ScubaGadget - The Deep Background on Scuba

At a recent dive club event, presenter Laura James introduced the new Halcyon Infinity BC with the “revolutionary cinch system” (harness). Not in the market for a new dive BC, I put on my game face and tried it on. I was impressed with the comfort of the cinch system harness. The “revolution” is that Halcyon has developed a way to have a single strap system that is still easy on, easy off. I was really pleased with the ease in which it adjusted. With the weight held by the table (or truck bed or back of car or wall), a mere push on the straps causes it to release from the shoulders. Pull on the straps, and it tucks right up to my body. The cake topper was when Laura showed that four people of varying heights and sizes could wear the same wing and experience the same comfort and ease of use that I did. At Laura’s suggestion, I decided to take it out for a try in the sea.

A few days later, we met up at a nearby dive site to try this “bad boy” out. As is often the case with trying out new gear, there was a bit of fumbling about topside to get the harness adjusted to fit me just right. Once we got that dialed in, we plunged below the surface. The harness fit securely to my body.  It felt like it was molded to me. I have slender shoulders and have a difficult time finding a BC that does not fall off my shoulders. This harness, with no chest strap, did not fall off. The curved shoulder straps clung with elegant comfort to my shoulders. It felt incredibly secure, stable and “out of the way.” Once topside again, I found it easier to walk with all that weight on my body, since the harness was anchored so well to me.

Convinced that this was a “must have” item, and just the kind of product we like to bring to our ScubaGadget readers, Continue reading A new level of comfort – the Halcyon Cinch system (First Dive Review)

This article, while specific to one dive site near Seattle, illustrates how scuba myths can get entrenched and how, with a few phone calls you can help fellow divers.

The Edmonds Underwater Park (more formerly know as the Bruce Higgins Underwater Park) is located not far from Seattle, Washington and just north of the Edmonds Kingston Ferry Landing. It includes acres of underwater trails leading to sunken vessels and other artificial reefs that are home to a wide array of sea life. Almost 25,000 scuba dives take place hear each year.

There was a lot of confusing information about diving on the De Lion Dry dock at the Edmonds Underwater park. The dry dock is one of the nicest features in the park. The rumors going around were wild and scary. The stories were variations on, “if you are caught near the dry dock homeland security will arrest you and fine you thousands of dollars.” It is an urban scuba myth.

After extensive phone conversations with

Continue reading Clearing Up an Urban Scuba Myth – Edmonds Underwater Park, Edmonds WA

CPSC INFORMATION:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following product. Consumers should stop using products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Name of product: Power Inflator

Units: About 1,380 in the U.S., 530 in Canada

Importer: Aqua Lung America of Vista, Calif.

Hazard: The oral inflator button is not properly bonded to the oral stem and can fall off during use, posing a leak of the buoyancy compensator contents. This poses a drowning hazard.

Incidents/Injuries: Aqua Lung America has received one report of a consumer’s oral inflate button falling off during use. No injuries have been reported.

Description: The power inflator is the black mouthpiece with the two brass buttons at the end of the corrugated hose. The recall involves all models of the Apeks WTX power inflators. Some of the recalled components were included on complete air cells. Those model numbers are: 388032, 388060, 388080, 388145, 388260, and 42775. The model number of the air cell can be found on the tag sewn on the center of the air cell or bladder.

Sold at: Diving stores in the U.S. and Canada from November 2006 through March 2010 for between $53 and $70 for the component and between $280 and $520 for the air cells.

Manufactured in: California

Remedy: Consumers should stop diving with their recalled power inflator and bring it or send it to an authorized Apeks dealer. The dealer will apply a free fix. Consumers may also ask for and receive a free replacement product.

Consumer Contact: For additional information contact the firm toll-free at (877) 253-3483 or visit the firm’s website at www.aqualung.com

Here are our @ScubaGadget Tweets you may have missed from the Northwest Dive and Travel Expo 2010 held May 22 and 23 at the Tacoma convention Center. We will have a full report in a few days.

• More exhibits, nice mix of travel and equipment vendors. Seemed less crowded then last year. Numbers after the show
  • after note: most vendors said they thought there were slightly less or the same amount of attendees, except the rows near the Aqua Therapy boat. Maybe it was a draw.
• IST one of the biggest sponsors, is broadening their brand and aggressively going after market share
• We purchased the new Dive Caddy, unique carry on dive packing system for a full set of gear – in depth review to follow.
  • after note: this is tied Buddy Link for the peoples choice award for best product at the show. We are also reviewing the Buddy Link soon.
• Bare insider hints at a "game changer" innovation coming in dry suits later this year.
• article coming "6 degrees of Kevin. Bacon’s dive gear" – who owns who – Connect Bare – Suunto – Aqualung – Whites – Scubapro
  • after note: Bare is owned by Suunto (owned by Amer Sports) – Suunto is sold in the US by Aqua Lung who owns Whites, whos Fusion drysuit is sold in Europe by ScubaPro.
• Chaela spots and Investigates the "she-pee" not as much work as she thought
  • after note: she will have a full report soon
• Vindicator on-off indicating tank valve is there. Closer to patent he says. Then XScuba copy must resolve
  • after note: see http://scubagadget.com/?p=638 
• Gods Pocket Browning Pass resort has 2 new cabins and will go to Nakwakto rapids.
  • We are planning a visit and full review in a few months
• The forever in design dolphin shaped Morfin fins have yet another new look.
• nice 6pak dive boat Aqua Therapy is out of Tillamook OR but will go anywhere. Great aerial view of the show from atop this boat
• looked at OTS full fm. Much simpler an less like to free flow than Ocean Reef ffm. more coming in ffms for rec diving fun
• Dolphin Charters 6 pack out of Mukilteo goes with 3. We will dive with them and report back from the blog.
• we liked the folks at Peace Boat charters out of Ventura CA and we plan to dive them in July and give full report
• Cousteau historical mini museum is worth seeing and will be moving into perm space above Tacoma Scuba shop soon
• Whites showing coolest yet Fusion drysuit skin, the "bullet" sleek and no sag skin with large pocket that vanish when empty.
• Scuba Tank Night drop from diversplatform.com. It is our best of show pick.
  • after note: every shop should get one of these. Video after the break.
• Odd but likely fun new sport of scubatics (.org) is coming. Aerobatics inspired. Done in pool with scuba and dpv. 
• Aqua Lung also showed off their new 4.2 lbs travel BCD called ZUMA.

Stay tuned for our full report on the show.

Scuba Gadget reporters will be reporting live from the show floor at the 2010 Northwest Dive & Travel Expo in Tacoma on Saturday, May 22, 2010 via Twitter (@scubaGadet) and the Scuba Gadget blog. If you see us at the show, say hello and give us tip on what product or service you think should win “best of show.”

There are over $100,000 in prizes. Among the prize cache; we just heard that DUI is giving chances on a set of ActionWear if you stop at their booth wearing any DUI apparel. For more info on the show see our article at http://blog.wetcatscuba.com/?p=818 or http://www.divenewsnetwork.com/expo/. 

Pete Naylor’s awe inspiring photo at the right does a better job than any words I can conjure up to illustrate why we are passionate about diving, more passionate about diving cold water, claim that B.C. diving is the best in world at any temperature, and why diving with Porpoise Bay Charters will likely be on the top of your life list of best diving experiences ever.

You may not have heard of Egmont or know which fjord along the Canadian mainland is the historic and beautiful Sechelt. But you can be confident that you have seen its wonders in the media. The Sechelt’s terrestrial and underwater scenery are regulars in movies, TV, and the National Geographic and Discovery Channel specials, including the current and popular series “Life.” “Photograph taken near Egmont,” frequently accompanies the identifier images in Andy Lamb’s guides to the marine life of the Pacific Northwest. Diving this area either teaches you or reminds you that you are among a small percentage of divers who have been lucky enough to experience  some of best diving in the world at any temperature. The only difference in gear on my recent dive trip to Grand Cayman was a thinner undergarment and no hood. If you are a diver who lives for your next tropical trip and has never been diving Canada’s west coast, get your drysuit and come see what you have been missing.

Continue reading Diving Egmont BC and the Sechelt Inlet with Porpoise Bay Charters

On our recent visit to the Grand Cayman Island, we had the pleasure of diving with the dive masters and Instructors of Dive Tech, the Cobalt Coast’s onsite dive shop/charter/training center. Dive Tech is a full service dive shop, complete with mascot Mojo the dog, offering a wide range of classes, from beginning to tech diving including a rebreather intro course, kids programs, free-diving, nitrox, tri-mix and more.  They even provide underwater wedding services and classes for the disabled. Their dive packages include 2-tank and 100% computer profiles, for 2 full 1-hour dives. This provides you with a bottom time window beyond a lot of charter operators. A few others charters advertise unlimited bottom time, but we learned that this restricts divers to a smaller portion of the available dive sites.

We loved diving with the folks at Dive Tech!  From the first encounter to the last, we found them friendly, knowledgeable, safe, environmentally sensitive, interesting and highly skilled. They had a warm camaraderie with one another and engaged in frequent joking and bantering with with their guests and each other. Usually with a staff so large you expect to find a mix of the great and not so great. But we found that all but one of the 15 or so DiveTech employees we encountered were fun, friendly people. Only one dive master out of the whole group was a little bit edgy and would probably be well suited to working with only tech divers. That is an amazing and telling percentage of happy employees. Their pre-dive briefings were thorough and always included detailed custom drawings of the sites we were about to explore. They informed us of what to look for, as well as what to watch out for. They kept an eye out for the Lion Fish and scooped them into bags if found (Lion Fish are an invasive species in Grand Cayman).   Continue reading Diving Grand Cayman (Part 2 of 3): DiveTech at Cobalt Coast Resort –

If you are a super dive geek you will already have noticed the BigBlue AFO lights look just like the underwater TV camera mounted on the bottom of Mike Nelson’s boat in some of the Sea Hunt episodes. The shape of this light is so eye catching that, even though all but a few of the lights made by Hong Kong based BigBlue (BOSSK International) are NOT bullet shaped, divers mostly associate BigBlue as the company with the bullet shaped light. Here we review and report on our extensive live testing of the Big Blue FF 1×5 W AFO light (1 5 watt LED).   

Why a focus light?

All digital cameras and many film cameras use auto focus. Before you take the photo, the sensors in these camera need to clearly be able to “see” and register the object you want in focus, then adjust your settings. It is very common underwater that you will not have enough ambient light for the camera to get an accurate fix on the exact spot you want to feature in your image. A separate focus light can illuminate the image and vastly improve your chances of getting a sharp image. You could use any small dive light, but there are significant downsides over using a dedicated light built for this purpose. A true focus light will have different features that make if perfect for focusing (but not so good as a regular dive light). The first is Auto Flash Off.

Why you need AFO (Auto Flash Off)?

You want a nice bright light to make sure your camera can focus, but you do not want that extra light over-exposing, or blowing out, your photo or Continue reading The bullet light – BossK BigBlue LED focus light with AFO

For those of you who dive the Pacific Northwest, or other cool climes, you know that even though you may be warm and cozy during the dive in your heavy undergarments and dry suits, before and after can get chilly.  Also, in the cold or crowded parking lot of the dive site, you may need to don or doff garments to get ready.  There might be no changing facility available or your car may be packed tight with gear making changing clothes a bit tricky. The Surf-fur™, a full length light-weight coat with “Zen Changing Pockets™” (slits inside the pockets) to enable access to the under-layers, may be your answer.

Made by a company called Heatlab, The Surf-fur™ is a mid-calf length coat.  Made of two layers of soft polyester fleece with an inner membrane of  Polytetrafluoroethylene, the coat is advertised as windproof, water-resistant, breathable and warm.  To test these claims, I recently took a Surf-fur™ out for a spin in Egmont, British Columbia, Canada.

We had been assured that the weather at the Strong Water retreat, in Egmont, BC, would be mild and sunny during our four day stay.  Instead we were greeted with cold rain and early spring temps of high 40s to low 50s.  I whipped out my Surf-fur™ and put it on.

Continue reading Surf-fur for Divers

WASHINGTON, D.C. April 28, 2010 Release #10-208 – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Buoyancy Compensators used for Scuba Diving
Units: About 20,000
Manufacturer: Ocean Management Systems Inc., of Middletown, N.Y.
Hazard: The buoyancy compensator seal ring could crack, posing a drowning hazard to divers.
Incidents/Injuries: None reported.
Description: This recall involves buoyancy compensators with the following model numbers. Buoyancy compensators provide buoyancy control for scuba divers by allowing them to inflate or deflate the devices. The compensators were sold in black or red. “OMS” is printed on the front inside of the compensators. Item and serial numbers are printed on the warning label located in the non-inflation area of the buoyancy compensator. A list of serial numbers included in this recall is available from the firm.
Item Number/Description

Continue reading Sinking BCDs – Yet another BCD recall