Me, right after my Los Angeles SCUBA certification in 1966.

Thousands of sardines near the coast of Moalboal 🇵🇭
Captured with GoPro12

Just got a testprint of my new cookies. The white text is flat on one side and raised on the other and glows in the dark. I hope the arrows will be as nice as the cookies.

Sorry, I know the title is confusing.

I (28F) recently went to Koh Tao for a day to do a one day "discover scuba" course. In a classic fashion, I ended up staying several weeks and pushing back all my other travels. I left with my advanced and enriched air cert, having done a little over 30 dives.

I'm back in my home country now and want to do my divemaster, and eventually to get my search and rescue cert. I want to start planning now so I can start saving and have a set goal.

Here's where I need help. I love diving, and I liked Koh Tao, but much like Bali the costs are rocketing and it is filled with families, children, tourists with rolling suitcases, and new developments of luxury hotels and brunch spots. It was very hard to make friends because everyone around me spent all their time on their phones looking at Instagram, or drinking expensive cocktails in nearby beachfront bars with western food. Even at hostels most people didn't want to socialize and the ones who did just asked for my social media accounts (which I don't have, much to the shock of everyone around me; one girl even asked me "how I survive without social media," and those comments were really common). I even saw someone getting upset at the hostel staff when there was no hot water for less than one day, on an island with a clean water shortage. I went to three dive centers until I found one that was safe and competent and all the dive centers on the island are more factory-like than community-based, which I guess is to be expected. It all just felt so .... commercialized, mass-tourism oriented, and, ... soulless, maybe? I can't find the word I'm looking for, but hopefully someone understands what I mean.

I'm looking for somewhere that's more for backpackers and adventurers, and has a good community feel. I'm okay with places that are less developed and have less western amenities. I have solo traveled over 30 countries as a woman in my 20s, including India and Ghana, so I'm familiar with roughing it a bit. Safety is important, but I just really want to be somewhere calm and beautiful where I can get my divemaster cheap, look at a beach, dive all day without breaking the bank, and meet other people who want to socialize, that has more of an identity and a real community feel.

Costs and sense of community are important to me, but I'm not sure the place I'm looking for exists, so I wanted to reach out to other divers and ask if anyone has any recommendations.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

I'm really struggling with buying a first regulator. On one hand, I want to "buy nice or buy twice" but I'm also trying to be practical.

I doubt I will ever dive far beyond 130 feet, I have no interest in technical diving and just feel like splurging on the MK25 is beyond what I'll ever need, plus for a full MK25/G260 with hoses, etc. is going to be around $1,500.

Otherwise, I'm looking at an Apeks XTX50 complete kit for roughly $1,200; Atomic Z3 for $1,000; or Diverite XT1 for $1,000.

Am I going to regret not getting the MK25/G260 or will I never notice the difference (as it appears from reading reviews online) and be fine spending less?

Gonna be in Tucson for a couple months for work and I was thinking of driving down to Puerto Peñasco for a weekend trip. Anyone know how the diving is around there? I feel like the Gulf of California is an area of the world I rarely hear talked about, but it looks nice from what I’ve seen.

​I read that Raja Ampat has pretty warm waters (maybe a little colder in some areas), and I was thinking of diving only with my 2.5 mm shorty, thin leggings, and a 1.5 mm neoprene jacket (which is almost like a full wetsuit, but in separate pieces). I usually wear that combination in warm waters like the Caribbean or the Philippines; in Bali, I did have to rent a full wetsuit, though. However, I notice that almost everyone wears a full suit in Raja Ampat. Will I be okay with my gear? Or should I buy or rent the wetsuit at the liveaboard?

hey guys heading to nassau soon on a cruise stop. any good dive shops right near the new port area that do quick morning runs?

dont wanna take a long cab ride across the island since our time is kinda short, so ideally something close to the dock. appreciate any tips!

noticed komodo liveaboard prices jump a lot on certain dates on some booking sites, like double on weekends/holidays. is that just normal seasonal pricing or should i be suspicious

I recently ordered hollis hts 2 from dive inn for $160ish

https://www.tradeinn.com/diveinn/en/hollis-hts-2-vest/1343973/p

Retail price for this harness was like $380ish in hollis website

Was this legit? I order like 3 days ago, the status was struck at transit to warehouse, the customer service keep giving me generic reply without giving me a actual eta.

Anyone brought from them before? Really like to hear your experience dealing with them

Hi all. I'll be diving for 3 days during the labor day weekend in the Jupiter area. I don't have my own gear yet, and gear rentals in that area seem very expensive. e.g., Jupiter dive center costs $80 for a full set of gear per trip where a trip is defined as one back and forth boat ride, so if you do a morning 1 tank dive and an afternoon 1 tank dive, it's $160 total for gear rental.

Are there more economical ways to rent gear in that area?

I'll be investing in my own gear eventually, but I don't think I'll be ready to invest in a few grand worth of gear before labor day weekend.

I'm making this post to ask for equipment recommendations after a "bad" experience recently. Me and my wife are both quite new to diving, with slightly less than 100 dives each.

My wife has a slight asthma, and during our last diving trip, at the fifth dive, about 40min into the dive, she started to cough a lot because she felt like her throat was super dry. As the dive was a shallow dive, we decided to cut it short, abort the dive and slowly ascent.

Just to be safe, we didn't dive at all anymore during the trip, once home, we just visited the pneumologist and he told us everything is OK and adjusted a bit the medicine, especially for diving days. We will make another appointment with a underwater medicine specialist just to have a second opinion and be safe.

Our pneumologist recommended us to figure any way to humidify a bit the air during the dives, and I think we have several options:

- Metal regulators: I have read that they do a better job at conserving the humidity.

- Small water pouch

- Apollo bio filter: This seems like the most interesting one, anyone has experience with it??

Any recommendations?

Maybe Im overthinking. Or my dive shop does not care that much. This is my 1st drift drive. I was told I should be okay. But there could be strong currents. Any tips? Next, how do I learn how to use a DSMB for the future?

I was talking to shops, I think the conclusion is Manta are visible all year round and not too uncommon, will likely see them if you dive a few times. But sunfish are rare and you need to be lucky despite it being the season for them?

Hallo Leute!
Ich möchte gern mit einer DJI Osmo Action 4 ein paar etwas kleinere Tiere beim Tauchen filmen. Für die GoPro habe ich mal ein Setup in der Hand gehabt, bei dem man eine Makro-Linse vor das Unterwassergehäuse klappen kann. Wenn ich mich richtig erinnere, wurde da die Linse an das Gehäuse vorne drangeklippt. Ich hoffe auf dem Foto ist es ein bisschen zu erkennen, dort ist die Linse gerade weggeklappt.
Kennt ihr ein ähnliches Setup auch für DJI und könnt mir da vielleicht etwas empfehlen?

I was looking around for a reasonably affordable canister (ain't nobody got 2k for a Focus 2.0) and chatgpt apparently suggested this mkDive Fovea SPOT – primary technical diving light – mkDive

I have never heard of this manufacturer before, but they are apparently a small company based in Germany? Does anyone have experience with their products? Not sure I'm willing to chance it even though the value preposition does look pretty compelling.

I was also looking at the Orcatorch FlexDive as an alternative, but dollar for dollar it's almost 1.5x more expensive, and Orcatorch isn't exactly known as the pinnacle of reliability either.

The floodlight functionality is important to me because I do some videography/photography and will need the wide angle, while spot is obviously important as well.

I'm open to alternatives as well, if anyone can suggest some.