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I OFTEN GET TO SEE NEW PRODUCTS long before they reach the marketplace. Many never make it, usually because of problems that arise only once production is meant to be underway.
Mares has recently brought its diving computer component manufacturing in-house. Before that it depended on an outside supplier, which was obviously unable to come up with a reliable version of an air-integrated-by-hose computer.
A computer called the AirLab was announced long ago but never reached the shops. Now the first examples of the M1 AirLab RGBM, made by Mares in-house, are filtering through.
The Mares M1/Dacor Darwin computer has established a share of the market at a time when Suunto has been taking the lion's share. However, the Italian-made computers have proved just as capable of managing a single-gas diver's deco safely, whether on a no-stop or a deco-stop dive.
I'm happy to follow the information displayed, though I prefer to treat the optional safety-stop shown in the zone from 5-3m as mandatory. Mares computers also benefit from being user-changeable and having very easily obtained AAA batteries.
If you are familiar with the M1, you will quickly recognise the AirLab's display (right).
The only difference is a second display which tells you your tank pressure and how much longer it reckons your air will last till you reach reserve pressure, based on breathing demands so far on the dive. Comparing this time with your total ascent time, and being sure that the first exceeds the second, should keep you out of trouble.
Considering the number of computers that pass through my hands, you might assume that setting one up would be intuitive for me. With the M1 AirLab, I'm afraid nothing could be further from the truth. With only two buttons I found, manual in hand, that the operation was fraught with disappointment.
I deduce that it is not which button you press when, but how long you press it for, that counts.
I had sore fingers and little temper left by the time I had set the date and time, the nitrox mix, the size of tank I was using (why that's needed, heaven knows), maximum ppO2, salt or fresh, metric or imperial, et al.
You may see this as more a criticism of me than of the equipment, but if that is the case, so be it. I'm a dork.
In the water, the algorithm seemed to give me the information I have come to expect. Like Suunto, Mares has bought into Bruce Wienke's research into bubbles that might form within your body during an ascent that are "silent", or have no apparent symptoms. Simplified, the theory is that these can form the nucleus of dangerous bubbles later, with dire consequences.
Wienke's Reduced Gradient Bubble Model (RGBM) is incorporated in the mathematical calculation that the computer makes.
A simple explanation of its effect while diving is that the computer asks you, the diver, to make a stop much deeper than you might be used to. I found this to be in the order of 18m after a short visit to 45m and beyond, or if I got well into deco-stop mode.
The idea is that instead of going directly to the first conventional shallow stop, where any silent bubbles that have formed are hopefully passed through your lungs and got rid of before they might cause trouble, you stop deeper and these bubbles are less likely to form in the first place.
Proponents of RGBM say that other algorithms bend a diver and then attempt to unbend him in the shallows. It's an emotive subject, especially among those selling diving computers. One should not confuse the theory with computers that take micro-bubble formation into consideration during surface intervals.
The fact is that if you are doing a square profile dive on a wreck, for example, you will have to make a stop on the line much deeper than you might be inclined to do, and watch the shallow-water deco rack up as a consequence.
Don't worry. I have discovered that when comparing two similar computers, one with the RGBM-modified algorithm and one without, the stops incurred in the shallows usually turned out to be less in the end with Wienke's version. If you are likely to be diving on a reef, or anywhere else where a gentle swim up a slope is possible, you may find that you have been doing these deep-water stops all along!
I used the Mares M1 AirLab RGBM in the Red Sea and it allowed me to control my decompression almost identically to how the Suunto RGBM 100 computer used alongside it required me to control it. It has a similar fixed maximum ascent-rate of 10 m/min and an easily understood graphic display.
Much other information is shown, including stop depths and time, total ascent time, current tank pressure and remaining air-time down to the pre-determined reserve pressure.
A "lung" icon indicates how heavy a breather you are. I really had to heave to get a medium figure - how much effort would you have to make to indicate a heavy breather? I was amused to find that in Mares's book I was a very light breather. If only that matched my own assessment!
The "lung" icon is also augmented by a digital display equivalent to the breathing rate in litres/min at the surface. When in nitrox mode, this is substituted for the CNS loading figure.
All the divers around me knew my remaining air-status, too, because I had set it to flash yellow lights on reaching 80 bar and red when I got to 50. These lights are not discreet. They make the whole console light up at the sides. On night dives on the Thistlegorm, everyone said they could see me flashing away!
I especially appreciated that I could swiftly disconnect the computer from its hose and take it safely below decks when logging the dives. This is a very useful diving computer for those who use a single tank with either air or nitrox.
The Mares M1 AirLab RGBM costs £365.
Blandford Sub-Aqua 01923 801572, www.divernet.com/blandfrd
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+ Detachable from its hose
+ Reliable algorithm
+ You should never run out of air!
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- Everyone knows if you are low on air
- Needs three buttons!
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Decathlon threatened to revolutionise dive-equipment retailing when it opened its first store in the UK. One of the world's largest sports retailers, it has purchasing power to match, so many small dive-shop owners thought that they would be having to compete with some very low prices.
In fact, Decathlon has made little difference to the traditional specialist shops. It aims its products at the public at large, rather than those already involved in a sport, so one could subscribe to the view that it is doing its best to promote diving for the benefit of the whole trade.
I looked through the Decathlon catalogue and spotted that the company has its own brand of bags, which are equally effective across a broad band of sports. The less-than-catchily named Tribord DBG145 is a case in point.
With more than 60 different sports in its product line-up, I'm not sure what sports equipment this bag was originally conceived for but, at 85cm, it is certainly long enough to take any Italian snorkeller's fins! Inside, it has zipped sections for those fins plus another for items that need to be protected from creasing. I'm a diver. I don't carry anything like that.
It's not entirely necessary to fill the bag. There are three internal straps to stop things tumbling around. There is also a separate bag, Velcro'd into place, that is designed for a regulator, plus, Russian doll-like inside it, another little padded container that presumably could be used for your diving computer.
A two-way zipper closes the whole thing and there are wheels to help move it fully laden. On the bottom of the bag there are also toboggan-like skids which I felt should help the material of the bag last that much longer.
There is no extending handle, but the bag is tall enough not to need one. It has symmetrical handles at the top, which allows a baggage-handler to get a grip with two hands rather than rip off the single rubber-covered handle in the centre.
In common with many other big bags, it has a capacious rucksack that zips onto the outside. This is very convenient when handling your baggage yourself but think twice about checking it in at an airport still attached. It might not be there at the end of the flight, so check it in separately.
This rucksack reflects the insights Decathlon designers have had from supplying those who do other sports. It is full of ideas that hill-walkers and the like will appreciate, like outer mesh pockets for your water-bottle and stretchy neoprene sections for a bivouac and your anorak. The rucksack is vented, to avoid those smells associated with wet walking gear.
I loaded the bag with all my diving gear, plus a few extra items destined to be Diver Tested, and headed off for a plane at Gatwick, a bus at Sharm el Sheikh, and the rigours of life at sea. I wanted to find out how the bag would stand up to that sort of treatment.
The main bag weighed in, fully loaded, at 30kg and yet arrived immaculate and in one piece. Surprise, surprise! I took the rucksack with my clothes below and unloaded the dive gear.
The return trip was equally uneventful, and I intend to use this bag a few more times yet to see what it will stand up to. Apart from the taxi-driver back from Gatwick continuing to question me about snowboarding, despite my protests that it was a subject I knew little about, I found no snags. So far, so good!
The Decathlon Tribord DBG145 bag costs £130 and is available only from Decathlon stores.
Decathlon, www.decathlon.co.uk
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+ Capacious bag
+ Good price
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- Not as well-made as some
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If I was asked to give any advice to another person who was to do this job it would be, at all costs, to keep an open mind. The sight of the late Rob Palmer reassembling his regulator under water in a cave before making his way out might have made him sound heroic but I felt at the time that had he been using a decent regulator, none of this would have been necessary. It was an early Apeks, and I was not impressed.
After that memorable day I could have written off Apeks regulators as undependable products but I didn't. I have tried and tested everything since with an open mind, and continue to try to do so.
Not so long after that initial impression, I had no small part in bringing to the public's attention the fact that the then-new Apeks T50D was an outstanding performer. It stood out among other regulators then available.
What a turnaround! All the regulators from this company are now held in the highest esteem by the diving public and Apeks has flourished since that time, the mid-'80s, by putting further good designs into production.
It is now known for making the best and is celebrating 30 years of successful business because of it. But where does the company go from here? If it's already making the best, how can it do better?
I liked the look of the Black Pearl, and I don't refer to the pirate ship of Captain Jack Sparrow. It's the name of a special-edition ATX200 regulator, and receiving one unexpectedly through the post was like receiving a reward. I couldn't wait to get in the water to try it.
The Black Pearl is in fact no different in what it does to any other ATX200, the top-of-the-range regulator from Apeks. It just has a different finish.
It's like ordering a BMW M3, but opting for the metallic black paint job rather than plain old schwartz. It just looks different and separates the owner from the crowd. Only 4000 of these regulators will be available worldwide.
Making use of what it calls its "investment casting technology", Apeks is able to provide some very fine detail work to the outside of the block of the first stage. It uses chromium, titanium and zirconium to provide a very hard "diamond" finish to the Black Pearl (excuse the mixed metaphors - they're not mine!) by physical vapour deposition. It makes the finish tougher than normal anodised brass, ending up with a sort of Harley-Davidson of regulators. Whoops - now I've gone from cars to bikes!
Back to diving. You stick the second stage in your mouth and you breathe off it. It's as simple as that. The air is delivered in a very comfortable way with an exceedingly low work of breathing. If I needed to distinguish this reg from one or two other top-performing brands, I would say it had a slightly mechanical feel to its operation.
It's a pity that Apeks perseveres with such a small exhaust, because this does tend to put the exhaled bubbles up in front of your face if you're stationary in the water, but the company presumably feels that smaller is the better option at point of sale.
It tended to cause me to swim onwards when I might have been better off taking time to examine my surroundings. It's a niggling defect in what is an otherwise superb bit of kit.
The first stage is an environmentally dry-sealed diaphragm design in common with most of the Apeks range but, like the normal ATX200, it is squatter and more compact than the others.
Still, with its American belt-buckle engraving, it looks quite massively built. It has four medium-pressure and two hp ports.
The second stage has some aesthetic differences with its top-end sibling but it still has the venturi ± switch to discourage the onset of exponential free-flows at the surface, and a breathing resistance adjustment (BRA) control which can be used to crank up the cracking pressure, and thus the effort needed, to initiate an inhalation.
It has the same finned heat-sink located near the second stage, and Apeks' position within the worldwide Aqua-lung empire is revealed by the inclusion of a Comfobite mouthpiece.
No surprises, and like the BMW M3, which is a very quick motor car whether finished in metallic-black or not, the Black Pearl delivers in exactly the same impressive way as the standard ATX200. It's for the diver who wants that bit more.
The limited edition Apeks ATX200 costs £427 and can be used with nitrox mixes up to 40%, or be supplied O2-clean for 100% O2. For a test of the standard model see also: www.divernet.com/equipment/0102divertests.htm
Apeks Marine Equipment 01254 692200, www.apeks.co.uk
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+ For those who want to be able to say they have the best
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- Top regulator - top price
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It has what is probably the hardest name to remember of any regulator, but the Scubapro MK25 AFSA/S600 is the answer to the prayers of those who wish to take their regulators as carry-on luggage on planes but are stymied by the recent 6kg limit now imposed by many charter airlines.
It gets its lighter weight by being made of a stainless steel/aluminium mix instead of the usual weightier chromed-brass.
Scubapro had a previous foray with the all-aluminium MK20 Ultralight. I wrote of it in Diver Tests in 1998:
"It is a sad fact that technological advances can be painful for those brave enough to make them, and the MK20 Ultralight has its problems. Fragility is one... Another problem seems to be electrolysis. Two friends of mine who bought early examples of MK20ULs took them on trips to the Galapagos and to the Maldives. They are broken-hearted. The electrochemical interaction between the aluminium of the first stage and the different metal of the hoses screwed into them, united in the presence of salt water and tropical heat, has led to serious corrosion.
"The MK20 UL first stage sent to me by Scubapro is of a later batch. The black outer coating appears to be of a different, thicker material. There are also small washer-like discs between the port plugs and the main body of the regulator that stop over-tightening. I installed these with my direct feed and high-pressure hoses. The turret is also now enclosed in a plastic cage to prevent the coating getting knocked."
Despite my optimism and Scubapro's attempts at improvements, the MK20 UL did not seem to last long in the market place. Scubapro's ill-fated adventure must have taught its designers a lot.
Their latest lightweight regulator design, the MK25 AFSA, is also their best attempt yet at a high-performance regulator for use in cold, fresh water.
Scubapro has used stainless steel in the parts that need the strength. I hope there will be no electrolysis between the steel and the aluminium of the main body of the regulator. There are plastic spacers between the port plugs and ports, presumably to stop them welding together. I couldn't transfer these to the chromed-brass ends of the hoses that I wanted to screw in, so I asked Scubapro to send me some extras. It seemed obvious.
Of course, I never had the regulator in my possession long enough to find out if there was a serious "corrosion-by-electro-lysis" problem, but I did sit the regulator in the brine tank of my domestic water-softener for a week without obvious ill-effect.
I would still take the precaution of removing any chromed-brass tipped auxiliary hoses before I put it away in storage for any lengthy period, or find a supply of plastic spacers.
I had hoped that the ones on the port plugs might have been interchangeable but they were not. So, sadly, I am unable to tell you what you really need to know.
The MK25 first stage is a development of that otherwise very successful MK20, and the company has addressed the risk of freeze-ups by including larger holes to allow warming water (warmer than the air from your tank, anyway) to pass around the works chilled by the passage of depressurised air.
External fins add greater heat-sink qualities and discourage ice from creeping up the outside of the body of the regulator to obscure those vital holes.
Scubapro also continues with its Thermal Insulation System, just as it does with all its current regulators. This uses materials and coatings for the moving parts that reduce the chance of sticking because of icing.
It's very difficult to determine whether all this works perfectly. I'm sure no regulator manufacturer in its right mind would guarantee that a valve could not fail due to severe cold conditions.
I can say is that the unit is incredibly light.
It also appears to be beautifully crafted, although one fellow- diver actually asked if it was made of plastic! Some will interpret that as its having a flimsy appearance.
The S600 second stage is a delight to breathe from, and we have reviewed it several times before. It too is remarkably light, and small enough to be unobtrusive. It has the usual inhalation-resistance adjustment knob, and a dive/predive switch designed to prevent exponential free-flows at the surface.
Both are easily accessed with a gloved hand, though neither had much discernible effect in the water.
The small exhaust-T meant that some distracting bubbles did come up within my field of vision, but not as badly as happens with some other compact regulator designs.
The regulator certainly gave me as much air as I needed, and often in a gushing rush if I heaved too heavily.
As found in the past, it was impossible to reassemble the second stage easily after a quick look inside the front to peer at the mechanism. It seemed very difficult to line up everything properly to insert the final locating pin. So leave it alone.
Well done again, Scubapro. I just wish I could finally decide if it's worth spending the extra ton over and above the cost of the standard model, just for the loss of a few grams of weight in the bag. Probably not!
The Scubapro MK25 AFSA/S600 costs £449.
Scubapro UK 01256 812636, www.scubapro.co.uk
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+ Scubapro's top-performing first stage in lightweight materials
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- Does the extra cost match the benefit?
- Longevity remains to be proved
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I wouldn't want to wear anything but a drysuit when diving in the Arctic or Antarctic region, but my friend Ari uses a wetsuit when diving under the snow and ice in the lakes of his native Finland in winter. He also prefers to travel to and from the dive-site on his motorbike. Well, he's well hard!
Me? I took the Tigullio T52 Defender Artik to the Egyptian Red Sea at Christmas-time. I'm just an old softie.
People still turn up in Sharm in January with 3mm shorties, expecting some tropical diving, but I also note that more and more Red Sea dive guides and experienced divers are wearing drysuits at this time of year .
I hasten to add that the Tigullio T52 Defender is a semi-dry suit, not something for taking out invading tanks. The "52" designation is on everything the Italian company brought out last year, in celebration of its 52 years in business. That's longer than the BSAC has been in existence, yet the company has only recently decided to try its luck on the British market.
Times change. I remember when nearly all wetsuits were made in Yorkshire and bore the brand Beaver. Most branded wetsuits come from China now. Beaver still makes wetsuits but also imports a range of products from Tigullio in Italy.
The Defender Artik is a 7mm semi-dry that has a heavy drysuit zip across the shoulder. Initially this feels rather uncomfortable - more so than with a neoprene drysuit, because you wear no undersuit with it. However, once you get in the water, any feeling of inadvertently wearing it with its hanger still in place is lost. You also have to pull a long neoprene neckseal over your head when donning it. Ladies with long hair and old rock Ôn' rollers need not apply. This seal is then inverted to put its smoothskin surface next to your own skin and keep you snug. That's after you have fought your way past the wrist and ankle seals.
If initial impressions were not so good, it has to be said that the neoprene of this suit is silky smooth on the inside and, once I had got my hands and feet past those wrist and ankle seals, the trauma was over with.
There are zips at both wrist and ankles that close a cuff of the 7mm heavyweight material of the suit over the top of the thinner smoothskin seal that lies against skin.
A close-fitting hood and boots integrate nicely with the suit too. Once wearing the whole ensemble, together with the gloves, you feel ready to take on the coldest conditions.
I felt that the aperture in the hood was not quite big enough and made it time-consuming fitting my mask, but during long wet RIB rides after diving I slunk inside it out of the wind, like a tortoise in its shell.
At the back is an open-ended double layer of neoprene in which I found the hood stowed. This seems a rather cavalier use of an extra patch of neoprene, because it meant adding another half-kilo to my weightbelt.
I suppose it helped to add comfort by giving a cushioning effect where the tank is carried, and the hood was always to hand when I needed to put it on, provided my tank was not already in place on my back.
There are also stretchy-style knee-pads which add flexibility to the legs, where a more rigid material would feel more restricting. The 5mm neoprene boots are substantial, with long ankles and soles that are highly cushioned. There is a detail at the heel for locating a fin-strap, but most importantly the upper is reinforced with polyurethane where the fin pocket often rubs the material thin on other boots.
I have never worn out a pair of wetsuit boots from the bottom up, always from the top down. The long ankles of the boots also came in handy for me because, with a limited number of off-the-peg sizes, they made up the difference in a suit with a leg that might otherwise have been slightly too short for me. It was either that or rattle about in a top-half too big for my chest.
However, the thick soles meant more added buoyancy, and I was glad to be wearing some heavy rubber Apollo fins which counteracted this.
There are also matching gloves in either 3mm or 5mm thickness material, with reinforced polyurethane palms. Of course, in the Red Sea I have no use for them.
I am sure that Beaver would like me to say that this suit is ideal for use in all British diving conditions, but you would have to be a hard man to use it in the UK in winter. There will no doubt be plenty of hard men lining up to fling themselves in the freezing waters of various inland dive sites, but once they feel that first trickle of ice-cold water, they may have second thoughts.
Maybe in the sea on midsummer days it would be OK for me, but I am inclined to think this suit is more sensibly employed by those who dive in the cooler depths of the summer Mediterranean or, like me, in the northern Red Sea in winter months.
The Tigullio T52 Defender costs £275. It is available in a range of off-the-peg sizes to suit either men or women. The boots costs £35 and the gloves are £17.95 (3mm) or £19.95 (5mm).
Beaver Sports (Yorks) 01484 512354, www.beaversports.co.uk
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+ A warm semi-dry that goes a long way towards keeping water out
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- Not a drysuit
- Not fantastically comfortable out of the water
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Today, many people see diving as intrinsically linked with travel. They realise the significance of those big blue areas on the map, and start their diving trip with an aeroplane journey. Air travel has never been cheaper, but baggage allowances have never been more tightly enforced. So the weight of dive kit has also become significant.
Sea Quest has always made products with this in mind, and its Passport is the latest in a long line of BCs intended for the travelling diver. It folds flat and even has its own mesh carrying-bag, which stuffs away into a pocket at the back of it when not in use.
This then acts as a cushion for the lumbar area. Slim though the BC is, it has quite a substantial hard backpack, complete with the Sea Quest patented traction-pad, which I found kept the cylinder securely in place with its single camband.
The waistband is closed by a cummerbund with Velcro and there is a minimal-width strap and pinch-clip to keep it closed. The shoulder straps are also very lightweight, with quite flimsy-looking pinch-clips, and there are four lightweight plastic D-rings that are good for clipping off an alternative second stage but not much more.
There is no sternum strap. There are two big-looking zipped pockets, but these tend to lose their use if you stuff the integrated-weight system with very much lead. It's rated to take a maximum of 4.5kg each side.
No fancy clips here. The weight pouches are closed shut and held in place by slabs of Velcro. If your weights are being reinstalled by a local boat crew-member, you will want to be sure that they are secure before you dive again, or you might be in danger of dropping one. Naturally, you will need a little more lead than when using a similar but heavier-built BC.
The direct-feed hose from the regulator integrates well with the small-diameter corrugated hose and this is pulled to operate the dump-valve at the shoulder.
It worked impeccably, but then I was careful to make sure that I was not over-weighted. Too much weight can mean too much air and fraught moments during an ascent.
There is one other dump-valve, and that is at the lower back, for use with a quick head-down descent - something that you might need to do in the fast-flowing currents of channels in atolls, such as you might find in the Maldives, for example.
You might also find yourself using the lower dump-valve to empty water out of this BC if there are times when to dump air quickly enough entails raising that corrugated hose and operating the manual inflation valve. As any experienced diver knows, this lets water back in the other way.
The maximum buoyancy of this BC is not a lot, at around 11kg in size medium. However, when it's fully inflated a lot of that buoyancy is positioned low-down, which is where it counts when waiting at the surface.
There is just enough up by the top of the back to allow air to settle there while under water, and give a diver a good horizontal posture.
The Sea Quest Passport is very lightly built. It represents the antithesis of what British club diving is all about, but if you normally start your diving with a trip to 38,000 feet, this might be a useful BC for you.
Available in sizes XS, S, M, ML, L and XL, the Sea Quest Passport costs £239.95.
Aqua-lung UK 0116 212 4200, www.aqualung.co.uk
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+ Lightweight in your baggage
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