Don - The Traveling Engineer
Don - The Traveling Engineer
Your channel for adventure travel, tips, and experiences from engineers that travel the world out of passion.
Meet the traveling engineer who seeks new experiences, good times, digital nomading, and pushing the comfort zones. I do a diverse range of adventure travel while still working a full-time job as a software engineer. I've had years of experience and want to bring that experience to light via this KZread channel so you can learn from my ups, downs, and everything in between and hit that escape velocity from a mundane life!
Learn my travel tips from our experiences in work/travel balance, various experiences I've had, things I have learned, and how I travel.
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I love it. Don't brag to loud. Big biz will come claim it.
Good point! Will have to be more careful in revealing treasures like Taveuni more as the channel grows!
@@itravelwisely grateful you understand 💖 some places need to stay a mystery as long as possible. Tourism is rough. -From a Floridian
You showed a whale shark at the beginning- not a whale!
You're correct, I missed this on review with my editor at the time, my footage but missed the text, sadly KZread does not make it easy to fix such so I lived with this one.
Great video. Wanted to go there to dive rainbow for 40 years now lol.
Definitely worth it, it really surprised us on how great the coral condition is and it might be the best we've experienced outside of Indonesia. Taveuni is quite a cool island to explore too and the people there are super friendly!
👍😎🤿🇵🇭,
Thank you, glad you liked it!
I'm trying to be respectful but have to ask this question. What makes a novice diver like yourself think that it's a good idea to teach' others ? First of all, you are sharing things literally lifted from the OW booklet mixed in with some common sense advice but the footage you are using shows that you are basically a beginner diver.
You're free to believe what you will, I've been diving throughout the world, challenged myself on plenty of dives and have been a respectable diver. I can teach because I have a lot of experience. A lot of unique experience as I am able to travel often and to some of the more rate and hard to see places on the planet. Now it's worth noting, I an not a tech or cave diver, I diver recreational. I take footage during and through years of recreational diving. I don't remember most of these things taught to me when I went through open water. They were learned over time and experience. Of course, learning from many others along the way.
I’m really fit but a large guy (6’8”, 220 lb). I do ok with air consumption but wonder if my sheer size hurts me. Seems like they should have bigger tanks for bigger people 😂
No sweat! There are many things from trim, buoyancy, and calmness you can learn along and improve your air time significantly. There are a number of things to improve. They do have bigger tanks, and I have seen folks explore using double tanks! These can be crutches, though, so start with improving your skills and then explore using additional equipment.
Hi greeting from Asia. Love how you describe about diving. Sharing this video with my brother to encourage him for his coming OW course.
Really glad to hear you enjoyed it and hope your brother does too! I have a video here geared for helping learn SCUBA diving: kzread.info/dash/bejne/X6OCq9axftPcZrQ.htmlsi=ymrAJMTg67yHmPtG I made this video with the pure intent to help debunk common fears the prevent folk getting into SCUBA and even fears I had when I started. Let me k ow if you start diving and maybe we'll see eachother beneath the water someday!
agree but you move too much in the video LOL
Fair enough haha, it is footage I had of our recreational diving. We've always been recognized for our great air consumption. Some footage is overs too. I will do better to clearly demonstrate specific things in the future but also want to keep things real, where we are doing some interesting diving and enjoying ourselves. Haha, I need to find folk that can challenge me to improve from where I am, at this point I don't have a dive buddy that can outlast me so I am limited on my dive time to their own.
@@itravelwisely I meant in the room lol
Ah yes, that too is more than I normally talk haha. I do it on camera to hopefully not look super dull when I speak. Likely overdoing it at times haha.
Awesome video, I did my open water cert 2 weeks ago. Any tips for if the current is stronger than expected?
Really glad to hear you enjoyed it! I have another video dedicated to current diving here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/d55t0dixopvRf9Y.html Check it out! In short with current diving, your goal will be to use terrain to block current if you can. Pull yourself with the rocks on the ground as opposed to finning, and strategically moving between points that you can use to break the current. Fighting the current for an extended time will only wear you out, elevate your heart rate, destroy your air consumption, and likely give you a carbon dioxide headache like no other. You want to be calm and relaxed in current and be as lazy as possible. If you do a short spurt of finny against current, slow down and take a rest when you can and let the heart rate slow.
There are many factors involved to improve your air consumption but after this video, I hope you have a good list to move forward on and you nail you air consumption goals! What are some other things you've had struggles with in SCUBA diving?
Massive fishes!
And insanely intelligent and curious too!
..konkrétan te hülye vagy haver, nézd meg a búvár támadások statisztikáját.....te fasz 😅🤣
Uncertain what you are referring to here, but if you are a person who believes shark attacks on SCUBA divers is common, I'd like to set the record straight. There are plenty of statistic aggregations out there to show how uncommon shark attacks are, especially on divers. We can dive with sharks safely, especially with awareness and tips I cover in the video.
Correct but please do not suck out the out of your BCD. There is nasty stuff building up inside.
Thank you for your thoughts, and I'm glad you liked the video!
Please never suck air from BCD. Divers Alert Network identify the BCD and hose as potential fungal breeding ground and advise to NEVER breathe air from BCD. Also look up the case of Aspergillus, which almost destroyed the lungs of experienced diver Mike Firth after he blew into and the inhaled from his BCD.
This is a great reference! I did look it up as I was curious and here is a good read for anyone else: www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/dive_magazine/2011/EmergencyBreathing201106.html As an engineer and a man of science I delve deep in the maths and probabilities on a regular basis and that is always my grounding. Being lung infections are rare I think to your credit, I would 100% agree avoid breathing from the BCD at all costs and only when probabilities and risks are more precedent or extreme that you may consider that air important enough to suck out. My rule of thumb would be if death is more probable and realistic if you leave air trapped in there then it might be worth considering, if there are other alternatives, do consider them first, but if that air needs to go and death is a high probability if you don't use that option, it might be worth considering. For instance, in the past when I've regularly done negative dives it is often in extreme current situations where the group will miss the dive site without a negative dive. Death is not probable here, just perhaps a negative experience. I'd agree squeeze that BCD best you can. I will say I've seen a lot of failures in the squeezing technique though. For that reason, sometimes negative dives are called out because of large surf and swells, where that a head bobbing at the top could have a boat slam down on it. This is definitive death to which I would make the judgement call to suck that air out to be sure that risk can be mitigated. I've also met a lot of folk who do regularly check their BCD by breathing in and out of it or sucking it for negative dives. I suppose lung infections only need to happen once for someone to learn their lesson but I have not met many who have had this experience. Still, this is great info for the community to factor in and think on, thank you for sharing!
Looks like you had a good trip to Tubbataha Reef.
Tubbataha was quite nice, I do suspect it is a victim of overfishing in the China sea and sadly, will continue to diminish from what it used to be. I've heard legendary stories and was expecting more, but given the heavy fishing in the area, it sadly is starting to show. I suspect it will continue to impact the populations of fish that come to Tubbataha.
Great video. The Threshers are awesome, and you were able to capture the Catshark
Thank you, super happy to hear you appreciated it! I also saw you went to Malapascua recently too! I was blown away at how great the diving was, the threshers, tiger sharks, cat shark. All amazing. We even saw a blue ring octopus but I missed footage of the guy. Got to be ready around every corner there haha.
@@itravelwisely Love the Philippines, we'll definitely be back
Do not keep your arms folded. That is what open water recreational divers think is good. It looks ridiculous. Instead, keep them outstretched, slightly apart, and relaxed along the axis of your body. This is what we do as cave divers since we are carrying a canister light on our left hand and need our right hand free for tasks and in case of an emergency (like donating our long hose for example). Also don't flutter kick unless you absolutely need to. Frog kick is the preferred fin style for technical and cave divers since it doesn't stir up sediment and it gives us access to helicopter turns and back finning.
Good thoughts, thank you. I'll be happy seeing less arms flapping about vs correct arm positions in a static hold.
It is not appropriate to apply tec standards to the realm of rec divers. They have their own standards. What he said was fine. What you said was true for tec.
This is right! While I am not contesting these things are good for especially cave and tech diving but they are techniques for a particular flavor that are practiced because the risks are greater. Also, for folk just getting into recreational diving, too much gate keeping at the start can easily make SCUBA diving less appealing. There is a balance.
After about 8 dives I learned to fold my arms and it helped my buoyancy control immensely. And it kept me warmer!
@MorganBrown that is great to hear! The main thing is keeping the arms still! Makes sense keeping them closer and together would help a touch with warmth, especially in a wet suit! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for this video
Really happy to hear you enjoyed it!
That's a Whaleshark, not a whale 0:37
100% I missed that, I do have an editor that helps me and missed that one in the review. I edit some myself but not this one. Doh, I wish it was easier to make small edits on KZread. Sadly, have to live with that one. Good spot!
One Time I Saw a Scuba Pull Out of the Water with His Leg Bite Off From the Knee Down. Shocking.
Sharks are definitely an animal to be respected, there fortunately is a very small handful of sharks that can bite a leg off but it unfortunately does happen for various reasons. It is very rare though and most can observe sharks in the wild without fear of a leg being bitten off. Still, just as much as any animal, they are not robots and are unpredictable to a degree.
@@itravelwiselyI have an uncle who studies sharks and he says a shark attack is when there are witnesses…. He said we see many cases where sharks are curious of us yet not particularly looking at us as food UNTIL… they know we’re eatable… this is the same with bears or any animal…. This is why they try to kill sharks that predate…. How many people go missing in the ocean I wonder
Not a dive watch that’s a dive computer also mask 🤿 not called goggles cheers🍻
Ah dang, didn't catch I said the wrong things there. Good call out!
I been certified for 4 years got only 524 dives combined but just this January I got certified on the rd1 ccr and I love it omg it’s so nice the silence is incredible
That's awesome, been considering doing the training for CCR through GUE continued training within the next year to at least give it a try and become familiar. Its a huge step to commit to owning one haha.
Amazing video! It's so great that you share your love for the ocean. Scuba diving is such an amazing water activity and it's lovely to see you enjoy it, keep going with these great videos. If it doesn't bother you, I'd like to give you a suggestion, a tip for the next videos: Basically, you could try inserting some comic and funny stuff... to give everyone a pinch of humor that, in the world of diving, can never be missing. Now, I don't think much of it, but the first thing I could think of in your sport might be peeing in the water. Once, my uncle, who is a scuba diver, peed in his wetsuit during a long diving session and that moment was absolutely funny, he even wrote "I’m peeing" on a waterproof notebook during the session and he showed it to me while he was doing it. He has always been telling me that there are 2 types of divers and swimmers: those who pee in the water and those who lie. I know it may sound strange as a request but, in my opinion, these are moments of happiness and carefree that always make everyone smile, that's why it'd be hilarious if you included lots of moments like this, if you and your diving mates want of course. I hope you like the idea and I hope you have a wonderful day!
This is great feedback and really happy to hear you enjoyed the video. Yes, I admit I am a bit stiff at times in the video, it is something I am trying to improve with each video and I love your idea for sharing the jokes. I have a lot of them and will try to share more in future videos! I've heard this exact joke you mentioned from your uncle haha, most everyone does pee in their wet suits, but the wetsuit is a one way membrane so its kind of disgusting to realize its trapped in the wetsuit. Then, there is cold water dry suits which you definitely cannot pee in. So there are these awkward pee valves that you have to use instead. Will be sharing more of the jokes in the future, thank you so much for sharing and also have a wonderful day!
@@itravelwisely Heyy man! It's always a pleasure to give feedbacks, I really hope you liked it. Well I can't wait for the funny pee times underwater then hahahha
Hey don I am a new KZreader seeking to work on traveling I’m in Africa and I don’t have camera please help me
Whew! That's a loaded question haha. I still consider myself a new KZreadr too with learning and improving with every video my main goal! Unfortunately for me now, travel is more of my hobby than a source of income. I've been traveling for many years though and have had many adventures. I've always worked and consider travel as my main hobby (along with hiking, mountaineering, skiing, and scuba diving). I am an engineer by day and that helps me fund my passion of travel. Of course its not a get rich scheme or anything, it takes a while to become proficient and have the ability to travel and work. I am a firm believer that it can be done though and my wife and I have been doing it successfully for quite some time. Its one of the unique aspects I bring and I hope to teach some of how others can work full-time and travel frequently too. Of course also sharing tips and travel of our own adventures along the way. Hope that helps!
Don't really understand how can someone be afraid of diving :D I love diving and everyone can check it also in my channel.
That's the right attitude! There is some amazing things to see and explore beneath the water that I'll be going through in future videos!
@@itravelwisely Everyone can check my channels videos about diving ;) After few days will publish video from Dahab Blue hole.
👍😎🤿🇵🇭!
Thank you! Glad you liked this one! Going to do one on sharks next!
<3
Thank you! I toyed around with the style a bit more on this one, Hoping its a better direction!
Just wondering, videos of people supposed to be good examples or bad examples because some of the videos seem to show people with ok buoyancy.
A lot of the footage is from various friends and folk I've dove with over the years or some random groups I was with, but usually fairly experienced divers. All recreational, of course, and some footage is showing bad examples. They weren't staged, and i didn't ask anyone to particularly show me their best trim when I snapped the shots. Work with what you have, haha.
@@itravelwisely that makes sense, I can’t be talking either don’t have the best trim
@lukegray5914 room for improvement! I'm still working on it too. I generally will practice having stable and tight trim trying to deploy the SMB. Kind of my personal challenge and way of practicing stability.
@@itravelwiselythats a great idea, I might start doing that
Heyy Can you share your email I have something special for you
Please dont suck the air out your bcd, if there's any fungus growing in there you'll get lung infection. Just squeeze the bcd while holding dump valve down, your buddy can help you. Stay safe!
Thank you for your thoughts! I do think sucking the air out is the only surefire way, but I'd add that negative dives should be used sparingly, if you suck out the air from the BCD every dive, that could be more of a concern for your reasoning. I've had situations of doing negative entries in very rough waters where failure to do a negative entry meant have a big boat crash on your head or being blown away in current. For those situations, sucking the air out of the BCD is the only way to be sure, otherwise you'd have to load a lot of lead which has other concerns. I've seen people do this squeeze method and unless you do it in a stable and calm environment, this is very failure prone. A tiny bit of air in there can cause the negative entry to fail and you pop back to the top (so if you were doing a negative dive to avoid a safety concern, that has now failed). I don't do negative entry without strong reason, and I do suck the air as it is thorough when I need to do it for safety. If there are no safety concerns it's probably best to avoid negative dive entry. I have done negative dives by also timing the dump dive pull really well with just a touch of extra lead, but I wouldn't do this when there is a real safety concern and I needed to execute on the negative dive.
@itravelwisely Indeed I agree it should be used as little as often. I worked in Mozambique where every dive was negative entry due to bilateral currents at surface and bottom, so we'd completely miss the dive site. If i were to sick the air out each dive my lungs would be dead. I always held the dump bottom dump valve and as soon as hitting the water I'd start kicking down and everything escaped. In extreme cases I guess sucking it out would be best option, but their dive leader will tell them to do so. The average diver should not think it's safe to suck out the BCD when they want, because that's a recipe for lung disease. I agree with you and disagree hahaha.
@@thenomadicprince No worries, I totally understand where your coming from and great points made!
@thenomadicprince3311 Totally agree. Particularly in the tropics. Mould spores can be damaging to health. Easy to squeeze out air.
Great info. Thanks.
Thank you! Glad you found it valuable!
Be careful about bathrooms with glass doors. Bathroom doors that don’t close or are transparent are the new norm. This arrangement does not work for most couples working in hotel rooms.
We haven't encountered these too much in our travels but there are certainly strange arrangements we've come across haha. I remember some hotels in Europe doing this stylistic thing with the bathroom doors. In Africa we've encountered some without doors to the bathroom at all.
Now the cat eared wife needs to work on trim and finning. 😊
She has been getting better too over the years! We both started diving at the same time and are always trying to improve. We've almost done 100% of all our dives together, I just beat her by exactly one dive because she chose not to go due to cold water. Were up to 350 dives now, I just focus a lot more on building those skills and improving my air consumption and such than her which I think gave me an edge. We've been on some super long dives together though, nearly two hour dives off a single tank! (going down to ~34 m and raising slowly).
@itravelwisely very cool!!!! My wife is my favorite dive buddy too:)
Also hoping she can take more footage of my in future videos so we can up our KZread video quality haha! Our next trip is to Red Sea in Egypt in October to the Daedalus reef area on a live aboard. Looking forward to getting back into diving. We live up in the Puget Sound area but rarely go diving there as its a touch cold. We are dry suit certified and have done dry suit dives but not enough to enjoy them as much as wet suit yet haha.
@itravelwisely that's really awesome, I'd love to go there, maybe next year. Same thing here, I'm usually the one holding the camera 😆 i work my ass off on trim, and buoyancy. It's nice to see yourself once in a while.
Good tips on bouyancy for beginner divers. I see this channel growing easily in a year. I would say you need to work on your audio as it makes it difficult to watch. Recommend a better microphone or record in a smaller room that traps audio. Keep it up 💯
Really appreciate the kind words and feedback on the audio! I did buy a new mic for upcoming videos and experimenting with how and where I record. Trying to get a bit better with every video! Thanks much for the support!
When I first started hiking, a lot of this stuff felt quite foreign to me. I wished I had a guide like this starting out so I was happy make one and hope it helped set you off on the right path!
Whether your traveling closer to the planet's poles or somewhere alpine the tips here will help! I often save a lot of luggage space due the versatility of hiking/mountaineering gear and the super light weight and packability of it. It could be cheaper and the lighter you go the more expensive it gets, but it will last a very long time.
Did you start your scuba diving adventures of recent? Or is something holding you back from getting into it? If so what? I'd love to know!
Everyone has room to improve on buoyancy control and I hoped this video helped! Let me know what some other things in terms of scuba diving that your trying to improve and I can work on tips in future videos in that direction!
I had fun filming this one and tried out some different style editing. Let me know what worked and what didn't! Ski season is coming to a close but wanted to get this out regardless! So long ski season until next year!
10:48 you are scraping the ground with the camera 😭
Ah yes, i wanted to drmonstrate breathing on the ground is a good way to practice buoyancy control but my rip cord that retracts the camera broke on that very dive too so it would not retract. Made the best of the situation haha.
Amazing 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼🔥
Much appreciated!
Wow! Amazing tips 🙏
Thank you!
Amazing ❤
Thank you!
hi, i just discovered your channel. I like the way you explain things and they totally make sense in my head! I will keep working on my buoyancy, trim and best weight control :)
Super happy to hear it helped! I'm hoping to continue to improve how well I can present this info as well good scuba and travel tips!
Do you have a list/links for the gear in this review? Especially the gloves? I’ve been looking for a good base layer and medium weight glove.
Thank you for asking! I haven't thought about it until now but this is a great question. I'll see if I can gather all the links to my gear as some of its older models. I did find most of the light and medium gloves though! I often use either of these two light weight gloves. They are light, durable, I can use my phone with them and they are easy to take off and clip to my back pack: North Face Etips: amzn.to/4e0aDgs Head Multi-Sport Gloves: amzn.to/3Ra2Kv5 One last light glove but its a bit thick is this Seirus glove that is more intensely weather/wind proofed than the standard light glove. Its nice if you don't want to bring a medium glove and acts as a soft shell. Not super warm, but keeps the hands warm enough while moving. amzn.to/3V59b3R For medium, these are some of the best gloves I've used with superior grip, warmth, ease to put on, and they work excellent with ice axes and other tools you need your hands for (oddly they are not listed on Oregon Research and looks like the model may be discontinued): www.rei.com/product/193637/outdoor-research-bitterblaze-aerogel-gloves-mens Looking at the reviews, some folk say they hit durability issues with the gloves, I haven't found this to be the case with general mountaineering and ice climbing but it does look like these models are the next iteration of the glove from what I can tell: www.outdoorresearch.com/products/mens-sureshot-softshell-gloves-300022?variant=45646544011585 Worth noting these are not heavy gloves so reading comments and reviews I feel folk are confused on the purpose of these, these are active wear gloves and provide great warmth and durability for active use (not so much for resting). Great weather/wind proofing too.
@@itravelwiselythank you very much for this info. I have a pair of heavy gloves and sometimes they are just too heavy. Will definitely do more research on these all.
@brettfliesser anytime and happy to help!
Thanks Don, very good informations! 👍
Thank you! Much appreciated!
Thanks, very useful video! 👍
Thank you glad you enjoyed it! Love your channel by the way! I am inspired!
Thanks Don! 😃
Amazing tips
Thank you! I'll keep them coming! I'm working on my format some to make it more entertaining, too.