Really deep dives are for pros...I got my NAUI card in '64..it taught me enough to remain a single tank diver until I gave it up some years later. I was dumb enough to make a 210' "bounce dive" once...just once! Never again.

i ve been doing the dive thing 31 yrs now wet and dry suit hi altitude dillon resevoir colorado-tahoe, maui oahu lanai big island, baja, channal islands, avalon, pudget sound, and lake powell.

2 days ago the guy who ran the andrea doria museum got bent from 200 ft dive, got to surface and suffered heart attack. he had done a gazillion dives to 200ft on the ship. as a member of DAN, im sure this will be analyzed completely, just as NTSB investigates airplane crashes.

most of us are no longer spring chickens and time is against us. ive set my scuba pro computer to the most conservative levels it offers. when the audibles go off because im not paying attention trying to take a picture digitally or with either of my nikonos cameras, it sounds off like no tommorow. and thats exactly what its telling you.........there may be no tommorow if you continue deeper or dont make your decom stops. best piece of equiptment i have ever bought. especially useful for nightdives when the last thing you are paying attention to is your wrist. all you are doing is focused on the tunnel of light directly in front of you, trying not to swim into something that can put the hurt on you!

the neatest thing is i can download it to my computer and each dive can be printed out with all info. bottom time, overbreathing , decom stops etc. very handy tool. as far as depth is concerned, us photo geeks tend to push all the limits trying to get that one special picture. my alarms have gone off and actually startled me with sound level. you can get really involved taking pics and in no time you can get into serious trouble.

deep dives always spell trouble if not planned out. remember plan your dive-dive your plan. it helps too to have a buddy that has at least your level of experience. sometimes on boat dives you get dealt a crappy buddy and you end up babysitting.

and yes i'm one of those guys who takes all his gear with him including spares, no matter where i go. yes its a pain,yes i get nailed for overweight baggage every single time. but ive had some rental nightmares that i will never repeat.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152843676.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152843835.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152844171.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152844454.jpg

Charles, I'll be 50 in Feb. Got my air card in '77. I've been in every major body of water on the planet including the Red Sea on the Saudi side! It doesn't take much to get into trouble with a single tank. I don't have a computer, just a bottom timer. The guy I dive with has a computer which we monitor very closely. When those dots creep into the red, we start our ascent.

How do you like that Poseidon regulator? I was thinking of switching to that from the Sherwood gear I have now.

I still use that same Poseidon regulator, I love it! only problem is, it's almost impossible to get overhaul parts for it. Ive had it for over 20 yrs.

i figure it this way with the poesidon, IF THE GERMAN NAVY AND THE UNITED STATES NAVY USE THEM..........THEY GOT TO BE GOOD! wish i could be dropped in every ocean on the planet. my next biggie is BIMINI ATOLL. go hit the sub and the saratoga.on the way back either hit new guinea australia or truk lagoon. im a world war II buff and my dad was in biak new guinea luzon during the war.

as far as the poesidion i have never had one single problem EVER. i get mine serviced here in phoenix at scuba sciences. actually i have a pretty good relation with them and have bought alot of life support gear from them. they outfit and train AZ DPS divers phx P.D. maricopa sheriffs divers and a host of others. i pay a little more but i get unreal service and training. bought my USIA drysuit from them custom fit and full face mask. trained my brains out for free. great people. i only buy the simple stuff ie. bags knives lights etc on the internet. for life support critical i have stuck with posidion scubapro zeagle usia equiptment.

i got my c-card thru regis college denver colo, in 1976. thru colo divers world. open water dive was dillon reservoir. man that was cold! try that now as its a denver water supply. there scared some diver may pee in water, even though fisherman and others pollute the hell out of it.

i really get off on night dives, but they never cease to scare hell out of me(jaws syndrome) but have got some great pics of critters. also doing the lava tubes off kona and lanai will send you into orbit. lots of cool critters, just got to avoid the wicked invisible KONA SURGE! got nailed by that once and that was no damn fun while in lava tube. lucky as hell i wasnt knocked out by hitting lava tube ceiling as i was shot thru that tube like a bullet. highly suggest and will use mtn climbers helmet next time!!!

used to hunt our brains out with 52 sling mongo 15ft long mike nelson spear guns. im lazy now and older and now the passion is taking pics. have turned into picture geek. i have a nik IV and NIK V w/SB-105 strobe and a digital w/strobe. and i 2 at a time. each dive is a handful but i have some real cool memories in color now. i really try to plan at least one week a year devoted to diving. but now owning a p-car and sending my visa into low lunar orbit it will remain to be seen where i go this year.

if you are interested in any cameras for u/water work, please contact my friend and spiritual photo guru in houston. bob warkington @ nikonosrepair@aol.com. great guy and will flat steer you in correct line to what camera is best for you. digital or 35mm. i always bring one of each yeah its a giant pain in the A$$ but the pics are doubled and the quality is different for each. each has its good and bad. on the 35mm you get damn good at loading unloading film on a rock and roll boat with a bunch of newbies stepping on you. i only go for camera friendly boats now after a few near fights! LOL! hers some more goofy pics.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152879397.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152879738.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152880093.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152880353.jpg

Great pics. Majority of my diving has been up here in the Northeast. Cold, crappy vis. But, some awsome wrecks. Came close to buying the farm doing a penetration dive on the USS SanDiego, an old WWI cuiser that sank in 1912. Ran out of air. ( yeah I know, real stupid move). Always used doulble 80'and a pony, but I wanted to get into one spot I couldnt fit with twins so i just had a single. Amazing how all your training goes out the window and panic ensues when you know your gonna die.

Guy I fly with has one of those new fangled fancy computers that double as a watch. He went diving on Saturday morning, about 70 feet down off of San Diego. We flew on Monday and the bloody thing was still showing that he was not legal to fly! Went into the books and he was fine, so there is a glitch to the computer. The new fangled things may be fancy but the old charts may be more accurate at times.

Chuck,

Am looking forwards to a dive on the USS Oriskany, the carrier just deep sixed off of Florida. My Brother flew off of her during the Korean war and once things settle down a bit want to see her up close and personal.

love using double 80's. that was our weapon of choice down in guaymas mexico bug diving( i was young and in great shape from dezert racing). now just a single 80 with a spare air bottle attached to my zeagle. would love to dive any military wreck. never have. biggest wreck we ever dived was a 24 ft cruiser boat. more pics i got gazzillions!http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152882985.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152883370.jpg

John, basically what happened was he was in a compartment below me in the wreck, which is upside down. When I realized I had no air left i tried to get his attention but he was facing away. about 20 feet below me. I waved my light to try to get him but he didnt see it. By time he got back up to me. I had no air at all and was holding my breath I was starting to get lightheaded . I bolted for his octopus, grabbed it and took a nice gulp of water with my air. Which didnt help. Biggest problem was I still had to go about 30 ft and squeeze through tight spots to get outside the wreck. I tried to calm down. took a few more shots of air and started going out. By time I got to the outside of the wreck, I was gettin dizzy I thought for sure I was gonna black out. When he came out behind me , he shoved his reg in my mouth I took half a breath and more water. Now I freaked and panicked I dropped all my gear , my goody bag, my light. I shot up the anchor line, I knocked other divers off it. I got to the suface and prety much had to get "rescued" I didnt even inflate my bc. or drop my weights. It wasnt a pretty sight.
Worst part was when I had to get back in the water to do the decomm stop i missed.

Joe, I like my old Princeton bottom timer. It does one thing and one thing only. It starts when I get to 10' and shuts off when I get back to 10'. No batteries or LCD screens. I am going to get a computer, but I will always keep the bottom timer strapped to my console. I'm just used to looking at it.

It looks like this:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1152883775.jpg

I actually broke one recently by overwinding and ended up getting another one off eBay for $20.

joe will work and kiss ass to dive the oriskany!!!!!!! tell me when! buddy sent me pic by pic pics of her sinking. gear all serviced since hawaii and packed. just tell me how much i have to save for OVERWEIGHT BAGS AGAIN! i jus cant HEP myself with 3 cameras 2 wetsuits and a dry suit. we dont care how cold it is! full face mask dry suit underwear. all i have to do is get my extreme cold anti freeze gizmos for my posiedons! never been to miami! i want to see miami mice! crockett and tubbs! LOL!

dive computers will always error on side of safety. naui has set limits pretty safe. i screwed up on maui by going to top of haleakula (10,070ft) and then wanting to go fly on twin to big island and dive. was staring and actually wearing dive computer(mines the scupapro big face w/big numerals) until it finally gave me the ok single to fly. i think naui has 18 hours if i recall btwn diving and flying. remember if thats an issue make your first dive your deep dive and then taper depths off thru the day.

Damn Vinny, that was a close one!! It's amazing you survived it. Threading your way out of a wreck with no continuous air supply, the mad dash to the surface... You could have gotten bent or had an embolism!

I'm thinking the next product on the market will be a pressure gauge that alarms on low pressure. I don't know why someone hasn't developed that yet.

Vinman,

I was a medivac pilot for many years (15+) and brought back a lot of guys like you. Worst was bringing them from Egypt (Hurgada) to Europe for a chamber in either Switzerland or Germany. The screamed most of the flight and all the doc could do was to shoot them up a bit but they were not happy campers.

Glad you survived but this is a wakeup call for everyone. Check your pressures every few minutes, have a pony bottle and dive with a buddy and keep him close!

Not everyplace has a chamber and if you do not get in one, or get back in the water and decompress its "no more 911" for you! :)

CMC, agree with you and the old tech works for me. Trying to get everything squished in a watch is more than I need and I do not want to ask him what all that kit cost, and now does not work right.

Trust me I went right to church after that ordeal!
I never did another penetration without doubles, a pony and a can of Spare air after that. It took a long time before I got the nerve to even try it again. I was really spooked.

I dont understand why there are no alarmed guages yet. We have them on our fire dept Scott packs. The primary factor in me runing out of air was not keeping an eye on my guage. didnt have a computer back then. I was exerting myself trying to remove something off the wreck and my air consumption basically trippled. when I noticed my reg was not flowing I looked at my guage an I was down to 200 psi. which I went through in about 5 breaths.

I'm leaving tomorrow for Morehead City NC to dive the U-352 and Kasmir with Danny Crowell on a History Channel shoot. Should be fun.

Joe , luckily my bottom time was very low, I think it was under 15 min. Like I said I had always dove with doubles, but didnt this one time. I was still within my no decomm limits depth was about 110ft. I jumped right back in anyway to be safe and did a 20' and 10' stop.

Take lots of pictures! When will it air? Will be nice to see!

Not sure when it will air, but believe me, when it does everybody will know about it. One of the guys is shooting his own HD video. I'm guessing I'll see that before the special is televised.
I'll post pics here when I get back...
http://www.deepexplorers.com/video/video_ww2.html

my scubapro alarms on low air! how do i know? during night dive off old kona airport once again got completely wrapped up with taking pics of mantas posted above. that was unreal. out of nowhere 2 show up and start feeding and doing their ballet. well i was under the spell blasting my strobes and got low on air. audible went off and i motioned to my dive master i was going up. youd be amazed at how much air you use moving around at 30-45 feet taking pics and trying to avoid others strobes. anyway on my way up noticed 2 huge hulls. it was the kona aggressor. the liveaboard that cruises the big island in mega STYLE. popped up in the middle of the twin hulls and here they are having a bar-b-que sitting in lounge chairs drinking/partying. was kinda cool, said excuse me may i play thru, and submerged and swam over to our boat. was never in danger(plus i always carry spare air) but my wrist computer did give me ample warning to safely surface. does calc i think for your depth and for your remaining air before going audible on you. it does way more functions than my pea brain can think of. but im happy with it and it does what its supposed to and audibles ARE LOUD AND CLEAR!http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1153059845.jpg

Teasers...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1153767953.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1153767966.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1153767978.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1153767990.jpg