Photography

A marble ray...




A white tip reef shark




A napoleon wrasse




A blue spotted ray




And last a Humphead parrot fish.

I've always used dive...computers (SUUNTO brand). I've never been interested in knowing at what time of the day I took a picture or I saw a particular interesting fish. On the other hand I've been very interested in knowing what depth I was at, how many minutes of air I had left, if I was ascending too fast or if I had to decompress (for how long ad at which depth) before getting back to the surface. These types of algorithms are calculated by the computer not by a watch (at that time at least). On my wrist in the picture, there's a Suunto Solution and after that other SUUNTO models more and more sophisticated

Dive computer for work Doxa watch for show. 

in early diving days, dives were "up and down" affairs. You studied the tables (or the wheel) and planned the dive carefully. In absence of dive computers the watches were indispensible. Nowadays, multi level diving is wide spread and the saturation of your tissues (with consequent need for decompression or warning while you're still diving) requires a computer that does all the calculation Is that a blue shark I see below you?

Back in the really old days when we dove with a little less anxiety ( foolishness)at 15-20m depth till our air ran out and that was the signal to pull the reserve air which gave us a comfortable rise to the surface. 

When were these pictures taken? Nice stories to read and dream of adventures.

a double bottle+reserve, with iron rod to pull in order to activate it. I got my first dive "cert" at the Club Med in Cancun, which in 1983 used that type of equipment and no BCD. Some would call them the good old days. The guy who's about to back-flip is using some sort of rebreather's equipment and he's also taking a gun with him. I haven't seen one of those in..donkey's ears Lollllllll

We only fished what we could eat. We tried all kinds of spear fishing options including long Hawaiin guns. We always fell back on  single rubber with titanium spear. No screw top just a single flap as our approach was to neutralize the fish by target the neural center. 

spear fished. Apnea has never been my forte since I can't hold my breath long enough. But as far as eating fresh non-messed-around fish, I've eaten plenty (provided by dive masters and instructors) and understand you 100%. Ranting in my posts is not only tolerated but...welcome Lolllllllllllllllllll Ciao bello

almost everything becomes better looking. I have few friends that use belt+suspenders and there's absolutely no stigma in that. As for me, there's a lot of stuff one brings underwater already, I try to eliminate everything I (personally) don't consider essential and that includes a diving watch.

Where was this picture taken Sergio?

in the Malaysian Spratly islands. Just a short turbo-prop hop from Kota Kinabalu, in the Malaysian state of Sabah. The turboprop ends its landing run next to the resort's check-in counter Lolllll My dive buddy took my camera and the picture. We're pretty deep (for today's standards) at around 50 Meters. Bill, one of the features of diving in Layang Layang (in early april) is diving with...hammerheads sharks. Not quite as many as in the Galapagos, but next to huge groups anyway.

I must visit Layang Layang, it is on my bucket list of exotic dive adventures. How was the food there? Did you enjoy the nasi padang?

I have been there eons ago, a luxurious affair. Swimming pool, nice rooms with hot showers. No nasi padang food though, since it's in Malaysia not Indonesia. You can have nice nasi lamak breakfast if you like and all the Kopi Tiam delights...laksa, mee goreng, even roti prata + all the most popular Western fares. A far cry from places like Sipadan or Mabul. Just Google Layang-Layang resort and have a look

I must visit Layang Layang resort. 

and photos to help with the great memories...  Casey

Very ineteresting posts... So many things to say and add... No time now. I still make very "rectangular" dives for my job, and yes, a mechanical dive watch is always welcome as long as diving computers sometimes just switch off and that could be really scary!

Great pictures Sergio!

diving days, I used 2 computers. One on the wrist and the other one "integrated" with my H.U.B. BCD for air infos. I have dived walls, a lot. That's all multi-level diving and the watch is of no help at all, since you need a computer to calculate the tissues' nitrogen saturation, for deco purposes, after going up and down the wall looking for interesting critters. The computer also helps calculating the surface intervals between dives. In a typical day in almost all the resorts and dive places I've been to, I dove some 4 or 5 times x day I agree that, if you descend at a fixed depth and spend all the time at that depth (plan the dive and dive the plan..we used to say) the watch can come in handy and you don't need a computer that much.

In fact, I've never meant to use a watch alone, at least in the last 25 years. If the computers are identical or they use the same algorithm, it is a great option two carry two of them. If not, if can be quite a mess altogether.

not only because I liked them but also because, way back then, the only alternative was the Uwatec ALADIN. It was a bit less conservative than a SUUNTO but, it was like diving with a radio turned on, since it chimed and rang all the time for no reasons at all. I used the latest wrist SUUNTO model and the COBRA consol, attached to the BCD (a Mares H.U.B.)