Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] underwater photography

Subject: Re: [OM] underwater photography
From: Thomas Heide Clausen <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:25:25 +0100
On Nov 13, 2008, at 11:27 AM, Darin wrote:

> WayneS wrote:
>>
>> I think snorkeling is actually more fun, and I have better photos  
>> from
>> snorkeling
>> than from diving, but diving has a more macho bragging rights  
>> quality.
>> Something
>> I need to acquire as I get older and more seasoned.
>>
>
> Snorkeling definitely looks like a lot of fun too,

Oh, it is ;)

> but I'm not a very good
> swimmer and just always figured I'd be better off with an air tank  
> than a
> flimsy little tube to breath. I could also see how snorkeling could  
> make
> underwater photography easier than diving, since there would be  
> more natural
> light available closer to the surface than a couple hundred feet down.

Depending. Snorkeling does not allow (me, at least) much time for UW  
photography. Especially when photographing living creatures, the  
"sneaking up on" aspect and the "waiting until they turn just the  
right way" is taking more time than I can reasonably hold my breadth  
for ;) But light-wise, the deeper one gets the more light does one  
have to bring along oneself.

>> Belize is very loose on requirements for diving,

Yes -- unfortunately. I've, for that reason, never been diving  
there...dealing with decompression accidents (even if it's that of  
somebody else) is just not fun, and Belize et. al. are way too lax on  
safety for my liking. The term "cattle boat" is sometimes employed to  
describe the diveboats there, and reasonably so....


>> and you need to
>> watch yourself. I know some people, with maybe one or two days
>> of training, taken out to the Blue Hole for a 200+ foot dive. Crazy
>>
> Sounds like a good way to weed out some idiots.

Now, there's a good description of that particular dive.

200ft+ dives are not to be undertaken likely - that's about where one  
will start flirting with oxygen toxicity and n2-impairment, if one  
dives with regular air, and incurs real decompression scheduling in  
any event. And so any sane diver will either say "nahh, I'll skip" or  
will do so only in a team, on mixed gasses and with equipment that I  
doubt that you could get on your run-of-the-mill-Belize-boat. Depth,  
unfortunately, is a compensatory measure for a certain segment of the  
male diver-population.....

> I've got way to much common
> sense to think myself capable of that kind of dive with that little
> training. Not to mention I'd be way to chicken!

My best dive was at Okinawa now many years back. I was diving with a  
local marine biologist who was off duty near a beach some early  
morning before she had to be to work. Max depth was 5m/16ft, and we  
were usually above that for the bulk of time -- but we had gas for an  
eternity, plenty of morning light, a rocky-canyony-environment with  
an extremely dense and curious local population of puffer-fish, moray  
eel and such.

Man, that was a great dive: warm water, plenty of light, no deco- 
obligation, no complicated equipment to drag along, plenty of stuff  
to see and plenty of time to explore. Plus, I was in great company  
with someone who could upon surfacing and having coffee on the beach,  
tell me all about the habits and habitats of the various underwater  
friends we'd encountered.

>> I actually had some problems after 4 dives and had to stop. 130-150
>> foot dives are easy to come by, but my body had a hard time adapting
>> and I had to stop after the 4th dive in 3 days.
>>
> If you don't mind my asking, were the problems related to the  
> pressure, or
> was it something  else?

I would not pretend to know what Wayne's issues were, and I'm not an  
M.D. nor do I play one on TV - or even on this list (I leave that to  
Charles ;) ).

But four 130-150ft dives in 3 days would -- for me -- imply that they  
would all be run as true decompression dives, preferably using oxygen- 
rich mixes for the (albeit short) decompression stops. I know that it  
is claimed possible to  do such as a sequence of "no decompression  
dives", and that it's done all over the world all the time.

However if I do not do appropriate stops I just end up feeling like a  
wet newspaper -- in perfect "health" as such, just extremely fatigued  
and worn out.

Adding a couple of decompression stops along the ascent, and  
ascending very slowly (especially the last couple of meter, where it  
be extremely slowly), and I'm ready to run a marathon upon surfacing  
-- in full form. If I can, I pony a Nitrox bottle for the deco, but  
that's just an extra margin.

I'd almost bet that if the problem is "feeling wasted upon  
surfacing", and this feeling is cumulative, then it is -- absent a  
medical condition, of course -- a matter of ascending too fast.

Thomas

-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz