AKSCUBA.COM NEWS

March 10, 2010

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With dry suits and all the gear used to get the most out of diving in Alaska, trim and buoyancy control become critical. You need to think about where to put all that weight so that you keep perfect horizontal trim in the water. Also, make sure not to over or under weight. The secret is to do a weight check whenever you change conditions or equipment, and then do another at the beginning and ending of every dive. It's quick - just deflate your BC and dry suit and hold a normal breath; you should have no trouble getting down, because you should be negative (because of the air in your tank). At the end of the dive, do a safety stop and watch your buoyancy while you do. If all goes well, then do a final check just before getting out of the water. You should be perfectly neutral (since you've used the tank air).

My local dive shop, Last Frontier Diving, has done pretty well by me. Loic has been helpful in selecting gear, and has not given me a hard time when I choose to go through another avenue to buy. In general, I have found his prices fair and competitive - if you account for shipping, Loic can usually beat the "deals" you find online. Also, LFD is a great shop to dive with - they plan fun adventures, and they tend to do everything family style. That means most of your surface interval is spent getting to know interesting people and making friends. Tough to argue with that!

For training, I commend to you Joe Waggoner - he's an instructor working out of LFD (I think he's an independent contractor, not an employee,) and he does a great job. LFD, and Joe in particular, are into building relationships, so they'll often bend over backward to make sure you're satisfied with your gear and training. (For instance, Joe went down to Whittier about 5 separate times to do checkout dives for the 6 students in my OW class. The trips were only necessary because students had health problems, preparedness problems, or listening problems).

Dive Alaska, also in Anchorage, is considered by many to be an outstanding shop and dive resource. Scott Anderson of Dive Alaska has been a diver for just over a gazillion years, and is an advocate and practitioner of good technical diving habits. Dive Alaska offers GUE training from certified instructors, and Scott operates his own dive boat most summer weekends out of Seward. I have not yet had the pleasure of diving with Scott or his team, but his store has been good to me in the past and those that dive with Dive Alaska generally will not accept any other store.