UKskins

I chose to do my certification in a classroom setting for all the reasons you outline - can't overstate how glad I am that I did so. E-learning just doesn't give you the same preparation. Can't recommend any companies as I'm not in the DMV. Definitely do your checkout dives somewhere memorable. I certified in Egypt, so I did all the skills learning in the ocean rather than a pool and that was amazing, but it did sacrifice 3/4 days of my vacation (although we did skills in the morning and then did one or two of the checkout dives in the afternoon so that broke it up a bit. Good luck dude, you won't regret it!

Those Redskins shirt dive pics are class. Might have to get involved on that next time I dive!

Interesting to hear - I dived off Phuket and saw very few Lionfish and not particularly big ones. That's where the coral bleaching was worst there too, although there were some cool wrecks with a ton of Batfish hanging out. We did see a Leopard Shark there too, and randomly watched a jellyfish being killed by reef fish right in front of us as we descended - they literally just teamed up and ripped chunks off it - was a very strange sight! Sail Rock is just off Koh Phangan/Koh Samui - it is worth a visit if you find yourself in the area again - there's no other landmarks on the sea floor for 4 nautical miles in any direction so ALL the fish in the area congregate around this rock. The sheer numbers there are just overwhelming - never seen anything like it.

Depends where you get them - they only release a set number per year and a lot are issued to the travel industry and sold at a ridiculous cost - it is possible to get them through the Ecuadorian government but I think you have to go through a lottery system. Most reliable way is a liveaboard but you're talking several thousand dollars to get on one. Prices vary but they start at around $500 per day for the cheapest.

Pollution and the rising sea temps are destroying the reefs everywhere - lots of conservation efforts needed if we're going to save them!

Ah nice, I'll definitely look to try to get out to Palau at some point. Dubai should be really nice - Egypt is on the Red Sea and that is absolutely spectacular, I'd expect the Persian Gulf to be similarly incredible given the proximity and similar climate. I'm going to Australia in a couple of weeks, but not going to be able to dive this time unfortunately - hoping to get out to the Caribbean next year to get some scuba in then though. We have a quarry here in the UK that's been flooded and they've sunk a load of wrecks in specifically for diving but I've not been down there - might brave the cold and give it a go in the summer. My dream dive spot is the Galapagos - We dove with a guy in Egypt who freelances for Discovery channel and the videos he had from the Galapagos were absolutely unreal. Hundreds of hammerheads clouding the water above him, must have been an incredible sight to see. I can sympathise with the cold water and poor viz diving - When I dived in the UK, it was freezing and visibility was literally about a foot as they'd had a storm a few days before which had kicked up all the silt. Once was enough for me - wouldn't catch me doing that again in a hurry - although I guess it's much easier if you know there's a bounty of lobster and scallops at the end of it! That all sounds good! How did you find Thailand? The monsoon runoff had bleached almost all the reefs when we went. Did you dive Sail Rock in the gulf of Thailand? The sheer number of fish there is literally barely believable!

Anyone else on here certified to dive? I got my Open Water about 6 years ago - living in the UK means I only really get to dive when we go on vacation though - too cold to dive here (tried it once, never again!). Logged around 60 or so dives so far - Dived in Egypt, Turkey, Thailand mainly. Anyone have any reccomendations for Dive spots I really should get to? Or have a diving bucket list?

I'm from the UK (hence the imaginative username) - I remember playing a game on the Amiga games console (floppy disks, joysticks and all) called "sensible soccer" and another on PC called "Actua soccer" - that would have been right around the early 90s. No idea about sensible soccer, but actua soccer was developed by "Gremlin" studio who were UK based, so what you say sounds about right. I wouldn't necessarily say they were interchangeable in conversation at that point, I only recall ever hearing it called football or "footy" but it certainly wouldn't confuse anyone if you called it soccer here, it's just not really common in spoken language.

We were royally done by the refs today. That helmet to helmet on DJax was sickening, and they replayed it on the big screen several times too. The ref was maybe 5 yards away and somehow doesn't see it, yet I was on a similar line of vision and considerably further away and I saw it real time. The refs are the only people in the stadium who didn't see that. It wasn't like a subtle bit of holding off the ball that you could legitimately miss. The DPI in the endzone was nonsensical. The flags on Norman were disgusting, and the call on Garcon that ended it? Give me a break. Yet we got nothing the whole game, despite a multitude of flag worthy activity, such as y'know, two of our players nearly getting decapitated... smh Norman was absolutely right with what he said, and given he had 5 flags thrown on him for pretty much nothing, I would hope that Dan will pick up the tab for his fine. Refs were truly embarrassing today, both to themselves and the sport in front of a global audience.

I went BPA as much as possible, trading back as much as possible to load up in the 2nd round (5 2nd rounders + 2 in 1st). Your score is: 6418 (GRADE: A) Your Picks: Round 1 Pick 19 (CLE): Landon Collins, SS, Alabama (A) Round 1 Pick 31 (N.O.): P.J. Williams, CB, Florida State (B+) Round 2 Pick 6: Arik Armstead, DE/DT, Oregon (B+) Round 2 Pick 7 (CHI): Todd Gurley, RB, Georgia (A) Round 2 Pick 8 (NYG): Jaelen Strong, WR, Arizona State (A) Round 2 Pick 11 (CLE): Jake Fisher, OT, Oregon (B+) Round 2 Pick 14 (S.F.): Eli Harold, OLB, Virginia (A-) Round 3 Pick 5: Benardrick McKinney, ILB, Mississippi State (B-) Round 3 Pick 7 (CHI): Cody Prewitt, FS, Ole Miss (A) Round 4 Pick 6: Arie Kouandjio, OG, Alabama (A) Round 5 Pick 5: Ibraheim Campbell, SS, Northwestern (A-) Round 6 Pick 6: Tyler Varga, FB, Yale (A) Round 7 Pick 5: Derrick Lott, DT, Chattanooga (B-)

Hey Goritz - yes that site works, Im in the UK watching the NFL countdown show on it as we speak. My Dad ruptured his achilles and he has never watched an NFL game so Im hoping he'll take an interest tonight and I can give him the gift of the Skins for Xmas!! HAIL

GhostofSparta - these are the ones I use - http://atdhenet.tv/index.html - normally has a Vshare feed - http://soccertvlive.net/ and http://www.livescorehunter.com/ (you have to click other sports, american football and then click the top link if it messes around.