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LIGHT
MY FRIEND TOOK ALONG A FEARSOMELY BRIGHT DIVING LIGHT when the two of us travelled to Cocos Island. It was also fearsomely big and heavy. I know, because when we found ourselves over the 128kg checked baggage limit at Heathrow, I offered to stow it in my hand luggage.
I'm having all the sleeves of my sweaters lengthened now, to suit my newly extended arms.
His diving light was one of those super-teutons, made in Germany. When he turned it on at full power, it turned our night dives into day dives, so he always used it at a quarter setting.
I, because I am much smarter, chose to take a far more modest diving light with me.
The new importer of Treble-Lights, also made in Germany, offered to let me borrow any one of the immense range of models now available in the UK bearing that badge.
She was bemused when I told her that I would prefer an entry-level model rather than something that would evoke a "frying tonight" image when I switched it on.
But that was because I remembered using a Treble-Light HID lamp years ago, and although at the time it was the first HID lamp I had encountered, the memory of its considerable weight and size still lingered.
Watt for watt, HID lamps are incredibly bright and Treble-Light makes a huge range. It also makes a selection of lamps with halogen bulbs.
The Silverline MX6 is a 6V, 20W halogen lamp. It's Treble-Light's most modest lamp and it's small enough to stow in a BC pocket. But don't confuse modesty with effectiveness. I found that the beam was narrow enough to be very useful. It has a simple rotating switch with a big knob (sorry, I've been reading Frank Skinner's autobiography!) that can be locked to prevent accidental use.
It has a hardened glass lens, which means that it can be switched on long before entering the water. It has a charge-at-any-time ni-mh battery with electronic protection to prevent damage by deep discharge.
It comes with an automatic charger that will fully charge a unit from flat in five hours.
The 15cm-long barrel is made from aluminium and, in order to connect the charger, you unscrew the base by rotating the strong cast-aluminium handle. It's protected from flooding by two O-rings.
The lamp itself is a 6V halogen unit of the type commonly used in domestic low-voltage lighting systems - though be sure not to replace it with a 12V version! It weighs about 750gm out of the water and, by fitting the neoprene sleeve provided, it becomes almost neutrally buoyant in water.
This is a useful and hard-wearing lamp that will suit many leisure divers, especially those who enjoy night diving. It's not really bright enough to compete with tropical sunshine and light up the reef in full-spectrum colour. You will need one of its big brothers for that.
Burntime is just about one hour. That means you will need to be sure that the Silverline MX6 is fully charged before jumping off into the night, and I would suggest taking a small back-up torch with you (see the Ikelite PCm test below) for use at the surface, should you dive long enough to fully discharge it.
The importer is unusual in that it is a travel company. What's the connection? Nikola, who runs Snooba Travel, is German and has the connections in Frankfurt.
With the vision of a new Europe, Frankfurt is only as far away from London as, for example, Glasgow. I expect aftersales service to be as efficient as only the Germans can make it!
The Treble-Light Silverline MX6 costs £165.
Snooba Travel 0870 162 0767, www.snooba.com
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+ A strongly built yet lightweight lamp
+ Useful night-diving performance
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- Not bright enough for some uses
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The Silverline MX6 is the most modest light in the Treble-Light range
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LIGHT
I'm a really bad person. I admit it. If a piece of kit comes into my hands that I really like, I occasionally hold on to it for a bit longer than is strictly necessary. Years ago, I was sent the little but extremely effective Ikelite PC and PCa underwater torches to try, and I am ashamed to say that I held on to them for so long that eventually I lent them to a friend who never returned them to me.
They were, in effect, a victim of their own success.
If you really need a light under water, there's a good chance that you will need a back-up in case of failure of the main light.
A back-up should be unobtrusive when you don't need it, but effective when you do. It needs to be conveniently stowed away until the moment you need it.
The great thing about the smaller PCa was that, although it fitted in the palm of the hand, its six AA batteries were able to provide a light that was probably as effective as that of any back-up light then available.
The other advantage was that we all use AA batteries in lots of other kit, such as cameras and flashguns, which makes battery purchase or the business of recharging AA-size ni-mh cells simple.
That was then. Now all sorts of options are available, including little lamps with single or clustered high-intensity LEDs that will fit in a pocket just as well as the Ikelites.
They cost a lot more, but what's money when you're talking about your first love - diving equipment?
Trouble is, we're not all flush with cash. Ikelite has looked at the challenge and simply reworked the original idea in a smaller, more compact, format.
Its Ikelite PCm looks very similar to its longer siblings but uses only four AA batteries, which makes it that much smaller. As a result it is only 11cm long, so should fit in any BC pocket. Like the PCa, it's a little marvel.
Beside the fact that it produces a tight but brilliant beam, the Ikelite PCm is likely to last a long time. Like the test PC and PCa, which are both still in active service, the PCm is unlikely to suffer from flooding.
That's because it is not sealed with an O-ring which has a surface screwed down on it, with the consequent risk of distorting or damaging it.
After inserting the batteries, you simply use hand pressure to close the two main parts together, squeezing the O-ring in the process, but in a very even-handed way. You close a clamping-ring to secure it shut.
Another good feature is its on/off switch. Many lights in this category rely on switching by tightening the front part down onto the battery section, bearing down on that sealing O-ring. This has the advantage that there are no through-body connections to leak, and is fine if you turn your lamp on before entering the water.
However, a back-up light spends most of its time turned off, waiting in the wings. To turn such a lamp off means backing off the pressure on the sealing O-ring, and only too often a back-up light is found to be flooded just when you wished it wasn't. The PCm has a proper switch.
Taking the bulb out to replace it when the time comes is also a satisfying procedure. The bulb-holder snaps apart and reveals an unusually thoughtful construction.
Back in 1998, when I wrote about the PCa, I said that it was the best torch I have found for the specific need of a back-up light, but I added the rider that I was always waiting for someone to show me something better. The Ikelite PCm is it.
The Ikelite PCm back-up light costs £27 (including batteries).
Oceanic SW 01404 891819, www.oceanicuk.com
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- You could be tempted to use itas a main light
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I'm getting old, and the world has changed. In the days when most divers made their own wetsuits, people would try to rip my computer off my arm, because I was a rich git who obviously had more money than sense.
Today I often see people wearing twin VR3s and mega-expensive rebreathers, so I suppose the grand that a Suunto D9 might set you back is comparatively small beer.
The D9 is the new top-of-the-range nitrox computer from Suunto. It is made of titanium, has the dimensions of a (large) watch and is gas-integrated via a radio transmitter that looks a lot like that of the sibling Vytec.
The computer can be switched during the dive through three previously programmed nitrox mixes. It is primarily aimed at the diver who wants to go deep on, say, air, yet speed up his deco by switching to, say, nitrox 32 and then an even richer mix of nitrox in the shallows.
It also has a built-in electronic compass which will point to your chosen route, or a steel wreck, or the mass of steel tanks that you might be carrying.
Yes, using any compass is fraught with difficulty if you don't accept its limitations. I hear of Inspiration rebreather users strapping compasses onto their handsets, not realising the effects of those magnetic switches.
Once you have got the hang of what the four buttons do, and the differences between a short push and a long one, this instrument is fairly intuitive to use. It does not, however, follow the same format as the Suunto Stinger, so I did get a bit confused at first.
You can choose either the RGBM100 algorithm or the more aggressive RGBM50. You can set degrees of personal caution.
You can choose whether to have deep stops displayed, and their duration, or whether to have the 5m safety stop displayed instead. You can set your main nitrox mix, and any two deco mixes you might want to use. Or you can simply use "gauge" mode.
The D9 is a calendar watch with stop-watch, has a self-illuminated display, and you can set various audible alarms.
I asked Nico Ghersinisch, dive-guide from mv Sea Hunter, to use it for a week while I was diving with him in Cocos. He told me he found it very logical to use, with its clear and easy-to-read display.
The alarms were always very discreet, he felt, which spares a dive guide unnecessary embarrassment. They seemed more sensitive than the older computer he was using alongside the D9, and a simple push on a button turned them off under water once his attention had been drawn to whatever the computer was trying to tell him. The downside was that he slept through the alarm when he used the D9 as an alarm-clock.
In Cocos, upwellings mix cold water from the depths with warm water at the surface. There are many thermoclines. Nico commented that the temperature display was very precise and much quicker to change with water temperatures than any other computer he had ever used.
It paired instantly with its transmitter, but the duties of a dive-guide are such that Nico often got his kit ready on the pick-up skiff, then had to reboard the main vessel for some task. So the computer on his arm would lose the transmitter signal during the intervening period.
However, he found that, provided he made a pressure change to his tank immediately before diving by, for example, taking a couple of breaths from his regulator, the pairing was resurrected.
This was certainly an improvement over what has been available before, and you have the option to change a transmitter code if you find that someone else nearby is using the computer's first choice.
During the dive, the D9 displays all the deco information you need. However, querying if he had it set up correctly, Nico found that he had to press a button to see the ongoing dive duration instead of the water temperature. He felt this was the wrong way around.
In fact, that's a setting-up option. You can choose to have either one of those settings, current ppO2 or current OLF (Oxygen Limit Fraction) as a primary display, with the others as secondary. Most will opt for dive duration as their primary choice.
Logbook mode is fantastic, because with the usual information the D9 can also display a graphic of your dive profile. You can examine the profile minute by minute by using the Up and Down buttons of the computer. I can imagine people passing long surface intervals playing with this feature.
The compass function is called up by pressing the Select button for two seconds or more. It's a cinch to use. You can mark a course and it tells you whether to swim left or right to follow it. It displays bearings as well as the usual N, S, E and W and so on.
So, price apart, what's wrong with the Suunto D9? Well, it's a bit ugly for a watch. Titanium is too garish to look nice as jewellery. Also, I noticed another early user wearing a large Band-Aid on his wrist under the buckle. It's probably a bit too manly for some! Nico experienced no such problem after having it permanently on his wrist for a week.
The Suunto D9 with interface and Dive Manager costs £750 - with the optional transmitter it comes to £1050.
Suunto Diving & Marine UK 01420 587272, www.suunto.com
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+ Everything you need in a nitrox computer
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"Deep Stop" is an option in settings
up to three separate nitrox mixes can be indicated
Log mode gives a profile of the dive-section by section
electronic compass mode
surface mode
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BC
At a time when Internet diving forums seem to be full of discussions about wings with stainless-steel backplates, one could be forgiven for thinking that the day of the conventional BC was over.
A quick view of the aft decks of almost any dive boat will tell you that nothing is further from the truth. For most divers, the BC is still the most popular way to manage buoyancy control.
That said, many divers look anything but sleek in the water. They often seem to be swimming within their kit rather than being part of it. That's because few BCs are designed as garments so much as functional pieces of equipment.
The products of Italian diving-equipment manufacturer Cressi-sub fit well. I have long been a fan of most of its BCs, because they seem to become part of me when I'm diving. The new S111R is no exception.
It has a harness that is separate from its buoyancy cell, which forms a sort of inverted T shape. This means that you can strap it on and, no matter to what degree the thing is inflated, it still clings nicely to you and never squeezes.
The S111R is a modification of the original S111, itself a development of Mr Cressi's designs that have evolved from the original and highly thought-of S102. If you look at the Test archive on www.divernet.com, you will see that I had a very successful experience with the S111. I expected no less from its successor.
The S111R has the same delightfully effective integrated-weight pockets, held closed by Velcro plus a toggle and stud system. Any danger of inadvertently dropping your lead has been neatly circumnavigated by rotating the pockets through 90¡, so that there is normally no weight on the fastenings.
You simply lift the weights out vertically when you need to get rid of them, and this should be more often when handing them up to a boat-cox'n than in any emergency procedure. Restowing the weights needs no particular skill, either.
Inserting weights into the ditchable pouches is a doddle, too. The pouches are simply bags held closed by zips.
As I get older and wiser, personal comfort and the avoidance of backache has become something of a priority. With that in mind, I do prefer integrated weights to the old-fashioned weightbelt.
Even so, with compensating buoyancy up near my shoulders and weights low near my waist, I can find myself bent uncomfortably, with resulting ooohs! and aahhs! later.
Incidentally, it's the only way I have ever been bent!
Positioning some of my weight up closer to that pocket of air has proved important, and that's where trim-weights come in.
The S111R has redesigned trim-weight pockets. There are four, each held closed by a pinch-clip, and they effectively give you a complete strategy for avoiding backache, whether using a steel or an aluminium cylinder.
The camband has a choice of positions, too. No longer do you need to strap an aluminium cylinder precariously close to its curved top just to get its positive buoyancy (when nearing empty) down towards your hips.
Don't imagine that the S111R is a little travelling jacket with a minimum of lift. Fully inflated, the back part concertinas out as the underarm part inflates, giving masses of buoyancy for use at the surface. The entire inflated cell is useful, too, because it's all below the shoulders, and this makes dumping air on ascent simple.
One dump-valve is at the top of the corrugated hose, the other at the shoulder and operated by a cord and toggle that locates by your right lower rib. Both are positioned at the highest point when the diver is inclined towards the surface - at the top of the shoulders.
Most technical-wing manufacturers should take note. Massive amounts of total buoyancy count for nothing if you can't dump all the air easily when you need to do do.
Maximum lift is meaningless if lots of it simply contributes to providing an ineffective head-cushion once you're at the surface and it is out of the water.
Lift is about displacing water, and if it's not in the water, it won't give lift. The lift of this BC is where it needs to be - beneath the surface.
If you start your dive by jumping from a helicopter or from a speeding attack-craft, the 500 denier Cordura material used for this BC may not be strong enough for you.
On the other hand, if your idea of military service involves poppies and the Cenotaph, the S111R will certainly be resilient enough to survive any use to which you might put it.
Having been away in the past with a technical diving wing that had no stowage space at all, I appreciated that the S111R had two quite useful zipped pockets - big enough, for example, for a reef-hook and a rather large Personal Locator Beacon. You will also find one small and six large stainless-steel D-rings.
You'll derive no Internet diving chat-line credibility by using one of these BCs, but single-tank users will enjoy their diving and cease to give buoyancy-control a second thought.
Isn't that what diving's meant to be about?
The Cressi-sub S111R costs £370.
Cressi-sub UK 01484 310130, www.cressi-sub.net
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+ Excellent conventional-style BC for single-tank users.
+ Efficient weights system
+ Well-distributed buoyancy
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- Not a wing and backplate!
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There are four trim-weight pockets at the rear.
upright
The weights can be inserted vertically into the forward pockets while standing
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