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Dave Maynard <superdav@na*.ne*> wrote: >I am new here and relativly new to diving as well. I was certifyed this >summer and have been making "dive plans" since. My dive buddy (Open Water I >same as me) here in North Carolina wants to dive the U352 right away. I >think it's too deep without more certifications and he agrees. Many wrecks >off of North Carolina are deep. I've heard you can go inside some, safely, >with the proper certifications. I also know that proper equipment is >preferred for these types of dives. You're on the right track, knowing you need more certifications and equipment before you're ready for that type of diving. Unfortunately, by now you'll have see several of the type of response for which this list has become infamous. I'll go on the record to say that, provided that a new diver doesn't take shortcuts and avoid "paying his dues", there's absolutely nothing wrong with having something like the U352 as your ultimate goal. It gives you something to work towards. Mind you, you're looking at 500 to 1000 dives before you're at that level, and it may take several years. On the up side, there's a lot to see in the sea at shallower depths and you'll have a lot of fun gaining that experience. Try to space out your courses so you have enough time to thoroughly assimilate the material at each level before going on to the next. As for levels: - Rescue Diver; this is useful not so much for learning what to do when things go wrong and what first aid to do, but more because an appreciation of what can go wrong and how it can be prevented makes you a safer diver. - NAUI Master Diver (level III); this covers a lot of the "why" and the logic behind some of the absolutes in the openwater course and some physics and so on. A lot of good material gets covered in the classroom sessions. Take this in preference to the PADI Master Diver, which involves taking a bunch of specialty cards and then getting this one as a catchall "recognition" card without any further training. - Nitrox; this covers a lot of the gas physiology involved in later mix diving and gives you the basics of breathing things other than air. - Deep air/tech nitrox: there's been raging debate in this area, but IMHO once the flaming has died down and people decide on the greatest safe EAD (equivalent air depth), the safest, cheapest, simplest and most effective way to train to that level is to make a lot of dives to that number of actual feet on air. Learn to use richer Nitrox mixtures for decompression, and the issues involved in deep exposures and safely doing decompression. - Finally, once you know all that, is time to start learning about trimix and breathe your first helium. I won't say too much about this since I'm still working on the previous step myself. >Maybe I need one BC for tech diving wrecks here in North Carolina and >another when I go South on vacation. What about regulators........one shop >says............another...and if your gonna use nitrox... There's even a chance you'll wear out your first BC before you do the U. For serious teching, you'd probably want a wings-type BC. I started off with an older (new at the time) SeaQuest, and it's done me reasonably good. It's starting to look a bit worn, but hopefully it will last until I really need to get a DiveRite or whatever. Things to look out for are (a) lots of lift, (b) lots of D-rings, (c) ability to mount either a single tank or doubles, and (d) good access to the chest area for a drysuit inflator valve. Location of bouyancy is an issue; front bouyancy can be a lifesaver if you're having troubles in openwater and need the BC to float you with your face out of water. The old horsecollar BCs, based on lifejackets, were best at this. At the other extreme, rear bouyancy (wings-type setups) are best for managing heavy double tanks and make perfect sense for doing so in a cave where there's no surface to float on anyway. The standard "stab-jacket" BC used by sport divers tries to be a compromise between these two, trying to accomplish both, and does a ho-hum job of each. As for regulators, there are a number of really good ones out there. The top-of-the-line Scubapro is highly recommended by a lot of people. The Mares Abyss is the newest really good thing. I've always sworn by Poseidon, and they're topnotch too, especially in the freezing water I enjoy diving in for some reason :-), but they're having serious distribution problems in North America right now and I want to see them bounce back before I recommend them. Buy the best one you can, and you won't regret it. It'll find a place in your "tech" setup somewhere down the road. Also, when you start diving with multiple gas mixtures it's highly recommended that you use physically different regulators for each so that you know immediately by touch what each one is. >I have too much information and not enough sense too use it. I hope that by this you mean simply that you're getting information overload and don't yet know how to separate wheat from chaff, or who to listen to and who to ignore, and not that you're claiming to be dumb enough to go out and get killed trying to do everything the first weekend. Unfortunately, even the best divers can't agree on one set of right answers and we each have to filter through everything we read and see what makes the best sense for the dives we're doing. You'll see certain people flaming each other for what they claim are worthless practises, and in a lot of cases what's at issue is that they're diving in different parts of the world in different conditions for different purposes under different local laws, and if they ever swapped places they'd either have to learn how the other guy did it or get killed trying to do the dive their own way. In other cases, there are benefits to doing things the one way, and different benefits to doing things the other way, and you have to decide which set of benefits outweighs the other. Listening to the advice of those who have gone before has immense value; as the second generation of people doing this stuff we can listen to the survivors of the first generation telling us how to do it, and not have to learn the way that generation did. Anyway, I think we all have something to contribute, although some don't make their advice terribly palatable. If all else fails, filter everyone else out and just listen to what Rich Pyle has to say. He's at least the equal of anybody else on the list and has a gift for sharing his knowledge without ramming down anyone's throat. If more of us had him for a role model, this list would be a better place. I think I've said enough for one posting, and as it's nearing midnight local time I'll sign off now. Happy (and safe) diving! -- Anthony DeBoer adb@he*.re*.or* (here) adb@ge*.co* (work)
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