DEMA show 2007 - Orlando

Last week, the "Diving Equipment & Marketing Association" (DEMA) held their annual trade fair at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. This event is the industry's only international trade-only event and regularly features new product showcases, new destinations, and new companies.



Oceanwide Expeditions has traditionally been one of the exhibitors at the show, and this year I was invited to join the US staff at the booth and to give the seminar presentations on Oceanwide's polar diving activities.



To give you a feeling for the size of the event, here is a floorplan (Oceanwide's booth is marked with a red circle).



Apart from the two seminar presentations, we had to man the booth during opening hours, meet with long-time clients as well as potential future business partners and offer information, brochures and in-depth information (no pun intended ;-) about our diving operations.



Here you can see Marina (Oceanwide's US office) and Michel (Oceanwide's executive director) at our booth.

We had a quite successful show, all things considered, and have been able to establish some very interesting contacts as well as renewed some previous contacts with tour operators and agents. This was not a customer event and there were almost no items on display or for purchase. Such trade-only events seem mostly about number-crunching and hand-shaking and not so much about buying or selling, but I was able to check out some new products and make some contacts with equipment manufacturers in between presentations.

One of the most interesting things to see during the show were the new Poseidon Cis-Lunar Mk VI rebreather which is a remarkably compact and lightweight unit.



It also bears strange resemblance to the Seaway CORA II rebreather which I was able to test dive last year in prototype version. Unfortunately this unit never really made it into full production and sales, the company seems to have disappeared or at least its internet presence is suspended (site under construction).

Another interesting bit of news is the Poseidon Flexisuit which is hoped to appeal to the advanced rebreather and technical diver community. I tried it, it is extremely soft and flexible, but for my taset even TOO soft and TOO flexible.

But a front-entry zip has of course always en vogue in the tech/rb community so I guess this suit is going to be a hit (just not with me). Here is a picture:



Another exciting new product which unfortunately was not quite ready yet for the market is the OTS full-face mask. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture but it resembles pretty much the Interspiro (AGA) mask that everybody knows as the "gold standard" for lightweight FFM's.



Interspiro Divator

But the guys at OTS had the ambition to make an even better FFM so they pulled up a list of issues that users have had with the IS Divator mask:

• bad fit for small/narrow faces
• regulator is permanently attached to FFM body
• regulator comes from the left (as is usual in rescue/recovery, professional and firefighter masks, but not in sports diving)
• mask body has quite large volume above the oral/nasal cavity (thus often requires counterweights attached to the sides)
• quite highly priced

So they tried to fix it, and here is what they came up with (so sorry, still only text):

• double latex seal for improved fit
• detacheable regulator (p-connector with release button inside)
• regulator can be mounted from left or right
• mask body with smaller volume (only slightly, but they say it makes a difference...)
• roughly 50% of the retail price of the IS Divator (but shipping will start approx. in 6 months, so who knows...)

On top of that they have decided to offer it in a range of attractive color combinations... ;-)






I ended up not buying (or rather, ordering) a mask from them yet, as they admitted that it would still need a couple of rounds of serious tests and "some small adjustments and improvements".

But it looks like as if I will be going to the DEMA 2008 as well, next year it will be in Las Vegas, and by then they promised to have the mask ready and shipping!

Images of OTS FFM prototypes by remi, Hareid Sub Sea, originally posted at www.dykkesiden.no.

X-Ray Dive Mag #16

X-Ray, the free online dive mag, has recently published issue 16, including several favourite topics of mine:



• Reactive Oxygen Species (hey, that's one of my research topics!)

• newly discovered species under Antarctic Ice (hey, that's another of my research topics... ;-)

• Rebreather trim with Cedric Verdier (hey, my favourite RB author on my favourite RB subject!)

So, if you are similarly minded, or just want to figure out what a free online dive magazine actually looks like, check it out.

Actually, clicking on any of the headlines above will take you directly to the relevant section download (2-4 MB each) so you will not have to handle the entire file (16MB).

Also, you might remember the blog Divester by Willy Volk. Guess where he is hanging out now: yep, at X-Ray Mag's blog.

Submatix SCR/mCCR testing

Recently - well, actually several weeks ago - we tried out the Submatix SCR and mCCR unit, what they call an SCR 100 ST. As mentioned before, this product is by now fully upgradeable to a KISS-style CCR, and since our local dealer only had a CCR model available at the time, we reversed the process and "downgraded" it to SCR for the sake of the experiment.

Also, this was because I still cannot bring myself to accept manually controlled closed-circuit rebreathers as such a really good idea... but that's probably just me.

So here come a few glimpses of the unit (note the "plug" in the first stage feeding the KISS valve on the right side reg):



Here you see the unit assembled with the back cover opened for the OP test:



And now the closed unit, a very compact and sleek design.



Finally, we got to the wet part of the testing (hint: rebreather on the left side...).



The usual stretching exercises...



The system is sooo quiet, you could almost fall asleep underwater!



To sum it up: a nice compact and lightweight unit which is easily converted SCR->CCR and vice versa. By now, the counterlungs are two separate bags, thus reducing concerns about possible leaks affecting the breathing mix (previous models were equipped with one bag within the other, presumably resulting in easier WOB). Everything works, is ready for the market and even has acquired CE approval (for what it is worth, this is probably mostly of concern to dive shops, retailers and insurances).

The downside as I see them are:

• compact size also means restriction to one (rather small) size and shape of tanks (unless you want to attach the tanks on the outside of the case)

• connections for the loop as well as counterlung bags are plastic rings which "snap" in place. Handling these connector rings takes some confidence and practice, and I could not shake the impression that it was a matter of time before the "snap" comes while you handle that ring, but before you have connected it...

• the price point (cited at 2.900,- € + taxes) is not bad, but not very competitive either: you get a lot of Dräger parts for that kind of money...

So I remain unconvinced, and will probably keep using the Dolphin for scientific dives while looking for a nice used unit for recreational diving.

RB stories and pics

If you are interested in a few more stories and acompanying pics of rebreather diving, check out DrMike's stuff at smugmug.

Submatix mCCR on the market - CE-approved

So time ago I blogged about my experiences with the Seaway CORA II rebreather which we were able to take for a test dive in the pool.
Unfortunately, nothing much has been heard from Seaway since, and persistent inquiries about the promised CE certification as well as the upgrade options mCCR and eCCR were not addressed by the company.

Another unanswered story was the promised CO2 sensor, all of which had been announced during the BOOT 2006 trade fair (Düsseldorf).

Well, it seems that their rival, Submatix, has made the cut in the meantime, as they have recently announced that their mCCR version of the SCR 100 ST is now both certified and available. And the best part: they also offer conversion kits to upgrade the SCR 100 ST to something they now call CCR 100 SMS.

Although their price point is not as low as Seaway's (JFGI ;-) they do offer a complete set of accessories, sensor systems, adapters to include existing ppO2 monitoring systems like the Aladin Oxy 2 and so on.

So now it will be interesting to see whether Seaway will at least manage to pull even this year, or even launch their promised eCCR model, which would be the next step up the ladder.

More on rebreather horror stories

Statement from the homepage of Deep Life Limited:

"Contemporary eCCRs carry 900 times greater chance of death per hour of use than Open Circuit SCUBA, when it should really be the converse."

Therefore, the friendly people of "Deep Life Ltd." have compiled a list of known accidents on rebreathers (also referred to as CCR's, for Closed-Circuit Rebreathers).

Find the document with the inviting title "How Rebreathers Kill People" here.

Rebreather Dive goes wrong - Dave Shaw in Bushman's Hole

If there is one thing in common for most rebreather dive fora and discussion groups, it is maximum depth. Rebreathers have the potential to take you significantly deeper than conventional "open-circuit" scuba gear with much lower amount of gas consumption - and therefore tanks to haul. Also, modern advanced rebreather systems monitor and adjust your gas mix (oxygen and nitrogen, at greater depths also helium) but in turn, these electronic compounds demand careful attention and constant monitoring themselves.

But as more and more of these (previously exclusively military) systems have become available to the civilian public, along with certification agencies and demanding training programmes, deep wrecks and especially caves have become the rebreather diver's preferred playgrounds.

In South Africa, a rebreather diver named Dave Shaw successfully completed a world record dive two years ago, inside a huge freshwater-filled cave known as Bushman's Hole. While he spent a few precious minutes exploring the bottom, he found the body of a diver who died here ten years earlier. He was unable to move it as it was stuck in the mud, but marked it with a line and returned to his long ascent and hour-long decompression schedule.

As soon as he surfaced, he announced a plan to his dive buddies: to go back and retrieve the body and return it to the dead diver's family.

Read the full story in this article of Outside Magazine.

But beware: this is a tale of an extreme dive gone tragically wrong, the diver who set out to recover the dead body he found ends up dead himself, his best friend and backup diver gets seriously bent with permanent consequences, and due to a grim twist the two deceased divers surface by themselves while the team is picking up their shot lines and safety gear...

A terrible story, but a well-written account of it. If you wonder why people do things like this, maybe you will get a better understanding after reading this article. And if you are more into audio (and can stand ABC's style of reporting) you can also listen to a podcast about the story, provided by ABC News.

CORA II rebreather test dive

Recently we had a presentation and test dive of the new rebreather developed by Seaway, called CORA II. Although it was only a short demo and pool dive, some clear differences between the Seaway rebreather and the Dräger rebreather (Dolphin) became apparent. But first some pics (courtesy of M. Bartz):



Adjusting OP valve on exhalation side of counterlung. Since the counterlungs are designed to sit on top of he diver's shoulders (OTS-style ;-) they offer considerably more breathing comfort than the (smaller) bags of a Dolphin which are crammed into a box that the diver carries on his/her back.



Always lovely to dive in the pool... and so meditative! We dived a 80% premix all the way down to the max. depth of 5 (five!) meters at the very deepest tile of the pool's floor. Here you see us recovering on a safety stop at 4,2 meters... The systems were (virtually) silent, but of course I could not resist the temptation to roll around in all kinds of positions to try out the unit's breathing behaviour. Of course the bypass will fill up the counterlung as soon as you roll on your back, but thanks to the lower pressure gradient there were no noticeable "monkey cheek effects".



As you can clearly see on here, the loop is very short, similar to those known from chest-mounted systems (think: LAR series, Oxylon) which is of course a very nice feature both in terms of "lung butter accumulation" (which does not happen noticeably, it all drains right down into the counterlungs) and also, it makes it virtually impossible to lose the DSV - on maximum extent, it hangs in front of your face, at avout eyebrow level. Of course, if you have decided to bail out, this might be a nuisance...



Just hanging out...

So here is my list of items where Seaway has the edge over Dräger:

• stainless steel container for absorber unit and cmf valve
(Dolphin: case is prone to cracking)
• short "OTS" loop, smooth one-hand-operable DSV
(Dolphin: long loop, DSV harder to open/close)
• manual add-on valve on counterlung as standard
(Dolphin: not offered on basic configuration)
• modular design, fits (almost) any jacket and (almost) any tank dimensions
(Dolphin: comes with jacket, only two tank sizes)
• solid and balanced mounting of tanks on either side
(Dolphin: premix below box, bail-out side-mounted in cordura pocket)
• easy handling +maintenance of absorber unit, high capacity, seamless capacity adjustment
(Dolphin: awww, none of this...)
• easy connection of counterlung unit to the rest of the RB; just snap it on
(Dolphin: so many parts, so many screws...)
• 32, 40, 50, 60 and 80 % valve come with basic configuration
(Dolphin: no 80%, only one or two valves in basic config)
• reasonable pricing, cheap and standardized spare parts
(Dolphin: awww, NOT so again...)
• easy to upgrade to SCR II (two gases, two cmf valves, switch during dive), mCCR and eCCR: simply exchange the "head"

I am looking forward to getting my own unit asap, and expect it to replace the Dolphin in the German research diving with rebreathers.