Scuba anyone?

[Karol]

If I had to quantify what gave me most air saving, I would say frog kicking.
It’s just such a reduction in how many muscles are propelling you forward. And I also realised how much the normal kick was fucking up my buoyancy. It always has some sort of force pushing you up, it’s impossible to have neutral buoyancy.
And at this point I don’t even get more force from normal way, the frog kicking is all I need no matter how hard is the current.

[Karol]

I also always used the wing so it’s hard to say how much it adds compared to regular jacked, but for sure it’s more streamlined because you will not have all the bulk in the waist.
But the air integration will allow you to quantify the gains. That is the neat part.

[JDelage]

I'm an air hog. In the Philippines they ended up systematically giving me a large stainless tank. I've got good cardio, VO2 max, etc, so it must be purely a trim & technique thing. The fact that I drag my Divevolk + light must contribute a bit too...

[Karol]

@JDelage I had to lookup that it’s a photo case.
Everyone taking underwear photos/movies is always in a disadvantage. That extra surface area is coming at a high cost when diving in the current. Think of it as some sort of sail.

[Giles]

@Karol I don't have air integration with my Peregrine. I had it with my SUUNTO, but really disliked it, it was not connected to my computer more than it was

But, I can do the math in my brain. I know how I typically fare compared to Paula. She's about 15-20% better than me. I'll work on closing that gap, I am pretty sure she will get wings which will help her too, and she may even start frog kicking, so I may never close the gap, but we'll both be heading in the right direction.

[Giles]

I have a Divevolk and keep on tweaking its config. But my photos are still 100% crap. I will possibly take it with me on certain dives in Raja and The Philippines, but I will be very selective. I dislike the lack of freedom a camera gives me, it's something else to lug, something else to hang around waiting for your turn, and all it does it take crap photos that my mates with decent rigs take way better than me.

[Karol]

@Giles if you want to race with @Madame-Buttonfly, you will be always on the back foot.
We will always need more air compared to the ladies. But I can also promise you that being better is attainable. I have a female friend as a reference point throughout my diving journey and I can report that during Raja Ampat trip she was asking how to reduce the air usage 🥳

[JDelage]

I had a proper camera rig (not SLR) a while back and it was a huge pain in the ass, and my pictures sucked. Divevolk is the right compromise for me. I've been very happy with (a small subset of) the videos I took with it.

[Karol]

Underwater photography is always a gamble. Everything is super expensive, we have the depth limits on the hardware, etc.
And it’s another thing to worry about/think during the dive. I have to say that I like the more approachable cases for mobile phones. The line between pro setup and a phone in the case is getting thinner and I like it!!!

[Giles]

That is precisely what I thought, but now I get worried that I will get water ingress and fuck my phone up

[JDelage]

The new iPhones are very water resistant. Short of a catastrophic failure, I think we're pretty safe.

[Karol]

@JDelage i never seen any issues from the folks around me, but the thoughts are always there right?
Technology is on our side, but there are so many things that can go wrong, and that means another thing to think about when you are under.

[jebrand]

@JDelage I have been using Subsurface to log my dives. The Shearwater app is also great. You will be needing it anyway for firmware updates. The Teric is a great computer been using one for quite a while now.

[JDelage]

I downloaded both Subsurface and the Shearwater app. Subsurface is well reviewed, and it was written by Linus Torvalds, who knows how to program... Most of the bad reviews for the Shearwater app seem related to importing older data, which doesn't apply to me.

[Karol]

@JDelage on the update part:
Luckily Sharewater is not Microsoft, and the updates come at reasonable intervals. Since I updated to version 102 on 10.10.25 no news.
I just need that GPS enabled air integration.
https://shearwater.com/en-eu/products/swift-gps

Im going sidemount in few weeks and according to Sharewatter having one of those with GPS + one regular (that I already have) will be just perfect.

And one the Sharewatter app, I had in my opinion a serious issue with it at the time (Jan 26), It required internet connection to authenticate! WTF! Im in the middle of nowhere, who writes this shit?

[Karol]

@Giles said in Scuba anyone?:

Paula says there is a big box for me in the office......

are we happy Vincent?

[Giles]

Hahahaha. In the old days before Japan had got a cellular system that worked with western phones, I would obviously need to use wifi hotspots. But the only way you could authenticate yourself to get access to a wifi hotspot was by requesting an authentification code .......... that was sent to your phone.

MY PHONE DOES NOT WORK HERE, THAT IS WHY I AM TRYING TO GET WIFI ACCESS.

[Giles]

@Karol said in Scuba anyone?:

are we happy Vincent?

Yep. It's a big job getting it to fit right with the D rings in the right place. But that is one of the many advantages of getting a back-plate and wings over a "waistcoat" style BCD....I can dial in the fit perfectly.

And, I can never remember how to thread cambelt buckles, so that wasted a bit of time. Also, I had to change over the BCD inflator because I use an Atomic SS1 Regulator with integrated octopus (means I have one less hose flapping around). I may want a slightly longer corrugated hose, because the XDeep has the inflator hose going into the centre of the wings, on my Hollis the hose went into the far left, so the run down to my left hand was shorter. BUT, I won't do anything just yet, because I think if I can sort my trim and frog kicking out, I should be horizontal in the water, and not need to vent from the inflator hose.....

[Karol]

[Karol]

I was working on mine before next week's dive. The attachment that you see on the inflator is the Duck. It makes a distinct sound underwater. When you want to draw attention.
As for the trim pockets I don't really use them now, but I don't mind the pockets in case I want to add extra 1kg on the side.