diving for bottles

since it is too hot to dig for bottles i'm considering diving for them. after doing a little research i have decided to get a "hooka" system. I was wondering if any body has the pros and cons on wether to get a gas or electric model. and which one is more dependable any info would be helpful [8|][8|]

I'm seriously conidering getting certified to dive too. It's waaayy too hot to be digging. Although my only set back is I don't have a dive buddy. []

If I were you I'd seriously consider scuba over a hookah system, I've used both. Admittedly I only tried the hookah once in the Caribbean, but I do lots of river diving with scuba and I think that bottle hunting with the hookah in a river would be very frustrating. The scuba is more expensive to get into, but the advantages outweigh the cost difference if you ask me.

With a hookah you will have to have someone willing to hang out in the boat and tend the compressor, or else you risk having something go wrong and not knowing it. The biggest risk is CO (carbon monoxide) poisoning. If CO gets into your air, you could easily fail to detect it, and if that happens for long you will end up as a big chunk of catfish bait on the end of your air line. No bottle is worth that []

This isn't to say that the same thing can't happen with tanks; it can and does, but it's rare. My main reason for recommending tanks over hookah systems is that you are less likely to regret your decision. Hookah's work for what they are designed for: small working areas that you don't need to search for cause you already know where they are. If you need to search wide areas for isolated bottles or unfound dumps, scuba is the way to go.

In either event you should get a scuba certification, because while it is safe to work under water, there are lots of easy ways to hurt yourself if you don't have some training.

Good luck,
Sean

PS: Ebay is a great way to get equipment no matter which way you decide to go. Just get it serviced before you use it. The vast majority of people who certify for scuba do less then ten dives in their lifetimes after certifying, and many of them buy full gear before realizing that they just won't use it enough. Much of this ends up on ebay or in the dive shop bulletin boards for sale.

If the water is clear and not to deep you can get started snorkling. I've found them this way.

Hi Probe,

You dont say where you are gong to dive but if you are going to dive in shallow water and have someone to stay topside to watch you compressor a hookah is a good way to go. I use both types but prefer to use my 12v system in the local rivers. It is quiet and easy to carry and CO is not as big an issue, I use a 100 metre hose which gives me plenty of range keeping in mind that I am only diving in up to 10 metres of water. It is important that you have some sort of training as there are many things that can go wrong. You have to have a good nerve also especially when you dive in zero viz as I normally do, but I get some great bottles. Remember with a hookah you dont need to rush back to get a refill either.

John

thanks for advice peeps, I do alot of salt marsh digging in my neck of the woods and alot of the old houses and shantys were on small creeks and rivers. I have spent untold hours probing these sites, most of the time I come away empty handed and frustrated. some of these sites date back to the late 1700's my only conclusion is that people who lived close to the bays threw their trash overboard.

Do you have to have some kind of certification to use this hookah system?

ORIGINAL: DiggerBryan

Do you have to have some kind of certification to use this hookah system?

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Nope. You don't legally need certification to scuba dive either, but if you don't have a C-card nobody will fill your tanks or rent you anything. I dove for many years before I certified, but I had buddies in the military that taught me everything you learn in the certification class anyway. I was in the Coast Guard and we had tanks and a compressor on the ship, so we used to dive all the time.

Sean

The two really important things you need to know are: never hold your breath (because if you change depth the gas can expand and give you an embolism if you aren't exhaling), and don't stay down longer than the maximum no-decompression time. The former is still important with a hookah, the latter probably not because at 10 meters you'll get bored or frozen before you get near the no-decompression limit []

The first rule gets broken all the time too, because you can squeeze a lot more time from a tank by "skip breathing", but you do need to be careful about it because it's a dangerous habit.

Sean