Silly idea, who wants to dive in the frigid waters of England?
^...
I did some night diving in an iced over lake mid winter (3 torches fuked up, wasnt sure what way up was...), some drift/wreck diving off the SE coast and nearly ended up in France - a good place to learn...
Hello. Sorry to interrupt but I'm new to the site. Can someone direct me to instuctions about how to start a question and track the comments?
ive never dived in thailand or anywhere else for that matter but it would seem to me from what ive observed that dive shops are all over the place especially in the touristy places, looks like you would be competing with operators with 10 or 20 years more experience than you, i wonder what they all do in the off season , Get on the Piss?
In the early days on Tao we would do two for One dive courses, give free T shirts, free bungalows, graduation dinners and whatever we could to get customers in.
The low season was tough back then in the Late Eighties, early nineties. These days the low season don't really happen as the Island is rammed full with backpacking Muppets and world known. Punters flood in year round.
Made just enough to pay bills but we made nothing. Led to an all out price war and smaller shops just closed up and went home.
Good fun that was.
If one wants to enjoy A career in Diving one must do it when there young as when one gets older one needs to get a real Job. Just be an Instructor and enjoy it without the head fuk of actually owning the shop.
One must be very business savy and knowledgeable to survive in the Dive industry these days and also be prepared to put in 7 day weeks starting at 7.00AM in the Morning and finishing at 10 PM when the night dive finishes.
Fuk that EH.
Or starting earlier !!Originally Posted by terry57
I was in the water by 7 @ Chumphon pinnacle a few days a week - get there any later and all the sharks had buggered off - scared away by the hundreds of "tank tappers".
Last time i asked around, a lot of the divemasters and instructors were paid a minimal wage, the majority of earnings being commission - no punters, no beer money.
I'd get there at 8, just to be sure...Originally Posted by withnallstoke
I know what it's like; played this for weeks!
Slightly of topic but i was wondering if any divers would know how much one of those old style diving helmets should cost ? i saw a couple for sale in antique shops in Yangon , would make a nice decoration i reckon
Of course i wouldnt know if they were reproductions or real
^Reproductions usually run a few hundred dollars - originals vary widely depending on the style, country, etc, but can run up to several thousand dollars. I have one in my office (looking at it right now) - they are cool looking indeed. Mine is an original Russian helmet, which I picked up in a nautical supply store in Bombay in the mid-80's. If you like it and it looks cool, I'd buy it - repo or not. If it's only a couple of hundred bucks, it's probably a repo. Who knows - as cut off as Rangoon has been for years, it might be a real one!
^ The best looking one i saw they wanted $1500 for it negotiable i guess, it had LONDON stamped in the brass or copper, i was sorely tempted to buy it, Asians have become pretty good at knocking up reproduction buddhas etc , i wonder if theres a sure fire way of spotting a fake,
Fill it with water and see if it leaks.Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker
These ones are brand new.
Diving Helmet 02, Uttarakhand - India
Originally Posted by Necron99
From that site.
Good thinking, i will throw myself of the pier and into the irrawady and if i dont drown i will make an offer on itOriginally Posted by withnallstoke
For Gay Germans ?
We bring forth German Helmet high on demand in the national as well as international market. We are offering a wide range of German Helmet under the brand
Brass helmets are quite collectible and there are lots of websites that will tell you how to authenticate one. Take a look at it and see if it has a manufacturers stamp, then google is your friend.
While weathering brass and copper is fairly easy, I don't think the replicas would go so far as to induce wear and tear on bolts and screws etc
At that price, it could be real - but, as you say, who knows. They are brass, btw. Have you tried researching the web on how to spot fakes. I don't know, as I have almost no real world hard hat diving experience (one dive, in the zero visibility sewer of Manila Bay). I'm almost certain that mine is real, as there was a ship refitting area in Bombay very close to where I bought it with a lot of Russian military vessels and Russian divers working on them - and, Russians WILL steal and sell their gear! If you know any construction divers (must be one on TD somewhere) they might be able to provide some guidance.
You Dived in Manila bay and lived? Fuk i wouldnt dip my big toe in there
Good advice, pretty sure i will make another trip to burma , maybe get a bit more info gleaned from the web or on here first, Probably looking at a few hundred bucks to crate it and send it on to vientiane as wellOriginally Posted by Necron99
It was in '91 - I was still young and dumb. A friend was doing a dredging/wall teardown off the seawall. Bet me $100 I wouldn't do it. I was wrapped up...dry suit, etc. As I got ready to descend, a cow carcass floated by. One of the Flip divers brought up a human arm - probably medical waste.
I wouldn't hesitate long...once the lard-ass tourists get there, things like that will vanish quickly. I was poking around in a warehouse in Madras once - loads of old windows with ornamental grillwork salvaged from buildings that were over 100 years old and were being torn down to make way for 'development'. I bought two very cool ones to take back to Delhi - I was doing quite a bit of woodworking at the time, and thought to clean them up just a bit and then turn them into tops for coffee tables (once finished, they were fantastic looking). I paid the equivalent of US$10 for the two. I went back the next day just in time to see some American fat-ass bitch - buyer for Bloomingdales) supervising the loading of almost the contents of the entire warehouse onto trucks. Owner told me she bought the lot at $20 a piece. Was sending them to the Bloomingdales slave labor sweatshops in Mexico to do basically what I was doing with them. My brother saw one on sale in Bloomingdales during "The Year of India" for $800.
^ might already be a bit late. Saw some pretty nifty stuff like enamel signs etc the burmese seemed to be pretty well in tune with what people would pay. I bought an old surveyors theodolite in one place for $250 after a shit load of haggling, i normally hate haggling and loose interest pretty quick but i really wanted that thing, Wife thought i was fuckin nuts, She will know for sure if i buy a divers helmet
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