#AskMark Great content as always 😊 I wanted to know if you have any recommendations on where to get personalized diving labels printed for all my gear...Ideally in the US but open to options in UK as well. Thank you!
It depends what you're trying to label. For solid mostly flat things DiveSigns.com has a good range, they're UK-based I think. For US divinglabels.com has good reviews.
#askmark Not sure if you’ve answered this before. As a recently qualified open water diver we obviously did a bunch of out of air drills. All of the drills began with full in breath and instruction to gently exhale throughout. It seems that actually t”doesn’t simulate what is likely to happen/be experienced. So are those drills as taught really valid or should they be trained differently?
As you say: real-world incidents never go as calmly and smoothly as training. In an ideal world, yes it would be good to repeat OOA during training more and help build muscle memory. But I don't really want to have students underwater, desperate for air and switching 2nd stages. That's a recipe for inhaling some water. I do think there should be some random OOA exercises but, building muscle memory is more important than experiencing what it feels like when your lungs scream.
Sure, they're all similar and you won't notice a huge difference between them all, some will be slightly better in certain areas. The first thing is that there are x3 stiffnesses for the EX1 fins. They're a very standard Jet fin. If there was no branding it would be tricky to know who made them. Tecline LightJet are similar to the Hollis F1 with adjustable heel straps that I like. They're probably the lightest and a standard medium stiffness with the adjustable heel also. FE Tech are also quite lightweight and come in more colours. Not many but, more than just black. Fixed springs though that some find tight. Beuchat Jets are pretty heavy and also come in more colours than black. They're basically Poseidon Tridents and have the thrust if you have the legs. It depends what you're looking for in a fin, something heavy and powerful or lighter and comfortable.
@ScubaDiverMagazine Thank you! I was looking at a more travel friendly soft to medium stiffness. Hadn't come across many reviews especially of Tecline Lightjet.
I honestly never considered doing this. I use my p-valve almost every dive. I would be concerned that taking the valve off and plugging it would contribute to additional wear and tear and shorten its lifespan.
#AskMark Hi, thanks for making consistently good content, keep it up ! I’m thinking of investing in some scuba tanks. I regularly dive manifolded doubles, however I also sometimes dive sidemount or with independent backmounted cylinders. How easy is it to disassemble / reassemble a twinset between dives? Is this a sensible thing to do ? Am I better off buying two pairs of cylinders, one manifolded and one not? I would love to have your take on this. Cheers
The process itself is pretty simple but, you wouldn't want to do it frequently. I took the twins that I taught with and broke them down into sidemounts. You just vent them down, loosen the bands, unscrew the manifold and blank the valves. Just remember that one of the valves will have left-hand threads. The main problem is venting them all and then filling empty cylinders. Some dive centres will want to inspect empty cylinders before filling them. Otherwise, it can be easy to twist and bend the valves out of their bands. If you have the space and money for separate sidemount tanks, it will be a lot easier.
