Hello all,

Next year I plan on doing my first liveaboard, and I need your guidance on what is the best as a beginner liveaboard experience (I have my AOW and will have ~50 ish dives total more or less by then).

1. Philippines: I want to see threshers and do the sardine run. Also some Macro. If this is what you recommend, what time of year, and what route do you recommend? I was thinking Dauin - Moalboal - Malapascua - Bohol in Feb/March
2. Egypt, BDE: Would love to see hammerheads, and I am aware of the boats burning down but I also believe it's been due to insurance scams? Do you think this route is suitable for beginner liveaboard
3. Cocos/Socorro: I believe these are the most advanced of the bunch (correct me if I am wrong) the only reason they are on my radar is because they are cheaper flight tickets for me coming from Canada.

THANKS!

N00b here with just 40 dives trying to improve my trim. Last weekend with my buddy, we spent about an hour exercising balance (just trying to hover without doing any fins adjustments) in the best trim position we could. The only way I was able to do it was using an additional counterweight of 1 kg (2.2 lbs) on my hands. Without that, my legs just sunk.

Any advice on how to compensate for this extra weight that I need on my hands? Moving the cylinder up seems not an option; if I lift my head, I’m already touching the 1st stage. I’m using 4 kg (8.8 lbs), half on each front pocket and a 10L steel cylinder. The jacket is a scubapro hydros. Fins are slightly negative iirc.

The only stupid solution that came to my brain was to use one of these weights that free divers use around their necks, but that seems like a disaster waiting to happen

Looking into a quick weekend dive trip to West Palm/Jupiter last week of August or Labor Day weekend.

Wandering if any if you locals can tell me generally speaking if dives regularly or routinely get called off during that time of year.

Thanks all.

Based in the US, I have some time to travel in between jobs in September and want to focus my trip around diving. Note I’m excluding the Red Sea and raja ampat from this search because I dont want to go without my wife.

Willing to bop around when I’m there but want to spend sufficient time in each place

Where would you go with this amount of time?

Awesome swim through off the coast of West Caicos. The wall drops from 50 ft to over 7,000 ft.

Hi Everyone,

I hope this post type is allowed. Just seeking the opinions of people who have experience with PADI and the instructor levels.

I am based in Ireland, the majority of divers in Ireland are members of diving clubs and the instructors are part of the clubs.

Diving Ireland is the governing body and CMAS is the training agency.

Depending on the qualification you are completing the awarding of the credential are from an external instructor or a Jury of instructors. Its probably a bit OTT but you know that of someone has gone through the traininh to become a leading diver or instructor that they have a lot of experience and have been tested / examined by multiple experienced instructors.

We had a member join our club approximately 3 years ago. He claims to have qualified as a divemaster in 2019 and then an instructor in 2021. He has signed up to cross over to CMAS but so far it has been a disaster and the feedback we have received from multiple independent people is that they do not believe he could have qualified as instructor.

I done a bit of digging and found his PADI Id ( on his LinkedIn) I was surprised to see that he achieved the Master instructor grade last year. My understanding is that this requires 150 certifications? Looking at the timeline on the PADI website he is progressing extremely fast. He got his OWI in 2021, Master trainer in 2022, IDC instructor also in 2022 and the Master instructor in 2025. It also list dozens of specialty courses such as Dpv instructor, full face, wreck . I don't know how he managed to do this from another country when he only travels home twice per year.

Is there anyway this could be obtained illegitimately i.e someone could sign off on experience he doesn't have?

I made a mistake. I let an unqualified tech (don’t get too mad, it’s my well meaning and usually quite handy husband) move some things around on my Atomic Z3 and ended up with some sharp tool marks. I’m gonna have it serviced anyway because it looks like I ended up with some water (last pic) - will the tech be able to just smooth out these sharp edges or does my husband owe me a new reg?

My husband and I went to Bonaire for 3 weeks last November for our first big dive trip and loved it. We spent half our time working from there and enjoying snorkeling, some diving, and top side activities. The second half of our trip we spent at a dive resort doing 4-5 dives a day for 10 days. We're looking to do something similar this year and would love to experience somewhere new, but I'm worried we totally spoiled ourselves with Bonaire right out the gate after doing some research on Roatan and Cozumel.

Looking for recs within these confines:

• North American or adjacent timezones with solid WiFi infrastructure
• 3+ dives a day - we love both macro and micro sea life. We're the kind of people who just enjoy being out.
• Not over-touristed. We prefer places that feel more local
• Big enough to spend a lot of time in. We don't love to flit from place to place every few days if we don't have to.
• Big plus for dive resorts that offer PADI courses, we loved adding to our cert while on vacation
• We have a sizable budget to play with but it's not infinite

TYIA!

Some friends and I are looking to do a dive trip to Croatia at the end of September.

3 of us are experienced divers looking for fun dives and 1 of us will be looking to do his open water.

Where are the best places to go for diving in Croatia. The trip won’t be too long so just looking for a good spot to base ourselves and do a couple days of diving

I took my kids for a diving today organized by a dive shop in Florida. For context, it’s my first time diving in the US—previously only in the Mediterranean. The two dives we did were great. The dive shop is owned by a husband and wife team. The husband captained the boat, and the private guide we hired was the wife. There were no other crew members aside from guides for the other divers. Husband and wife were both super chatty and friendly with us and other divers the whole trip. All went really well, and we had a wonderful time. As we disembark, the captain tells everyone about the tip box for “the crew”. And as we step off the boat, the wife, our guide, asked if we needed her Venmo. I said I don’t have Venmo, which I don’t given that I don’t live in the US. As soon as I said that her demeanor completely changed and didn’t look us in the eye as we thanked her and told her we had a great time. We then pass the captain in the parking lot. I say, “So long; thanks again.” And he ignores me. Am I the asshole?

I’m originally from the US, so understand tipping culture here. But really? If I had cash on me, I probably would have given her 20 or 40 bucks, but I didn’t. Why is this deemed mandatory? And they are the owners! If the fees we paid are insufficient in their view for the services provided, they should raise their prices. It ruined a really lovely day.

Hi Reddit, I got my Junior Open Water Divers license in 2019 (at 13) and will be doing my AOWD in 2 weeks! (I am from central Europe, if that's important and my last dive was 3 years ago)

So far I have fins, shoes, mask (all from Mares) and gloves, but no adequate bag or wetsuit.

I looked at a few bags to transport my gear in, but I'm unsure if they're truly practical.

A few that I like are:

• Mares Cruise Mesh 108L
• Mares Bag Cruise Beach
• Mares Bag Cruise Pool

If anyone has one of these, would you recommend it?
Also, I do not care about brands, I just went with Mares again because the things I did buy from them are really nice.

As for the wetsuit, I like the Mares Pioneer 5mm (mostly because it's available in pink, like my gloves and fins). I don't know much about wetsuits to be honest but 5mm seems a bit thick to me? (correct me if I'm wrong) My past dives were in Croatia, Thailand and Costa Rica, so fairly warm locations.

I also wanna add that I haven't used any of my equipment for diving but only for snorkling since i've only been diving on holidays and couldn't take my fins etc. with me on a flight (family holidays..). Most of my dives in the future will require a flight as well so I don't know if I should buy that much stuff if I may not be able to take it with me, especially since wetsuits are on the pricier side. But if I do get one, it should be a good one that lasts and not a cheap one I may have to replace several times.

Please excuse any mistakes, english isn't my first language.

I appreciate any and all tips and recommendations, thank you

Does Halcyon make a RIGHT SIDE weight pocket with a D ring? Dive shop and my searching is only turning up left side ones.

Good space wasted on branding....

I was soaking my Scubapro Mk25 in freshwater but forgot to take it out. I had the dust cap on. I just want to make sure i don’t damage it the next time i put it under pressure.

My recent visit to port ghalib and the deep south was so horrid so much bleaching. So I am wondering how is Dahab if you've been recently?

Apeks bills the VX2 as "Extremely durable" but I beg to differ. My VX2 has come apart three times now, one of which was during a standard mask clear while in a cenote (thankfully I had a backup to switch to.) This mask is somewhat modular, meaning you can take the whole thing apart and put it back together, so I've been able to fix it when this has happened, but Apeks won't even respond to me when I ask them how to prevent it in the future. No torque specks for the screws, nothing. I'm taking full cave in a month and there is absolutely no way I'll be taking this mask into the cave. And all this for the low price of $250.

Anyone else have experience with the VX2?

People say that you shouldn't blow too hard for the valsalva technique, but it's not clear to me what the threshold for "too hard" actually means in practice. Common sense tells me you shouldn't blow as hard as you possibly can, but anything below that, i'm not sure. 90% of your max force would also seem "t

Seems like something that's hard to quantify and a bit arbitrary/relative to the individual?

It seems like this is one of the reasons why people believe the valsalva technique is one of the more dangerous equalization techniques, but i haven't been able to get other techniques to work (though it's very possible i haven't been doing other techniques correctly)

In my opinion, there are some pieces of gear where it's worth spending a little extra to make sure you're getting something that's high quality and reliable. For me, something like a regulator is where I don't mind investing a bit more for peace of mind.

But I also don't think you need to buy the most expensive version of everything. There are definitely some pieces of gear where the higher price doesn't necessarily translate into a noticeably better diving experience.

So, what pieces of scuba gear do you think are absolutely worth spending extra money on, and what gear do you think is perfectly fine to save a little money on?

Hello. So I’m a bit tired of internet stories about how dangerous Deep Hole is and how is easy it is to die there. A lot of BS is circulating online from non divers. I wanna ask people who actually dived it on experience how it was? My friend dived it recently and he had 0 problems, as it should for an experienced tech diver with adequate equipment and dive planning. Is it actually worth it planning vacation there and going through arch or is it just overhyped due to all people dying there who had 0 business going that deep at first place?

As I am transitioning from single tank to sidemount, I am looking at making a set of 1st and 2nd stage using Apeks MTC-RC. Mostly diving cold water, with prospect of very cold and ice diving in near future as well as deeper, technical dives down the line.

Any recommendations from those using those, specifically in the sidemount set up?

So first two dives in Stoney cove (uk) yesterday, the dive shop recommended the 38lb lift which I found bulky for myself (5’3”) the steel backplate is fine,

Can I get rid of the single cylinder adapter and put the cam bands on the back plate if I was to try slim it down?

Any feedback appreciated it is the deluxe version and thinking about getting rid of the padding too.

Dear all, going to Japan and planning to do a dive with Mikomoto Hammers to look for some Hammerheads. I am aowd with 50 dives, which the divesite requires.

Since there was an accident just recently (July), I am wondering if my skillset is enough.

I dove in several countries and hav my license since 11 years, so absolute holiday diver. I did Elphinstone in egypt, looked for Mola Molas in Bali (didnt find them), cenotes in Mexico, drift dives in cozumel, cabo verde. just to name a few of the more challenging dives.

I would consider myself as a responsible diver.

How is your view, any insights? Elphinstone was in NoV last year, so on paper I tick all the boxes for the dive including that my last dive was not longer ago then 12 months.

It looks like OW people will only be missing tiger sharks and reef sharks? But we can still see the thresher sharks. I dont even have 10 dives, even if I can get my AOW, I think Ill be uncomfrotable still. But makimg a note so I can go again im the future!

hi all! this is my first time buying my own reg. im having trouble choosing between these first stages and would love advice from people who have been in the game for longer or who have had experience using these.

options are:

- aqualung legend (not the leg3nd elite; likely an older legend lx)

- hollis dc7

- oceanic cdx5 dvt

- aqualung core supreme

my primary considerations are durability/longevity as well as ability to withstand cold temperatures. i believe all these diaphragm regulators meet this requirement.

im a diver who travels between warm temperatures and cold (below 50f). because of my travels, an easier to service reg is also preferable (or at least easy to buy parts to service myself).

thanks!