Scuba anyone?
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I am afraid that I don't bother. All the dive operations we go to give us a printed readout of the dives we have done at the end of the week. Paula puts that is a plastic wallet with all the others. When I got my Shearwater, I set the dive count to my personal number of dives, so now that keeps track of my dive count. I did download the dives from my Shearwater the first time I used it, but that novelty soon wore off
But every dive I have done since I got it is stored in the memory, so I sort of have the last few 100..... -
I have to admit that I never bothered with a classic dive log. Usually I take a photo of the site map during briefing and I have computer log.
But as I was working on reducing my air consumption I got the habit of downloading the stats from the computer. It all started when the air integration came to market, I could finally just know my consumption at any time during the dive and it really informed the craft. Sharewater has now for half a year a new app that is kind of cool. But there is an app created by no other than creator of Linux himself - Linus Torvalds. Apparently he is an avid diver.
The app is called Subsurface. This is the end game, funny how all the commercial apps created by professional companies are not even close to this one. -
That is an interesting point about air consumption. Working on reducing it, will be a big part of my diving for a while. The XDeep Ghost which arrived whilst I was in Japan, is the first part of the jigsaw, learning how to frog kick properly is another.
In Raja Ampat last time, my group (of 4) included a girl called Cat. I had been diving with her before, but we had never dived in the same small group, so I had not studied how she dived in detail underwater. She frog kicked, was always perfectly horizontal and never used her hands to turn (I do). She dives with her hands held way forward of her torso, I think to move some weight forwards of her pivot pint to help with trim control. I am not awful with air consumption, but she would regularly come up after an hour with twice as much air as me. She is tiny, so I am sure that helped, but that holiday made me realise I have a lot to get better at.
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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 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.
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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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.
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@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 🥳 -
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!!!
🥳
