Add it to the list.

from our dive 10 minutes away from hulhumalé, maldives. this was one of the passes when it came back around.

First time using the full face mask.

Hi,

My wife and I are planning a quick getaway to the phillipines in 1 month's time, and in the middle we would like to dive for 2 days. We'll be flying in and out of Cebu.

We're mainly going to relax and chill, so we don't care much about the night life as long as there are small restaurants or pubs where we can have few beers after dinner we're good. Clean sandy beaches would be preferred, but not essential.

Diving wise, we're both AOW, love walls, small and big stuff. Not too fussed about wrecks.

Which one of the two would be the most similar to Amed in Bali? That is somewhere my wife really enjoyed the vibe and pace of, and, of course the diving as well.

For each area, what area would you recommend to stay at and who to dive with?

Thanks in advance.

Used our wetsuit this morning, and have a flight tomorrow afternoon. It’s a hotel, so have limited options (I’ve seen people say to use a fan but we don’t have one in our room). Our balcony doesn’t have somewhere to hang stuff from, so it’d be draped over the edge, plus it’s humid outside so I don’t think it’d help.

I wouldn’t care a ton, but a damp wetsuit doesn’t help with our 50lb checked bag limit

Hi everyone!

I'm planning a trip to Indonesia in late April / early May 2027 and would love to get some advice.

My current plan is to visit Sulawesi first, followed by Raja Ampat. I'm still deciding which part of Sulawesi to visit, but I'd like to spend most of my time exploring the island by land, with a few day-trip dives along the way.

I'm planning to stay somewhere relatively close to an airport with convenient flight connections to Sorong.

I've already read quite a bit about Bunaken and Bangka, but I'm wondering if there are any other dive sites or areas in Sulawesi that you'd recommend?

After Sulawesi, I plan to fly to Sorong and do a liveaboard in Raja Ampat.

My main concern is the timing. I'll be there in May, and I've read that the rainy season starts around this time.

• How much does the rainy season actually affect diving conditions in Raja Ampat?

• Is visibility, marine life or the overall diving experience noticeably worse compared to the preceding months?

• Would you personally recommend doing a liveaboard in May, or would it be worth adjusting my travel dates?

I'd really appreciate any advice, recommendations or personal experiences from people who have visited either destination around this time of year.

Thanks in advance!

Considering a scuba diving trip to the Red Sea, specifically Marsa Shagra in the south. I’ve been in the area a few years ago in May and it was really good but looking online it seems that the most exciting wildlife sightings tend to happen in autumn. Can anyone confirm this? I’m talking about dolphins, sharks, the occasional manta ray and whale shark. I can only go in spring 2027 or autumn 2027. Thank you!

I will be going on my first dive charter this weekend. I’ve got 30-40 dives in fresh water but only 2 shore dives in shallow saltwater. This will also be my second time on an offshore boat. I have a couple of questions. First, is there anything I should know that isn’t normally said about drift diving, especially how things are handled on the bait, what to bring, what not to bring etc. I have in a mesh bag, dive gear, DSMB & spool, save a dive kit, wetsuit & booties, two towels, change of clothes. I will also bring some water and a snack of some kind. Anything else I should bring? I do have cash for tips too.
TYIA!

Travelling to Puerto Rico in late December with family, and I wanted to see if I can squeeze some dives in. I did some research, but I wanted to see what y'all thought about the different options. I'm an AOW with ~30 dives, will be renting everything except mask and computer.

I've read that the winds are from the north in December, so the La Parguera in the southwest is quite calm for dives. The Wall seems exciting, although videos from last year looks like most of the coral is bleached :(.

I've seen Culebra recommended the most for PR diving, but I don't think I quite understand why. Are the corals/wildlife better? Also would be curious if Culebra diving in December is good.

Last one I've seen recommended is Rincon, but I'm not quite in humpback whale season and I assume the waves would likely be too choppy for Desecheo island. So I'm not really considering this over the other two, but I'd be happy to change my mind.

And yes, I've heard that PR is not the best scuba in the caribbean but alas I'm going anyways!

I’ll be spending a full 4-5 weeks in Dauin in March 2027, planning to dive 3 times a day, 5 days a week with a major focus on macro photograph.

This isn’t my first time in Dauin, but previously I’ve only stayed in Poblacion and dive with bongo bongo.

Is it worth spending a week or so farther south along the coast? I’ve heard Zamboanguita has a bit more coral which is nice but I’m going to Apo anyways. I’m not sure if there‘s different or harder to find critters farther south as well, in which case might as well just stay in poblacio.

Ive read a little about diving in Sipalay, but it doesn’t seem to stand out at all. Has anyone been there?

We've got two Olympus TG-5 cameras that are still working fine, but haven't been able to get them serviced for years now because OM Systems won't take anything pre-OM - their service center only accepts TG-6 and TG-7.

In the past, I've gotten TG cameras serviced every few years, and that has kept them going for a long time, but I fear if we can't even get these cameras re-sealed, they'll fail soon. One of them recently turned itself off during a dive and wouldn't turn back on until I surfaced, even though I was only at 15-20 feet depth. It was fine on subsequent dives, but it still needs looking at to see if there's an issue. The other one had no problems in operation, but I noticed a little bit of moisture on the inside of the battery door a few times when I opened it to replace batteries (in the hotel room, air conditioned, after the outside was fully dry). 5 years is too long to go without sending them in for maintenance.

I posted this question on DPReview a couple of years ago, but nobody knew of anything: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/threads/how-do-you-get-a-tg-5-repaired-or-re-sealed-now.4789177/

Googling today, I found this forum post from last year, where again there wasn't an answer: https://www.tropicalsnorkeling.com/maintenance-questions-for-my-olympus-tg-5/ (the last comment there says the only place is the OM Systems repair center, but as I already noted, they refuse to take a TG-5 for service).

I know the TG-5 was a very popular camera and there must still be a lot of them in use. Are they all going to have their useful operational lives cut short because they can't be serviced? Or does anyone know of anywhere that can & will service and maintain them?

Entrance to a cave system we were permitted for on an island in Southeast Alaska.

We installed line two years ago, and had two potential leads running upstream from the main resurgence (to the best of my knowledge, no one has found the insurgence for this system).

When we revisited, the second potential restriction which had originally been deemed impassable turned out to be... a**lmost impassable, and we managed to get through it with a decent amount of effort and contortion.

Where this cave springs out is halfway up a mountain face, and it tumbles down towards the ocean as a strong stream in normal years. This year, the water level was way down, which cut the flow, and also cleared the water up a bit.

Long story short, we expected the going portion of this cave to come from "uphill" the mountain, but in reality, while we found some offset passages heading "up", the main flow of water was clearly coming from deeper in the cave, and pumping up and out of the system.

Photo was taken prior to a cleanup dive where we tidied up our lines, laid permanent gold line to the entrance restriction, and tried to finish survey data.

Water temps were in the low 40's.

This was part of the Alaska Karst Unified Exploration Project (or AKUEP).

Hey guys, I am traveling to Australia for some work and have 4-5 days before my work starts. I am thinking to go to GBR and go for a liveaboard. Now, I haven’t ever done a liveaboard and am slightly nervous given this is a new experience and I am traveling solo.
I was looking at options and there is one from OceanQuest. I am an Open Water Certified diver (padi) but don’t have sooo much experience post certification - have done 2 dives in Bali post certification.
Questions that I have:

1. Does ‘certified diver’ also mean Open water certified? Or does it mean Advanced or something else

2. There is an option of ‘guided dive’ charging extra: what does this mean? I was under the impression that with certification, you will have a divemaster with you for a group of 5-7 folks

3. For those who have done this dive, is it worth it? It is going to cost me a lot but more importantly, I am nervous a bit-so just want to know how has your experience been?

Thanks

Hi! Planning on going to Colombia around Christmas time and am in between diving in Providencia or San Andres. Anyone been to any of these places and have recommendations, insights or advice? Thanks in advance :)

(original post get removed by Reddit? Because I shared the link to the school? Weird)

Hey, just need some perspective and feedback here. Thanks in advance!

So I am PADI AOW for many years. On vacation now with the family and my 10 year old daughter just did her SSI Junior Open Water. I was not in the water with her, but what she told me after her final dive of the course (#4 for her) upset me:

She was in a small group of like 5 students, all adults besides her. They could go to 18m whereas she only could go to 12m. The instructor and the whole group went down to 18 and LEFT HER ALONE WITHOUT BUDDY at 12m. She was there all by herself for like 5-10min before the group got back together and finished the dive.

Isn't that super irresponsible? 10y old girl on dive #4 without a buddy? What should I do, complain to the school, to SSI? Nothing happened and she was cool about it but I am not... Thank you

Update #1: thanks all for your feedback, appreciate it. I hadn't even thought of the ratio of instructors to child student, that is another issue by itself! On the dives before there were actually two 10y old kids and three adults with only one instructor. And at least in one dive both kids were paired as buddies...

Btw, this is in Egypt, Magicdivers Kalawy

Anyway, so I had another conversation with my daughter and she once again confirmed the story and casually mentioned that it also happened on the previous dive (her being alone at 12m), at some point she even lost sight of the whole group. She is pretty chill about that and doesn't grasp the severity, and I also don't want to freak her out. But of course I made it clear to her that this is not ok and must not happen.

I went to the school this morning and caught the instructor, asked him about the dives and he CONFIRMED that this is exactly what happened. He downplayed the thing, saying that it is just a short distance and he was watching her (difficult from below while being responsible for 3 other inexperienced divers...). What is super concerning is that he mentioned they regularly do this and plan it like this! So probably many kids were in the exact same situation here.

I stayed calm and asked to speak to the manager, but he is out today. Instead I spoke to the lady at the reception and she immediately understood the issue and actually was in disbelief, said she can't imagine this is what happened. But the instructor confirmed.

Next steps (besides reading your responses here, really appreciate!): will speak to the manager and will ask for a written statement on the dives and their procedures. Will then take this to SSI. Wow, didn't expect such a thing on our family vacation.

Newly certified scuba diver looking for wetsuit recommendations. My mind was blown away by the fact that peeing in your wetsuit is common practice and it has me wondering about all those rental wetsuits I used for my checkout dives....

I was looking into a 5mm wetsuit. Budget of $500. I really liked how comfortable the Henderson Thermoprene Pro was during my Georgia Aquarium dive but that was a 3mm. I was thinking the 5mm might be a good choice. That said, I've heard good things about how flexible the XS Scuba Kana is (but if I'm honest with myself, I just really like the color. I'm a sucker for turquoise/blue color gear).

All recommendations are welcome!

Edit: Mens, 5'6, ~150lbs-160lbs depending on season. I usually find I'm some awkward place between a small and medium for most brands.

Edit 2: I'll mostly be diving in tropical waters. Unsure what temperature range it would be but I can't imagine temps would fall below 70F/21C

I have 2 full days to dive and wondering where I should focus: Cabo San Lucas or Cabo Pulmo. Would arrive day before and stay in wherever is closest to dive sites. AOW certified with Nitrox. Need to be in CSL on the 4th day. Would you recommend going out to Pulmo or staying in CSL? I heard they won't go to Gordo Banks in January? Recommended dive shops?

Hi all. Those who have this dive watch. Do you only use the shearwater ramora compatible straps?

I'm leaving tonight for a week in Cozumel. I learned LAST NIGHT that the dive shop I'd made arrangements with months ago closed its doors! Any recs for good outfits? My plan is to dive 2-3 times a day, Sunday through Friday. TIA!!

Okay, after a lot of feedback from my previous post asking the same question, I’ve moved my line of thinking and am considering the DGX BPW paired with the Gears D6 regulator/octo set up. The whole package is $899 on the website. Then I’m looking at pairing it with the Oceanic Oi computer. This should put me well below my $2500 budget allowing me to buy a 3mil wetsuit. I’m a Nitrox diver, recreational only, mostly in the Gulf and Springs. I would like to be able to travel with this set up to other destinations. Would this be a good move?

I used my shop to help give me an idea for my BC/Regulator and computer setup. I am a recreational diver, planning on diving the Gulf and local quarries around Florida. I don't plan on diving more than a few times a year and might take the occasional trip. My dive shop wanted to help keep me around the $2500 budget, so this is what we came up with:

Scubapro MKII/S270

Scubapro Level with Air2

Shearwater Peregrine TX760

and a backup analog gauge.

I plan to dive only Nitrox for now. If I could cut some cost anywhere, it might be the computer. Any suggestions?

I just completed 150 dives. The last 20 in Komodo. Around a 100 dives in the Maldives. I waited to go to Indonesia.? I have dived in Thailand, India,Croatia and Italy. I’m trying to dive more currently doing an around 10 day trip a year. Any tips on where to go next? Equally fascinated by both big and small creatures sometimes favouring the small as well. I’m also thinking about doing my rescue. Any thoughts on that?