IP is good, the reg is acting fine and you are only diving 10x/year you can probabl...

The Marker Buoys and most of the other clubs had booths there for years. Rick was good enough to trade member-power help for booth space, a win-win I think since the clubs are non-profit and work with small budgets. But, in years of being there we never picked up a single new member until the last y...

Nice set of pix Jan. Always glad to see you. Rhoda spotted the weight pouch the woman from Sunday lost. It was sitting right on the rock nose some people enter from. I went out and got it, didn't even need scuba. Called her on the way home. She's an Aquarium volunteer and was on duty. She stopped by...

Might you need another pound or two of lead? I get water in my BCD when I dive so light that I am struggling to get the last of the air out. True. Every time you push the exhaust button, you create a 'leak', air goes out (mostly) some water may go in. If you are really pumping the exhausts to dump ...

You press the button to let air out, some water goes in. Completely normal. Rinse it out, don't worry about it.

Confusing indeed. Flood > slack > ebb > flood again > ebb again. Most of us spent 15" swimming 'home' against the flood before it really changed.

That was a worthy bit of education.

Known problem with the D2. Doesn't happen to them all, but does happen. The company should be good for it but you'll be out your strobes for awhile.

Seasonality is an issue. Takes some attention and a lot of diving to wrap your perspective around that. I think Grateful Dive has a viable view as he's been diving a long time and knows Redondo quite well. Tom Nic's perspective on 'winter' is also part of the equation. IMO another factor has been th...

Check with the MAST center, maybe TLSEA.

Shouldn't it just be standard tap water for the area?

Any idea of the growth rate of those sponges?
Thank you for pointing out this change.

Proceed down slope past 50'. Start looking for Crimson An. Generally they don't grow shallower than that, though there are a few. Look closely at the base of all of them. That's where they are.

If you push your diving much, and that's not to the point of imminent DCS danger, you may find the Suunto conservative algorithm very very annoying. My wife has a Suunto, and she's had to bench it a few times during trips. It will decide she's had enough and lock her out, when the whole rest of the ...

Never had one but looking over your list of problems and outright failures I'd run away. Probably a Shearwater would serve you well.

The area near the hedge is off limits because the people living there persistently called in with their grievance. There definitely is at least one person, maybe more, that is willing to do whatever necessary to minimize public access and impact.

Aluminum tank? Go to steel and lose about 6# with no other penalty. FWIW, you simply have to figure out what specific part of the kit is contributing to your buoyancy, then see if you are willing to deal with the expense and trouble of switching. Like, going from a Ranger > Back Plate/Wing likely wo...