3 replies to this topic

[londonsean69]

Hello boys and girls.

I joined up here in 2007, but never really posted much.

Back then I was shooting an Oly C5000 with Epoque accessories (Strobe, macro and WA lens), whilst working as a dive guide in Lanzarote (Canary Islands).
Anyhow, came back to the UK and got set up with a Canon Ixus 960, plus INON fisheye, 2xmacros and 2xD2000 strobes.
Took this little lot to Indonesia for a 10 week dive trip and got bent on dive 2.

Spent a month snorkelling, got back in the water and had a very near miss when in Thailand. So sold up all the kit when I got back home.

Having spent the past year out of the water, learning land photography with a Nikon D90, the call of diving was too strong, so got a "Fit to Dive" medical, and am going off to Mozambique and South Africa for 3 weeks next May.

I will be housing the D90, and as I now have a self imposed depth limit of 20m will be going for an IKE housing. It will also be used in the UK.
To go with this, I have just bought an IKE DS 200 on ebay for a steal, so keeping an eye out for a second. I know they are a bit big and heavy for travelling, but I travel light (took 7kg for 1 month in Peru, plus 6kg of camera kit) and we get 10kg each extra allowance for the flights to South Africa.

I will be getting the 8" dome, modular flat ports, and already have the following glass
10-24mm
60mm macro
105mm macro

Plus for topside only
18-55
50/1.8
70-300 vr

I really enjoyed the macro in Bali and Lembeh, as well as the WA stuff in Bali and Sipadan. Bunaken was bloody boring though. I have only ever taken maybe 30 shots in the UK, but initial experiments with Greenwater Magic Filters were very encouraging, considering the limits of the C5000.

Well, that's enough waffle from me, I'm sure I will have plenty of questions soon enough

Cheers

Sean

Edited by londonsean69, 22 December 2009 - 02:54 PM.

[MikeVeitch]

good to have you here Sean, shame to hear about your incident and hopefully all your future diving is trouble free

[diggy]

Hey Sean,

For what its worth it seems that if you "oxygenate" your body brain system before you dive then chances of getting DCI reduces drastically. Why dont you try simple breathing (pranayam) exercises, say half or/one hour, before you jump in ? Just a few minutes would make a big difference, I believe.

Do give us a report once you are back from Mozambique as am planning a trip there in 2010.

Cheers and good luck on your trip,

Diggy

[londonsean69]

good to have you here Sean, shame to hear about your incident and hopefully all your future diving is trouble free

The way I see DCI is it is/was an occupational hazard. I had logged over 2000 dives, from 6 to 64m, cold water, warm water, Air, nitrox, trimix and deco. To get hit on a 26m dive where I did nothing wrong was galling to say the least. Especially as 2 weeks before I had been doing 40m+ deco dives on U Boats in the English Channel.

It shows how little we really know about DCI.

It also showed me how well O2 masks the symptoms. I was administered O2 within 10 minutes of the first signs (skin bends on stomach) and almost all symptoms disappeared. During the 3 hour drive to the chamber I came off the O2 for 10 minutes to call my insurer and some of the more serious symptoms came back very quickly (blurry vision, loss of co-ordination). Back on O2 and everything was all good.
Drank about 6litres of water on the way to the chamber where I was diagnosed with a Type 1 neurological bend, plus some additional skin bends.
A 5 hour chamber ride led to 95% resolution, with a further improvement after a good nights sleep.

Prompt action, and not denying the fact I was bent led to a sucessful treatment, and only a 4 week ban, so I was back in the water for Lembeh:D And the snorkelling at Sipadan was superb;)

I have been passed to dive with no restrictions by the guy that rund the Chamber in London, but I am setting my own rules. As photography is now the main aim, I don't need to be going very deep, so 20m max for me will be fine, although if everything goes OK I would be willing to drop a bit further. Will also be using nitrox, and setting a high level of conservatism, whether I use tables, computer, or brainpower.

Looking forward to getting involved here, there is a wealth of information

Cheers

Sean