Northwest Dive Club

the tank is (if I'm not mistaken) a big DOT violation though if it's strapped to your back it is upright and secured... hmmm that's interesting. I'd suggest getting a trailer. They're not that expensive and you'd be amazed at how handy they can be... or get a side hack and it'll serve double duty! ...

I don't think it was actually their glove system. Weren't they actually made by Skaana and just resold by DC, or was that the other way around?

No question in my mind that they are the best ring setup out there, regardless.

Yeah. The claws are hell on drysuit seals, though.

Oh. Wait. That's my dive buddy in my hack. The girlfriend is holding him

Two other points: first, rinse the trailer off after salt water with a hose. That'll help immensely, no matter what your coatings are.

Second, if you're doing some restoration work, you can upgrade the fasteners on it to stainless or hot-dip galvanized... don't forget about them in the process!

Meh. I don't teach diving. I have had enough students try to kill me in the airplane to know that I will never want to teach diving. That said, of my personal first 150 dives, 138 of them were on a rebreather. I went right from OW into a unit, because I got the first one for free. (Just like crack, ...

Tank checker gauges (DIN + a yoke adapter) and intermediate pressure gauges on a BC quick disconnect are two items that should be in everyone's dive kit, anyway.

-C

http://www.scubacompressor.com/shop/standard-line-valve-p-49.html You'll have to unscrew one end of the fill whip and screw that valve inline with a little bit of teflon tape, but that's the way you do it.... or just leave the transfill whip connected to another tank on the other side with the othe...

I've seen video of it done, but I agree about the jerkiness. I used to helmet mount a video camera for skydiving, and it took about fifty or so jumps with the camera to get used to shooting video that didn't look like a squirrel on meth. FWIW, I am anti-helmet in the caves unless scootering, and eve...

Have you looked at the CLX450? It's what I ended up with a few years ago as a custom build. I got mine entirely of the heavy weight cordura, which they'll do on request, instead of the lighter FLX material on the bottom with a cordura top. It works well in both places -- more rugged than the FLX (an...

I know I read about somebody getting hassled somewhere tropical, possible Roatan, for being an "uncertified" sidemount diver. I think it ranks right up there with Bob having to get 32/0 trimix since he didn't bring a nitrox card on a trip but as stupid as it seems your card might be usefu...

+1 PSI had to really selectively read the CFRs to reach this conclusion. [sarcasm]Even more amazingly other VIP agencies/organizations are not getting hauled into court by DOT...[/sarcasm] +1 as well. I'm glad I have my own compressor at the end of the day, too. Makes life a lot more convenient, al...

I'm interested that you made the switch to sidemount that easily. Did you guys do any out of air drills or anything? I've been playing with the idea for a while, myself, just for gear schlepping reasons. I really didn't have much of an issue, surprisingly...a lot less than I was thinking. A few hos...

Day 5: Last Day My last day was supposed to be a little different...the plan was to meet up at 10 at CCDS, grab a couple of Silent Submersion scooters, and head back to Ginnie to scooter. (Yeah, I know I'm a DiveX fan and own one, but I didn't bring it, and SS was all they had!) Dive one was suppose...

Day 4: After knocking off the two sites I wanted the day before, and a few too many beers the night before with Rich and some others, we get a late start at CCDS. Today's My Favorite Cave - Madison Blue. We head up to MB, which is a good dive, and the plan is to do the Crossunder tunnel, drop into t...

Day 3: After yesterday's checkout dive, Rich's confidence in me is high enough that we're ready to head off to the side mount systems I came down here to really see. Stop one - Cow Springs. We head up to the Dive Outpost to grab the key, and along the way we bump into some old friends of Rich's and ...

Day 2: Catch up with Rich bright and early at CCDS. We chat and head over to the diner for chow. I'd forgotten how good greasy grits are in the morning. I made it a point to eat them daily while down there. :) It's good to see the gruff service and greasy food never changes, no matter how long you'r...

It's been a crazy week back at the office, so I'm a little tardy in posting this. I took a little time off last week to head down to one of my favorite destinations: north Florida. It's been a while since I had a good run of cave diving, and I had an itch to go into some caves that I'd never managed...

Most people forget that there's no license anywhere or rules that say you have to VIP anything. It's a self regulating bit of the dive industry that may or may not be complete BS. You should make up your own opinions when you've had enough experience to form one. That said, the industry likes to see...

I have a 17cf pony setup so don't see myself using redundant first stages on the H. Very little point in doing so in the PNW waters. Doubles are a much better choice for any number of reasons. The H or Y valves are used more commonly in two places: extreme cold water and overhead environments. In A...

I am a huge fan of the electronic ones. Peltor makes a nice set around $100 that works really well... what I like in particular is that they do a great job killing the "bang" noise, but you can still have a conversation with your buddies and hear what's around you. There are other manufact...

BTW - depending on the marker, isopropyl alcohol will also often do the trick, and I usually have the prep pads lying around from a first aid kit.

My understanding is that at about 140, you get into a mixture of cloud sponges and red gorgonians, and the gorgonians get bigger as you go deeper. This was one of the dives for which I got my tech cert, and I have yet to do it. Although it's been a number of years since I've been up there, this is ...

You bet! Awesome dive...I think it has been five years since I last dove the park, so it was super nice to get back there and pull almost two hours of BT with you on the dive. The cabs and lings were enormous and a little territorial. I'd been missing them, but they sure didn't seem happy to see me

Dusty2 wrote:I would advise putting a SS split ring in the light hole then tie to it. That will get rid of the abrasion point

That's the metal-on-metal issue that the cave line's designed to avoid in the first place. If you're okay with that, then it's a good solution, too.