Bill’s Reals Blog - Scuba, Travel & Gadgets

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.

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.

I don’t have a GPS; not an in-car navigation system, integrated into a cell phone nor a hand-held version. I don’t really see it as necessary in this day and age mainly because:

1) I can print directions out on my computer

2) My cell phone has Google Maps on it with a “location” feature.

Having Google Maps Mobile was a game changer for me, it made a GPS-like experience by using cell-phone towers and known wi-fi networks to estimate your location, it even works well while driving on the freeway.

Blackberry has a GPS radio in it’s popular smart phones and Garmin is coming out with a GPS phone, but I don’t see a need for full blown GPS with the cell phone integrated Google Maps.

So I ask you my few readers, do you think having true GPS is necessary in your cell phone?

I LOVE my iphone but I miss have a scuba diving decompression program on it. Having this I can plan my technical dives on the device that I always on me, my cell phone.

I used to have jdeco on my Blackberry, and before that I had DivePlan on my Sony P800 and way before that Decoplanner on my Palm. But when I moved to the Iphone, I had nothing and I so I had to go back to my PC/Mac based decompression program.

However, on the horizon there is now hope: IphoneDeco.com. The site just went up and announced the development but not yet released version of a decompression program for the Iphone/Ipod Touch platform.

From www.iphonedeco.com:

iPhone Deco works in conjunction with MyDecoPlan.com to bring an interactive, intuitive approach to dive planning for the iPhone. Open Circuit, SCR & CCR Dive Planning With Buhlmann/GF and VPM/B - Coming in June 2008!

MyDecoplan.com will give you a sneak peak on what they thinking. I can’t wait until June.

Red, the HD camera company owned by the founder of Oakley Sunglasses, has announced a new smaller version of there amazing camcorders. The Scarlet, shoots in the REDCODE RAW HD, up to 4096×2304, which is beyond current HD and is more in line with a 35mm film camera.

Translation: Awesome looking HD-video that should look as if it’s shot with a 150K camera.

The target price is rumored to be around $3,000 USD and should be ready sometime next year…or whenever they ship it.

Also, it should be a great little travel camcorder due to it’s size. The only thing missing is an underwater housing for it which I am sure could be built by Gates or Light and Motion.

Here is the page: http://www.red.com/nab/scarlet

Rebreather Pro has a nice video review of the rEvo rebreather. It’s a manual closed circuit rebreather that has been on the market for a year or two and has been getting pretty good reviews for it’s users.

Features:

• Manual user controlled closed circuit rebreather
• Unique twin scrubber system, two are sometimes better than one
• Integrated Heads Up Display (HUD) with redundant oxygen monitors
• No-tools-necessary low-profile stainless steel chassis
• 80m or 240ft depth limit

Check out the video.

A new rebreather is now on the market, the Poseidon Discovery which is also called the Cis-Lunar Mk VII. This new automatic rebreather was designed by Bill Stone with Swedish-based Poseidon Diving Systems.
From the product decription:

The diving is simple. Open the tank valves, wet the switch on the back of the display, wait for the systems check and off you go. Forget about everything you ever heard about PO2, scrubber life and oxygen cells. Our system will handle all that. Just remember to breathe.

You don’t adjust anything, and the mouthpiece vibrates and blinks to alert you of a malfunction. There is an integrated bailout valve in mouth piece that allows you to breath open circuit and return to the surface. There is also an integrated gauge/computer to track your decompression obligation and how much time you have left. You can read the manual here.

I’ve just got a beta invite to test the new HULU online video service.

Hulu was put together by some of the major networks (NBC, FOX, Universal, and more). The idea it to offer a YouTube like experience that is legal and allows the networks to offer another ad-supported network outlet for their content.

This isn’t just old catalog stuff but with originally aired network content & movies, such as Heroes, 30 Rock, Chuck, Family Guy, The Simpsons, etc.

I just started playing with it but I have 10 invites, anyone want one?

I bought an iPhone about 4 months ago, it was for my Dad’s b-day but when I learned that he had just re-upped his contract with Verizon; I realized I needed a new gift. Now, I will freely admit to fawing over the thing in the store when I first saw it, but I was able to resist.

However, I didn’t return it, I kept it and here’s why: it’s the best phone on I’ve ever used.

This is saying a lot. I should explain that I’ve been using cell phones since the beginning, in fact my part time job in high school was selling cell phones. This means that I’ve owned A LOT of cell phones over the years, including at least 5 “smart phones”. I owned a Sidekick, Sony P800, 4 Blackberries and numerous flip phones.

So, it’s surprising that I would like the iPhone this much but I did, I should have been jaded to the lack of certain key features, the locking to one cell phone provider and the lack of a user replaceable battery.

But it didn’t, I love the thing. From it’s amazing web browser, wifi abiltiy, and easy of use. And not to mention but it’s also a great media player.

I do wish it had Microsoft Active Sync support, a video camera, had better 3rd party application support and wasn’t locked to AT&T for service.

All and all, I’m happy I kept it.

I saw this on TV the other night, it’s called Endless Ocean and it’s a Scuba diving game for the Wii.

Story on MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22921830/

Video of the game on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVTdzVFOsY0

Looks interesting but I’m more of a Half-life, Halo, Guitar Hero/Rock Band type of guy.