Jul
28
2010
Do you want to start your own blog? Can’t face the fees and think that you need a free host? Think again – look at this offer from Robson Communications Inc.!
Robson Communicaitons BBB A+ Rating are offering a voucher code that will give you 3 years of free website hosting. Be quick though, the voucher expires at the end of September.
Just go to the Robson Communications Inc. and enter the voucher code, which is WGT38864.
Jul
28
2010
Finding the right place to start your scuba diving lessons is essential. The worst thing you could do would be to enroll onto a training course, pay up and turn up to find a bunch of cowboys that just strap you into your gear, throw you into the water a few times and then hand you your certification card.
The problem is, before you have lessons you do not really know what to look for. You will not have the experience to decide whether they are bandits or the best trainers in the world. But with a few careful pointers, you should be able to weed out the worst!
1 ) Check their qualifications! When you are a diver they will ask to see yours, so if they are claiming to be PADI or BSAC then ask to see the certification that they are a recognised training establishment.
2 ) If you can, before you travel, look up the dive centres in the area you are going to on the relevant organisation’s website.
3 ) Never pay money before you meet them! Book onto a course if you must, but do not part with cash. Not until you have met them. My own training was only paid for as the final paperwork was being written – at their insistence!
4 ) Meet them before you start the course. Find out what time their morning and afternoon dives leave and return and be in the office for one of these, preferably the return. Listen to the returning divers – they will be full of excited talk if the dive was good and the dive leader led a safe dive.
5 ) Spare the time for a try dive. Well worth it, even if it is going to cost you a little bit more. Book a try dive in the sea rather than a sample scuba in a pool. It gets a shallow dive under your belt and gives you some extra initial training (you have to watch a video before the dive), whilst you become more familiar with the hire equipment you will be using. This not only means you have experienced the water when you start the proper theory, but more important you have met their instructors.
6 ) Do not be afraid to talk to the instructors before you start your course. Ask about absolutely anything that worries you and see if they are friendly and approachable. If they just brush off your fears, will they be much use to you if you have a mini-panic in the water?
7 ) Review the dive centre before you go – read how safe other divers have felt and then when you finish your course, leave some reviews for other divers to read.
8 ) Do not set your mind on just one dive centre – have a few options available to you before you travel, so that if you do have concerns when you arrive, you can use another one instead.
Not all dive centres are equal. I myself have spoken to the staff of a dive centre, not felt safe and moved on. Ask questions first and if you like the staff, then dive with them.
Keith Lunt
Jul
28
2010
There are lots of agents selling houses, so if you are one of the many, how can you stand out from the crowd?
Well consider that someone selling their home will want to know that you will sell their home for them. How do they work that out? Well probably by seeing your name and your portfolio a lot when they are themselves in the position of a buyer.
So quality estate agency software is what you need to be looking at to get the best from your business. This should allow you to easily and quickly upload new instructions and make them available instantly on your website and national house sales websites.
Of course, it should also enable you to print off the particulars for potential buyers visiting your shop. The problem is, your service must stand out and the best way to do this is through being successful.
Jul
22
2010
Etes-vous soucié de de qu’arrive à votre magasin de plongée pendant que vous n’êtes pas ? Avez-vous besoin de regarder à la propriété pendant que vous êtes loin de lui ? La nuit et sur les jours fermés ? Etes-vous soucié de l’équipement plongeant valable qui est là emmagasiné ?
Si oui, prendre un regarder les avantages qu’il y a dans le magasin pour vous si vous installez l’équipement de video surveillance. Il peut regarder votre propriété quand vous n’êtes pas là !
Jul
18
2010
Do you want to bag a bargain when you buy a new car? If so, then why not have a look at a used Peugeot?
Used cars are so much better value than their brand new equivalents and are well worth looking at. Fleet cars, which may be a year old, quite often have not that much mileage but excellent service histories. These are certainly good to look over and quite often you will get a good choice.
Jul
14
2010
We have booked our Flights to Paphos and are off there shortly. I’m quite looking forward to a change of scenery in place that we have never visited before.
I’ve been using a Paphos blog or two to research what to do there and, of course, the scuba diving opportunities that are on offer.
Paphos should provide plenty of diving. Whether I get to venture to somewhere like the Zenobia off Larnaca or the WWI gunboat HMS Cricket, I have yet to work out. But these are not the only wrecks on offer, probably just the most famous of them! It will be great to get away!
Jul
8
2010
It’s been on my mind recently – new website hosting!
A couple of my websites have been hit by traffic spikes after my work promoting them, but it seems too expensive buying a dedicated hosting server.
A VPS is an option, but the fact that you have to set them up and pay for them by the year means that they are expensive and, thankfully, now becoming out of fashion.
So, that is where buying Cloud Servers comes in from suppliers such as Gigenetcloud.com. This is more a buy as you need metered type of hosting rather than the VPS buy what you think you need this year. If you need more hosting today you add it, if tomorrow is quiet you remove it.
The big difference between cloud hosting and VPS (Virtual Provate Servers) is that with VPS you are forced to buy and setup a server from the beginning, whereas with cloud hosting a few clicks of a button allows you to add and remove storage space and capacity. If you know that a traffic spike is coming, say you are running a TV advert, it takes a lot of cost and effort to change VPS hosting to cope with this, but seconds on Cloud Hosting.
Therefore, time to compare Gigenetcloud to other providers and to find out what Cloud Hosting is on offer that should keep my sites up and running at the speed that I want to see them running at!
Jun
28
2010
Fitting out a child in scuba diving gear does not need to be complicated, you just need to take care and look at some of the specialist pieces of equipment that are available for their smaller body sizes. Here are a few suggestions of diving gear you might like to look at!
Considering that children are allowed by the major diving agencies to start diving as pre-teenagers, there is actually very little gear available for them that is aimed specifically at this market. But there are a few items that are aimed at, or suitable for, their smaller body sizes and here are a selection of what there is on offer.
Wetsuit – The Cressi Junior Wetsuit is an excellent piece of equipment aimed at the junior diver. From the name you can see that it is aimed at the junior diver rather than just being a smaller version of an adult’s wetsuit. If shouts comfort throughout, with a diagonal zip, sealed and zipped cuffs, an integrated hood, reinforced knee pads and a shape that is designed for easy kitting up and removal. This should easily keep your little one warm for a decent length of dive!
Mask – Take a look at the Cressi Piumetta Mask if you are looking for a mask for children. Whilst not aimed solely at children, its features make it highly suitable for them. The skirt edge is soft and easily adapts to most faces shapes and sizes whilst the small inner volume means that it does not take much effort to clear the mask underwater. No excuse for not learning that exercise then! There are side buckles to quickly and easily adjust the headband for a comfortable fit of this mask made of soft transparent silicone.
BCD – Escaping the Cressi theme, the Aqua Lung Wave BCD is a basic entry level BCD that is available in a variety of sizes from Junior through to adult Extra Large. Although it is primarily an adult’s BCD, the junior sizes and the simplicity of the BCD make it an excellent piece of equipment for the child diver. With excellent customer reviews and easy to use controls, this is a must for any young beginner diver (or any older beginner diver) and well worth looking at for kitting out children.
Fins – Although there is still lots of other pieces of equipment to look at, the last major piece of equipment that a child might want is probably their own fins. The problem with fins is that if you try to use fins that are too big for your leg muscles you will tire or get cramp, too small and you are working to hard. But the Cressi Rondine Pro Light are often recommended for the child diver, being available in sizes from extra small through to extra large. This is another piece of Cressi equipment that always receives excellent reviews, so a good one to look at for the children.
Of course, later on the child might want their own regs and gauges, knives, torches, diving computers and a lot more. But one step at a time!
Jun
26
2010
What is it that makes the Cressi Diver Junior wetsuit suitable for children? It is aimed solely at children, but why exactly is that important and what makes it so good?
The Cressi Diver Junior Wetsuit is one of the few on the market aimed solely at junior divers. And this specific targeting is vital. Putting a child in a small adult sized wetsuit could be a disaster, so we need to look not only at what makes the wetsuit tick, but also at why a special wetsuit is needed.
The child’s body shape
If you look at a young child’s body shape, pre-teenage and young teenage (given that most diving organisations allow children to start to learn scuba diving from around this age group), their body shapes are a lot less well formed than adults of the same height and even basic size.
I only need to see my daughter standing next to an adult of the same height to see the huge obvious differences in shapes. Boys will have a lighter upper body frame than men and girls won’t have the hips and waists that women carry.
Why does this matter?
So what does this matter? Well a wetsuit works by controlling the flow of water around the body. Unlike a dry-suit it does not keep the wearer dry, instead it allows water to flow in through the arms, legs and neck. Water can also flow out of these areas, but if the suit fits correctly, this flow (or flushing as it is called) is a slow process.
So a wetsuit, unlike a dry suit, has to fit snugly. The water rushes in, your body warms it up and then, hopefully, not too much is flushing. This gives a layer of insulation. But if the wetsuit is baggy in places then the flushing is increased and there is more water to warm up before the insulation works properly.
This means that a child wearing a wetsuit in a child’s fit should be more comfortable, warmer and enjoy their diving experience more.
The Cressi Diver Junior Wetsuit
Now this is where we come to this excellent piece of equipment, one of the few wetsuits on the market aimed at children. The features of this 5mm wetsuit are great, including an integrated hood providing more warmth to the wearer.
There is a front fastening zip, that stretches diagonally across the chest up to the right cheek. This diagonal nature of the zip is another feature to preserve warmth as it makes the suit less prone to flushing through the zip.
The suit is designed to be easy to take on and off and the shape of the legs matches the shape of the legs in the water, rather than on firm ground, making it even more comfortable whilst diving. There are also reinforced anti-wear knee pads to increase the life of the wet suit.
The Cressi Diver Junior Wetsuit is aimed at children and is an excellent piece of scuba diving equipment for the younger diver. Intended to keep them warmer in the water and more comfortable, it is an excellent item for starting out in scuba diving.
Jun
23
2010
The Aqua Lung Wave BCD is a good, basic looking BCD in black available in sizes from childrens up to Extra Large mens. A truly versatile range of sizes, so here we look deeper at this BCD.
The Aqua Lung Wave BCD is an excellent and popular choice as both a men’s BCD and also, as it is available in junior sizes, it is an excellent piece of diving equipment for junior divers as well.
It is a very simple looking BCD. It shows the essentials that you expect of a BCD and seems very easy to use, making it an excellent choice for the beginner and child divers. The look is not one of a complicate and difficult to use piece of equipment. It is very much a back to basics BCD, whilst still being a comfortable item to wear and use.
It’s back to basics with the Aqua LungWave BC without sacrificing creature comforts and durability. Made with durable Armorshield Cordura, this BC will keep you diving for years to come.
Features
The BCD is made from tough Armourshield Cordura for longevity whilst a special dye colouring process makes it more resistant to fading. This is suffering that frequent exposure to salt water and strong sun can bring on rapidly, so this thoughtful protection is an excellent idea.
There are two firmly attached stainless steel accessory D-rings on the front for attaching your equipment to. Whether you just want to stop your regulators and gauges from bouncing around to carrying a torch and / or camera or a whistle to your BCD for rapid access.
There are, of course, adjustable shoulder straps and cumber band fastening with quick release buckles. The cumber band also has a Velcro fastening to hold this in place. Plus, the right should has the toggle for a pull dump, essential for releasing extra air from the air pockets when you have gone vertical and are trying to reduce buoyancy, without letting water into the device.
The inflator is attached with a manual inflator built in and includes an integrated pull dump and although many dive centres still recommend using this to dump air, the other pull dumps are generally better to use as these do not let water back in as you dump air. So try to avoid using the pull dump on the inflator!
The Aqua Lung Wave BCD also features two large hook and loop pockets, a carrying handle and a tank positioning strap to make sure the air tank is well positioned when attached.
Overall, the customer reviews of this device show that it is a popular and well liked device with many people recommending it after buying and using it, including diving instructors who recommend it for when working with pupils. It is not a bank breaking piece of diving equipment, but a good, solid entry end piece of diving equipment in sizes that will be good for a whole range of people, from youngsters to large adults.
If you are thinking of buying a new BCD, this could be where you should start. Well worth looking at!