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BC
TO ASSEMBLE THIS EQUIPMENT you will need about an hour, a patient and understanding assistant who can decipher appallingly poorly reproduced photos of black items on black backgrounds and, at the same time, put up with heated language, two Phillips screwdrivers and a nail-file (that's for afterwards).
If you have already successfully built a Ninja four-wheel-drive radio-controlled car with independent suspension for your small son on Christmas Eve while slightly disadvantaged by too much sherry, you will be well prepared.
The instructions suggest that you assemble the BeSea BC on your workbench. If you do not have a workbench, I found that a clear area of carpet will suffice.
What you should not do is allow your local dive shop to do this work for you. The staff there will have neither the time nor the patience to take it all apart and start again, when they discover that they have not done it quite right and have a few bits "surplus to requirements".
As so many younger divers like to rebuild their kit to "improve" it, I'm sure that all this will not put them off at all. But what's the idea behind it?
Well, Swedish company Poseidon decided to design its own BC starting with a blank sheet of paper, and to supply the BeSea in this way so that all divers could have a BC that fitted them perfectly. In building the kit yourself, you make it to measure not only in the waist but in the length of the torso.
The harness is mounted onto an ABS backplate and this has plenty of holes through which the fasteners pass. Choosing the right holes affects the eventual fit. Poseidon claims that the result, with the BeSea, is that the weight of the set is borne on the hips instead of the shoulders.
The double-bag buoyancy cell is available in a range of sizes, and this is quite clever, too. It has what Poseidon calls "Clam Retract". Doesn't sound very nice, does it? It scrunches up the bag so that it produces as little drag as possible when it isn't inflated. The W50 cell I tried had around 19kg of maximum lift. Poseidon also supplies different versions.
The W40 with Sport Harness is designed for those for whom space while packing is at a premium. The W100 with Advanced Harness is for technical divers and others who dive with twin cylinders. The D100's dual bladder is for those who demand redundancy. There is also a Continuous Loop Harness in an effort to please the followers of George Irvine, and a Semi-Continuous Loop Harness.
Both of these are integrated with metal backplates. This is for those who want the buoyancy cell but not the hard work Poseidon has put into perfecting the way in which you carry your tank. The W50 with Advanced Harness is likely to be the one most in demand.
D-rings can be fitted where you want them, and at a choice of angles. Two were supplied for this test but would not be sufficient if one wanted to use sling-tanks.
There is the option to fit weight-pockets, too. I fitted two, and found that these accommodated block-weights up to 4kg each. Because these pockets are fitted to the waistband, it does make fastening the waist buckle something that needs to be done sitting down. The pockets have a somewhat elaborate emergency jettisoning system, but this is not called into play during normal usage.
The weights go into separate pouches that drop into the weight-pockets and are retained by pinch-clip buckles and webbing and covered with a healthy flap of fabric with Velcro.
It was a doddle to undo these and haul out the weight-pouches by the loops provided, when the time came to hand my weights up to the driver of the pick-up boat. I could have done with an ordinary pocket, too.
I took the BeSea on a Red Sea trip on Diamond out of Sharm el Sheikh. The first thing I had to do when I arrived was rebuild the BeSea, because I had made it to go with my drysuit and I was to be wearing a slimmer semi-dry.
There followed a little more cursing but, thankfully, no "tinkle, tinkle, plop, curse" as an essential small screw or uniquely designed nut departed over the edge of a rolling deck.
Once I got it right for me, I was bemused to find that it also fitted perfectly Diamond's tall Swedish blonde dive-guide Malin. How come we have similar measurements, but hers are arranged in such a more aesthetically pleasing way?
I used the BeSea with 8kg of lead and a heavy 15 litre steel cylinder. Both Malin and I were enthusiastic about the way we could walk about the deck with all this weight comfortably borne. Poseidon has certainly got that right.
The extensive padding of the harness makes the BeSea supremely comfortable, although I suspect that we both had to put on more lead than normal to account for its buoyancy.
The sternum-strap loops around the whole shoulder facing on each side. This unusual arrangement can lead to some tangles before diving. I passed the very long direct-feed inflator and corrugated hose under this strap to keep it out of the way.
Vertical under water, the only way to dump air was to operate the dump valve at the upper left side of the back. Two lower dump valves at opposing sides of the U-shaped buoyancy cell allowed for head-down descents. The tank is held securely by two powerful cambands, and a crotch-strap ensures that nothing falls over your head when inverted.
In the water the buoyancy cell seemed more flappy than the claims for the Clam Retract feature would suggest. Once fully inflated at the surface, the BeSea turned into something akin to a sofa in terms of comfort.
Malin was very keen to use this product from her country, Sweden. I won't say she's patriotic, but she does wear odd fins, one blue and one yellow, in honour of her country's flag.
The BeSea worked for both of us without any snags. I imagine that this distinctive wing has much shop-counter appeal and will soon be a common sight at dive-sites around the world. Since writing this, I am told that the assembly instructions have been improved, with full-colour photos.
I must stress that decisions made during the initial home-build are essential to the overall success of this wing-style BC.
The Poseidon BeSea with Advanced Harness and W50 cell costs from £399.
Poseidon Diving Systems 01420 843 , www.poseidon-uk.co.uk
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+ Very comfortable when successfully built to fit the user
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- Not easy to share between divers of varying sizes
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REGULATOR
LIMITED EDITION PRODUCTS ARE ALL THE RAGE. However, I would caution the buyer in that, with mechanical products, sometimes the advantages of long production runs and the bugs that get ironed out in the process can be preferable to the kudos of owning something that others do not.
The Mares Metal Limited Edition regulator was part of a range of regulators, fins and BCs that Mares launched worldwide last year. Only 2000 examples were made.
In the UK, these products were limited to sale through certain preferred dealers. However, Mike of Mike's Warehouse was kind enough to lend me an unsold one from his stock. Knowing Mares as I have done over the past 15 years, I cannot believe that the company would produce a product in limited numbers if there was a demand for it and it was any good. So watch out in the coming months for a regulator very similar to the one I am going to tell you about now.
Both first and second stages of the Mares Metal Limited Edition are exceedingly compact. I would say that the first stage is probably the most compact balanced-diaphragm design available in the world to date. Made of forged brass, it has the lightness normally associated with titanium.
The layout of its four medium-pressure and two high-pressure ports is similar to the V32, the Ti Planet and the MR22 Abyss first stages before that. It seems that the Mares designers have simply pared away extraneous metal to make it smaller and lighter still.
Not only that, but now the Mares Dynamic Flow Control system functions with any port, so your choice of hose-routeing is unlimited. DFC minimises pressure-drop in the intermediate hose during the course of breathing.
The other good news is that the transmitter for my integrated computer could be fitted without obscuring the route of any other hoses.
The second stage is reminiscent of that of the sibling Proton Metal, only finished in a scratch-resistant metallic black.
It has the usual Mares venturi by-pass tube that affords a routine performance without need to make any manual adjustments, a finned heat-sink at the point where the metal joins the mp hose, and a deep yet narrow exhaust-T that is effective in dispersing exhaled gas without it obscuring one's view by passing bubbles up in front of the mask. If I have a criticism here, it is that the metal has become quite flimsy in the quest to keep it light in weight. After a few days the first dent appeared, and I put this down to robust handling by the boat crew when refilling cylinders.
Under water, the unit appeared to deliver air in as sublime a way as any other of the top-of-the-range Mares regulators I have used, and that includes some time spent at depth in and around the Red Sea wreck of the Rosalie Moller. The grid position in front of the pressure-sensing diaphragm of the second stage was effective in preventing unwanted free-flows when face-on into a current.
I liked the mouthpiece, too. It was a refreshing change from those Mares mouthpieces that always seem too small and floppy for me.
Everyone on the liveaboard admired the look of the regulator. The fact is that most of these limited-edition regs are already in the hands of their proud owners and they might prove hard to locate if you want to buy one. However, watch this space. There might well be something similar on its way.
Mike has this one back now, so first come, first served!
The Mares Metal Limited Edition costs £415.
Blandford Sub-Aqua 01823 663849, www.blandfordsubaqua.co.uk
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+ Top-of-the range performance
+ Unique limited-edition package
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- Second stage prone to denting if abused
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LIGHT
There's a lot of good kit around but usually quality comes at a price. If you want to buy your diving equipment at that well-known chain of Dutch supermarkets, it will be cheap and you may be cheerful. I know one guy who bought a fistful of diving torches that cost less than a single similar branded item. So long as they work he is happy, and when they stop, he will simply chuck them.
On the other hand, I like to surround myself with stuff that reflects my personality, and no-one ever said I was cheap.
I would rather have the corpse of a once-fine antique than some furniture in MDF. I would rather enjoy a single bottle of fine Volnay than get ratted on a gallon of cheap plonk. So having set out my stall as a lover of top quality in all things, I took a cheap lamp to the Red Sea to try it out.
The Aqua-Star LED lamp has a single Lexion Star high-output LED, giving it a burntime of around five hours from two standard AA batteries. Use new fully charged 2500mh ni-mh batteries and you can expect almost to double that.
In fact, you can use almost any batteries including lithium or ni-cad, as long as they are matched and in AA format.
The Aqua-Star LED torch may be cheap but it doesn't look it. It is made of marine-grade aluminium and nicely anodised. It has a handy anatomical shape too, with a good grip, and a claimed depth-rating of 100m, though I cannot confirm that because I resisted testing it under that pressure.
The specification seems all well and good but is it any use as a diving light, or is it just something to keep in your BC pocket to illuminate your computer during an ascent in the dark after everything else has gone belly-up?
Surprise, surprise, this little lamp proved invaluable. I would even say that you could use it as a primary night-diving light.
Its beam is bright and sharply focused. Of higher than usual colour temperature, more akin to daylight than a little torch, it penetrated clear water well and outshone the puny yellow glows from the ordinary tungsten lamps of other divers.
Of course, at this price don't expect to get anything as complicated as a magnetic switch. You turn it on by screwing the rear battery-cap assembly down onto the battery to make contact. It is leak-protected by double O-rings but, as usual, I would mention that this is not a lamp with which to jump into the water in a switched-off state (the lamp, not you!).
Carrying it around under water with the battery-cap unscrewed is asking for a catastrophic leak, because you never know how far back you wound it. Similarly, under pressure, it might come on in your BC pocket with you unaware.
That extended burntime might have expired by the time you call on its services. Turning it off once you are at your greatest depth is another matter, because you can stop turning once the light is out.
You can certainly outdo that chap who bought a bucket-load of cheap lamps from LIDL and bundled them together with gaffa-tape. The Aqua-Star comes with a couple of standard 1/4in Whitworth bushes pre-drilled so that you can bolt one or more together onto a camera rig or cave helmet.
The other divers on Tornado Marine's mv Diamond were well impressed, and not just by the price. The Aqua-Star is made in Taiwan and is available through various sources at around £30. Our test example was supplied by Bristol Scuba, complete with lanyard. It's a nice bit of kit.
Bristol Scuba 0117 902 0303, www.bristolscuba.com
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+ Viably bright lamp
+ Remarkably cheap price
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COMPUTER
Sergio Angelini is Uwatec's whizz kid. I first met him during a two-week liveaboard trip, so got to know about his love for motorbikes and California (even though he is an Italian now based in Switzerland). He had with him a Scubapro Smart Tec computer that he was beta-testing.
He explained all about it but, at the time, distracted as I was coping with all the other kit I was actually reviewing, it amounted to too much information. I did note, however, that departing from Uwatec tradition, it had some push-buttons.
Two years later, I met Sergio at the launch of Scubapro Uwatec's new range of computers, including the Smart Tec. It was several months before I had one to take diving.
The Smart Tec is designed to be used with three different nitrox mixes and to be gas-integrated by radio transmitter to each different supply. To this end it can be supplied with three transmitters but I was content to try it out with independent twins and two different nitrox mixes.
It was necessary to pair the unit first with the transmitter for "gas 1" and then with the transmitter for "gas D" (for deco). The third transmitter is paired for "gas 2". Remember, these are all nitrox mixes.
Despite Uwatec bringing out a range of hockey-puck-style computers with user-changeable batteries, the Smart Tec continues with the familiar shape of older models with the transparent hinged display-cover.
However there is a distinct difference from these older models in that the Smart Tec has, in addition to the usual four wet contacts, three push-buttons with functions dependant on whether you are submerged on not.
These include for selecting nitrox mixes during the dive, activating the safety-stop timer or for using as a stopwatch, and for setting bookmarks during a dive for use with data when downloading to PC later. SmartTRAK software is bundled with the computer when you buy it.
The third button allows you to toggle between maximum depth and water temperature and switching on the display backlight or for setting reduced micro-bubble levels before diving. The display will be familiar to any previous Aladin owner, except that there are a few more icons and details such as the setting for five different levels of "micro-bubble suppression". This is the new buzz-expression among decompression algorithm writers.
Very little empirical research has been done but the theory seems sound. It is that asymptomatic bubbles remaining within the tissues after a dive can be added to by bubbles formed from subsequent exposure to gas at high pressure, resulting in clusters of bubbles or bubbles that grow in size, and that this can cause decompression illness.
As I understand it, micro-bubble suppression is of consequence only to those who do repetitive diving. You can always opt to omit this feature for a single dive.
The other problem is that there is no way to know which of the five levels of micro-bubble suppression suits you. It seems that you must take pot-luck. The only guidance in the manual suggests that if you have a hole in the heart you should use the highest level. I would be inclined to advise that if you suffer repeated decompression illness, you should take up an alternative activity!
I used it set at the lowest micro-bubble setting (L1) as opposed to the standard Buhlmann ZH8L-ADT program (L0) that offers no micro-bubble protection. Setting higher levels of micro-bubble protection invites protests from buddies and may find you doing long deco-stops on your own.
Level 1 brought it more or less into line with the Suunto RGBM100 program on the D9 that I used alongside it. The Smart Tec invites further comparison with its Suunto rivals.
I have to say that there were times when the wet-finger contacts were in danger of driving me to despair. This was especially so when trying to set an analysed nitrox mix at the last moment before jumping into the water. I was near to being driven finger-lickin' crazy. The Suuntos use push-buttons exclusively.
The Smart Tec is not cheap, but it does cost less than the Suunto D9, when bought with only one transmitter, and it represents a viable alternative to the Vytec in that it has a slightly clearer, more readable display. Which you prefer may depend on what you are used to.
Unlike both the Suuntos, the Smart Tec can also track gas-consumption, whichever tank you breathe from, provided you buy the extra transmitters. It costs £749 with a single transmitter. Extra transmitters cost £249 each. The cost of replacing the battery was not available at the time of writing.
Scubapro UK 01256 812636, www.scubapro.co.uk
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+ All you need in a nitrox computer
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- Expensive, if not as dear as some rivals
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