Northwest Dive Club

I am very surprised that you have had a recurrent problem with a Light Monkey light, but I will say that I am disgusted with E/O connectors. You can try cleaning them well with contact cleaner -- that seems to have done the trick for my suit heater, at least in the short run. I have had LM lights fo...

You do have to use a wrench, and sometimes more than once. Every time I've taken off an inflator valve, I've had at least one wet dive before I got it back on tight enough.

So -- I was originally supposed to go out on a boat today. The Bandito, out of Tacoma, which I haven't done in quite a while, with my long-term favorite dive buddy. So I got up in the black of night, piled into our enormous 25 year old F-250 pickup truck (long story there), and headed south in POURI...

Oh, I hope that phenomenon spreads to the lower Sound. I desperately miss the sea stars . . . the winter sites, with no sea lettuce and no stars, are so colorless.

Panic has fascinated me since I began to dive, because it kills people, and because I am apparently not prone to it. But that is not to say that I haven't been very, very close . . . Bob will remember a dive we did together, which was my first time at Day Island Wall. We swam out and hit the wall ri...

Just a warning . . . if we have to put our horse to sleep tomorrow, I may not make it. Vet is coming at noon.

And no, cupronickel, it's not at the Lighthouse Park. It's the entry site on the north end of the Silver Cloud hotel. There is a small amount of parking right at the site, and more along the street as it turns away from the hotel.

I will be there, and happy to buddy up with a novice.

I've had both, and all my Apeks valves have leaked from the get-go. The SiTech valves eventually leak, too, but I've had pretty good luck salvaging them a couple of times by taking them apart and cleaning them. I used to have a great photo essay on doing that, but it was on the DiveMatrix board, and...

Dangit! I'm working that whole weekend. Would have been fun to do a club dive there.

I know actually quite a number of Indian folks around here who dive -- we just worked with a student from southern India. The local dive clubs are great places to arrange a buddy for a relative novice. A lot of them have Meet up sites (I know Moss Bay and Emerald Sea do) that list the dives that are...

6 cf cylinder, I get three shallow dives or two deep ones. I top with air if argon isn't available where I am. I haven't used Argon since I bought the Santi vest, though.

Where are you in the region? There are quite a few shops that rent dry suits, and could do an orientation. Silent World in Bellevue rents Fusions, which can be a very good choice for a first suit. Bubbles Below in Woodinville has DUI suits. I'm not sure what else is out there.

I use a QD, but without the shutoff valve. I have a cap which I place when I disconnect, and then the earliest moment I can get to a bathroom, I either drain the system or remove the She-P. You could certainly accomplish the same thing with a barbed connector, but I prefer the certainty of the QD to...

Every single time I come here, I am again astonished at what I learn -- amazing information, and so beautifully illustrated!

What a fun post! I love diving with newly minted divers, because everything they see, they are seeing for the first time, and that makes me see it through new eyes, too.

I'm sorry; I am a PADI DM and independently insured, but I will be in Canada this weekend taking a class. I hope you find someone to sub for you.

I've got to get out diving. Seems like EVERYBODY is finding my favorite dorids . . .

I had no idea there were nematocysts on the column, too. The things I learn from this thread!

Love the sunlight spill photos!

You are just like my husband. Get some local skills training and then go back down to MX and take a cave class. You loved the caverns, but the caves are all that and more.

We were all new once, and many of us remember that. There is no shame in being a novice, and in fact, diving with folks who find coon-striped shrimp and kelp crabs amazing reminds us of what it was like in the beginning.

As I said, I'd dive with you, if my schedule let me.

Consider looking at some of the local dive clubs. I'm a member of Moss Bay, for example, and if you go to their Meetup site, there are a lot of weekend dives planned. There is always room for another and a new diver, but it is a good idea to contact the dive leader and let that person know that you ...

Oh, man, you're tempting me. I'd love to have a backup for when mine eventually dies . . . I LOVE my X1.

That's incredible! In almost ten years of diving, I've never seen them underwater here, and only once I have seen them from a boat.

Happy belated birthday, Bob! Hope your Canada trip is exceeding your expectations.