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Bobby_M

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Since there was a substantial SCUBA hijack going on Jester's special thread, I thought we should keep it altogether over here.

I used to love wreckdiving as much as I now love brewing and it would have continued if it weren't for a tendency for sea sickness. The problem is that all the good wrecks up here in NJ are 15+ miles offshore and it never, or hardly ever, flattens out for us. I got tired of paying a captain $80 to make me sick for 6 hours with no lobster to show for it. It caused me to sell off my doubles rig and limit my diving to mostly carribbean stuff :-(

I'm headed down to Miami on 4/27/08 on business but I hope to catch an afternoon dive on Sunday with two of my colleagues.
 
One of the few pics I have, this is at one of our local springs I dive at. ( I can't believe I actually have a snorkel on. :eek:

CIMG1414-1.jpg


Im hoping to have a set of steel doubles by the end of summer, and starting my tech, classes next year. I want to be able to dive some of those great wrecks off the coast of NJ.
 
I used to be pretty hardcore into diving years ago...adv naui cert and was working toward mixed gas. Did the Stolt, Mohawk and a bunch other Jersey wrecks before taking a long hiatus.

I've thought about getting back in but if I did, I might just stick to the tropical recreational stuff.
 
Ryanh1801 said:
One of the few pics I have, this is at one of our local springs I dive at. ( I can't believe I actually have a snorkel on. :eek:

CIMG1414-1.jpg


Im hoping to have a set of steel doubles by the end of summer, and starting my tech, classes next year. I want to be able to dive some of those great wrecks off the coast of NJ.
I always have snorkel if we're shore diving. No reason to waste air on the surface.
 
Bobby_M said:
A whole lot of years ago at Dutch Springs in PA. Man, I hated that neoprene neck seal... I got Swarzenegger temples..

I've done plenty of hours in Dutch Springs. Did you ever get a chance to dive the pumphouse area during spawn? That can be a pretty fantastic. How about Willow Springs out by Reading? Did that one a couple times.

Under the checkout platforms was always a great place to find a few spare masks or snorkles ;)
 
I've seen just about every corner of the quarry but I've found the most goodies under the copter. The noobs wouldn't dare go to 70' to retrieve. I think most of the weights I currently use came from there.

Never been to Willow.
 
z987k said:
I always have snorkel if we're shore diving. No reason to waste air on the surface.

Well where I dive for the most part I don't need one, its more of a PITA. I have a fold up now, that I just store away unless I need it.
 
Hi, my name is Paul, and I'm guilty of being a hijacker.

(Hello Paul!)

So what does everyone dive? I'm in a DiveRite SS plate with a Dive Rite Harness and (OMG, say it ain't so!) quick release buckles on the harness. I tried and tried to like a Hog harness but it didn't work for me. I'm getting too freaking old to struggle getting into and out of my gear and it was a struggle to get in and out of a Hog. Screw it. I like my Dive Rite harness. I wear a set of OMS 98's with OMS bands and an OMS mainfold. I decided that I'll be picking up one of the OMS manifold snakes for my center post this season. I've had too many seperated shoulders to be able to readily reach the center post so I'm taking the easy way out and getting the snake. I use a 7 foot hose on my primary and my secondary is on a necklace. I am NOT(!!!!!) DIR. (One look at me in my sky blue and flourescent yellow drysuit would give that away.) I'm so not into Nazi diving, I couldn't get into DIR. WAY too regimented.

I've got about 325 dives in over the past 4 years and am certed thru Advanced Nitrox and Deco. I'm hoping to take Tech One/ Trimix this summer, we'll see how the budget holds out.

The snorkle and the spare mask are in a pocket.

PTN
 
About the same here Paul.. Dive Rite SS plate,Dive rite Buckled harness. (mainly because im in a Rescue class right now and did not want to deal with the single web design). Oxycheq 40# single wing. Mares abyss 12, reg set. (only place to get it is scuba toys) its the reg that Nasa uses. Its the 22 second stage with a 12 first stage. All I have right now is the standard 80 aluminum tank. Little HID light, but trying to convince a guy I dive with to sell me his canister light. Right now im only a open water diver/nitrox, but in a Master diver/ rescue course, all through NAUI. Honestly I love diving the Texas lakes, viability sucks most of the time, but its always fun, and test your skills when it gets down to 6 inches vis to nothing. I can also say I have no desire to dive warm tropic water. I like it cold and dark. :cross:
 
Bobby,
When you go to Miami, head up to Ft Lauderdale and dive the Captain Dan. Fill Express just north of Lauderdale will rent you doubles and they fill them to bursting with whatever gas mix you want! All you need to bring is your plate, wing and regs. (You're one of us, Bob, you don't need no stinkin' wetusit in FL in April.

But, back to the Captain Dan, it's the former bouytender USCGC Hollyhock and I spent two years serving on her. It is GREAT dive!!! I think it's at around 110 feet. Last time I was there I went down into the crews berthing area and swam over to where my rack used to be. It was a surreal experience to float in the middle of the compartment in about the same spot that I slept for two years and be 100 foot underwater. I went into every damned compartment aboard that ship except for the Capt's cabin and the engine room. (Too damned hot in the engine room!)

(Go in thru the watertight door on the aft port side of the bouy deck. When you get thru the door the crews head is on your right (port side outboard) If you turn amidships you will head into the messdeck. Right before you come to the messdeck there is a compartment on your left (forward) that used to hold the gyrocompass) and a watertight door opposite that on your right leading down to the crews berthing area. If you head down into the compartment and then head back at about a 45* angle you will come to another ladder heading up. Go up the ladder and when you get to the top turn 180 * (Forward) and you will come to the door that you entered the ship thru. There wouldn't be any backtracking if you went the other way but then you wouldn't see the gyro-room.

At that point if you head back to the messdeck (gyro-room on your left) and turn aft you will come to the messdeck The crews dining tables were on your left (Starboard outboard) and the gally on your right. (It doesn't seem possible that a crew of 50 could be fed out of that closet but they were, and it was good.) Immediatly after that you will come to a ladder going up. Go up the ladder. There is a WT door on your right but turn left (amidships) and go to the other WT door on the port side. Go up the ladder to the bridge, stopping and peeking in the Captains cabin just under the bridge. (25 years after the fact I wouldn't go in the Captains cabin without having been invited. Weird Pavlovian **** man.) Up in the bridge the wheel and binnacle was amidships and the quartemasters chartroom is the compartment immediatly behind the bridge. That's where I spent my days. So you have now been on three different decks inside. You don't need to run a line unless you want to in the berthing area, every other compartment has outside access. If you run a line in the berthing area just tie it of without a clip so you can reel it in without it catching on anything.

You've never smelt anything as bad as the smell of a bouydeck in the middle of summer. Foul doesn't begin to do it justice. Man, I miss it! I loved being in the Coast Guard. There was a thrill to it that you just don't get in regular day to day life. I love what I do now and it's quite a thrill to save someones life and to know that they can live or die based on your abilites. The pressure is sometimes immense, if you F*** up, they will die. But looking back at those days, offshore in a storm, or taking a 44 ft motorlifeboat out thru a break in 18 foot seas, knowing that if you F*** up this time YOU might die... I really miss that thrill!

Crap Bobby, now I feel like a freakin' old fart. I AM a freakin' old fart but I don't like feeling like one
 
Cool Ryan,
Cold and dark is whare it's at. Anyone can dive in in 80*F water with 100 ft of visibility. Give me the Chester Poling in February anyday.



(OK, I lied a bit. I like 80 degree water and 100 ft visibilty. And climbing up a ladder wearing 100 lbs of gear and being unable to grab the rungs cause your hands are so cold is an aquired taste. Anyone off tomorrow? I got full tanks and a lot of em.)
 
Ryanh1801 said:
One of the few pics I have, this is at one of our local springs I dive at. ( I can't believe I actually have a snorkel on. :eek:

CIMG1414-1.jpg


Im hoping to have a set of steel doubles by the end of summer, and starting my tech, classes next year. I want to be able to dive some of those great wrecks off the coast of NJ.

Ryan,
you got to streamline there, son! One of those hoses of yours hanging off there in the breeze will get you killed if you go inside a wreck. Your primary needs to be either 6 inches shorter or 5 feet longer and wrapped around your neck and your SPG nees to be tucked securely under your arm. If you don't want to buy a shorter inflator hose than wrap it around your corrugated hose a few times to take up that slack

(I'm getting to where I need either a prescription mask or a dog that can swim so I don't clip it on my hip, I tuck my SPG inside my shoulder strap so that it comes out in front of my face where my feeble eyes can see when I'm almost out of air.)

Honest to god, I'm not a cool-aide drinking DIR fanatic but some of what the whackjobs say makes sense. And I've been drinking so I may have come across as a fanatical MY WAY IS THE ONLY WAY diver. Whatever works for you. Any dive you dry off from was a good one.

PTN
 
Bobby_M said:
Since there was a substantial SCUBA hijack going on Jester's special thread, I thought we should keep it altogether over here.

Heh heh - have some SCUBA ideas for that thread, as a matter of fact...

Bobby_M said:
I used to love wreckdiving as much as I now love brewing and it would have continued if it weren't for a tendency for sea sickness.

Between my 3rd and 4th check dives, I got pretty seasick myself, chumming the water quite well with my breakfast! After the surface interval bobbing around, I hopped back in the water, dry heaved a few more times, popped in my reg and descended. The guy doing my check dives thought it was pretty hardcore, but really I just knew that below 20' it was calm, and if I stayed on board it would be more feeding the fish! :D
 
Kota said:
I am certified.. although i never got my card.

would love to go through the certification again.

Funny, I did the same thing. Did the whole class, pool dives,etc and got hit by life and didn't make the 2 day trip for my checkout dive...
 
I used to dive Faber LP95 doubles on OMS SS plate with the diverite deluxe harness, OMS bands, wing and manifold. I sold it all in one shot knowing I'd be warm water diving.

I still have my dual Scubapro MK25/S550 regs and Suunto Cobra computer but I don't own any tanks.

I'd love to go up to Ft Lauderdale but I'm literally flying in Sunday morning just in time to make that afternoon dive. I'll probably make a special 3 day trip down there again like I did two years ago. I have enough Continental miles and Marriott points to make it mostly free.
 
paulthenurse said:
Ryan,
you got to streamline there, son! One of those hoses of yours hanging off there in the breeze will get you killed if you go inside a wreck. Your primary needs to be either 6 inches shorter or 5 feet longer and wrapped around your neck and your SPG nees to be tucked securely under your arm. If you don't want to buy a shorter inflator hose than wrap it around your corrugated hose a few times to take up that slack

(I'm getting to where I need either a prescription mask or a dog that can swim so I don't clip it on my hip, I tuck my SPG inside my shoulder strap so that it comes out in front of my face where my feeble eyes can see when I'm almost out of air.)

Honest to god, I'm not a cool-aide drinking DIR fanatic but some of what the whackjobs say makes sense. And I've been drinking so I may have come across as a fanatical MY WAY IS THE ONLY WAY diver. Whatever works for you. Any dive you dry off from was a good one.

PTN


It has been. :) Those pictures are from the day I got the gear, and have since made some changes. I also now use a DIR type hose setup, now.


Can't believe I just said DIR... Around here we call it. DIR......Divers Ignoring Reality
 
I'm a complete noob with the diving thing. I took the classes in December but still need to go get my open water dives done to finish the cert. I'll probably do it in the next couple of months at a local quarry. I want the water to warm up some first.
 
I am hoping to get my certification by the end of May for a trip to Maui. It would be a shame to miss such a great chance to dive. Any advice?
 
I much prefer the concept of multiple short sessions rather than a full day crash course. It gives you a chance to digest concepts. A crash course just confuses you and then they throw you into a life threatening situation.

I took my PADI O/W through Rutgers and thought it was great.
 
Brewpastor said:
I am hoping to get my certification by the end of May for a trip to Maui. It would be a shame to miss such a great chance to dive. Any advice?
Just try to find a good Dive shop. Its the instructor not the Agency. Your pretty close to Blue Hole, which is suppose to be a great place to dive. Im planing a trip there this summer.
 
+1 on what Ryan said. Find an instructor that you like and feel comfortable with. Granted that's not easy when you only have a few minutes in the shop to talk with him/her and try to get to know them, but it is what you need to do. If they won't make time to talk to you in the shop keep looking. What you'll get out of your basic Open Water Course is just enough information so that you can go out and dive safely. It gives you enough info to keep from killing yourself first time out. The only way to learn to dive is to dive. The good news is that learning is fun.
 
I am a NAUI certified instructor but haven't tank dove in over 3years.....

Freediving is where it's at! No cumbersome tanks, regulators, BC's, etc. But best of all, no silly underwater darth vader noise scaring all of the good fish away!!!
 
If I want total quiet I'll go big and buy a rebreather. Freediving is cool but I like to crawl around inside of big hunks of rust on the bottom. Can't do that on a breath hold.

I'm really intrigued by the whole rebreather idea. If I only had a spare 6K kicking around...
 
paulthenurse said:
If I want total quiet I'll go big and buy a rebreather. Freediving is cool but I like to crawl around inside of big hunks of rust on the bottom. Can't do that on a breath hold.

I'm really intrigued by the whole rebreather idea. If I only had a spare 6K kicking around...

Free diving would be cool, if I could hold my breath like this guy. But I can go for about 30 sec. before I want air. Yeah Rebreather are cool as hell, but damn are they every expensive.
[YOUTUBE]zK6w0T-9l3M[/YOUTUBE]
 
Try not to get too jealous now guys....

1998 I did my first dive... on the Great Barrier Reef.

It was a "Resort Dive", where they teach you enough about SCUBA to keep you alive. They drop you in a cage and you step out as a group. After you have proven they you know the hand signals and you aren't panicking, you go off in pairs and the instructor shows you around the reef.

Never done it again, but since we do have a house on the beach, walking distance to the South Pacific, I really should get certified. We snorkel quite a bit and really enjoy that, but it's nothing like diving.
 
OK, so for sh1ts and giggles I tried holding my breath along with that guy. I'm sitting here at a computer, not kicking. He submerges at second 28 and sufaces at minute 2:54, for 2 minutes and 26 seconds submerged. I held from 0:28 till 1:13 (45 seconds,) took three breaths and held again from 1:21 thru 2:10 (49 seconds.) Threee quick breaths, I was starting to feel a little lightheaded and I was holding again from 2:21 thru till he suefaced at 2:54 (33 seconds; total time on breath hold 2:07 seconds.) It took me three breaths to do what he did on one, and he's kicking the entire time. What a stud.
 
nice mares abyss ryanh. jester and i both have them and they are smokin regs. :D

~*~
 
Passed my Master diver and rescue test tonight!! Just have to do a deep dive at the end of the month and ill have my cert.:ban: Hopefully Ill be able to in role in advanced nitrox and decompression procedures this summer. Ill have to see how much money I can store away.
 
My gills have been drying out for a couple yearsnow, I have about 300 dives logged. I am/ was most of the way throguht the YMCA Divemaster courses. Basic Nitrox, two wreck certs.

I did a couple caverns in FLA with an instructor. I concluded the inside of a rock looks very much like the outside of a rock.

My favorite dives are warm water shipwrecks. My dive gear is in North Carolina with my library, I have probably at least 2-3 dives on all the NC wrecks you have read about, south of Cape Hatterras.

I have seen 200+ feet of visibility in NC only twice, it is very unusual. 75-100 feet is not unusual in late spring and early summer.

My three favorite wrecks to dive again would be the Eagle on Marathon Key, FL, the Bianca C in Grenada and probably the Cassimir in NC. U352 on a weekday with no crowds maybe, I still have (distant) living relatives in Germany.

I dived a hog rig, but I am not to be confused with a dir-nazi.
Sold my drysuit several years ago, I am not that young anymore.
 
Well, i don't scuba...i freedive:rockin:

UnderwaterHog.jpg


This was 3 fisherman, 3 hours in Long Key, FL

LongKeySlaughter.jpg


Made the best Paella with these suckers

PB230043.jpg
 
Poindexter said:
Sold my drysuit several years ago, I am not that young anymore.

Why does older equate to wetter? As I get older I find myself putting the wetsuit on later and later in the summer and earlier and earlier in the fall. Of course, part of it is where we dive. Best case scenario, late August, calm seas, no recent storms to stir things up, we'll get into the mid 40's once you crack 70 feet. And the absolute best vis I've ever seen up here was around 60 feet, but that was in February and the water was 15- 20 degress warmer than the air.

We dove the USS Kirtz (sp?) twice last year with Olympus in Morehead City. Great dive, can't wait to go back.

PTN
 
Found this old thread and decided to bump it up. Been Certified since 94, a few hundred dives logged, but haven't gotten wet in 2 years. Planning a tring to the keys this spring to remedy that situation though.

Got a dive rite plate (have stainless, but switched to alumninum due to weight for traveling), apexs regs, sunto gauges
 
I got certified in 68. We will wait for the sea temp to get to 50 before we look for the first BUGS to show up. The first dive we will probably get resident winter overs but they will taste great coming from cold water. Largest one we got last year was 15 lbs.
 
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