Little Cayman - unirdna and cdavis reporting

[Fondueset]

I'd like to see some of the urchin video Connor - you should've tried Claire's soft fin - pretty sure it's exactly the same foot pocket size as Jon's.
Monofins are awesome - as you've probably noticed your whole body makes a wave. Claire will hardly go in with anything else.

[Jon]

Nice videos Ted- i really like the second one where you dive through the cut in the reef. Where's the other one you showed me at your house- where your getting ready for the trip?

Connor, I'm glad you only lost the rope and not my monofin. Ted has already replaced the rope so we're ready to go. If your looking for another trip you should really email TOL about his cabana in Utila before you throw down the money for another trip to Cayman.

Speaking of Cayman, how were the reefs on Little Cayman? I have a Friend who is a commercial pilot and dives all over the world (no kids) and on his last trip to Grand Cayman he didn't even get into the water because the reefs were dead- in his opinion. He mentioned that they started to die off pretty quickly 5 years ago and now, with all the development, he wouldn't go back there to dive. He still has a bunch of drinking buddies on the island so there are other reasons to travel there. He seemed to think that because little cayman is more isolated it might have faired better than Grand Cayman.

Chris, What stiffness of monofin are you and Claire using?


Jon

[Fondueset]

Hi Jon,

I've got a waterway stiffness #1 (soft - they changed their numbering scheme) Claire has a leaderfins distance fin also. I've noticed hers allows more independant foot movement than the waterway - this could be a plus for foot fatigue and would also allow some nuanced manuevering. The Waterway is a very very solid piece of gear - as I'm sure you noticed. Clearly built to last and to withstand some abuse. I've been having some trouble with the joint on my right big toe after a couple of hours - mostly from surface swimming I'd like to try something with Omer footpockets sometime. Might be I could try claire's with thin socks when the water warms up.

Claire loves her monofin and prefers to use it at all times. I've been working to distribute the movement more and minimize knee flex. I suspect it would be easy to get power with less leg action with a harder fin.

[Jon]

My NEMO fin is a number 1 also- but it's the stiffest!

It's built pretty solid but I still like my Specialfins, carbon fiber, one better- which I guess is a good thing since it cost me 2 1/2 times as much!

I find the NEMO pockets to be more comfortable than the OMER and softer than the Sporasub- at least on the different monofins I've owned.

Jon

[Fondueset]

I checked with Mandy-rae and she said they'd reversed their numbering scheme about the time I ordered - she saw it and double checked. I may try a thinner sock - I think the one's I have from Elios are 6 mil.

[SanderP]

Breathtaking videos as always, in fact, your Cayman videos are probably the best freediving videos I've ever seen here on DB. The editing, picture and music, it all falls together so perfectly. Great work!

Looks like you guys and gals had a lot of fun there. Exotic fish, corals and crystal clear waters which are so warm that there is no need for thick wetsuits... ahh paradise.


Keep it up! Oh, and Ted, what camera did you use and is there any more footage coming?

[unirdna]

Sander, the camera I use is a Canon S80. It was a hot seller about a year ago, but has since been discontinued. The S80 wasn't replaced with a newer model - the model was cut. Seems that the most likely replacement would be the Powershot G7, but I haven't done a thorough comparison.

I'll upload the super-fast-motion "from wisconsin to cayman" video tonight.

[SanderP]

Thanks for info. I was just wondering as the picture quality and framerate are quite amazing for a digicam.

What song did you use in the first video?

[Fondueset]

I have the g7 has a few more megapixels and 'face recognition'. I'm also not sure about the focus speed - heard it's a tad slow. I have the S80 also - the pics in the latter half of my site were all taken with it. I looked into upgrading to the G7 but decided it was not worthwhile until something significantly better appears. I even spoke with the regional rep for Canon who said face recog is the rage right now. Obviously not relevant so much for us.

[cdavis]

Fondueset: For a brief period, I persuaded Claire to part with her fin (She was sweet about it and I'm bigger than her). The soft was much better for me. That is one nice fin. Overall, I could not bring myself to put in the time it would take to get used to a mono when we had only 8 days of such good diving. What I did do, I was really uncomfortable with the lack of ability to move feet independently. That will take a lot of getting used to.

Jon, good info on Utila, I'll check on it. On reef condition, Little Cayman is vastly better than the Keys, better than some parts of the Bahamas, can't say about Grand Cayman, but I think your buddy is probably right. In Little Cayman, the coral looks pretty good if you don't know what it looked like in the 1970s. Out on the main reef, if you look closely, you can see the remains of one whole heck of a lot of staghorn. It must have been spectacular in its heyday, but all of that is dead now. In some areas, the rest of the coral is clearly taking a beating from divers and the general environment just isn't as conducive to coral as it used to be. In very shallow water there used to be quite a bit of elkhorn, most of that is dead, but every now and then you come to a small stand that looks perfect. Overall, I suspect that LC is about as good as it is possible to find in the Caribbean today.

Connor

[icarus pacific]

Originally Posted by Fondueset

Claire will hardly go in with anything else

I'll go in with a lot less... Seriously though, really nice stuff guys. The only thing missing is seeing the fish being pulled up.

[unirdna]

Originally Posted by SanderP

What song did you use in the first video?

Angels and Airwaves "A Little's Enough". Blink182 broke up, and Tom Delonge started AaA. I love the whole first album. Tom's style is much smoother and deeper than Blink.

[Adrian]

You know, I'm a real fan of your videos, but this time I'm really pissed, really pissed!!!


My codecs don't work! Can you recommend a good set of up to date codecs and if I should delete all others from the system. I've been told that there can be incompatibilities between different sets. I'd appreciate it. I need enlightnment!

[SanderP]

Adrian, you shouldn't need anything besides XviD (for video) and AC3Filter (for audio). I have those two and everything works perfectly. But before installing, you should delete all other codecs from your system.

I don't think Ted's videos require any other specific codecs.

[unirdna]

Oh no, Sander, I don't use anything tricky like divx or xvid. Jon and Connor would never be able to figure that out .

Adrian,
The videos are encoded in the Windows-friendly .wmv (windows media video) v.9.0 codec. If you are using Windows XP, the standard media player usually will happily update your codec (if it needs it). However, if you are using and older Windows OS, Linux or a Mac, you'll need to download and install the .wmv codec. Anything later than .wmv v.9.0 should work.

Codec page

Or, an easier alternative will be to simply upgrade your media player (if you are running XP). I prefer v.10 - v.11 has too much clutter packaged.

Media Player v.10

Media Player v.11

If you are still stuck, you can watch them on youtube. Although youtube is painfully disappointing due to crappy quality and audio/video sync issues (the audio is frequently 1/10 second behind video - not a big deal for voice, but it sucks for music).

Video 1

Video 2