Scuba Gear Finder

I went scuba diving last night and my period started up this morning. I just finished up my period about a week and a half ago. Does anyone know what is going on? I am not having sex, so it is definitely not pregnancy. Any useful comments would be appreciated.

I was going to say no, but now I think about it, could a pressure change cause that? Something to think about.

If not, it could just be a coincidence, it could be early because of other factors like stress or perhaps it's another sort of bleeding? Maybe see your doctor?

I'm based in London and have just got my PADI Openwater Diver Cert. I'm keen for me and a buddy to go on a diving break – but don't know the best way to go about it. Are there any London clubs that organise such trips (either in or outside the UK) or any holiday companies that specialise in diving jaunts? Or is it better to get a standard hoilday to a scuba resort (i.e. Sharm El Sheikh) and organise the dive trip when I'm there?

You can get some really good bargains in Egypt on the Red Sea coast at this time of year. There are several diving holiday organisations which arrange trips. I have used Tony Backhurst Scuba (web site at www.scuba.co.uk) many times. They cater for both experienced & inexperienced divers. You could even go for your Advanced Open Water cert whilst you are there as this consists mainly of experience dives with only a tiny bit of additional bookwork- practical stuff rather than theory. Personally, I would arrange my diving before going to be sure you can get booked in. You can also chat to them here about the sort of diving you want to do etc etc before you go. There are many many other places you can go around the world but Egypt is pretty jacked up for divers with some very good prices too. The groups going there are mainly divers so the airlines etc are very familiar with diving equipment luggage etc. If you want to go as part of a bigger group then best to contact your local dive centres- or the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) has clubs just about everywhere-their web site is www.bsac.com & you will be able to get details of all the clubs in your area.

I just finished my scuba certification, and they told us the number one rule of scuba diving is to *never* to hold your breath. Even when you've lost your regulator, you're supposed to breath out a small stream of bubbles.

Is this only because of the overcompression injuries you can get if you hold your breath and rise (which allows the air to expand/decompress, potentially rupturing a lung, etc.) or are there other reasons?
Okay people, enough with the grouchy "you should know this".

First, if it's just a matter of not holding your breath when you *rise* I totally get the whole "expanding air" / "ruptured lung" thing (reread my original question… I state it right there).

My questions is why you should not hold your breath when you're stationary (not rising or sinking), such as during the exercises where do you regulator recovery (sweep and reach methods). It feels more natural to hold my breath during that, but the course instructions say never hold your breath; hence my question.

It's just a bad habit to get into that you might do on ascent is all and it's the primary reason why they tell you never to do it. If you're conditioned to never hold your breath, chances are, you won't be doing it when it's really important, like an emergency swimming ascent. Don't get me wrong, tons of divers do do it, it's called skip breathing. It's a way to wrangle a little more TBT out of your tank by reducing your gas consumption a bit. PADI and the rest don't want you skipping because that could lead you to believe it was ok to do it. It's not really and for the reason I mentioned above. Mental conditioning.

I am going to get my scuba diving license sometime soon (hopefully) and I really don't know anywhere to go yet.

The Florida keys are very nice, but ask your local dive shop for local sites. They should be able to hook you up with a bunch of great local dives.

Im going on a vacation, never been scuba diving before. Where is there a place to rent scuba gear for a reasonable price? I dont want a pool or set up atmosphere- I'm looking for reef and actual marine wildlife. I'm assuming these are guided experiences. About 100 mile radius from Orlando. Thank you for any help.

There are companies that will take you on guided scuba tours, but you will have to attend an "abbreviated" scuba course first.
Scuba diving can be a dangerous sport without proper training, so you can't just rent the gear and have at it, without any training at all. You can't even rent the gear yourself, without a certification card.

Check out these links:

http://www.fun2dive.com/introto.htm

http://www.miamiscubaventures.com/html/discoverscuba.html

http://www.genesisdiving.com/florida-padi-certification.shtml#discover

If the force on the tympanic membrane (eardrum) increases by about 1.50 Nabove the force from atmospheric pressure, the membrane can be damaged. When you go scuba diving in the ocean, below what depth could damage to your eardrum start to occur? The eardrum is typically 8.20 mm in diameter. Take the density of seawater to be equal 1.03\times 10^3 kg/m^3.

I tried to work out the length of a column of sea-water that is 8.2mm diameter and has a weight (force = mass x acceleration due to gravity) of 1.5 newtons.

The calculation came to 2.81m. That sounds about right, eh?

Working:

1. volume of a cylinder = (area of circle) x (length of cylinder).

2. area of a circle = pi x radius squared

3. diameter = 2 x radius

4. 1 meter = 1000 mm (8.2mm = .0082m)

5. mass of a solid = volume x density

6. force = mass x acceleration (due to gravity)

So:

Force = ( volume of column x density of sea water ) x g
1.5 = (pi x .0082/2 ^ 2) x depth x 1.03 x 10^3 x 9.81
1.5 = 0.533 x depth

depth = 2.81m

My boyfriend has been scuba diving for a number of years, and i've recently decided to start.
The problem is, after going down only to about 2 metres, the pressure in my ears is really strong and painful.
I have the same problem when flying, and have to use ear plugs which relieve pressure. There is nothing wrong with my ears, i have been the doctors,
Does anyone know if there are any ear plugs, similar to the ones i use for flying, that relieve pressure in the ears? or could i possibly use my flying ear plugs to go scuba diving?
I cant hold my breath and make my ears "pop" thats part of the problem.

If your having trouble equalizing at depth, ascend a few feet or a meter or so, and try again. Somone else posted a bunch of different techniques on how.

What works for me is a combonation of two: I pinch my nose, and swallow. Works like a charm.

And – it does get easier the more you dive.

I know its a weird question
Im doing a story for English and there is a father that dies whilst scuba diving with his daughter. They are swimming around a shipwreck from the sixties.
I dont really know much about scuba diving so i was just wondering if anyone has any ideas of how he could die?

Thanks heaps = D
I'd like a sort of out there-ish death. Something thats not normal but griping and sad.

A.G.E.- Arterial Gas Embolisms are horrible. The short version is that you lung pops and an air bubble gets in your blood and goes to your brain or heart and bam you are dead. This is why very SCUBA instructor will tell you to never hold your breath will diving, what they don’t tell you is that you are in more danger of this happening in the pool during your class then diving down to 40 feet for your open water dives. How it works is that as you go down to 5′ in a pool (at five feet most people can just stand up to get to the surface), you panic and stand up, automatically holding your breath(because that is what you do underwater) and pop your dead.

DCS- Decompression Sickness aka The Bends is no joke. Basically as you dive your body becomes saturated with nitrogen bubbles(or whatever inert gas you are breathing) when you start to surface those bubble expand. Depending where they expand they can break bones or destroy your brain. Preventing this is as simple as coming up slowly and following the no decompression dive tables. Just to give you an idea of how much this can suck and how varied the damage can be I had two dive instructors at the college of Oceaneering who had had decompression sickness. Once of them had his back broken and one had both of his hips snapped. Sounds fun dosen’t it. If you get bubbles in the wrong place (your brain) it can tear through that soft gray stuff leading to brain death.

Animal Stings- This one is a personal favorite of mine. It all goes back to not touching the animals. If Steve Irwin taught us anything it is that animals get pissy if you mess with them. So don’t mess with them and you’ll be fine. Also keep in mind that the really poisonous animals are really little. The best ones are rock fish, because they look like a rock and will kill you super fast and you won’t even know what you did.

Differential Pressure or Delta P- This is my favorite, in fact it by far one of the scariest things I have seen. Basically these happen when the pressure between the water(where you are) and the pipe(or whatever0 is so different that you get sucked in breaking all of your bones and killing you. Typically this isn’t something that a normal diver needs to worry about but it is just so spectacular that it couldn’t be left off the list. There is even a video, though if you like crabs you will be sad. This is a video taken in 6000 feet of water. An undersea robot is sawing a 3mm wide slit (1/10th of an inch … remember that width) in a pipeline. The pressure inside the pipeline is 0 psi, while the pressure outside is 2700 psi, or 1.3 tons per square inch. Then a crab comes along….

I am planning to learn scuba diving in the Philippines but I like the place to be low-priced but has a lot to offer terms of the beauty of the dive sites. If you can give an estimate how much I would spend for a period of time for diving and accomodations, that will be very much appreciated. Thanks!
OK I'm down to a few choices: Puerto Galera, Anilao, and Palawan. Which one is best? Let me know. And if you have other suggestions, that will be great. Thanks!

If you like the idea of wreck diving rather than reef, i can recommend Subic bay.

$40 a night at Boardwalk Hotel, and $360 for 4 dives, full 1:1 instruction, equipment hire etc with Butch at the Scuba Shack just opposite the hotel.

If you go, tell him that Keith recommended him and Michelle sends her regards.

We are a couple wanting to go scuba diving together in Egypt. We've only done a few dives each so don't want anything too deep at this stage. We would like a nice 4-5 star hotel if anyone can suggest this near dive sites too. Any info about where to fly in would help as well. A trip up the Nile would be a bonus!

All scuba diving places have to tell you the safetyinstructions and how to use your breathing apparatus by law so try anywhere,