Bill’s Reals Blog - Scuba, Travel & Gadgets

It’s an ad for HowStuffWorks.com. The cat looks miserable but then again that’s how most cats look most of the time, so who knows. I’d really like to see how they got the cat into that contraption.

This video answers the question

To whom it make concern, please consider me a “stroke” for this day forward.

About 7 years ago, I got into Tech Diving/Cave diving. I remember it vividly because my psycho-ex-wife tried to throw all my dive gear away the day before I started taking my nitrox course. I quickly got hooked up with DIR/GUE and progressed thru Cave 2, Tech 2 and other courses.

Let me say that I’m interested in all diving equipment/techniques, be it DIR, monkey diving, cave diving ,wreck diving or rebreather diving and I frankly don’t believe the GUE mindset of rebreathers killing you if you so much as touch one. Also, I’m a geek, no’f said

I was always interesting in rebreathers but thought they were voodoo. Something that didn’t have a mission in my diving. However, I kept my eye on them and recently thought that the risks were far outweighed by the benefits of them.

Basically, my dives were deep and for “big dives” I was humping a heavy set of doubles and a bunch of stages for one dive. Also, I starting to do exploration dives where you really don’t know where you might end of up and need some flexibility. I felt a CCR was a great tool for these requirements, with the added feature that I would be silent to marine life and have a huge gas supply at almost any depth.

I then went thought the selection process which I can only describe as trying to find out which brand of car you like best. Coming from a DIR/HOG mindset, I didn’t want anything on my chest to clutter it up, which only left back mount counter lungs.

Next, I took part in a rebreather experience course and tried both a manual and electronic rebreather. I really liked the manual ccr and didn’t really care for the electronic version, as I felt like I was merely a passenger in a car and I really prefer to drive. During this time I did a bunch of reading, asked a lot of questions and settled on a KISS or a rEvo.

In the end, it came down to cost. I was offered a very good deal on a KISS and that, as they say, was it.

I liked the rebreather experience course that Robin Jacoway of Deepoutdoors, taught and I wanted to train in the area that I would be doing my diving. Deepoutdoors is in Poway, CA which is only 20 mins from my house and we have a plethora of dive spots that are great for training.

Day 1:
The class was Robin’s first KISS class and was team taught with Dan Crowell. There were 3 KISS divers and 1 rEvo student. We went thru the academics, and built our units, it was a long day. But I was like a kid in a candy store, I get to really do something with my rebreather.

Day 2:
Pool rebreather diving. Buoyancy wasn’t bad, DIR slams buoyancy into you, so adjusting to the lack of lung volume affecting my trim wasn’t a big deal, but it did take some time to dial it in. Then it was back to Deepoutdoors to strip, clean and prep our units for the next day. Oh and go through more class room material. Since it was Sunday, Nate and I volunteered to get cylinders filled for the class at the dive shop Nate works at. We loaded up my truck with a gazillion rebreather and bailout bottles and then spent the next 2 hours waiting for the shop manager to get back and open up the shop.

Day 3:
Open water beach diving @ Marine Room. We kicked out to horrible vis and a leaky manifold on my KISS unit, so my dive was only about 30 mins before I had to head in. We had planned on doing two beach dives but Robin scrubbed the second due to the poor conditions. Then it was back to Deepoutdoors to strip, clean and prep our units for the next day. This was also the start my nightly rebuilt project as each night something new would fail the negative test.

Day 4: Open water boat dives. Motored out to the artificial reef, Yukon, off the coast of San Diego. We were practicing our skills a little deeper and did three dives on the Yukon with no major issues. I did have my DSV o-ring go out on the last dive but this happened as we were practicing our bailout ascent so it didn’t ruin the dive but did make it more realistic. Then it was back to Deepoutdoors to strip, clean and prep our units for the next day. Oh and repair my DSV/BOV.

Day 5: Back on the Yukon for out two last dives. These dives were going to be deeper and longer while we practiced our skills and adjusted to the unit. This is the first dive where I really started to pay attention to anything besides my PPO2 and I got real close to all the fish and listened to the the silence. Theses were fun dives and allowed time to fine tune our oxygen addition, minimum loop volume and learning the muscle memory of where everything is on the rig.

Then it was back to Deepoutdoors to take the written tests and then Robin informed us that we passed. We are now manual rebreather operators.

As I’m quickly learning, when you are a rebreather owner, you’re actually a hobbyist inbetween modifications.

This video is interesting as it shows some KISS modifications and aftermarket parts that make life easier for it’s owners. Ali Falcone displays some of the modifications that her husband John has fabricated for his KISS rebreather.

Rescue teams were Friday searching for a group of European vacationers who disappeared while on a scuba diving trip in treacherous waters off a remote tropical island in eastern Indonesia.

The divers were exploring waters in the Komodo National Park, between the islands of Flores and Sumbawa, when they failed to return from a trip, according to an employee of Reefseekers diving center, which organized the expedition.

Link to article

The problem with most underwater camera housings, besides potential flooding, is the eye piece. The standard viewfinders usually don’t magnify the image and usually reduce the image size so you can see the corners and picture data on DSLRs.

See example below:

This is a pain as you can’t critically focus the image and most of the time are left to just guess on the composition and framing. And compounding all this, you are wearing a mask between the eye piece and your eye. Sometimes you get very lucky and get the shot, other times need to have Mr Photoshop help you fix those images or get out focused, poorly framed pictures that you just end up deleting.

Some very high-end manufacturers have started to build larger non-vignetted eye pieces for their housing but that’s not an option if you are already invested in your camera/housing combo.

Not anymore, Backscatter a specialty underwater imaging company in Monterey has modified two off-the-shelf eye pieces from Inon that bolt onto almost any underwater housing. There eye-pieces extend the eyepoint without changing image size in viewfinder so that 100% of camera’s finder image is seen without any vignetting, even underwater with a mask.

Backscatter has the Inon 45, macro/wide angle and the Inon Straight Viewfinder, which is designed for fast moving wildlife. Both are available now, $900 each.

Guess I’ll need to start saving my pennies.

It’s time again for my annual pilgramage to the centoes of Mexico to do a little cave diving. The group will be heading down for a week of underwater exploring in the freshwater caves in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

It’s going to be great and I plan on shooting still photographs again this year, same as last year.

Here is out proposed itinerary:

Day 1: Warm up dives at Sac Actun. Spend the day there. Do two different stage dives: 1) Box Chen up and back 2) Boca Restriction down and back.

Day 2: Naharon morning. Set-up for Jailhouse Naharon traverse. Mayan Blue afternoon. Lot’s of two team possibilities including B to E to A and A to B to E to B. Could instead do downstream Mayan Blue to Cenote of the Sun and back on a stage.

Day 3: Traverse from Jailhouse to Naharon. 3.5 hour dive.

Day 4: Stage dive in Chan Hol in the morning. Prettier the further back you go. Really good video. Dos Palmas downstream in the afternoon.

Day 5: Spend the day at Tux. Sloth Bones. Fire pit. Gamaphor bones and upstream stage dives all possible.

Day 6: Spend the day at Minotauro. Maybe split into two teams and alternate upstream and downstream. Could also split up in afternoon to get shots of Chinese Garden at Taj for example.

Cave diver, Marc Laukien, was diving Madison Blue Cave system in Florida when we was electrocuted underwater. He was able to complete his dive and make it to the surface where they exited the water and were told by bystanders that there were several lighting strikes during the time period they were diving.

…I was diving Madison Blue, together with John K. (jkaterenchuk). We first did the short traverse to Martz sink, and then started the Godzilla circuit.

When I placed the jump for the circuit, I suddenly felt a strong electric shock through my right arm. I was touching the cave wall with my right hand at this time. I was a little bit disoriented for a few seconds, and didn’t really know if I imagined what just happened, or if it was for real. In any case, it was definitely a very “refreshing” experience, to put it mildly.

We completed the circuit without any further incidents. When we reached the basin, it became clear to me what happened: there was a huge thunderstorm above us. Staying in the water during such a thunderstorm wasn’t a good idea, and neither was getting out really, given that we had lots of metal on our backs. Since the thunderstorm could last a long time (and it did), we got out of the water, and after dropping our gear, we made a run for the bathhouse, where other divers and the park warden already took shelter.

Once we arrived there, the others told us, that they had seen several lighting strikes very close to where the Godzilla room must be located. One of these lighting strikes must have made its way through the cave wall and my right arm.

Crazy, I guess it’s another lesson for all of us to respect mother nature. You can read the rest of the account here and the subsequent discussion.

Divesigns, a UK company, has a line of stock and custom stickers for your dive gear. They range from MOD stickers, Rebreather specific decals and custom name decals. They also have a light visible sticker they call “Stealth Stickers” that reveals it’s text when you shine a light over it.

The custom name stickers are cool for marking you dive gear on a busy boat deck or liveaboard.

Hugh Bradner, a UC physicist whose love of the ocean and curiosity about everything in it led him to revolutionize diving by inventing the neoprene wetsuit, died at his home in San Diego at the age of 92.

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