Marc's Public Blog - Diving

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Most recent entry: 2005-09-14 06:18:00 -- Generated on 2010-03-14 23:52:48 by Rig3 0.4-437

This is a collection of my blog entries and experiences with diving.
You can find all the pictures I've taken here, and read below for recountings of my more recent trips:

Table of Content for diving:

More pages: January 2003 July 2003 January 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2005 September 2005 January 2006 October 2006 November 2006 January 2007 February 2008 August 2008 January 2009 August 2009



2003/01/21 First Dive in Perth, Australia @ Rottnest Island
π 2003-01-21 00:00 in Diving
This was my 3rd year in Australia, and I had never dived in my live before. I felt silly about being in prime dive country for the 3rd time, and not taking advantage of it. So, I spent the day at Rottnest Island where I went snorkling and did my first scuba tank dive.
It was funny how I basically got a 5mn primer on how to use the equipment while boating to the site, and we were in the ocean right after that. I guess I survived (although it also helps that it was at low depths, 10m or less) :)
Needless to say that I liked it and made plans to do it again :)



2003/07/30 Learning to Dive in Ibiza
π 2003-07-30 00:00 in Diving
6 months after my first dive in Autralia, I went to Ibiza to go clubbing and went diving during the day.
Unfortunately, I didn't get my shit together and didn't know that my dives weren't counting against any certification and were just fun dives even though I was learning the necesary skills.
While the dives were enjoyable, I was a bit pissed that after 6 dives, I had nothing to show for it, but a discover scuba diving certificate which is worth about nothing. Oh well, the experience was still worth something, even if I had nothing to show for it.

learning what to do when you lose your regulator
learning what to do when you lose your regulator

our divemaster breaking the dont mess with wildlife rule with a small octopus
our divemaster breaking the dont mess with wildlife rule with a small octopus


See more images for Learning to Dive in Ibiza
2004/01/17 Diving in Adelaide, Australia
π 2004-01-17 00:00 in Diving
While Adelaide wasn't as much of a prime diving location as Rottnest Island (starting with colder water), I made it a point to go diving somewhere while I was there
First, I wanted to go to a nice site with a reef by the beach, the local dive shop couldn't get me there because they didn't have a divemaster who was allowed to take a non certified diver. Bummer!
I then contacted a somewhat nearby dive shop who basically had to check me out again in a swimming pool since I had no real certification. After going through that, I was however allowed to go for their dives that day, and while it was more expensive and not necessarily as good but oh well...

boating from the harbour to the dive site
boating from the harbour to the dive site


See more images for Diving in Adelaide, Australia
2004/06/28 Getting Certified in Ibiza & PADI is mostly a scam
π 2004-06-28 00:00 in Diving
Since I had definitely missed out in Australia by not being certified, this time I made sure I would be. In the two weeks I was in Ibiza I got both my open water and advanced open water certs.
Quite frankly, I didn't learn anything additional for my open water cert since I had already done the stuff. I just paid 500 euros for the privilege of getting the said cert (quite a scam considering that the dive shop was already paid for the dives were were doing).
Then, I did a few extra dive specialties (which really weren't specialties outside of the deep dive), picture taking is a joke, peak buoyancy was nothing more than the current buoyancy in open water, and swimming a square with a compass isn't exactly hard. Another 300 euros later, I got my advanced open water cert, of which only the deep dive certification was really useful (It is only later that I did night diving and nitrox).
As you can tell, I'm saying PADI is running a scam where you are technically not allowed to go diving past 18m, even if you get checked out for 30m or deeper, as long as you don't pay for the full advanced class and other specialties that you may not care about.

But eh, while I still hate padi for it, I caved in and paid the 800 euros (almost $1000 at the time) for the privilege of having their certification, even though I had most of the skills already before I started.

As for pictures, this was the last time that I used film for my under water pictures, and had to get them developed, and put on CD ($40+ for 3 rolls and a single CD, what a rip-off).


another octopus attack :)
another octopus attack :)

more Training
more Training

there is a fish in there
there is a fish in there




2004/07/20 Ibiza 2004 Diving pictures
π 2004-07-20 00:03 by Merlin in Diving

Better late than never as they say, but since I'm a guy behind on technology, I used film for my under water pictures, and had to get them developed, and put on CD ($40+ for 3 rolls, what a rip-off).

game: find where the fish is :)





The rest of them are here
2005/08/24 Santa Catalina Island and Diving
π 2005-08-24 08:38 by Merlin in Diving, Trips

I used the first two days to do 5 dives, 2 on monday (got there a bit too late for a boat trip that had already left) and 3 on tuesday (two on a boat trip, and one later at shore).
The interesting thing is that I forgot about how far the no flying after diving rule extended. According to the recommended rules, you have to wait 24H for flying after multiple dives. In real life, it's more complicated, as it depends what altitude the plane is pressurized for (usually 8000ft for commercial planes, 2/3rd of the pressure at ground level for standard temperatures), and it also depends how deep you went diving for how long, which means how much nitrogen you ended up with, in your blood. It was however recommended that I don't try diving this morning, even if I had 12H after the dive (in theory enough for a single dive, and ok if you stay at shallower depths), so I'm going to visit the Island and go Mountain Biking.

I did however take a lot of pictures, and am very happy with the underwater housing I bought for my camera. It is so much better to be able to see your pictures underwater while you are taking them, not be shy about how many you are taking, and be able to get them right afterwards. I can't believe I ever dealt with the crappy underwater film cameras.

In addition to some of the pictures below, I also got some short films, like:



Pictures of Santa Catalina and Diving are here





would you like a few more pillows? :)




those two fish were fighting, you could see them in action here




you can't see me


why don't you stick your finger in here?


Those giant sea bass can be more than 50 years old






Underwater commemorative plate

2005/09/14 Trip to Malaysia
π 2005-09-14 06:18 by Merlin in Diving, Trips

25H of travelling is probably a personal record. I'm currently in my second plane, from Hong Kong to Malaysia, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get some connectivity there since I just realized while dozing off that I entirelyforgot to make my mandatory estimated tax payment (some big sum of money) to both CA and the feds. It is going to be fun to arrange remotely, without my
files and my papers access codes and so forth (I was able to find a lot of information I needed in my local mail spool, and I'm looking in my browser history for .gov URLs right now to see if I have the CA web site for online payments). Doh, doh, doh!
Anyway, Hong Kong was a nice a clean airport, as expected. I didn't get to see a whole lot since I landed at 05:35 local time, but it was still nice to have gone through it. In the funny notes, it was cool to see that there were no less than 8 GSM networks my phone could chose from, and that I was able to use my nokia communicator to send Email ssh to my machine and look at my new messages with mutt while I was in line. That said, I was able to get a good WIFI connection some time later while waiting for my second flight, and I used the time appropriately (although I wish I had realized that little banking problem before then since I could have solved it from the airport and now it's going to be much harder)
The first flight on Cathay Pacific was so-so: I tried fruitlessly to upgrade to business, but I found out that on their planes the business section is much smaller than United's so it was overbooked. The other fun part is that a cash upgrade was $1200 one way, for just 1 out of the 3 planes. The full business fare return for just the first plane was $8000!!! In the meantime, their seating in coach sucked ass, and even my butt hurts from the bad seats. Oh well, bigger problems in life I guess...
Two quick notes after landing in Malaysia and waiting for my 3rd flight: I hadn't done homework and realized that Malaysia was actually a Muslim country, which kind of explained the Jelabas (sp?) I saw as soon as I got off the plane, and the muslim prayer room inside the airport, and the crescent on the national flag :) In other news, they have an interesting way to deal with with whatever is defined as illegal drugs here: trafficking is simply punishable by death.
Apart from that, weather looks lovely, and I have already picked up a bunch of pamphlets about all the great diving spots they have. I can't wait :)
Oh, and the international airport had what looked like a voluntary immigration counter (i.e. you walked by it, but didn't have to go through it physically). That looked weird... :)
In the end, I did arrive to the Island of Sabah at the Sandakan airport (that was kind of funny, the 737 landed on the runway, went to the end, and then turned around on the same runway to reach the terminal since there was no taxiway. I guess that explains why there weren't any international flights going there directly :) )
It's pretty to have houses on the water like this, but I guess you don't wonder why there are so many problems when a tsumani shows up, or even global warming over the next 50-100 years :-/

You can find more pictures from the air here , and pictures from my trip as they get posted and I get the chance to upload them (satellite connection on a pretty island in the middle of nowhere right now), there .
Oh did I just mention that the Island I'm on when sending this is so big that it takes 7 minutes to jog around it? :) and just because I'm lucky they got their satellite internet connection yesterday :)
Comments:
Là tu es bien dans 100 % d'exotisme...
Et tu n'as pas encore plongé ni goûté la nourriture.
Ce serait rigolo si tu rencontrais quelqu'un parlant néerlandais, car Bornéo c'est une ancienne colonie.
Que puis-je te souhaiter d'autre qu'ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY!!!
Bisous de ta maman.
posted by : 15 September, 2005 01:40


More pages: January 2003 July 2003 January 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2005 September 2005 January 2006 October 2006 November 2006 January 2007 February 2008 August 2008 January 2009 August 2009