Do you like to dive? tired of carrying tanks?

[p6x]

Besides riding a motorcycle, diving was one of my favorite hobby.

I did a lot of diving in the Red Sea, Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian ocean...

Renting the tanks, filling the tanks, depending where you dive, can quickly become expensive.

My "deep dives" are now behind me, and there are plenty of places where you don't need to go dark to enjoy the dives.

If you like diving, I found this company, based in Australia, that proposes equipment that avoid the tanks;

https://airbuddy.com/

[gstallons]

This looks good !

[Lucky Phil]

Neat, simple.

Phil

[audiomick]

Indeed, that looks good. Expensive, but good things tend to be expensive, and I wouldn't like to trust my life to something cheap.

[Gmc28]

So a smaller version of the old Snuba setup, right?  
almost bought a snuba for a Caribbean sail trip, but I had to cancel trip for work, and never pulled trigger.  Just seems way easier for shallow, tropical diving than the tanks.  But wondering about weight belts, and buoyancy control in that first 1/2-1 atmosphere of change, where we like to dive and where snuba would be the ticket . 

[audiomick]

10 hours ago, Gmc28 said:

... weight belts...

Not that relevant if you are diving where you don't need a wet-suit, if I recall correctly. It's a long time ago...

[p6x]

2 hours ago, audiomick said:

Not that relevant if you are diving where you don't need a wet-suit, if I recall correctly. It's a long time ago...

Remember good old Archimedes?

If you displace a large volume of water, which unfortunately is the case for some of us , combined with sea water buoyancy, a few weights may help you to stay down where you want to be... I remember my dives in the red sea, where the water is extremely warm and salty, it was always a pain to stay level at shallow depths. I had to keep my lungs as empty as possible to avoid surfacing... the problem is less accute when you start getting down. I did a lot of snorkelling in Egypt, because you really did not need to go down to be in exctasy with the beauty and the fishes literally eating from your hand. I wish I had the Airbuddy system then..

[Gmc28]

3 hours ago, audiomick said:

Not that relevant if you are diving where you don't need a wet-suit, if I recall correctly. It's a long time ago...

Good point.  Though when staying submerged even in most tropical waters, the energy gets sapped fast to where i can get cold.  But that’s where scuba diving, where slow and easy movements are name of the game, whereas with no weight belt with snuba I’ll bet the extra work to control buoyancy would keep the blood pumping more, and be warmer.

[audiomick]

9 hours ago, p6x said:

.... the problem is less acute when you start getting down.

 

8 hours ago, Gmc28 said:

...Though when staying submerged even in most tropical waters, the energy gets sapped fast to where i can get cold.  ...

Yes to both points.

I'm not that big, neither vertically nor horizontally. About 175 cm, and about 65 kg. Duckdiving the first two metres or so is an effort, after that I'm more or less neutral.

All the diving I did was in Port Phillip bay, Wilson's Promontory, and somewhere on the lower east coast of Australia. Water temperature between 16 and 18°c, so 7mm wet-suit, bouancy vest and weights.

I can imagine that, even in tropical waters, maybe a 3mm suit would be good, although I heard from diving colleagues that one can dive the Great Barrier Reef in a lycra suit.

Whatever, weights might help, maybe only one, and maybe a suit.

 

I had a slightly nasty experience during a holiday on Sardinia. Diving without a snorkel but with fins, I went down, down a bit more, saw something interesting and down a bit more, then realised I needed to breathe soon. I had "forgotten" that I wasn't scuba diving, and went too deep. I only just made it back up before the urge to breathe became uncontrollable.

[p6x]

22 hours ago, Gmc28 said:

Good point.  Though when staying submerged even in most tropical waters, the energy gets sapped fast to where i can get cold.  But that’s where scuba diving, where slow and easy movements are name of the game, whereas with no weight belt with snuba I’ll bet the extra work to control buoyancy would keep the blood pumping more, and be warmer.

Have done cold water diving? I mean, dry suit? this one is the real ordeal! I trained to see the whales in Puerto Madryn; you know, no alcohol, healthy diet and the like. I was already a bit old for the effort. Then my company sent me to Kazakhstan with very short notice, I lost that opportunity.

But if you are really game for it, this is probably one of the most memorable dive you could do. There are plenty of diving companies that propose it.

[Gmc28]

3 hours ago, p6x said:

Have done cold water diving? I mean, dry suit? this one is the real ordeal! I trained to see the whales in Puerto Madryn; you know, no alcohol, healthy diet and the like. I was already a bit old for the effort. Then my company sent me to Kazakhstan with very short notice, I lost that opportunity.

But if you are really game for it, this is probably one of the most memorable dive you could do. There are plenty of diving companies that propose it.

i've not done the puerto madryn, which sounds excellent.  But I did my inital scuba training and first year or two of diving all in Alaska.  I did it all drysuit, though others used thick wetsuits. Was a great way to learn, and a unique place to dive and see.  I fondly recall the first real dive, where it was snowing, gray, miserable, and with the drysuit and insulation I needed about 45lbs on my belt plus 4 lbs per ankle, so i'm sweating, damn uncomfortable, feeling like a beached whale, wondering why i'm doing this, and then I backed into the water and voila, of course it all changed.... awesome.  Now weightless, "cool" (no longer hot from the suit, nor freezing from the water), with Sea lions, schools of black cod, wrecked boats and airplanes, etc.   Getting that drysuit dialed in was key.  took some time and focus to get it just right... not so tight on the seals that its painful, but tight enough to not leak.

did some mixed gas diving too. 

[docc]

1 hour ago, Gmc28 said:

did some mixed gas diving too. 

I've never heard of that . . . 

[Gmc28]

44 minutes ago, docc said:

I've never heard of that . . . 

other "air" in the tanks.  rather than the usual nitrogen/oxygen/other mix, its a different concoction of gases to achieve certain things, like to avoid nitrogen narcosis at deep depths, or nitrox to allow for different dive times, etc.

[p6x]

5 hours ago, Gmc28 said:

i've not done the puerto madryn, which sounds excellent.  But I did my inital scuba training and first year or two of diving all in Alaska.  I did it all drysuit, though others used thick wetsuits. Was a great way to learn, and a unique place to dive and see.  I fondly recall the first real dive, where it was snowing, gray, miserable, and with the drysuit and insulation I needed about 45lbs on my belt plus 4 lbs per ankle, so i'm sweating, damn uncomfortable, feeling like a beached whale, wondering why i'm doing this, and then I backed into the water and voila, of course it all changed.... awesome.  Now weightless, "cool" (no longer hot from the suit, nor freezing from the water), with Sea lions, schools of black cod, wrecked boats and airplanes, etc.   Getting that drysuit dialed in was key.  took some time and focus to get it just right... not so tight on the seals that its painful, but tight enough to not leak.

did some mixed gas diving too. 

When I started my job, my first assignment was in Gabon, and I got to meet a bunch of divers from COMEX. All saturation dives. As I was already into diving, I got tempted, but quickly realized it was not all what I thought it was. I remember a time when one of the divers was sick, and they did not want to bring all the divers up, so they were simply telling him to take it. I was not impressed!

I trained all the way to Rescue Diver with the objective to become Dive Master, but my job got in the way, as ever.

Diving is just as invigorating as motorcycle riding, with a lot less danger from the distracted drivers.

[docc]

At first glance, I did not see much difference between "divers " and "drivers ", yet recognize the vast difference in skill, focus, and attention to detail!