Jun 04
Next up was KISS rebreathers. KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid and the design philosophy is a simple mechanical rebreather that travels easy. They have two models, the Classic KISS and the Sport KISS, both start at approx $5,000. The Classic KISS has a depth “limit” of 250 ft and the Sport is rated to 165 ft.
I like the design philosophy of these rebreathers, less automated features, built-in safety features and focusing on making them travel friendly. There main training partner, SSA, had blinged up a number of the sport models in interesting Hawaiian/tourist patterns.
They are well thought out, even if they are a little garage tech in appearance.
Jun 04
There were a bunch of rebreathers at this year’s Scuba Show. I would say that it was easily double compared to last year. Rebreathers are interesting to me for two reason, they are big time gadgets and they are for SCUBA diving, it was to geek out at them.
First, I went to Silent Divings Booth. Silent Diving, is the North American distributor for the UK-based AP Diving Ltd’s Inspiration and Evolution rebreathers. These rebreathers are known for their engineering design and build quality and one of small population of rebreathers on the market that have a CE rating.
These fully electronic rebreathers, with multiple redundant safety systems and backups are “future proofed” with user updatable software and modular replaceable hardware. They have integrated decompression computers and the units have been as deep as 850 ft. The rep, a very nice man, explained that you could event let the technicians in the UK diagnosis your rebreather over the internet.
The Inspiration and Evolution are the same rebreather with different maximum dive times based on the size of the unit and related scrubber capacity. Both units start at $9,000.
Jun 04
Scuba Show 2007 was this weekend and for the second year in a row I attended this event. This isn’t DEMA, it’s a very laid back convention and it’s held in downtown Long Beach. Long Beach is interesting place to say the least.
1476Any way, back to the Show. First off, it’s bigger this year, in fact that had to get a bigger space to for the exhibits. Last year it seemed sparse and light in attendance but this year, it was packed with loads of vendors and a bunch of visitors.
My main points of interest these days are technical diving, photography and video. This isn’t to say that I don’t look at other stalls, but I do tend to stay away from the dive tour/tourism stalls altogether, so you won’t see any of those covered. However, I am a bit of a gear freak, so I went in most of those booths that had new gear to display at the show.
First up: Rebreathers