Newbie from Abu Dhabi

[hudasmt]

Hi there!!!

My name is Elvis and i was wonderin if there are some freedivers around ABU DHABI that are active and wanna chill around the beach. I have to warn you that I'm a complete beginner and has no diving certificates nor training. I usually train on my own (thanks to this forum for very useful info) since i dont know anybody here in abu dhabi who is in the same sport interest. I usally snorkel like every Friday and Sunday morning. I used the term snorkel coz i can only dive like less than 10 meters with a pathetic 30 secs bottom time. I do have like all the gears except for the dive computer and the floats and especially the boat hehehehe. I'm planning to take some courses with Sarah Laise-Haith but i'm still saving for the fees. From what i read in this forum, Beuchat gear is not famous, most of my gears are from Beuchat coz they are the closest shop from where i live. Cressi is in Dubai and the rest i dont know hehehe. Can somebody please give me some comments about my gears,like i've said,i'm a newbie and have no ideas what so ever in terms of experience with these kind of equiptments. They are as follows:

Beuchat Mundial Mask

Beuchat Activa Tubair Snorkel

Beuchat 3.5 mm Brown Camo Spearfishing wetsuit ( I 've chosen the color not to blend with the surroundings but just to be different hehehe)

Beuchat Mundial Carbone Fins with 2 mm socks

Beuchat tropiks 2.5 mm gloves

Beuchat Ocean Legend Knife

and 14 lbs of lead on my quick release weight belt


newbie,

Elvis
aspiring recreational freediver/spearo

[hudasmt]

Mods pls delete this post sorry for the doubles hehehehe

[mishu1984]

hmmm your gear sounds good. as long as you are comfortable with it, then its good.
where did you get your suit? did u get it in abu dhabi or online? how much if you dont ming my asking?

[Adrian]

Welcome Elvis, I deleted the other identical thread, no problem there. Taking a course will be one of the best things you can do, as it will provide many shortcuts on the learning curve and teach you about safety as well. As Mishu says, be comfortable with the equipment and being in the water in different conditions. At this point, equipment is not so important in any other sense. With time you'll end up testing more stuff and "profiling" what your real needs are depending what you want to do.

[hudasmt]

Originally Posted by mishu1984

hmmm your gear sounds good. as long as you are comfortable with it, then its good.
where did you get your suit? did u get it in abu dhabi or online? how much if you dont ming my asking?

Thanks for the reply. I got it in Gulf Marine Sports here in Abu Dhabi. I got it for Dhs 1450.00 together with the ocean legend knife. Its a medium size. I got it for a special deal since i bought lots of items from there. The usual price they are giving is Dhs 1690.00 for the wetsuit alone. The TR-17 anti-fog they have is highly recommended,very effective,what do you use to avoid the fogging of the lense?

Here's the contact link to the shop thou the site is not that updated,they are the distributor for Beuchat and lots of stuff: GULF MARINE SPORTS

[hudasmt]

Originally Posted by Adrian

Welcome Elvis, I deleted the other identical thread, no problem there. Taking a course will be one of the best things you can do, as it will provide many shortcuts on the learning curve and teach you about safety as well. As Mishu says, be comfortable with the equipment and being in the water in different conditions. At this point, equipment is not so important in any other sense. With time you'll end up testing more stuff and "profiling" what your real needs are depending what you want to do.

Gracias amigo!!! Buenas tardes, Thanks a lot for the advice. Being comfortable in the water is the training i'm doing now especially with the buoyancy control thingy and the breath holding,thou the breath holding part i cant do my max since i dont have a dive buddy which is very important. Do black outs also happen in shallow water without even going deep? I'm still saving for the course thou since i spent all my leisure money on the equiptments and i still have to buy that Suunto D4 which is turning my wallet into static mode hehehehe.

[mishu1984]

i use spit. preferably my own, but im not shy to borow some1 else's :P
nah man, just spit in your mask, give it a good swipe around there and you'll be fine

[hudasmt]

Originally Posted by mishu1984

i use spit. preferably my own, but im not shy to borow some1 else's :P
nah man, just spit in your mask, give it a good swipe around there and you'll be fine

All this time i thought people were joking bout the spit, how about the toothpaste myth as a anti-fog? hehehe i just love this forum!!!

[Adrian]

Blackouts can happen at any depth. It can happen on the surface, after coming up from a dive when you've gone past your limit. Check out the BO threads in the safety forum, lots of info there. Spit is great, just work up a good gob of it, spread it well around and rinse it off before putting the mask on. Sometimes new masks have a protective layer of silicone(?) wax(?) that has to be washed off before you can effectively defog.

[mishu1984]

yeah the toothpaste. well what i do, is that when i first buy a mask, i put some toothpaste over the inside of the lens and leave it there like for 10 minutes and then rinse it off.

[Adrian]

It might be interesting to try that out with CocaCola, it would probably eat through the glass though!

[hudasmt]

Hahahahahaha, that is really funny Adrian. Thanks a lot for the support guys, i really feel i'm a part of the deeper blue family. Hey Mishu I see you have UAE in your location, maybe we can meet up sometimes and have some beers or soda which ever you prefer. Freediving maybe out of the question coz i'm not at your level of diving skills yet. Adrian you are also welcome to come if ever you are in the area.

[mishu1984]

my diving skills arent that great. and im a smoker, so right there you have an advantage over me
other than that, you only get better by pushing your limits