SCUBA
Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

PADI = Professional Association of Diving Instructors

Dry suit specialty course €125 1 weekend.

19/9 Open water dives 1+2 completed today at Sandycove.
Visibility was terrible - possibly 1 m!
I need fitness work and strength training - tank + 12kg weights!

Dive Tours 2015

Killary 16-18 October All levels Max depth 14m + A support Oceandivers crew

Accommodation at cottages at Tullys cross

2 night accommodation + boat dives and air fills €199pps.

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Canaries - Is.of El Hierro All levels. €675 pps

Nov. 5 - 8 day trip incl internal flights, Hotel and apartment, transfers, 10 boat dives

Book your own flights €212 Reserve at 01 2801083

Visit Web site for El Hierro > HERE

Our groups from Ireland are always accompanied by full time Instructors with the Oceandivers Crew.

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For all dives:
1. Pre dive check > Bruce Willis Ruins All Films
BCD Weights Releases Air Final Check

2. To Descend > SORTED

5 point descent

Signal - both ready

Orientate - Agree which direction

Regulator in

Time - check computers are active

Equalise

Descend

Descending

1. A diver should be able to control his buoyancy well enough to stop at any moment of the descent and quickly achieve neutral buoyancy.
2. A diver should also be able to complete the descent without touching the bottom.
(A controlled descent without a reference).
Why control is necessary: To avoid ear Barotrauma.
To avoid damage to environment
So not to stir up sediment
Stay close to Buddy so you can assist each other.

Descent Method 1 - Willie.
1. Deflate the BCD fully to start descending
Keep one leg in front of you and the other behind - this keeps you balanced.
2. As your head goes under lean forward into skydivers position.
3. If you stop descending EXHALE with a quick burst and don't inhale until you start descending again.
4. Before reaching the bottom put a short quick burst of air into BCD.
5. You should now be neutrally buoyant.

Do not deflate the BCD to go down and do not inflate the BCD to go up.
Using the BCD for these purposes only causes loss of buoyancy control.
The only reason to deflate the BCD is to compensate for excessively positive buoyancy, and the only reason to inflate the BCD is to compensate for excessively negative buoyancy.

Only adjust the BCD to achieve neutral buoyancy
not to move up and down in the water!

To ascend and descend, use your lungs and, on rare occasions, your fins, but never, never, your BCD

Link to this online article >   HERE
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Descent Method 2
1. First establish Neutral Buoyancy at the surface - deflate little by little until you float at mask level - relaxed - no kicking

2. With lungs full of air *EXHALE fully to go down - hold the air out of your lungs for a few seconds.
*Exhale for 10secs - near the end of the 10s expect to descend - be patient!
If you find yourself back at the surface when you inhale, deflate the BCD a little more and repeat the process.
When performed properly, the exhalation will move you far enough down in the water column that the air in your BCD compresses, and you begin to sink slowly.
The air in the BCD (and wetsuit) gets smaller with increased pressure as you descend.

3. To control and limit the speed of this descent ADD a little air to BCD.
4. When you are neutrally buoyant you should rise slightly when you inhale fully.
Remember, the goal is to maintain neutral buoyancy throughout the descent, not negative buoyancy.
Add a tiny, tiny amount of air to your BCD. You should be able to stop descending or rise slightly when you inhale. Take some time to find this point of neutral buoyancy.

Look at your depth gauge and notice if you are approaching or have reached your intended depth. Check on your buddy. If all is good . .
5.   Descend by Exhaling Once Again
The goal is to control your descent by working your way slowly and carefully down through the water column using you lungs to descend and your BCD to keep yourself neutrally buoyant.
When you arrive at your desired depth, you should have to do very little to fine-tune your buoyancy.
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Ascending
AS YOU ASCEND The air in BCD and wetsuit expand -making the diver positively buoyant
Ambient pressure is decreasing
air in wetsuit and BCD keep expanding
So   VENT AIR to control ascent.
Rapid ascent is very dangerous!
"Add down - VENT u

5 point Ascend

Signal

Time - computer

Look up

Dump some air

Fin up 18./min

EFR Emergency First Response – Rescue diver course

eRDP Electronic Dive Planner > calculator to plan dives

SPG Submersible Pressure Guage

BCD Buoyancy Control Device

SMB Surface Marker Buoy

SI Surface Interval

ABT Actual bottom time

RNT Residual nitrogen time

NDL No decompression Limit = the greatest allowed time spent at depth to avoid decompression diving

ANDL adjusted NDL - for repetitive dives

PG Pressure Group The value representing the amount of Nitrogen in your body before and after a dive.

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Pressure changes more rapidly the closer a diver is to the surface.

1 Atmosphere 14.7 psi
At surface 1A

Every 10m of salt water depth = +1 ATA pressure

At 10m 2 A

At 20m 3 A
At 30m 4A

Depth Pressure

0m 1 bar

10m 2 bar

20m 3bar

30m 4 bar

40m 5 bar

Equalise

Breath normally – the lungs

Add air to mask

Equalise the nose/sinuses

At 33 ft it takes twice as much air to fill your lungs as it does at the surface.

The deeper you dive the faster you use up the air.

Scuba kit has 4 parts BCD Regulator Cylinder and Weights

Regulator has 5 parts Stage 1 (Hub) Second stage (regulator) Alternate air source

Low Pressure hose (for BCD)

Equalise gently and often.

Equalise the mask by blowing gently into it.

BCD inflation – blow into mouthpiece while depressing the deflate button – release

Proper weighting is vital to control buoyancy.

Weights on – BCD empty – hold a normal breath – should now be at eye level.

200 bar start pressure
50 Reserve a + 20 to ascend = 70 bar Leaves 130 bar for the dive
65 bar on the way out and 65 bar for return
When do you turn?
200 bar - 65 bar = 135 bar

Nitrogen absorption

The greater the ambient pressure, the more rapidly a diver's body tissues will absorb nitrogen.

A diver can only allow his tissues a certain amount of nitrogen absorption before he begins his ascent, or he runs an unacceptable risk of decompression illness without mandatory decompression stops. The deeper a diver goes, the less time he has before his tissues absorb the maximum allowable amount of nitrogen.

2 factors that limit a Divers Bottom Time

Air consumption and

Nitrogen absorption

If a diver ascends slowly, this nitrogen gas expands bit by bit and the excess nitrogen is safely eliminated from the divers tissues and blood and released from his body when he exhales.

The BENDS – excess Nitrogen cannot escape because of too fast an ascent

Nitrogen bubbles form in tissue and blood. DCS (Decompression sickness).

The Greatest Pressure Changes Are Closest to the Surface.

Pressur increase

From 66 to 99ft x 1.33

From 33 to66ft x 1.5

From 0 to 33ft x 2

Close to the surface

10 to 15ft x 1.12 5 to 10ft x 1.5 0 to 5ft x 1.15

The more shallow his depth:

• the more frequently a diver must manually equalize his ears and mask.
• the more frequently a diver must adjust his buoyancy to avoid uncontrolled ascents and descents

The last 15 feet are the greatest pressure change and need to be taken more slowly than the rest of the ascent.

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Dive plan - 2 dives.

First to 15m for 40mins

Second to 13m for 50mins

Surface Interval 1 hour.

PG after dive 1 is N; PG after SI is D; PG after second dive is T.

EXAM Example 1

I have already had a dive today, following my S.I., my P.G. is J.

What is the maximum bottom time for a dive to 15m?

This is not the "First Dive" so press NO

PG after SI > YES (So that you can enter a PG)

Press 5 once = J Enter

Depth 15m ANDL = 40m {ANDL = Adjusted No Compression Limit}

Example 2

After a S.I., my P.G. is C, I plan a repetitive dive to 10m for 30min.

What is my P.G. at the end of dive 2?

This is not the "First Dive" so press NO

PG after SI YES

PG start dive is C (so Press 2 three times) ENTER

Enter Depth 10m ENTER

ANDL 193m

Enter ABT > 30m ENTER

PG after second dive = K

Example 3

I plan 2 dives, first to 18m for 49min, second to 18m for 24min.

What is the minimum S.I?

The key here is Surface Interval - so that is the MODE we want.

Press Mode until you get SI

This is the First Dive - so Choose YES

Enetr depth 18m .........NDL 56m ENTER

Enter ABT 49m { 3min warning} ENTER

Enter depth 2 18m ANDL 50m ENTER

Enter ABT2 24m { 3 min warning}

Min SI = 32min.

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01 2845180 Bullock Hbr. Dalkey Scuba gear

Best UW lens for the D7000
Wide angle Sigma 10-20 which I have. 9.4in focus needs a strobe because of f4-5.6
Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Min focus 12.4in. Good focusing light needed.
Tokina 10-17 perfect for UW. Focussing distance is 5.6in. $579. f 3.5-4.5

Nauticam NA-D7000V $3100
Buying Greg LeCouer D7000V with vacuum valve - 1/2 price.

These images were all taken with the Nikon D7100 with the 105mm VR lens on the Nauticam NA-D7100 housing with macro port 60 and extension ring 20. Focus set to the thumb lever and mode AF-C 3D. All shots are at F29.

Plamena Mileva

More than 1/2 the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean.

Plamena MIleva (REDVIDEO)

Strobes
Some of the popular underwater strobes or flashes for dSLR users are the following: S&S YS-D1, S&S ys-110 & YS-110a, Ikelite DS-125, Ikelite DS-160, INON Z220, INON z240

Inon S2000 Preview HERE

INON Uk UW Photography Course 17/18 October £300 West Sussex

Nauticam Housing

Plastic or aluminium?

So what kind of housing is appropriate for your underwater adventures? If you only plan to bring your camera on a couple of dives a year and plan to stay within recreational depth limits (130 feet or shallower), a plastic OEM model may do the trick and cost a half to a third of the price of a metal one.

Each lens typically needs its own port.

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STROBES and PORTS

Raoul Caprez said “For my Nikon D7000, with the Nauticam housing, I use two subtronic Pro160 strobes with satisfaction (the batteries are in the arms).

So for me usually :

For macro pics, I use a Nikkor 105mm macro, a flat macro dome port 87 and I add sometimes a Nautical +10 diopter (mounting on a Nauticam flipper)

For the wide angle, I use a 10.5 mm fisheye with a accrylic dome port”.

Subtronic produce the Pro 160 a warm strobe

160Ws / 4600k / 120degree coverage / 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 auto. Recycling 0,1s / 0.8kg. €999

From Nauticam UK £900

Flat Macro port 87 for 105mm $460

Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye $772 £549

MPB.com 10.5mm ED DX £345

Advice from Alex Tattelsall Inon Z240 £700 ea.

Amazon USA $650 ea. Cooler colour strobe.

Ebay USA $600 = £389 nydivershop

I submitted an offer of £800 for 2 Inon Z240s to nydivershop > Ebay

Underwater colours
As you go deeper (10m) colours with shorter wavelengths are lost first -Red, Orange and Yellow.
Only Blue and Green remain. So everything becomes saturated with blue tones at 20m.
25m fish blend into blues.
Available light and Strobe light.
This was shot with available light - fish is blurred and has blended into surroundings.

With the camera's built in flash you get reflections and a very poor quality image from a straight and narrow and weak beam. Strobes can be angled.
A strobe has the power to light a distant subject.
Underwater strobe colour temperature is about 5500K - close to the sun's CT.
UW strobe emits a brighter and wider light than a LED.
A strobe with TTL function will automatically emit the correct amount of light.

LED target light - effective for focusing on a night dive

YS-01 Strobe manual control function - allows you to control the amount of light

Fiber optic cable used (L type) for YS-01 and YS-02)
YS-01 seems to be a different strobe from the YS-02 - smaller.
They are compatible with most UW housings.

Wetpixels website. Eric Cheng.
Eastern Indonesia - Raja Ampat - Set in the heart of the famed Coral Triangle, Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago is an amazing world few travelers ever get to experience.
How to get there
The easiest way to get to Raja Ampat is to fly to Sorong via Jakarta or Singapore. Domestic travelers can also fly via Makassar (Ujung Pandang) or Manado.

From Jakarta or Bali: Merpati, Express Air, Batavia Air, Sriwijaya Air and Lion/Wings operate daily flights from Jakarta to Sorong (with stopovers in Ujung Pandang/Makassar and/or Manado)

From Singapore: Silkair operates regular flights from Singapore to Manado. From Manado to Sorong regular flights are offered by Lion Air, Express Air and Merpati. It is easiest to check with a local Indonesian travel agent or directly with the airline for the lastest domestic flights available.
30 day visa required.

Papua is a malaria area and you are advised to take precautions and follow the advice from your local health centre. Note that the medication Lariam, has limited effectiveness in this area due to a resistant strain of Malaria. Lariam is thus not recommended. Alternatives could be Malarone or doxicycline.

To eliminate backscatter - lights can be manouvered and angled.