Scuba anyone?

[Karol]

@Giles awesome! There are few here I have not seen, perfect for the next time, and I see that you guys skipped the Misool altogether. This is something to consider next time. It's the most remote part and so damn nice.
I was marking the locations on google prior to the dives and here is how it looks. I marked things in yellow, green and blue:

And Misool:

[Karol]

@Giles and thinking of Misool, there is a resort there that is just what the doctor ordered. Not crowded, in the middle of nature - https://www.misool.info/

The problem I see with this is that you are in a place away from where the liveaboard starts. Can't square this damn circle.

[Karol]

@Giles What was the thickness on neoprene? And the fact that both of you went without the hood
When someone is made out of such a harder stuff then us mortals, it's no surprise that the denim they run is 25oz.

[Giles]

I was using 2/3mm, but sometimes I did not bother. Getting in and out of wetsuits 3 to 4 times a day is a pain Water temp was usually 29C.

The guy who organised this trip is a Filipino, a friend we made in 2017 when P and I were travelling to celebrate my 60th. He is organising a Misool trip on this boat in Fen 27. We'll likely join that....

[Giles]

@Karol said in Scuba anyone?:

Not crowded, in the middle of nature - https://www.misool.info/

I spoke to Cedric (the dive Boss) about it. He says it's very expensive, 5 hours on speedboat from Sorong, booked out for 2 years.......

But great. Just gets a lot of shit about the pricing

[Giles]

Forgive the peacy V-signs. I was diving with Asians, I would likely have been mugged if I did not conform.....

[Karol]

@Giles beeing cold just by looking at you
But you get the extra points for matching shorts and fins.

[Giles]

Yeah, jonesing for one of these atm......

Oh, and Paula needs to get rid of her BCD, and join the big boys club and get wings, so thinking of one of these. I have semi wings, but will probably go full wings and plate too. Looking at the way the guys and gals with wings moved in the water compared to those with BCD's on the Raja Ampat trip, it was chalk and cheese.

So we'l probably both upgrade before the next trip....

[Karol]

@Giles Wing all 100%!!! So much easier to pack and the trim in the water is way smoother compared to jacket. And as you saw in those currents, any mean to reduce the drag is a win.

Having X-deep ZEN for approx. 5-6 years now, I can't see anything to complain. It's surprising how Poland became this place for premium scuba stuff:
https://teclinediving.eu
https://www.xdeep.eu
https://santidiving.com

Even in Raja people were singing praise about X-Deep and I saw many of their wings used by folks from over the world. You and @Madame-Buttonfly can't go wrong with it.

[Giles]

Yeah, all the Filipinos I was with who used wings had X-Deep

[Karol]

You know what is the best, you guys still have one of the nicest parts of Raja to discover, the Misool trip is going to be epic! And compared to central the currents are a bit more forgiving. Paired with wings it should be a walk in a park. Perfect warmup and then you should revisit central.

[Giles]

I don't get the thing about currents.....We had some screaming flows, but you just go with it, I love covering a shit load of ground. If we needed to stop, we'd hook on. On that note, I am lengthening the cord on ours. I'll use Dyneema (it's effing strong, and I have a load of it) and make them about 8 feet long. Ours are currently 3 foot, but even when we inflate the BCD's, we have to work hard not to bash the coral. Our guide had one of about 8 feet, and he could hang in the current, well away from the coral. As long as you stay fairly close together, then the whole group will stay together as you drift, so don't need to panic about getting separated. Obviously, sometimes we had to fin into or across currents, but we all had to, so it's not like anyone is disadvantaged. Both P and I will use our long fins when we expect current, that helps. We have encountered far stronger in the Maldives on sites like Kuredu Express, where if you are hooked on, and you turn your face perpendicular to the current, you lose your mask (you only do that once :-), so I guess we are relatively used to current.

[Karol]

@Giles same hook / rope experience, and a mandatory upgrade for Komodo as we were told by the guides that came from there. They were pushing our AOWD/Deep group hard at descents, yet for unknown reasons we were not doing a negative entry. This was the only time when the current was really an inconvenience. To reach a starting point at depth. Not all the dives were with the current, but we always engaged in some meandering, often against the currents, to check the pinnacles for pigmy seahorses.
Going back to the rope, we were chastised by our guide for having reef hooks that are, and I quote "Are expensive for money but cheap for life". They are stainless steel in protective tube. His good point was regarding the lack of grip on the string surface while being in very strong currents. It's better to have something like what you build, please keep some knots, something bulky, to hold on to when you climb down to the hook in order to release it.
And the long rope also provides longer bottom time while hanging on the observation point. It's amazing how many minutes can be gained when you have a long rope.

[Giles]

When we went to Socorro, every entry was negative (yeah, express train currents). We only did one negative in Raja....Thanks for the tips about some knots in the hook cord. And great observation about bottom time with a longer cord, I had not thought of that.....