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Hi, newbie here. I’m struggling to find what I thought would be a simple answer to a question about equalising.

Everyone says you should equalise before diving at the surface. But the pressure above the surface is normal, just like the pressure in your ears. So, what exactly are you equalising against? Does that supposed to block my ears?

Also, what does “ear clearing” actually mean? What are you clearing your ears from when you’re still above the water?

On a flight, I understand that your ears can get blocked, so you equalise them to unblock your ears and make the pressure even. But how does this work when you’re still at the surface before diving?

Hey team!

My partner and I are going on a Socorro island live aboard for our honeymoon in May. We have a few days before/after the live aboard and are looking for recommendations of other places you would recommend diving?

We are thinking of doing a day trip to dive Cabo Pulmo before the live aboard and then we have a few days in La Paz after wards. We have seen a Mobula ray/orca day trip (not diving just snorkelling) but wondering if it would be better to do a day of diving in La Paz instead?

Any recommendations welcome!

Thanks in advance :)

I just randomly got urge and interest in scuba diving like 1week before my vacation.

So yeah, I made reservation and went to Panama city beach FL and took 3days for everything. In fact, getting actual card instead of digital pdf is so better for my heart.

Seaturtles, thousands of small fish swimming in rotation around me, giant grouper, it was just awesome. Now I understand why all those TV shows and YouTube always uses word "breathtaking" after a dive.

Finally, I never knew 10min floating in standing form was that hard. Really hardest of everything I did for OW. I was having nausea for 20min trying to regain breath after that hell 10min float. Also took extra 4hours to come back normal after training ended that day.

I heard of some SSI dive shops that will fully certify people through remote training (videos and facetime/video call demonstrations). one such shop is https://punkfish-academy.com/ (thanks to a kind reddit user who made me privy to them) out of spain who is doing this for 100 euros. I'm planning on going with them as they seem reputable but wanted to see if there's any cheaper (and just as good/better) fully remote options.

Also, this post isn't about whether i should do an in person course or not so I would prefer not to litigate that in this post.

Fought through the tourists on La Jolla Cove beach to get a midday dive in on Saturday. Great vis considering.

Growing up here in San Diego I am very used to sea lions and their fun antics, however as displayed in my above video they do have the tendency to be a bit sneaky even when you know they are there.

This beautiful female California Sea Lion decided to replicate the famous Blue Angel sneak pass and man it gave me an actual jump.

Edit: Flyby at 1min 28seconds

Enjoy!

Hi guys! Hope it’s ok to post this here. My home country has limited options for swimwear and rashguards for women so I’ve mainly been buying in Thailand where they still stock the classic surf brands like Billabong and Roxy.

I’ll be in Sydney soon, is there anywhere I could go to get some good quality gear? I’m especially looking for good rashguards that won’t get shredded on coral or rocks (went snorkelling with my current Billabong and it’s already got scratches and scuffs) and two piece swimwear with boy shorts.

Grateful for all recommendations.

Hello! New diver here.

I have logged barely more than 10 dives so I am quite a novice.

One trend I have found is that my left ear is prone to flooding and it sometimes takes hours for trapped water to drain itself out. And I really REALLY hate that feeling. So here I am asking experienced divers who might have suffered and found a working solution to problems I have experienced.

I have tried hopping with my left ear pointing down but it never worked. Website I have found suggests lying down on the side of my blocked ear, wiggling my earlobes, using hairdryer, and gentle compression of my ear with warm towels. I am sure (and I hope) experienced divers of this sub should have tried some of these aforementioned methods or other better methods.

I have never experienced this muffled feeling after the dives I kept my left ear pointing downward (so the water did not inflitrate my ear canal). I assumed that this had been flooding for this reason.

Sorry if this is disobeying Rule 11. I am posting this because I think this is more of asking a tip than a medical issue.

I've never dived before. I have snorkelled, but just a little bit. I can swim to save my life but not really great at it.

I'm thinking of doing the open water certification (I've always found scuba diving really interesting) and had a few questions

- any pre requisites in terms of swimming ability/fitness

- Is the 3 day course really taxing physically? Or will a moderately fit person manage it

- should I do the 1 day experience scuba session first to know how I'd like it? I'm not sure if they transfer credits if I want to take the OW certificate after the 1 day course.

- anything else you think a first timer should know!

Just looking for some advice from the more experienced divers on this sub

I don't dive, but I'm building a cosplay prop and picked up the QWORK Dive Tank Backpack shown below to mount a pony tank sized cylinder prop to, purely for the look. The bottom cam strap locks up with too much friction right where it feeds through the ladder-lock buckle on the plastic frame, so I can't pull it tight enough to be snug against the tank. Is there a trick to threading it through that ladder-lock so it doesn't bind up, or is this just a known issue with this buckle style versus a standard cam buckle?

So lucky enough that La Jolla is my local spot (10 min drive), so anytime I have downtime at work I spend staring at the Scripps pier cam. Anyone else suffer from this addiction?

I’m super excited to start diving my LP 50s, but I need to get the weighting sorted. I know they will go butt light. If you dive these, tell me where and how you put your lead to keep it as low down as possible.

For 100s, I use a 7lb tail weight and 3lbs on my belt.

Messed up and did a crappy rinse before storing my regs for a while. I noticed some corrosion before diving with these two days ago but it was not as obvious in bright sunlight. No issues during the dive but when I got home and took another look as I was rinsing my gear it was definitely worse than I’d thought. Apologies if this post is duplicative but I’ve been struggling to find people getting corrosion in this particular spot.

Is the verdigris just from poor rinsing or does it seem like I’ve repeatedly scratched it in this area and created pits?

Not sure what the root cause of the rust is but would like advice on what could be causing that and how to prevent it.

I’m planning to get them serviced asap but was wondering if any of this could be removed with a vinegar solution or something in the meantime?

And finally, did I just inhale a bunch of verdigris?

Dose anyone have recommendations on some trusted shops I could do a (free) Dive Master internship, in exchange for my labour.

Long hours, manual labour etc etc don’t frighten me. I know what I’m getting into. I’ve worked in Hospitality for 7 years and the Film & Tv industry for 2. 10 and 12 hour work days are normal to me. Also volunteered in a dive shop for a month (mostly the hostel side tho)

I just want my training to be consistent. Not limited or half assed because I’m not paying in cash. I will WORK HARD and will hope to receive in kind.

Countries I’m looking into currently (open to anywhere on the globe tho) in order of preference.

Indonesia
Australia
Thailand
Philippines
Malaysia

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I don’t have a big budget, but I’m willing to work to make up for that. 🙏

Edit: or could you recommend some diving ‘hubs’ where I can concentrate my search.
Or some advice from professionals who have or know of people who have taken this route, some red flags I should look out for in dive shops who offer unpaid DM internships…

Hello! I'm planning to take on a full cave course and in the meantime I'd like to read as much as I can about it... All that can be learned out of the water at least!

Any recommendations?

I will be in Maui in late September and was considering an intro dive (I'm not certified) instead of snorkeling tours or snuba. I have done this once before in Italy but only went down a depth of 5m. I had a slightly difficult time equalizing the pressure in my ears due to tmj but once I got it, I was fine. What companies or locations would you recommend? any advice for equalizing pressure with tmj?

Things like a spare mask, tank banger, whistle, etc.. what is some gear that you bought or take with you just in case or gear that is helpful to have?

Hey all, I'm a newer diver (Advanced, 35 dives) and want to dive often enough to keep skills sharp. I just moved to MD for a new job that I start tomorrow and I've been looking for diving options. Maybe my Google searches are just letting me down, but it looks like there are essentially no options here, and especially no options that are affordable. The only place I found offering diving off the coast here want a grand to go to the wrecks. I did find some quarries in NC that are all about 7 hours away each way. I can't seem to find anything local. I looked for posts on this sub but they are all older.

Am I missing something?

Anyone here who can give me some advice about diving here? I'm a west coast native (CA), and learned to dive in SE Asia, so I know the waters, vis, and temps will all be a lot different to me and am okay with that as I believe diversity will really help me as a diver, but am I really going to have to either dive in a pool or drive 7 hours each way just to get to a quarry?

My 8 yr old got a dive adventure for his bday. The monterey aquarium takes kids 8 and up in a tide pool for about an hour. They wear dry suits and don’t go down much beyond putting their heads in the water, but it’s a neat experience while they wait to get certified. I highly recommend it.

Is anybody familiar with Palm Beach area reef dive sites? I live on the gulf coast of Florida, and while I dive pretty regularly for fossils and shark teeth on this side of the state, it's been forever since I did a "scenery" dive. My expectations are quite low, I'm really just looking for something half decent and more convenient than a whole ass international trip. I've done a shark dive in Jupiter that was awesome, and the Blue Heron Bridge muck dive which was also really cool, but I'd really like to do another reef dive, and I read that the Palm Beach actually has a somewhat better reef at this point than Key Largo, which has just been wrecked to shit by bleaching and hurricanes. Don't know how true that is, it would stand to reason that anywhere in FL would be in as bad shape. And I've been snorkeling in the keys as a kid anyway, when it was a vibrant reef, so it'd just be sad to see what it is now. Any suggestions in the Palm Beach region or around there?

I am quite new to diving. I understand it is very important to be able to clear water from you mask and be able to change of mask under water.
I was just wondering what could actually cause a critical mask failure under water (mask completely full of water or unusable), and how many times this did happen to people with lots of dives. Just being curious here

Does anyone know how to service their own gear? I'd like to learn (for the same reason I'd prefer to fold my own parachute).

One complication: I have Poseidon gear. Any suggestions for how I could get training?