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Holy smokes, truly a small world! I remember hearing about your adventures, surviving that category 5 hurricane and being inspired to add more places to our list to visit such Papa New Guinea, French Polynesia, etc. Super awesome that you have a channel on TH-cam! Would love to connect, we are always planning trips a couple years out and have hard plans for Malpelo, Komodo, Dominica, and Galapagos.

Maximum depth for a discover dive is 40 ft but once you get your open water certification, you'll be able to go down to 60 ft based on the rules of certification. These are primarily there to help keep you safer and build confidence as a diver and seek more training before going deeper. Deeper doesn't always mean it's better but it does mean the risks are greater so working up to deeper depths progressively is safer.

@ I was in Central America when this occurred. I don’t think they really cared about rules and I didn’t know any better 🤷🏻‍♂️ I enjoyed the he’ll out of it though

Ah! That explains it. I've heard some questionable stories from Central America and South Asia where operators are a bit more risk-taking. Of course, you are likely going to be fine, but the rules are there as a safety net. In diving, there is no scuba police for these kind of things and you can eventually get a muscle for what risk is or is not acceptable for yourself but ideally you should always be informed and have knowledge of the risks. Scuba diving is a lot of fun, and I hope to see you out there diving!

Thank you for these kind words! Hoping to keep improving the content as I go too!

Nitrox generally refers to oxygen and nitrogen exclusively, with O2 being 22% or more. Trimix is becoming less feasible for recreational diving due to the costs of helium, so I didn't cover much into it on this video.

You'll love Taveuni and am super excited to hear about your scuba diving experience! It's hard to go back to snorkeling once you're comfortable with scuba. I don't know enough about Paradise Taveuni as we didn't stay there, but it does have good reviews, and the island is small enough. You will be in the same vicinity to everything. All the resorts are just a short ride away from Rainbow Reef, where all the action is. As for mosquitoes, check with the resort and see if they offer mosquito repellent. If not, bring some. There are mosquitoes, but it's not bad in the dry season. I've been scarred by mosquitoes in the past, so maybe my tolerance is higher. When we were out hiking, we didn't use mosquito repellent, and it was pleasant. If you're there during the we season, I'd expect more mosquitoes, though. I still remember how legendary the biting flies and mosquitoes are in Belize, which is a different level, so in comparison, Fiji is quite pleasant. There are some mosquitoes out at sun rise and sun set, though.

Glad you enjoyed this one too!

Thank you! Tried to nail a quick description in this one, I have another video that goes a bit more in-depth on weighting you'd likely enjoy. Weighting is o e of those things you're always tinkering with, haha.

Glad you enjoyed!

Really happy to hear you are liking the videos so far! The Apeks are great, they are single pane, the lenses don't scratch easily, the case is nice, and I like the buckle on them, if they do feel too tight, they are easy to adjust under water. The only con of them is that they are not super low volume, so it makes purging them take a bit more, but they are not too bad as I won't consider them high volume either. Funny too, I bought these on a trip because it was the Apeks or a Scuba Pro model that were available at a remote island in Maldives when my primary mask broke. I didn't have much of a choice in options, but I've been pleased with the mask, except maybe the color, I'd probably go black if I had a choice. Stuck with them since and it's been 3 years and still going strong! I do usually shave when I dive, mainly right under my nose, I keep most of my beard, but I do shave just a touch under my nose and that helps it seal. If water is annoyingly leaking into my nose area usually it's an indicator to me, I need the shave again. I never shave my beard entirely off though, just enough from the top that it's not noticeable but helps the seal. Hope that helps!

It's funny, scuba diving has a lot of hardships, and one can struggle with many things, but at the end of the day during the dive the zen one can achieve is out of this world and sights you can witness stick with you. There are some truly beautiful things to see!

Glad you liked this one! Was experimenting with some storytelling and wanted this video to focus more for folks not super familiar with scuba diving.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, and let me know if you go to Komodo and enjoy your time! I'm also hoping to be heading back that way in a couple of years!

@@itravelwisely 100% Ive bookmarked your video and will certainly reference it for a future trip to Komodo. And good for you for experiencing it multiple times! Very cool :)

Ah, you are right, I'll add this correction as a pinned comment. Functionality I've never heard of anyone using more than 50% and that's only for faster decompression after a technical dive on the ascent which is why I had that number in mind.

@@itravelwisely it all just depends and also depends on inert gas percentage. 50/50 o2/he would be heliox due to no nitrogen.

Thank you, and glad you enjoyed!

Thank you for the great and thoughtful response and super valuable for others! I love the tip for calculating your consumption rate! I did mention this tip in the recent 25 tip video, but yes, that would have been a good one for this video, too! I do agree it's a great habit to be able to have a good idea and project how much will be used to train the intuition. The main goal is, as you said, to be able to understand consumption deeply, catch things when they aren't matching the projections, and also less likely to be caught off guard. I agree with you that 40 m is safer with doubles, and you have a great minimum gas calculation for the dive plan. I will say the ascent profile in your projection is a bit conservative as I know PADI mentions you can ascend at 18 m per minute which is super fast, but I know most divers use 10 m per minute up to safety stop. GUE teaches cut the maximum depth in half and ascend at 9 m per minute up to half, then hover for 30 seconds and then raise by 3 meter over 30 seconds, so 3 meter per minute up to the surface so that's 8 minutes to the top. Regardless, it's a great point, and I do agree with you that most risks under 30 meters to 40ish meters are significantly reduced with doubles. I'm still not doing doubles yet myself but I do plan to buy the gear setup early next year as I do agree it's generally safer, and I like the idea of improved balance. At least when we are diving near our home. We do a lot of travel diving, too, so single tank diving can't be avoided always.

I agree, I do have an external microphone, but I ended up recording this whole video with it, not quite plugged in all the way. Bummer, I didn't have quite time to rerecord, but the good news is future videos are better!

Thank you, and I'm glad you liked the video! For the listing, if your using a single tank, sometimes you might have to manually reposition it and screw in the wing nuts on it if it's a backplate as if they get loose it'll flop around more. Also, a camera or heavy light on one side might cause imbalance, too. Having spread out some of your gear to different pockets might help, but I'm not a fan of adding weight to compensate as it's better to have as little weight as possible. For floaty feet, are you using a dry suit? I'd usually advise more negatively buoyant fins, but Apeks RK3s are negatively buoyant but not the heaviest. Jet fins are a bit heavier, which might help. But first, before trying new fins, I am not a fan of ankle weights as it does add weight. Try shifting more weight down towards your lower back. If you have weight like integrated weights or weights in higher trim pockets, try to move weights to the lower cam ban of your tank straps. You want more weight on your back and on your back in the middle of the back. This will balance the seesaw a bit and help you feel the upper body is being pulled down less. If your using dry suit, this can happen when air collects in your boots, they become like functional balloons, for this, straighten the legs, get into a positive trim and let the air come up to the dry suit dump valve so you can get it out. I advise not to use the dry suit for buoyancy in normal cases, so add a tiny aor to it to remove the squeeze and create some warmth. Let me know if this helps!

I do need to note that I am not a doctor, and what I am giving here is the best of my knowledge as a diver and from my training. The general advice but super important if you see signs is to stop diving, get put on 100% oxygen, note the symptoms and times, and call DAN and ask for their advice with the symptoms. The symptoms are responses from your body failing to recompress successfully. If you start feeling better after being put on 100% oxygen it's like decompress sickness and the damage is already done but the body will start trying to heal and the symptoms could worsen over a 24 hour period. The danger of DCI is that your spine and brain are softer tissues and could be affected so you don't want to risk conditions worsening. A bubble can form anywhere leading to worsening conditions and even permanent damage to death. You just don't know how bad it is at the start, so it's good to take every precaution available as the consequences are dire. Also important, you may be doing everything 100% right and still get DCI so that's why it's extra important to notice the symptoms and follow protocol so you can continue diving another day.

Dang, yes, that is sher negligence on the dive shop's part. Insurance can be voided if diving below your training, but the dive shop was properly notified, so it'd be negligence. I'm glad your daughter did so well regardless and the story of her recovering from a gear failure is inspiring! I like to have the mindset that gear can fail at anytime so when it does happen it's not so surprising. Practicing the out of air drill together from time to time will help keep it comfortable. It's one of the reasons I really like the long hose configuration too for the main regulator as it supports very easy air sharing. Thank you for sharing this story!

Thank you, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! This one came out a bit long, but I hoped to pack a lot of good tips all around!

Haha, thank you, and do appreciate the watch when you have time, to spoil the one from the thumbnail the main gist of that one is to not chasing the wildlife. This photo is from Socorro and a common thing a lot of folks I've seen do is chase the manta rays and blow bubbles at them. I've heard wild things like the mantas enjoy it, but most of the time chasing the wild animals just causes them to leave. If your calm and show curiosity it is more likely the animal will also be curious to you and approach your vs run away. This is what I strive to do anyways, and I feel given time, calmness, and patience most animals will approach you out of their own will.

@@itravelwisely me too... i also saw some idiotic behaviours under the water... unfrotunately from the group i was part as well... despite the dive master/organizer repeating him selfe each time how to behave correctly. my first close encounter with a manta ray was spoiled by a guy swimming (UP) toward the manta, and freaking him out, causing the manta ray to leave in haste ruining my video.

@@itravelwisely also... what do you do, when someone from your group behaves incorrectly, and that someone is a good person on land, and his behaviour suprises you ?

Changing other's minds and behaviors is not an easy task. In general, it takes trust, so if you are diving with someone over multiple dives and see something they can improve on, and you feel you've established some kind of relationship then, casually and friendly let them know the reason what they are doing is not desirable and what they can do better. The alternative is to be an authority and the person has to see you as an authorities figure and respect you for it. That's in general my rules of trying to work with someone but I don't try to be antagonistic or overly sharing of opinions as that usually loses trust which could have the opposite effect.

Deploying a DSMB is definitely great to practice. So few people I've met have or carry one, let alone feel confident in deploying it. It can really help to practice too because it helps you improve buoyancy and situational awareness while task loading too, which is important! At least to start it definitely helps to have a visible marker or land mark that is stable (like the ground) so you can see your relative position to it without needing to keep watching the dive computer. In time and lots of practice it slowly becomes easier to hold buoyancy without reference and also task loading. I've seen some very skilled divers pin their buoyancy super well even while task loading!

Yes, definitely, and never try to exceed 30 feet per minute. Thank you!

Thank you for sharing, that's a truly hard situation for anyone to recover from. Scuba diving can be quite dangerous which is why I hope we can all aspire to be safer and help keep the sport fun and safe as possible.

Spot on, thank you for adding this!

With reduced MOD using Nitrox for narcosis is negligible

@@MegaEpicLlama Some people get narced at 20 meters, which is still within nitrox teritory

Appreciate the replies here! Getting carved interestingly does factor in rate of absorption of nitrogen but is not so simple as a mathematical formula. Perhaps ypu are tired or running cold the rate of absorption might be faster on one dive to another and certainly negative dives or fast descents will have a higher spike of absorption. Whats also I I intriguing as traditional many believed with time and experience resistance or even immunity would be gained to getting narced which is now mostly disproven. Everyone still gets it, some or just caught off guard from it less.

I did add corrections to what I said on TH-cam. You are right, I made a mistake on what I said and tried to amend it through TH-cam 's correction system.

@@itravelwisely Was that already there yesterday? I didn't see it, but the video description isn't expanded by default. Maybe you could add a pinned comment? We all make mistakes, by owning up to your mistake, you've earned my subscription.

Yes, I posted the correction shortly after uploading but I agree TH-cam implementation is not very visible for what one would hope for a correction system. I'll make a pinned comment here shortly, love the idea! Thank you for the correction, though. I definitely missed that one which is a bummer as it's not possible to fix once uploaded without taking down the whole thing. Trying to improve my own processes with each video. TH-cam isn't easy haha but appreciate your feedback and hoping to get better with each video!

Sweet, glad to see a fellow puget sound diver here!

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thank you!

Super appreciated as always and glad you enjoyed!

Yes, you are right, I've met several folks that told me they turn it back, so it is still very prevalent. I do know to not also overturn it as it can be a pain to turn off after the dive, so I usually advise to turn it lightly until you hit resistance and then leave it alone. Thank you for adding this.

... AND you should be HORIZONTAL in your trim while performing your safety stop as that orientation maximizes your off-gassing by orienting your lungs with greater surface area for the gas exchange (giving off CO2 and N2 while breathing the oxygen in your cylinder's gas mix).

ENJOYING your videos!!!

These are stellar tips in correction to things I said or gave example of. I agree with all of these!

Glad you enjoyed it! Spot on, hitting that neutral buoyancy is so important and a key foundation to almost every other skill on top of it!

Fair, haha, I'll try to reduce clips used with the bicycle kicks, haha. Some of these clips are taken over many years, and trips and other folks,I suppose bicycle kicks are common. I will use even use a very low motion kick when going slow or need for more precise kicks. Fair feedback though!

Thank you and let me know when your heading to Cozumel!! I'll be diving in the Red Sea soon here!

That's spot on, but the min for PADI is 3 minutes, but some extra time does not hurt.

Ah yes, and I've seen this happen a few times and happened to me earlier on in my diving experience. A buddy can help remount it, at least, but it can be quite a challenge to move it and retighten it at depth!

This is a great point, and thank you for mentioning it. Yes, that single tank cylinder can be a bit unruly and need shifting! I know that's why some are more attracted to side mounts and doubles to help balance it out!

Love the idea for quickly getting up to speed with your dive buddy! Might give this a try in the future, too!

Before entering the water, do a Valsalva at the surface to clear the sinus pathways and equalize to surface atmosphere. From there, as you descend, keep equalizing frequently and often. You'll find an equalization at the surface will really help make equalizing on the way down easier.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, there can be a wide variation with some signs, but I have known most of these are common. I like the one hand numbers, but almost everyone will understand two hand numbers in the worst case, haha. I did learn the showing the digits on the arm at some point, too. It's fuzzy, but I think SSI teaches this.

@@itravelwisely you are absolutely right that is what SSI taught us and I still use it. It seems still to be popular but understanding others has is advantage 👍!

Love this tip, and I am glad it worked for you. We are eyeballing getting a Perdix this winter after the wallet cools off from buying a dry suit and other cold water gear but will be giving that integrated air a try and exploring my SAC more!

Yes, exactly, CO2 headaches can be some profoundly horrible headaches. I've received them twice, both from current dives and just making bad choices with my energy to fight current too long. Only need to experience this terrible headache so many times to learn to try and relax and be lazy with diving, even in currents haha.

Not anymore! I've dived with many bullsharks, oceanic white tip, and tigers, and while they will demand your attention and caution, they are rarely something to be feared. As all predators, they can be unpredictable, but keeping caution when they are around is usually enough, and you can observe them safely.

I'm glad you liked it! It was a fun one to make to slim down the signals that seem reasonable universal, and we're an important baseline!

Great call out and I totally agree with you, even if you keep breathing but take a giant breath in one can be in for a world of hurt. I do speak to this topic in some other videos I am scripting so will try to clarify this better in the future!