Scuba anyone?

[JDelage]

What do you fine people use to log dives? I've been using paper dive books, but I just upgraded & updated my computer to a Shearwater Teric, so maybe I should go digital. What do you think?

[Giles]

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.....

[Karol]

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.

[Giles]

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.

[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?