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    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

    Scuba anyone?

    Hobbies and Pastimes
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    • goosehdG
      goosehd
      Mod Squad
      Joined:

      😃 😃  30 years ago…I had just started dating Laura, lived in Ottawa Canada and had friends who just returned from Baltimore, Maryland.  They had brought back some blue crabs for a big feast and invited me.  I phoned Laura to invite her to come along and asked her "have you ever had crabs"....still laugh about that one today.  🙂

      ...note: probably not a good question to ask someone who you've just started dating.... 😃

      "I don't give a shit what anyone else is doing, we will do what is best for us and our customers" - Giles P. :)

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      • GilesG
        Giles
        IHUK Crew
        Joined:

        Ha….

        About 25 years ago when I was in corporate life, I went to some sort of business seminar.  I sat down next to some random guy.  As I settled down, he leant over a whispered in my ear, "Got rid of those crabs yet Giies?".......

        Turns out he was my roommate for my first year at Uni, we had not kept in touch, but he sure did remember my travails....

        "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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        • GilesG
          Giles
          IHUK Crew
          Joined:

          Frogfish…..

          Seahorse

          Mantis Shrimp

          Nudibranch

          "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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          • GilesG
            Giles
            IHUK Crew
            Joined:

            Cuttle Fish

            Nudibranch

            Crab (carapace 2mm across)

            "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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            • GilesG
              Giles
              IHUK Crew
              Joined:

              More Nudibranchs….

              "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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              • GilesG
                Giles
                IHUK Crew
                Joined:

                Pygmy seahorse - yeah it's effing tiny….....

                "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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                • J
                  Jett129
                  見習いボス
                  Joined:

                  I can’t imagine how difficult it is to get a shot like that,or for that matter,any of the insanely beautiful pictures you’ve been posting.

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                  • GilesG
                    Giles
                    IHUK Crew
                    Joined:

                    None of them mine of course 🙂

                    Harlequin Shrimp (about 1cm carapace)….

                    Mantis Shrimp, my favourite reef-thug.  One of them hit my pointer stick yesterday and I felt the jolt, and the things are no more than 3" long….

                    Factoid (stolen from the web).....A mantis punch arrives with the acceleration of a . 22-caliber bullet, 50 times faster than a human eye can blink. Underwater, the low pressure bubble left in the wake of the punch collapses upon itself in a burst of light and heat, reaching an estimated 8,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

                    "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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                    • J
                      Jett129
                      見習いボス
                      Joined:

                      I know that you didn’t take them but as someone who has ,at times,attempted underwater photography, I know how difficult it is. For starters the fish aren’t exactly posing, and your operating under water in a current. Add that to maintaining neutral buoyancy etc. And the list goes on.

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                      • mclaincauseyM
                        mclaincausey
                        見習いボス
                        Joined:

                        Badass shots! Mantis “shrimps” also have hyper spectral vision and independent eyes in addition to the cavitation bubble claw. Amazing creatures.

                        Think it, be it.

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                        • GilesG
                          Giles
                          IHUK Crew
                          Joined:

                          @mclaincausey:

                          independent eyes

                          I love watching them from above when they are in their burrows. Their eyes moving completely out of sync fascinates me…..

                          "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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                          • GilesG
                            Giles
                            IHUK Crew
                            Joined:

                            Leaf fish

                            Dragon fish

                            Ghost pipefish

                            Shrimp fish (and Paula)

                            Turtle

                            Cement mixer

                            "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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                            • GilesG
                              Giles
                              IHUK Crew
                              Joined:

                              Nudibranch

                              Octopus

                              Garden eels

                              Clown fish

                              Turtle and human

                              Porcelain crab (again, but one of my favourite critters to find - not difficult when you know where they live)

                              Wheel

                              "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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                              • JDelageJ
                                JDelage
                                啓蒙家
                                Joined:

                                Lovely pictures! I've never seen mats shrimps; I'd like to. They are very cool indeed.

                                Where are you Gilles? It looks like a super rich spot!

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                                • GilesG
                                  Giles
                                  IHUK Crew
                                  Joined:

                                  Mantis shrimp are fairly widespread in the tropics, the pretty ones mainly in the Indian and Pacific oceans.  I'm in Indonesia and have seen more free-swimming (rather than hiding in their burrows) ones here than anywhere else….

                                  "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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                                  • JDelageJ
                                    JDelage
                                    啓蒙家
                                    Joined:

                                    Aaah, very nice! Currently looking at options for Raja Amat…

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                                    • GilesG
                                      Giles
                                      IHUK Crew
                                      Joined:

                                      Very nice.  We've been a little disappointed with the number of divers here, basically if I have to look in front of me to make sure I am not going to hit a diver coming the other way, or when I look around, I can't immediately recognize my group, then it's not for me.  We've decided that from now on we will try and find areas a little less travelled, or do liveaboards where we can get to remote places to cut the number of bodies in the water down…

                                      Hands down, the best place we have dived is Socorro.  It's hard to get to, but absolutely amazing (if you like big stuff).

                                      We're looking at going to the Hallaniyat Islands in Oman as soon as we can.  I know the islands from my fishing exploits, they are bursting with marine life and have a resident population of Humpback whales.  And I believe, there is only one dive operation that goes there.....

                                      "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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                                      • JDelageJ
                                        JDelage
                                        啓蒙家
                                        Joined:

                                        Liveaboards are great. My best experience diving was a liveaboard in the middle of the Red Sea. Amazing mix of coral reefs and pelagic creatures.

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                                        • T4920T
                                          T4920
                                          見習いボス
                                          Joined:

                                          I'm going to be diving for the first time next month in Thailand. Doing the PADI Open Water course and possibly Advanced too, depending on how much time I have.

                                          If anyone has dived in Thailand before, can you provide any recommendations for place to take these courses? As it stands I'm thinking Koh Lanta, as I only have two weeks in the country and it's location lines up with the rest of my itinerary, but I'm open to other suggestions.

                                          “𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑏 𝑦𝑜𝑢. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑡, 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜, 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑚 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡.”

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                                          • GilesG
                                            Giles
                                            IHUK Crew
                                            Joined:

                                            No experience of diving in Thailand I am afraid. But my strong recommendation is do your open water, then enjoy diving for a while. Then add advanced (and Nitrox if you think you will dive a lot) at a later date.

                                            "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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