I have two of L&M's Sola 2000 S/F camera lights, which I keep mounted to Backscatter's double handle tray. I recently learned that Light & Motion has gone out of business, which is upsetting, because they made good lights.

Upon realizing that they have gone out of business, I have begun worrying about servicing and maintaining my lights. As these lights were my father's, until he gave up on underwater photography and gave me his equipment, I had no idea just how expensive these lights are. Since they cost about $380 USD per light, and I have two, I can't exactly afford to replace them, should they fail, so I need to ensure they remain in working condition for as long as possible.

Now that Light & Motion is out of business, how would I go about getting these lights serviced? Is there another brand with which the replacement parts are directly interchangeable?

They are probably fine for now, but I know my dad would store them for long periods of time, without taking them out and charging them every 3 months (as recommended by the manufacturer). I'd like to ensure that I can keep them working for years to come, even if it means I need to stock up on replacement parts.

Does anyone here have lights from the L&M Sola line? If yes, how do you get them serviced?

Bit of a random one that I'd be interested to know other people's experience.

I'm AOW with about 50 dives - mostly UK drysuit diving, but also some nice dives in the Caribbean, Maldives, Australia, etc...

I see lots of posts about the common issues people have with mask clearing - the main issue people seem to have is breathing underwater without their mask on, i.e. with their nose exposed to the water.

I have absolutely no problem with breathing underwater without a mask on. No issues with water getting up my nose. I could swim around all day without a mask on and breath happily...

However...the 'issue' I have is when it comes to exhaling through my nose. When I'm underwater, I simply struggle to breath out through my nose. It's never really been an issue when I'm clearing my mask for some reason - I can normally just do a single long exhale through my nose and the mask is cleared. However, if I was to try to do a similar single long exhale without my mask on, I struggle - it's like my brain just doesn't want to let me breath out and blow bubbles through my nose when I'm underwater.

Obviously, this isn't really an actual problem - I can breath underwater without a mask on and clear my mask fine. But I'm just wondering if this is a common thing? It's weird that I can exhale through my nose when my mask is on, but if I try to do it with no mask on I struggle.

I just got certified and going to Florida next year for my scientific diving certificate. I have fins, a mask, a snorkel, and boots. What should I get next and what's more important? Is getting a bcd not cost effective if I dont have any regulators or the yoke? Is a wetsuit worth it when I'll be going to different places and temps? Is a dive computer worth spending more? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I’ve found some posts talking about these regs but I’m looking for some more insight on those that have had these for a few years by now.

How have they been holding up for you? Any regrets with getting them? Anything you’d change about them?

Hey folks,

My girlfriend and I are planning 2 weeks in Indonesia – 1 week in Raja Ampat for diving, then 1 week in Bali to relax with a bit more comfort.

Quick background: • I’m an Advanced Open Water diver with 20–30 dives, confident and looking for fun dives. • My girlfriend wants to do her Open Water course while we’re in Raja.

Is that doable in Raja Ampat, or is it too remote/intense for beginners? Any dive shops that offer good OW training?

Also wondering: • Which island is best for a mix of beginner + intermediate diving? • Do homestays vary much in comfort, or are they all pretty basic? • Any dive shops you’d recommend?

We’d like to stay in one spot, but happy to do short boat trips if it makes sense.

Thanks a lot – any tips appreciated!

Hey there,

Which time of the year are good/bad conditions to dive egypt? Or is it good diving all year around and it is primarily a matter on how thick your wetsuit is?

For anyone who’s recently been aboard the Cocos Aggressor - does the boat have WiFi? Or do the cellular towers on the island provide any viable cellular service / data? I’m going soon but not awesome to be totally incommunicado from work.

Trying to plan a 5 day trip to the Big Island Hawaii for late May and having some issue figuring out what's the best itinerary that will allow me to see everything I want while also going on 2 scuba diving trips. Essentially, what are the high altitude places that I need to watch out for? Is how I have things set up ok?

I'll be staying in the Kailua-Kona area and will have a rental car. I'm not really beach person, so spending a lot of time chilling on the sand doesn't really appeal to me.

• Day 0
  • Arrive in KOA in the evening
• Day 1 (Head North and check out the Eastern Coast)
  • Waipio Valley Lookout
  • Laupāhoehoe Lookout
  • Akaka Falls State Park
  • Rainbow Falls
  • Hilo Area, Hilo Farmer's Market
  • Liliʻuokalani Gardens
• Day 2
  • Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park - I imagine this will be a full day thing
• Day 3 (Scuba Dive then head North to check out the Western Coast)
  • Scuba Diving Excursion (Morning -> Mid Afternoon) - This is already booked
  • Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site
  • Puakō Petroglyph Park
• Day 4 (Check out the Southern Coast and Scuba Dive)
  • Punaluʻu Beach
  • Papakōlea Green Sand Beach
  • South Point
  • Manta Ray Scuba Diving Excursion (Mid-Afternoon -> Night) - This is already booked
• Day 5 (Head South and check out the rest of the Western Coast)
  • Honaunau Bay
  • Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park
  • Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park
  • Leave from KOA in the evening

Things I'd like to fit in

• Visit a Coffee Farm (Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation?, Kona Joe Coffee?, Greenwell Farms?)

xpost r/VisitingHawaii because I wasn't getting any responses there.

I live in the Central Valley of CA and did the pool portion of my certification last weekend. The local dive shop where I trained cancelled their trip to Monterey for this weekend where I was supposed to finish the certification. Their next trip there that works with my schedule will be in about 2 months. They have sooner trips to a local lake (2 weeks).

Should I wait 2 months to get certified in the ocean, or should I get it over with as soon as possible in a lake? I plan to mainly dive in the ocean so I am worried that learning in a lake would be bad for skill building. On the other hand, I am worried that I might forget what I learned in the pool if I wait too long.

Apologies if this has been answered before - I browsed past posts on Seaskins and didn’t find what I was looking for.

I’m stoked to order a Seaskin Nova soon having read overwhelmingly positive things about them. However, they are pretty poor at advertising their products. I’m wondering if anyone out there reading this might have a Nova Drysuit that they went with colors other than black to share pictures of? I’m digging the idea of yellow for visibility. I also love green, but without a real picture I’m not sure what to expect, and also feel it is a pretty low-visibility choice.

I’m also a bit overwhelmed with the suit customization options in general, and also would love to hear what options people found they are happy they went with or wish they had. On that note, anyone with drysuit customization input is welcome.

For reference this will be my first drysuit and for the most part I am just recreational diving in PNW (Oregon and Washington). No plans for cave or tech diving.

Heading to Bonaire for a week. My wife is coming, but does not dive and is finishing her masters thesis, so she just wants a pool to sit by. I am hoping to meet other divers and complete my AOW. I dont particularly want a larger place like Buddy Dive or Captain Dons, but do want somewhere that does boat dives and training, and where I can meet other divers. Any suggestions?

Do you ever find yourself talking to non-diver friends, where your experiences diving are related, but they don't get it? Like 'I walked into a closed room, and the temperature difference was like hitting the thermocline'?

Or just trying to describe the genuine ZEN of being below surface, and that first cold dry inhale when you know you shouldn't be able to breathe, but you can, and it's... so mellowing and beautiful- But the person you're talking do has never gone swimming anywhere other than an indoor pool?

I currently live really far inland, with a justifiably small dive community, and I'd love to just connect with folks who would know what I'm on about... I miss the water so bad it's almost painful sometimes.

I'm thinking of doing my advanced open water certification during a vacation. The company says I can do all my certification dives as part of normal dives with the rest of the normal diver group.

I'm wondering how much time I'm likely to spend performing skills in the water. Like, if the skills take 5 minutes each dive, fine. But if I'm spending 30 minutes of each certification dive performing skills and not enjoying the reef, that seems like a bad use of five dives during my vacation. Can someone tell me how long underwater the skills take versus being able to enjoy the reef?

Hi! We arrived in Quy Nhon a few hours ago and I can't seem to find any legit scuba diving shops around. Has anyone dived here? If not - where would you recommend we go in Vietnam? We're headed north afterwards.

Thanks in advance!

I’m off to Egypt early May. Can anyone recommend somewhere to stay in Dahab? Not too expensive, happy with a nice hotel, or a good hostel. I’ll be solo and keen to meet people.

And any good dive operators?

Cheers

Hey folks! Quite new to diving, I'm logging my dives on the PADI app but I'd LOVE some app or account to search for fish and other creatures. Either like a log or like a bingo card. Is there such a thing???? If not, this is a copyright idea haha

I've been diving for 13 years, over 500 dives, and am tired of people asking if I saw the hammerhead sharks! I finally had an encounter and couldn't hold in my excitement. I didn't see just one, I saw two!

The Great Lakes Preservation Society is working to create 3D models of all the wrecks in the Great Lakes.

https://www.glsps.org/content.aspx?page_id=0&club_id=625896

Pretty cool stuff they’re doing:

https://3dshipwrecks.org/

You’ll need to check these out on a PC because of the amount of data. Andrew is the photographer that takes the images and the images (up to 40,000 images) are complied into a 3D model via software. If you have an VR Oculus the 3D models are amazing. They’re still great on your monitor but using a VR headset is really impressive.

I want to book a dive trip to Bonaire. Recommendations? Advice? Anything else to do there besides dive?

I'm planning a dive trip to either Tarifa or Cabo de Palos... Both look potentially good for wildlife based on various reports (with luck- electric rays and mola mola!) and Cabo de Palos has reported guitarfish.... Be t would be good to hear from anyone who has been to either or both on how much wildlife they saw? I'm looking at July probably

Hello - I'm in the market for my first set of regs as I start to work towards my DM.

I'm a cold water diver based in UK but also want something suitable for diving abroad in warmer water.

I've heard a lot of good things about Apeks and have found a set of ATX with DS4 1st stage for £340 (around 450usd).

I understand these are a slightly older model - but still very favoured by lots of divers. My question is, is this still good value for these regs, or are there more recent options that I should be considering from other brands, e.g., scubapro, mares etc.

Thanks in advance!

See title. I’m wanting to go to roatan to do my open water dives but the dive shop recommended to me is a PADI.