scuba diving gear

[Guest]

Does anyone do this? On a fairline rally, the lady who had scuba gear was incredibly useful for fishing stuff out of the water. Now, a friend who is enthusiast say I can have a go in the local swimming pool. I bet I need to buy a shiny tank thing, and flippers and mebbe some weights. How much to get a compressor on board - or is it not feasible?

 

[longjohnsilver]

There's a few of us that dive. You can do a 4 day course to cover the basics. They will supply the equipment but then it's up to you. You will need a tank, regulator, fins, mask and snorkel etc etc. You can buy small compressors to fit on boats. Can either be run off integral petrol engine or from your genny if large enough, which I guess it would be on 23m.

You are right it is very convenient to check sterngear etc - I can scrub of the antifouling on my 32 footer in about half an hour. The only problem is that once other boat owners know that you dive you suddenly become in demandto look for lost gear, check their sterngear etc. Best to keep it quiet!

 

[Guest]

Cheers

Is it really worth (the hassle) getting a compressor tho? How long do tanks last? How much to refill from a dive shop? Air compressors sound (and I suppose are) a bit dangerous, no?

 

[kimhollamby]

Try Andark, the company at Bursledon (near Moody/Sealine Hamble) who do a one-hour trial dive in their own swimming pool. Not taken the course yet, but intending to. Friendly bunch, good facilities, well recommended.

 

[kimhollamby]

ps

Matt, fairly sure your Med boating is all in the western end and not sure if any regs there, but there are some parts of the Med where you have to be v careful about scuba diving. Lots of regs in Turkey, for example, as they are very careful about tourists hijacking the artifacts that you find all over the place there.

 

[longjohnsilver]

No in 20 odd years of diving I've never felt it necessary to buy a compressor. They can be dangerous but like everything else if properly used and serviced should not cause any problems.

Usual cost to fill cylinder is about £2-50. How long it lasts depends on size and depth. 12 - 15 litre size should be about right for you. At say 60 foot dive this should last for 30 -40 minutes or so. If just looking under the boat and not working hard, should be good for well over an hour.

Most clubs and dive schools offer a have a go session as described by Kim, it's the way that most peolpe start. Take the family along, although I think the minimum age limit is either 12 or 14, fraid I'm out of touch now.

Another advantage of diving from your own boat is that you can catch your own supper, I've got a good sized plaice in the fridge from the weekend, and also brought back quite a few dozen scallops. Seafood doesn't come much fresher!

 

[Guest]

right, I'll leave the compressors for others to explode their boat with, just use racks and refill. Don't think we'd use it enough, and probly best get back to experts who can oho find things that aren't right in the tanks, fittings and so on.

Do you use a speargun to catch fish? TThey always seemed v dangerous to me. Scallops probly much easier to chase...

 

[longjohnsilver]

I have a speargun, never used it diving (only snorkelling) and hasn't been out of its case for years. To catch fish I have a small handspear about 18 inches long with a hook on other end to help persuade lobsters and crabs that they want to come out to play.
All good fun.

 

[Guest]

Re: cheers, nm

thanks for advice

 

[Guest]

Re: ps

nah, no regs like that, or if there are, everyone ignores them cos it's France.

However, some ninnys do it off 3m dinghys half a mile out with tiny harldy visible alpha (? think so, blue white) flagette attached to back of outboard, so it looks like aha! free dinghy adrift, finders keepers OOPS...

 

[Piers]

PADI

Matt,

Having always wanted to be able to free my own props, I eventually put myself on a 5 day course to achieve my PADI licence - something many marinas demand before allowing anyone to 'go below' in England.

I must add that I did this in the glorious Maldives last year.

Having done the course, blow the prop clearing, it's the fun of diving that I'm after now!

But seriously, choose the correct school and licence to go for. PADI is well accepted world-wide.

At first I thought why bother with a recognised course, why not just do it. Having done the course, I wouldn't advocate doing it any other way.

Piers du Pre
MBM Cruising Club enthusiast

 

[Guest]

Re: PADI

Yes, I beleieve that this friend is an instructor. Cheers for the advice.

 

[stefan_r]

Re: PADI

hi Matt,

It's not a cheap startup hobby cos aside from the obvious you need a regulator (mouthpiece), BCD jacket (to give you bouyancy), perhaps a dive computer and a tank if you're going the whole hog...

I find renting these things a lot easier...though you can only get rental if you are PADI or similar accredited.

Also you should get the regulator serviced annually and the tank checked, if the BCD gets water in (they will anyway) it it will rot from the inside out if not flushed regularly.

I have a compressor on board (the old owner was a diver) but have never used it...easier to just rent 2/3/4/5 tanks and have fun on someone else's time.

It is very useful for sterngear inspections and car keys and for that sort of diving you'll get an hour or so of air...you use proportionately more air as you go deeper.

Best thing to do is become a PADI (excuse the phrase!!) in 5 days and you'll get the idea. It is a great sport and well worth the time to get qualified, and to see what happens on a real boat when it all goes tits up try wreck diving on car ferries and the like....the wierdest feeling seeing these things on the seabed and not on the surface.

Have a look at www.PADI.com



mailto: stefan@athito.com

 

[Scubadoo]

It looks like the others have given some good advice, I agree get trained with Padi (I think better than BSac - this could start something). Before you start deciding on the techincal point of gear etc, I would suggest you get your head under water with a trial dive and see whether you will like it. I remember some years ago a few very keen wanna be divers only to find they hated the swimming pool training and gave up - they panicked under water.

To be fully kitted up with gear will set you back about £1500 to start with - but can get it cheaper. You'll start with a single tank basic set-up and end up with adding a pony (backup air) the most expensive dive computer etc etc.

I dive from my boat - but being the skipper I tend not do so many as my mates, we are a small group of three and do our own thing - mainly wreck diving. We also dive in Scotland and this year I was at the Aussie Barrier Reef, once you start you can't stop.

Lastly when you complete your Padi and kitted your boat out, a 23m dive boat must be pure luxury, any chance diving off your 23m in the Med?

Anyway Matt good luck and let us know how you get on, need any help just let us all know.

RM.

 

[Scubadoo]

Just a cautious note, Andark are good but be careful of the weekend staff (like B&Q!), they can be useless on advice like I find out, best staff are probably during the week!

As Matt lives in London, Andark may be too far, - I trained with the Berkshire Dive Crew (http://www.divecrew.co.uk/), they do evening course, and are very good.

RM.

 

[ChrisP]

Re: ps

I did my training at a PADI approved school in Portugal. The training under the PADI system is good and is aimed at the sports diver. It's accepted all over the world and you may need to show some sort of skill level to hire equipment or get bottles filled. It's well worth looking into.

 

[Guest]

cheers RM. I'll give it a go. Seems best to get some training. I am pretty whiz at swimming so no problem with being underwater. But finding accidentally dropped things at 5m depth is my limit.

 

[gus]

I don't want to be a pessimist but would like to add a note of caution. There would appear to be an increasing commercial pressure to try and sell the idea of diving as being something that you can pick up in an hour of instruction. That gets you into the water. What it doesn't do is train you to cope instinctively with all manner of life treatening situations that can occur without you having the experience to recognise the dangerous situations as they develop. It is a wonderful experience to dive into this other part of our world, but for safety's sake, do a lot of serious training so you can enjoy it safely and always come back. Don't listen to those that advocate that the only good dive is a deep one. There is more life to see in the first 40' and you have the bonus of being able to stay down longer at that depth.

 

[Guest]

Cheers, but I am suitably wimpish anyway and much too scaredy to go deep in case of nasty bends, dying and suchlike. Ooops, I mean I always consider the risks very carefully, and err on the side of caution.

 

[Guest]

Before I bought a far too expensive boat we used to have real holidays with bedrooms and bathrooms. Because i did'nt have to spend half my time unblocking toilets or hanging upside down in engine rooms i learnt to dive. My qualifications have now expired but I saw a total very compact system in one of the mags for £500 so i bought one. Used it a lot in summer and was great fun, never went deeper than 5m but thats fine for a bit of fun( and picking up lost sunglasses!)