Northwest Dive Club

I cringe at all the split fin hate and misinformation. It's a myth that split fins stir up more silt than paddle fins. Kicking hard towards the bottom stirs up silt, regardless of the fin. It's just easier to do so in a split fin, because, well, it's easier to kick hard in a split fin and split fins...

Maybe try climbing stairs or ladder with a heavy pack, or try "calf lifts" with increasing weights.

Keep in mind that in most situations, you should be able to remove your gear prior to exiting the water. You can always choose to not jump in if conditions are too rough to do that.

For those who rinse with vinegar, do you have a checkvalve? I found that the use of vinegar corrodes the checkvalve, so I just rinse with water now.

I recently took a trip through this area with a friend who worked for the Wanapum dam. He mentioned that an old town was submerged and pointed to the location. I instantly brought up diving, but, at least according to his recollection, most or all of the above-ground infrastructure was removed.

Great advice above. A baselayer (REI medium or heavyweight underwear) coupled with whatever drysuit undergarment should get you from cold to spicy if not downright hot. Alone, they might even work better than the undergarment itself. What neckseal do you use? A neoprene neckseal will also give you a...

To the OP, I'd say it depends on your comfort and experience in the water. Are you a confident in the water, or do you find diving a bit challenging, grappling with all the gear and buoyancy? Diving with a drysuit is not rocket science. It's just different. How you adapt to the difference depends on...

I'd recommend against using your on-camera flash.

You'll achieve much better results lighting a subject from the side with your dive light. Play around and see for yourself.

What's considered breaking the bank? $500 http://www.leisurepro.com/p-itovp6/i-torch-video-pro6-2400-lumens-led-light I have one of these and love it. Small, compact, cheap additional batteries ($25/ea). White, Red, UV modes. Only drawback is it's too bright and too wide to use as a good regular div...

Keep an eye out for REI Heavyweight Underwear. Once in a while (maybe towards the Fall/Winter), they'll have some polartec or thinsulate underwear that work perfectly as undergarments at 1/5 the cost (~$30 for each top and bottom). You can add a heavyweight base layer or an additional middleweight t...

I'm in a same boat as many others here -- started off with a basic P&S and became very frustrated quickly. I eventually bought all the underwater stuff for my DSLR and never looked back. Reflecting on that experience, it comes down to knowing yourself. Will you be happy just snapping a few memen...

Depends on how serious you want to get. Strobe power primarily dictates how much of a wide-angle scene you can light up. 1 vs 2 strobes - 2 strobes are better than 1. More even coverage with wide angle, more dynamic and much prettier lighting with macro. The decision here whether to spend more on 1 ...

Absolutely nothing wrong with wide angle in the PNW. A little more difficult, but all the more rewarding. Tips-- Exposure - shoot in manual. 1 - Adjust camera exposure for background. First get the color of white, green, black, or whatever in between that you want. Note that this exposure will chang...

Green is from the algae in the water, or specifically chlorophyll. If you remember high school biology, chlorophyll is the green stuff that enables photosynthesis, the way plants absorb energy from light. It happens that blue and red light get absorbed, leaving mostly green. To over come this, you n...

Any shop is going to be a complete crap shoot unless you get their printer color profile and adjust your image accordingly. If you get an image to look good, it's because your monitor's color profile just happened to match the shop's or the shop was able to make the correct adjustments to your image...

Everything is situational. Diffusers serve two main purposes: 1 - smooth out hot spots from flash 2 - increase field of coverage of flash For wide angle shots, you typically want diffusers to get more even lightning. For macro, you'll want to remove diffusers to better target the subject and avoid b...

I forget what the site with the whalesharks is called. It's a bay about 30 minutes west of La Paz by boat. Whalesharks congregate there as they migrate, as the bay provides a source of food for them. We actually saw quite a few different ones.

I use a 5d mkii with a couple of YS-250 strobes.

After much agonizing over the destination for Thanksgiving week trip, we finally decided on La Paz. It was the end of the season, but still good diving all around. Water was a bit colder than expected at 71-76. Vis wasn't great for the area as high winds churned up the bottom. Rough seas caused by t...

I'm currently waiting on some info from operators in La Paz on the wildlife that can be expected for the late November timeframe.

Has anyone dove Loreto in November? Info from there seems to indicate that there are whales year-round, along with some other stuff like sharks, mantas, and dolphins.

Is it pretty easy to get around (with dive gear) in Baja? For the duration of trip, I'll probably have enough time to do a couple of different locations comfortably. How is the Baja towards the end of November? There's some mixed info on the net on when to see the big stuff (some say November is gre...

Thanks for the inputs so far. I guess I'd define UML as the reef fish... triggers, damsels, groupers, puffers, angels, wrasse, morays, etc pretty much stuff you'd see in any tropical reef. My question of "if you were to only do 5 dives..." was meant to refine the above a little. Is there a...

I'll be flying from Seattle.

Seems like Bonaire has some interesting macro critters, but I'm a little concerned (from what I've heard from a few others) that the critters there tend to just fall into the UML category.

I'm planning on taking a 10-dayish (1 week and 2 weekends) trip somewhere for diving this November, and I'm hoping you guys have some good recommendations. The only two general aspects I'm looking for are warm water and <$2500. Looking at the airfare prices today, I think that range generally limits...

It's about getting the smallest, lightest, and cheapest tank that will allow you to do the dives you want to do. Lugging around extra weight and size both in and out of the water is just wasted effort. There's not much difference in overall buoyancy between different tank sizes as long as the materi...

Go with a canon powershot G series. You can buy this stuff used for extremely cheap or get a new G12. Housing options are plentiful and some are pretty cheap as well (<$180). Pick up a YS-110 or similar strobe, and you're good to go. Within that price range, such a setup will also allow you to 'grow...

I'm looking for a drysuit that fits someone about 5'2 140lbs, boots/socks around size 7-8 (although this is not a big deal).

Please reply or PM if you have one for sale or have a lead on one.