After a little too action packed dive I think it is time for me to find some tide charts and learn how to read them. Any suggestions? Where do I get a tide chart for Dumaguete / Dauin? I found tide tables mentioned on the Atlantis website, but I could not find any there. I wanna put something up here for sure. I am sure I can google info on how to read the d*mn thing, but I havent been able to find anything Maybe that was something that should have been covered in the PADI course...
HI Dane, there is a tide program called wxtide32 and is exactly on the first position if you google for "tide table download" You can download it, it's free on WXTide32 - Tides and Currents for Win9x/NT . There's Dumaguete also in the database. I don't think it helps you a lot in this area here. Tide tables don't tell you any current strength. Incomming water is alwasys better to dive in this area. Look at the beach and you can see if there is incoming or outgoing water. As I don't know what level of diver you are and where you did you courses i can't and don't want to give comments to the diving-education you run through, beeing an Instructor in different dive-association, I know that all of them try to make students to understand currents and deal with them, but not at the beginner level (Padi open water, Naui scubadiver or cmas *). Later divers learn how to check currents befor a dive, or what to do if it picks up while diving. The basic rules are in each association the same. Actually most of it is written in the OW manual. If divers can't handle a dive for what ever reason, skip or quit it. This is a law for each level. I skipped dives cause entry and exit were to dangerous, also when a strong downcurrent picked up. As you talk about PADI it's written in the Ow manual how to react. If you need more info about that, feel free to drop a line, I am happy to help. cheers Rhoody
Diving and Current Hi Rhoody, Thanks for your input. We did end up aborting the dive, we dive on the house reef right in front of our house. So we swim out and drop down at the site. Surface current is at the moment always kind of hard, but usually once we drop down it calms down a lot. That day however it picked up, we have changed the way we approach the site now by dropping down half way out and going the rest of the way at the bottom, that will hopefully give us earlier warning next time Thanks for the link to wxtide, I am downloading it now.
that's the way to do... don't trust the tidetable too much... learn to watch the fish. Also full and black moon are important... where you stay the surface could be quite rough anyway (if I am not completely wrong). When I arrived here in Dumaguete and did some private shore-dives i hired a fisherman to watch for me and my balloon at the end of the dive and then let him pull me in for 50 peso... make sure you always have someone watching from the shore and use surface balloons at the end ( buy a propper one which holds the air and has a dumpvalve not this 10 dollar-toys with a 5meter line. The good ones will last some 1000 dives. cheers Rhoody Anyway you have the beer meeting tomorrow? why not at little italy, many of us coming anyway from the Dauin Area, I could talk to Guenther bring some of his special drinks... hehe
Beer meeting... We are still shooting for the 14th at 7pm.. the day after tomorrow... in Coco Amigos. I would like to do a monthly thing and check out different venues, so we can do the next one in Little Italy, and make sure Gunther is available and not working hard Last time we went there we didnt see any signs of G staff said he was at work. That might have been good though, the time before that he had me drinking vodka shots... brrrrrrrrr When we do the one in Little Italy we can get one of the folk singers out, that would be a great night, beer and a folk singer
We will have to stop by and chat with you one day We dive either 2 or 3 at the same time, never alone. We just started diving recently and just got our own equip a month ago. So we are very much still learning. I will be in Aquaventure in Ermita in a week or so to pick up some other stuff, so maybe we should look at the surface balloon as well. We have a guy waiting for us when we get up to take care of gear and stuff, maybe he should be put up on the porch of the house with a cold coke while we dive so he can see if everything is going ok. We got a pretty cool spot right outside the house, you should bring down a tank one day and check it out Thanks again
Good idea, I prefer shopping in Cebu for divegear. There are 3 big suppliers and not too far away from each other.... the other reason is... I try to avoid manila. private advise, try to get propper stuff, no toys. And buy what you really need! when I started diving I looked like a x-mas tree after a short while cause I thought I need so much stuff. Now I don't have even one off this funny clips (like octopus-holder, SPG clip....) and everything secured that I am streamlined ( if I ever can be streamlined with 95 KG). It's just a matter of organisation and finding the best solution for yourself. I hope I have some time in the next weeks to come down to you for some diving... cheers Rhoody
Dive Equipment I think we stuck to pretty decent equipment Scuba Pro most of it and Uwatec Computer. I am thinking about loosing the Octopus in favor of an Air2 - the we would have 2 hoses only We got those round octo holders, they waste some air going out to the site as they go free flowing a couple of times on the way, but they seem to work fine otherwise keeping the octo out of my way I hope you make it to Coco tonight
HI Dane, sounds good, Think about the Air2 twice, inthe unlikely event of an emergency the hose of your primary second stage is quite short for a buddy, and if you need to change the reg on a daytrip cause of whatever malfunktion your inflatorhose has to be chanked also. This 'ball' you have as a octo-holder makes the regulator freeflowing cause the mouthpiece looks to the top. I attached 2 pics of 2 easy ways to attach an Octopus. I use the hook and a small cable-tie. in a emergency, just pull the octo and the cable-tie opens. also the loop on the other pictures keeps things very close to you and the hose is right under your arm. in both ways, nothing is dangeling around... cheers Rhoody we have some important guests in, i think I can't sneak out of here before 9pm....:(
I guess we will just have to keep drinking beers until after 9pm then.... See you in Cocos tonight... I wont be wearing my BCD, so can't compare rigs tonight though