John Bantin has been a full-time professional diving writer and underwater photographer since 1990. He makes around 300 dives each year testing diving equipment.

The Mini Breather is not a rebreather. If you're a tekkie, stop reading now. Mini Breathers are not really even aimed at "real" divers.
     Let's face it, to the uninitiated, scuba-diving can be a pretty unattractive activity. I remember being quite happy to snorkel with my Nikonos while helpful friends kept suggesting I learned to dive. I was not attracted by the macho activities of diving clubs, nor the cumbersome and complicated-looking equipment I would need to attach to various parts of my body.
     It took two German lads to persuade me that I could learn to dive without being Action Jack, but I still needed initiation into the world of regulators and masses of black liquorice.
     Even now, non-diving friends who see me set off to dive and watch me return ask if it's all worth it. It looks far too complicated to them. That's how we come to the position where someone can proclaim grandly: "I'm a diver!", whereas few amateurs would say: "I'm a tennis-player!" or "I'm a canoeist!"
     Enter Mini Breather International. Rob Hart, a professional diving instructor, realised that masses of people would be happy to have a go at diving, just as they have had a go at skiing or tennis, if the mystique could be taken out of the process.
     When I drive my car, I turn the key, engage first gear and let out the clutch. I'm not bothered about how the internal combustion engine works or what's happening inside the gearbox, I only know want to move off effortlessly.
     My car is serviced regularly, so I never even need to open the bonnet, under which I assume the engine to be. In fact, when I worked in the USA I never had to turn a key or let out the clutch, thanks to the joys of automatics and valet-parking.
     Similarly, the Mini Breather is aimed at those who want to go under water, breathe while doing so, and know nothing more. It is for those who want to swim with the fish under their boat or just be able to see them at eye-level, rather than look down on their heads while using a snorkel.
     You put the Mini Breather on your back, breathe through the mouthpiece, swim under the water, and come back when your guide tells you to, or come up when it stops working! That's it.
     Of course, readers of this magazine will want details. Well, inside a rucksack is a small (3.8 litre) aluminium tank of air, with a demand-valve first stage which feeds a manifold and from there a second-stage mouthpiece. There are pockets for weights, which will be needed only in the unlikely event that the user is wearing a wetsuit, and a supply hose to a buoyancy-control bag that again will be needed only in special circumstances under water, but is more likely to be used only for surface support.
     There will be times when the Mini Breather will be used to go deeper. When a dive-guide needs to fix a mooring line, it could prove very convenient to sling on a Mini Breather and go. It won't go deep for long because of its short-duration air supply.
     Generally it will be used in the surface-to-10m range. I can see it being bought by boat-owners who want to splash about under their boats or by dive-centres who take people to see the fish in 7m.
     There is little chance of getting a bend with one, so the only instruction that is really needed for would-be users is: "Breathe normally at all times."
     The rucksack, shown here in tekkie black, comes with a variety of colourful panels that fit into the back. The harness adjusts to suit a wide range of people, from very youthful to very portly.
     In fact, the Mini Breather was so compact and handy that I was able to ride up the road on my bicycle, stop to put my chain back on and visit the bank to draw some cash, all while fully rigged to dive. I couldn't say that about any other full set of diving equipment. Don't you wish your gear were that simple?
     I used the Mini Breather in circumstances for which it was typically designed. The shallow reefs around the Abacos in the Bahamas' outer islands are pretty, teeming with life and only 6-10m deep. This is good snorkelling country, and I reckon one could get a 30-minute dive out of the Mini Breather's 200 bar cylinder here.
     I wore a wetsuit, but was surprised to find I needed the same amount of lead as I had been using with a standard scuba set with typical 12 litre aluminium cylinder. So I was deterred from stashing the weights in the pockets provided within the rucksack, preferring simply to strap on the weightbelt I had been using. I also felt that in these circumstances the extra hose of the octopus-rig was unnecessary. In an emergency, the surface was only a couple of fin-strokes away, and I was hardly likely to be rescuing another diver while wearing it.
     The buoyancy was easily controlled, and air came out as easily as it went in. With an extra 8kg on the weightbelt, there was still enough buoyancy to lift me under water.
     The Mini Breather was perfect for the limited use to which I put it, and afterwards I simply dunked the whole thing in a tank of fresh water to rinse it. Motoring, holidays abroad and sex were all ruined once they became popular. Will the Mini Breather spell the end of scuba-diving as we know it?
     The 3.8 litre aluminium Mini Breather as tested costs £399. It is now being replaced by a 4.6 litre steel version with octopus and twin gauges for the same price.
    

Volo must follow hard act
At a time when most US fin manufacturers seem to be rushing to do a deal with Pete McCarthy, the man who put the split-fin in the form of "Nature's Wing" on the map, Mares is undaunted by any idea that its own designers might be getting it wrong.
     And why should it be daunted? Mares fins seem to have achieved world domination of the fin market. It makes the fin that nearly every diving instructor or dive-guide worldwide seems to be using.
     At Diver we have found the Plana Avanti Quattros consistently the best performers in different comparison tests over several years. So, having sworn my undying allegiance to Quattros only recently in these pages, I was sent a pair of Mares' new top-of-the-range Volos to try.
     It's difficult being in the lead and staying there, but commerce is a race that never ends - or so every commercial manager hopes. Mares must have been compelled to come up with a new idea. The question is, is it better?
     Well, everyone said they liked my fins when I produced them on the dive boat, so they obviously have consumer appeal.
     They were very comfortable to wear, too, and the new Advanced Buckle System appears a lot more durable than before though, having said that, I never encountered any problems with the older type.
     The Volos do not offer quite the performance of the Quattros and you certainly have to be very much more precise with your finning technique to make effective progress.
     With a Quattro on one foot and a Volo on the other, I could certainly tell that the fin stroke with the older model gave a more marked result. The Volos did not really work while sculling, either. The scientists who designed them expect you to stick to a conventional, straight-legged finning technique.
     Mares claims that its eight international patents, including the Optimizing Pivoting Blade system, give 30 per cent more power for the same effort. I can confirm that you feel no strain on your ankles while using the Volos but would add that they are more for average "tropical-water" divers than the big kickers of the scuba world.
     It's hard to come up with something better when you already make the best.
     On the one occasion when I found myself heading into a current and armed with the Volos, I got quite ratty at my lack of progress.
Volos are available in sizes S, Regular and XL and cost £125.

A snug fit, but beef up your wrists
Aqua-Lung is rather pleased with its Kerguelen drysuit. Instead of taking the more familiar membrane route, the company has opted for an 8mm neoprene suit that provides the insulation as well as a barrier to the water. No undersuit is required.
     The first impression was that it was very comfortable. Even the hood was (dare I say it?) a delight to pull over my head.
     The plush lining made the suit very easy to get on and off and the neoprene neck seal, turned in on itself to aid sealing, did not yank any hair out when I pulled it over my head.
     All the joints have thinner panels of 5mm material to enable the wearer to move easily and the cuff-seals are protected by a double layer. Vulnerable areas such as the shoulders and boot soles are reinforced to prevent wear and tear, and rubber knee-pads are nicely integrated. The separate hood is vented to reduce that pointy-headed effect caused by trapped exhaled air.
     The feature that most obviously sets this suit apart from others is that it comes without boots, just neoprene sock ends. The idea is for the wearer to use wetsuit boots, letting them suffer the slings and arrows of misfortune and be easily replaced when the time comes, rather than risking the suit itself.
     I looked at my American size 12 feet and wondered if I would be able to get them into any wetsuit boots once clad in this thick layer of neoprene, but I found that the Oceanic boots (Diver Tests, February) were just man enough for the job.
     A heavyweight cross-shoulder zip, Apeks low-profile constant-volume (automatic) shoulder dump and a swivelling inflation valve completes the picture.
     It is significant that condom manufacturers all choose latex rubber rather than neoprene for their products. In their sector, slight leaks can spell disaster! Neoprene wrist and neck seals will never offer the watertight integrity of the latex seals usually found supplied with membrane-style suits. Neoprene drysuits offer a different style of drysuit diving altogether and, without being disparaging, one might call them "damp-suits".
     Neoprene offers insulation whether it is used in a wetsuit or a drysuit, and a leak in a neoprene drysuit is not the disaster it might be in a membrane. However, don't expect to be able to wear your dinner jacket underneath and go directly from diving to a banquet without sitting in a wet patch later.
     You don't need to wear anything under the Kerguelen, it's so comfortable. I wore only my undershorts. Normally I would expect a tiny amount of water to make its way past the seals during the dive, and you expect to need to change into dry clothes afterwards.
     Unfortunately for me, my skinny wrists did not fit the profile of the sort of diver Aqua-Lung expects to wear a suit designed for a man 1.95m tall. The wrist seals were designed for someone with arms like a blacksmith, and the water gushed in past them.
     In fact I was a great deal wetter than I would have been in a wetsuit. I was almost swimming inside the Kerguelen.
     The upside was that this gave me the chance to test whether my BC was up to lifting a diver in a flooded drysuit (that old chestnut sometimes heard being regurgitated on club nights by instructors who should know better - water weighs nothing under water!).
     Wearing neoprene, I was able to continue the dive, albeit uncomfortably, but what we learn from this is that an ill-fitting drysuit will not be very warm.
     What is the significance of the name? The island of Kerguelen sits at latitude 49.3° South, on the border between the Indian and Antarctic Oceans, and as such it is supposed to be a somewhat windy and chilly place.
     Previous members of the Antarctic Survey tell me they always dived in thick wetsuits while in that part of the world.
     Drysuits were too much trouble in remote areas because the extreme cold played havoc with thin latex, making it rather inflexible and vulnerable. The Kerguelen suit would have been ideal.
     You might choose this excellent method of staying warm in cold water, but remember that a good fit is everything and the Kerguelen is not a condom.
The Aqua-Lung Kerguelen drysuit comes in a range of off-the-peg sizes at £400.

The Aqua-Lung Kerguelen's generous cuff-seals are not ideal for divers with skinny wrists


an Apeks low-profile constant-volume shoulder dump is fitted


along with a swivelling inflation valve on the chest

Instructors get the red light
I was diving on Spain's Costa Brava. Mike and I had just come up the line from a 50m dive. Already at the 6m mark were two other Brits we didn't know.
     We joined this pair then watched, fascinated, as they went through a peculiar ritual. One signalled: "Are you OK?" The other replied in the affirmative. The first asked the question again, and got the same reply. This went on five or six times in quick succession, the questioner becoming more agitated as time went by.
     I idly considered his gauge, and drew it towards me. It was showing zero. Mike instantly thrust his octopus into this man's mouth. He wasn't going to waste time being polite.
     It seems that the man without air would rather have drowned than suffer the perceived ignominy of using his mate's octopus. Mike's reaction? "Brits are so polite!"
     Seacsub products are imported by a young man from Rotherham. I call him a young man because I have noticed that his back is about 2m across! Let's call him Big John.
     I asked Big John to send me an example of the Seacsub Count Down. It's a little device with a red light that plugs into the spare high-pressure port of a regulator. The red light glows once the tank pressure is below 50 bar.
     Now I used to teach new divers, and one of the most nerve-wracking things about being in the water with more than one at a time is keeping tabs on their air supplies. My requests to get them to reveal their hp gauges, in the case of men at least, often seemed to be taken as a slight on their masculinity.
     I never believed in hand-signals. A misgiven or misunderstood hand-signal can so easily end in disappointment. So I thought a little red light was a good idea, something with which diving instructors might equip their trainees.
     I mentioned that Big John comes from Rotherham. When I phoned him and asked for a Count Down to try, he laughed. He said he had one but was not going to stock them. He said shop managers would laugh if he tried to get them to buy them.
     It seems the doughty boys of Rotherham and its environs would rather miss a deco-stop or drown than let anyone know they were low on air! Alas, if it is true in Rotherham, it is probably true elsewhere, too.
     In the event, Big John sent me a Count Down that formed part of a pressure gauge assembly. Here, I thought its application slightly silly. After all, if you can see a red light at the end of a pressure gauge, you can probably see the pressure gauge display too, and what's the difference between a needle in the red zone and a red light? Precious little.
     No, the Seacsub Count Down is probably better plugged straight into the hp port of the regulator, so that its glow reveals your air status to other divers.
It costs £70. Phone Big John and tell him if you want one!