Northwest Dive Club

This is a great idea - thanks for asking the question. There is a book called "Diver Down" which is full of stories about dives that went awry - it is a good read and I highly recommend it. There's also a guy from the IADRS named Blades Robinson who gives a sobering presentation about publ...

Two questions 1) autofocus on crappy p/s cameras - I have a "guess" this is due to the lack of available light for the camera to focus on, as I noticed that commonly the background was in focus but not my subject if I pick up a crappy little light for a AF/Assist beam am I on track there?...

My own experience has been that Pacific Cod just weren't around to be seen for a while (friends tell me they were quite abundant in certain places up until about the mid eighties) - but I've seen a few recently and I'm hearing more reports like these from other divers, too. Do y'all get the sense th...

Took the boat out late this afternoon for a test run after some repairs. Dropped in to check out Sares Head and found that visibility was about 6'. Disappointing. Perfect for stumbling across Lingcod males defending their nests. Weather was getting unpleasant by the time I surfaced. Dusk dive at the...

Me too. Not fond of the invasives but Jan your photos are lovely - last few scenes are really spectacular - such a variety of warm red/brown colors in the foreground and the beautiful green background for contrast. I think I've noticed that lately you're including more of our pretty green water in y...

Oh geez - I hope I can make it. Thanks for posting this Waynne. For those who aren't familiar with David Doubilet's work, someone recently posted a link to some amazing nudibranch shots from National Geographic - those were David's. That project got him a lot of attention (I think the photos spoke f...

I never could actually get ahold of Kent Tooling, per se. It's a side business some Brit runs out of his metal shop, and he's a busy guy- doesn't answer emails, anyway. I got an email response from him and IIRC the total after taxes, exchange etc was upwards of $250US :-/ If I ever bump into you at...

Wow - this is cool. I don't see a lot of people doing really wide angle around here and it's too bad because these photos really make me feel like I'm there and part of the scene. I see you've got an 8" dome for that lens - how about trying some over/under shots?

I moved over to a pretty neat one from Kent tooling: Link Ooooh - that's my dream reel. Last time I was buying I couldn't justify the cost of the Kent Tooling product so I went with a Manta Jr (with cam). I am pretty happy with it. The regular Manta (Senior, I guess?) might hold the length of line ...

So after reading through this again, I am thinking part of the reason Joshua took offense is that I didn't distinguish clearly enough between comments that were specifically regarding his dive and comments which were more generally aimed at diver safety and human nature. I'm going to try to resolve ...

My surface marker is a Carter Personal Float (the 35lb model). I've used it as a lift bag, a marker float when I find something during a search, and of course as a SMB. It has been through a lot and is still holding up great - really happy with it. They're bulkier and perhaps more complicated to dep...

That is pretty cool - seeing a lot of pink camo lately - maybe it's the latest fashion in Skagit County ;) One of my buddies has a bright pink Al80 he dives from time to time and it is amazing how much easier it is to spot him in dark murky water - for the most part where we're diving all the red wa...

Ah - that explains it. "view active topics" will work just fine - thanks for your response.

When I login and there are new posts in the Dive Site Listings forum the threads are sorted alphabetically by default. I find myself scrolling down and clicking through multiple pages to find the thread that's been updated. I fiddled with changing the sort order the other day but couldn't find a set...

Yeah. I'll be sure and clear my next bag shot with you. Where do you get off giving advice like this? As far as I can tell, you're not an instructor. You appear to have started diving about 7 months before I did. Don't know when you started diving - don't care - it's irrelevant. I'm not a diving in...

Whatevah, maybe if you spent more time practicing shooting an SMB and got more comfortable with it you wouldn't feel like it was such a large task... lol I use my SMB and reel on a pretty good proportion of my dives actually, and I didn't say it was "such a large task". That's kinda my wa...

I can remember a dive where we blew a bag from 145 fsw ... it was our first stop, and we were looking at about 45+ minutes of deco. I guess the reason we blew the bag deep is so that we didn't spend the next 45 minutes wondering if we'd drifted beyond where the pickup boat could see us. That's the ...

It takes about a minute to blow a bag, If everything goes to plan. This thread is proof that it almost always does ;) if you are doing a 10' per minute ascent, how are you off gassing any less efficiently? You may well be loading rather than off-gassing during that 1 minute (or more). In a dive whe...

Why you think it's "a lot better" to deploy from 30fsw as opposed to deeper in the conditions you describe? Why deploy at all under those conditions? The only reason I can think of is to avoid being hit by a boat, but I don't know of any with an 80' draft. So, you're spending more time at...

And Josh, I am SO in sympathy about the green water ascent. I hate them. I CAN do them if I have to, but vertigo is never very far away. That little piece of line can be the difference between an uneventful ascent, and an eternity spent staring at my depth gauge while my brain tells me I'm doing so...

I *Hate* greenwater ascents. That's why I *ALMOST ALWAYS* carry a 425' reel and SMB with me- so I won't have to do one. Good write-up - aren't learning experiences great?! I actually consider shooting a bag in open water to be a green water ascent - interesting to see that perceptions vary on that ...

CaptnJack wrote:

whatevah wrote:Might be tough to reach for oral inflation. But a UTD buddy would surely oblige.

I'm in, some are pretty hot!

Stay away from my power inflator.

Wait a few weeks for the P System. The wing inflation hose is centered at the base of the wing and routed forward and up and bungeed to your scooter ring. This frees up your chest rings for all sorts of stuff (like your console retractor). Might be tough to reach for oral inflation. But a UTD buddy...

Dendronotus diversicolor and D. albus are synonymized due to lack of genetic variation in the 16S rRNA gene and of any significant morphological differences." They are now all "white" :) Well wouldn't you know it... I go to all the trouble to figure out how to distinguish the differe...

Sorry - meant to comment more on your questions about critters you saw... DSC_1133.jpg Those are Black Sea Cucumbers - they are fairly specific to certain areas it seems. Lots of them on the east side of Burrows Island and on Skyline Wall, north end of James Island, but otherwise they are kind of pa...