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Postby Raf » Mon Dec 15, 2003 10:01 am

285 € for a MM? Wow... If they offer them at that price, me will have a serious conversation with K.
This week I am eagerly anticipating the first god shots from my La Spaziale machine....

La Spaziale S1, Vibiemme Domobar (retd), Mazzer Mini Electronic, Behmor 1600 230V
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Postby Raf » Mon Dec 15, 2003 1:21 pm

And I already had the conversation! At 285 she's okay with it. If that's a net price etc. etc. and there's some warranty issues to sort out no doubt. Keep me posted, Joey!
This week I am eagerly anticipating the first god shots from my La Spaziale machine....

La Spaziale S1, Vibiemme Domobar (retd), Mazzer Mini Electronic, Behmor 1600 230V
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Postby alans » Mon Dec 15, 2003 1:41 pm

Back to diving, this is the Off Topic section after all ;). My favourite dive story is my first night dive, Koh Tao Thailand, had a great dive, scary as hell only seeing the tiny little spot of light from my torch, great to see the difference in reef life and activity day vs night. So dive finished and I'm relaxing on the water, playing with phosphorescent plankton and taking in my first real view of the northern hemisphere stars, whole new world topside as well as deep.

Then one of the other divers comes up and she's white as a sheet and shaking. Turns out she'd been watching a barracuda, over a meter long and looking very sleek and scary. It was just slowly swimming along looking menacing and then like a dart it was gone. When the tiny disk of light from her torch caught up it was almost five meters away and had caught a fish, she guessed the fish was about 30 cm long, but all she could see was it's head sticking out of the barra's mouth and the fish's tail frantically beating at the inside of it's cheeks trying to swim away. And then the barra chomped and she followed it's head slowly sinking to the bottom.
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Postby Sunnyfield » Mon Dec 15, 2003 2:06 pm

I have done two dives near Koh Tao last year. The corals and fish are really gorgeous there. Unfortunately the water was a little bit trouble. When we did our 12m descend down the rope I couldn't see the bottom and got an instant bout of vertigo. There was nothing I could do about it, and before I knew I was floating upside down. I let myself float to the surface and this time did the descend with my eyes closed for the first 7 meters. You are not supposed to do that, but I just couldn't control my vertigo.

The scariest thing I ever encountered was a jelly-fish with a diameter of about 1 meter. We had to abort our safety stop for it. It doesn't look threatening, but it must have been judging by the dive master's actions.

The only other place I have done several dives is the Red Sea near Sharm-El-Sheikh. Fantastic! (The diving, not the town).
La Marzocco GS/3, Elektra Nino, Feima 800N solid drum gas roaster
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Postby alans » Mon Dec 15, 2003 2:55 pm

Lucky you weren't wearing a dry suit, feet full of air is not fun! Been meaning to try out the red sea one of these days, hear so many great things about the diving.

A couple of months ago I did a dive in Portugal not far from DrZeus's home, topside we planned to go through some holes in a rock meant to be like swiss cheese but as we got down the vis was so bad i couldn't see my dive buddy half a meter away. She had to turn on a strobe on her shoulder just so I'd know where she was. So we're at the bottom and I know we're close to some rocks but can't even see them and then the stobe's gone. So I think to myself either I'm about to swim straight in to a wall of rock or there's an opening there, so here goes! 4m through a rock tunnel and I was very happy to see that strobe at the end!
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Postby Joey » Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:50 am

Wow, I would be to scared to dive through a rock hole.... I'm afriad I get stucked and can't get out :shock:
But night diving? That can be tricky. I've learned my lessons! My first night dive was like in Disney World. Everything was peachy, nice colourful sleeping fish, an octopuss changing his colors according to the surface, wonderful sight, no current...very peaceful. We mostly played with that fluorescent plancton thingies (lights off, arms and legs moving - so that your buddy sees your silouette in a glow ;-))

But the second night dive was the opposite. We were at the very last Island of Ari Atoll, the current dragging everything outwards of the reef into the Indian Ocean. No sight, perhaps 2-3m. My partner and I got torn along that uneven reef-wall. I was struggling against the current to at least move a bit slower along that wall - head into the current, trying to see at least some fish on that reef. But the speed got higher, and all I had to take care of was "how do I get around that next piece of coralwall in my way". I should have enjoyed it - flying like Superman along this bizzare kreature of nature - shunning some coralblocks from time to time...but as the sight was so bad, they appeared so quick! Tricky like in computer game. My bottle was sucked out in 20 minutes :lol:
When we surfaced, we traversed a swarm of krill - nasty little bastards, specially when you get them in your neck, hair, whereever...
And then the flashlight went out. Luckily we had a second one. But during the 10 minutes until the boat reached us, I swore that was my last night dive. It was so creepy! The thing Iwas afraid of the most was to be drifting out on the ocean and the Dhoni won't find us in that high waves in the night.... Brrrrrrr. Still get goosebumps thinking of it.

But I've had funny dives, too. Tell you some later.

Where is your favorite divespot? I've never been diving in Thailand. I hate too much current! My feet are too small to paddle hard enough :?

see ya
Joey

BTW, here you can see Rangali Hilton - the best place I have ever been! Ari Atoll. They sometimes have quite cheap offers - maybe not in the highseason...but it's worth it! I can recommend that spot.
http://www.shutterfly.com/os.jsp?i=67b0 ... 4d5&open=1
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Postby alans » Wed Dec 17, 2003 1:02 pm

Night diving like a computer game sounds scary!

My favorite dive site was the Perenthian Islands in Malaysia, untouched and the best wild life I've seen. Of course that was seven years ago so I'd say a lot has changed since! I think this is who I dived with and they've got some nice pics:
http://www.coralskydiver.com/
But if I had to chose one place for a holiday I'd rather go to Koh Tao, diving almost as good but a great place to relax for a while as well.

Some great pics, which one is you? The list of places I want to dive just gets longer.... Actually that reminds me, my next dive looks like it's going to be a wreck dive in Northern Ireland.
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Postby Joey » Wed Dec 17, 2003 3:47 pm

I'm in the pic called "fiiiish" and "hang loose". But that was 2 years ago and my hair has trippled in lenght since :-)
The lazy guy in those pics is my husband. Now you know why there are not many pictures from me.
Northern Ireland? BRRRRRR! Too cold for me. I'm one of the persons who is freezing even on the Maldives. (water 28°C)
I would love to see the Red Sea, too, but I heard that this place is too touristy in the meantime.
All I've seen so far were the Maldives, several Islands; Great Barrier Reef, which was not so great in my opinion - but maybe we just got a booring dive spot; and Fiji, were thousands of seastars were eating all the corals - because humans "harvested" their natural enemies, the huge pink snails. (And I had a shark feeding adventure there...spooky)
Everybody says that Thailand is such a nice place to dive. I would love to see it, but I don't wanna be in Thailand. Have been there several times doing business - don't fall for the people there - they just want your money, that's all they are friendly for. It's a pitty. But maybe it's better on saller Islands....
"Latte" is french for "you've paid too much for your coffee"
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