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Regulator
Older readers will remember twin-hose regulators. They had a single-stage valve that was at the A-clamp. You breathed through the twin corrugated hoses, which had simple valves that allowed the air to pass only one way.
They were hard to breathe from and impossible to share. If you took a twin-hose regulator out of your mouth, you had to be sure to tilt it well to one side when you put it back, or your next inhalation was akin to drowning.
If you got the mouthpiece much higher than the valve, it free-flowed. If you somehow got the mouthpiece lower than the valve, it became like sucking on an empty bottle.
The invention of the now commonly used single-hose, two-stage regulator made diving possible for everyone, not only the superhuman, but Aqua-Lung has decided to revive the twin-hose regulator in the form of its new Mistral.
This is also the name used by Cousteau and Gagnan for their original valve, and the French Navy was using Spiro Mistrals until only recently.
In mid-February,after waiting while it had been tested by another British diving magazine, I was sent what I was told was the only example the importer had available. For purposes of hygiene, I was ready to take the hoses apart and give them a good spray with some disinfectant, but when it arrived it appeared that the Mistral had never even been wet.
In fact it was still very shiny and, indeed, quite sexy, with its seductive mixture of chromed brass and black rubbery hoses. I found myself wanting to own one before I had even tried it.
So that's why the company has revived the twin-hose idea in the form of the new Mistral - because it knows people will want to buy it. In the commercial world, that's reason enough.
I wanted to see how easy it would be to clean the hoses and found that although they readily unscrewed from the mouthpiece, they did not do so from both ends. So it would be quite difficult to dislodge remaining water, after spraying and rinsing.
I was careful to put the mouthpiece back round the right way, so that the inhaled air went to the exhaust port.
What is the advantage of a twin-hose regulator? Some would say it makes you look like a proper diver, of the likes of Cousteau, Hans Hass and Commander Crabbe.
Others suggest that because the bubbles are exhaled from behind your head, they won't frighten the marine life. Somehow, they think a twin-hose gives you a Harry Potter Cloak of Invisibility.
I have had considerable experience photographing skittish scalloped hammerhead sharks, using both closed-circuit rebreathers and open-circuit scuba. With a CCR, though you may release no bubbles at all, you are still not invisible. The only way you can fool the hammerheads into not seeing you is to make like a rock.
Whether bubbles come out of the regulator in your mouth or from the back of your head, or out of your backside for that matter, one emission and the sharks are off!
If you are a photographer and irritated by exhaled bubbles coming up around your face,I suggest you get a regulator with a longer exhaust T, or find some way of extending the one you have. But I still want a Mistral. Why? Because it looks cool, that's why!
Of course it would be really stupid to swap a modern regulator for something that was going to be asthmatic to breathe from. Aqua-Lung has thought of that.
The new Mistral is now a two-stage regulator. The maker has positioned the second stage with its exhaust port alongside the first stage at the back of the diver's head, and fitted to it two corrugated hoses and a mouthpiece. In fact it still has the single mp hose between the two stages. This runs in a short loop between them.
The version tested and certified for EN250 and all the other Euro standards was fitted with a long loop of hose, and it is suggested that you use this instead of the short one also supplied, if you intend to use it in cold fresh water.
I bet this is for legal reasons, but we can pretend that the longer length of mp hose allows a greater heat-sink for the depressurised air, conveniently ignoring the fact that it is covered in a thick layer of insulating rubber. The longer hose does make a lovely loop, which calls out to get hooked on something as you pass by. I took care to reroute it in a loop to a first-stage port at the opposite side to its connection to the second stage, so that it presented slightly less of a hazard.
The Mistral's first stage is virtually the same as that of the Aqua-Lung Titan. It has the usual four mp ports, the first of which is for the second-stage feed of the Mistral while the rest are meant to be available for a conventional second stage on a hose, to use as an octopus for a direct-feed for a BC and for a direct-feed for a drysuit.
I say "meant to be", because I was unable to connect the fourth mp hose. There was too little space between it and the fixed plastic second stage, and that was after an hour of trying different combinations. There is only one high-pressure port. So I used the Mistral on a twin-set alongside a conventional Titan single-hose regulator.
The omission of the second hp port could also be its Achilles heel when it comes to sales. The diver who buys this expensive and, some would say, capricious item will buy it simply because he wants it. He really wants it.
The same person has probably bought a gas-integrated computer too, perhaps for the same reason. This means he will fit his transmitter and have nowhere for a secondary hp hose and contents gauge unless, like me, he uses it as part of a manifolded twin-tank configuration.
In the water, with the second stage so far from my mouth, it was obvious that breathing was going to take more effort than with the equivalent Titan, but I was surprised to find it less arduous than I had expected.
Compared to the breathe from the conventional Titan LX Supreme, the air supplied is much more diffused. That's because it has not been squirted directly from a valve into your mouth but has to make its way first along a convoluted hose. Unlike the mouthpiece of a rebreather, there was no ability to close this one if I took it out of my mouth while submerged.
Flooding a hose meant tilting my head and body well to the left, so that the water was expelled down the left hose and out of the exhaust with the next exhalation. This again proved less difficult than expected.
True, there were no bubbles coming up near my face, but there is a price to pay for this small luxury. Besides the increased work of breathing and the circumspection needed before replacing a flooded mouthpiece, the hoses tend to float. I felt they needed weights, such as those the Inspiration and Prism CCR have.
I also needed to fit the mouthpiece at the right rotation to the hoses, or discomfort ensued, despite the Comfobite mouthpiece. After half an hour under water, the mouthpiece started to rub uncomfortably on my upper front gums and, yes, the performance altered depending on whether I was looking up or had my head down. In that respect, it was just like Gagnan's original Mistral.
The other mistake I made was to chuck the hose out of the way over my head when I finally surfaced. This caused it to go into dramatic free-flow and the buoyancy provided by all that rushing air made it impossible to retrieve until I was completely clear of the water.
This did not dampen my enthusiasm, only my tonsils.I very quickly became accustomed to the slight quirkiness of the Mistral and can confirm that it is still a very desirable piece of kit. It's like having a Mont Blanc pen or a Rolex Submariner - there's no real reason for it but it looks great.
In the ice-cold waters of Sweden, the mouthpiece kept my lips comfortable, and the inhaled air felt less frigid than it might have done. It shouldn't present any problems with freezing, because the first stage is so designed that moving parts do not come into contact with the water.
The problem is that I've been spoiled by using rebreathers.I couldn't really focus on any positive advantage of owning the Mistral when I was under water, other than the looks I would get strolling along Swanage Pier on a hot summer weekend, or at fancy dress parties.
Rest assured, however, we'll see a lot of divers in the movies using them. Film directors will love how the Mistral looks, and so do I.
The Aqua-Lung Mistral costs £460.
Aqua-Lung UK, 0116 2124200, www.aqualung.co.uk
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+ A sexy-looking bit of kit
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- Harder to use than a conventional single-hose regulator
- The price
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Dive recorder
Amazingly, there are some divers who still believe that diving computers are a bad thing. They frown at the idea of decompression calculations on the fly and, although they might plan their dives with the aid of PCs and suitable software, all the information is relegated to a slate, and religiously followed using depth-gauge and dive-timer.
One such group originated from a cave-diving project on which some 80 divers were employed.
Their leader sensibly wanted them all diving in the same manner, with identical kit configurations and no plan changes made after leaving the surface.
So you can see why computers were banned. They would have given the divers the opportunity to improvise, and you don't want a large group of people with a single objective improvising. That also goes for film-making and war-waging.
However, rigid rules do not work in all circumstances, and the circumstances of diving can change dramatically.
That's without things going badly wrong. I was involved in a dive on which a diver lost his life - thank goodness he was wearing a computer that had logged his actions in the manner of an aircraft's "black box". Without it, the coroner could have been misled by some of the witnesses.
In the light of that experience, not only do I never dive without a computer strapped to me but I am now reluctant to dive anywhere near those who avoid them.
So what of those divers who eschew dive computers? The Sensus Pro is not a computer but it fulfils the function of a black box in that it tracks what the diver does under water. It isn't useful only if the diver dies, either. He or she can later download the dive profile to either a Mac or PC, using its handy interface and software.
I attached one to my BC (far left) and went diving, never giving it a second thought. However, it stayed with me, recording depth against time and additional information such as the water temperature.
The download manager also allows you to put in additional data so that it can perform the function of an electronic log-book. It's similar to many diving computer download managers. However, dive computers are becoming so inexpensive nowadays that I am not sure the Sensus Pro has any application other than being acceptable to those who denounce computers as "bad".
I would suggest that mainstream divers put their money towards the real thing.
The Sensus Pro costs £79, including interface download cradle. You will also need a USB adaptor and lead (£14).
Global Underwater Explorers 01305 824 555, www.gue.com
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+ Black-box function for those without computers
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- Why not do it properly and get the real thing?
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Wetsuit
AFTER AN EXTREMELY COLD sojourn in the waters of the Red Sea in January, when even my woolly-lined wetsuit and hood provided insufficient thermal insulation, and I had to borrow another 7mm jacket to go over it,the Editor kindly sent me to the Caribbean to warm up and recover.
My confidence in my ability to choose the right suit firmly dented, I packed a Chill Cheater undersuit and a Fourth Element layer to go over the top of the 3mm O'Neill 3000X wetsuit that I took to write about for these pages.
I needn't have bothered.The warm waters of St Vincent flooded over me like a comfortable bath and the O'Neill suit was perfect.
Not only that, but it was so comfortable that I hardly felt I was wearing a suit, thanks to its super-stretch neoprene and tailored cut.
Mind you, I had to go "commando" (that's without any shorts underneath) because every lump and bump was clearly defined. With my shorts in place it looked as if I had an old newspaper stuffed around my waist. With so little rubber to displace, and a small steel tank on my back, I hardly needed any lead weights either.
Wow! I could get hooked on this diving nonsense!
The Californian-based manufacturer has initially concentrated on selling its products to surfers and boarders, and you know what a lot of posers that lot are. No wonder the suit looks so good.
So many suits are made in the Far East nowadays, and this one is no exception. However, the quality of stitching that comes out of its Thailand workshop is something to behold. So often I write about a suit I've used only to find that the stitching starts to unravel just after the publication of my praise. It certainly won't happen in this case.
Not only that, but the suit is designed such that there is no stitching in those areas subject to stretching and stress.
The 3000X has a zip up the back, combined with an underlying smooth-skin comfort-flap. It's a true wetsuit, so there are no wrist or ankle seals, but it is nicely trimmed.
It fitted me so snugly that I was hardly wet when I climbed out of the water. But it wasn't difficult to put on because it stretches so easily. It's got sexy soft rubber knee-pads, too.
I used the 3000X in conjunction with O'Neill FX-5 5mm boots. These have a silky soft lining and grippy but rather thin soles. I found they were a little uncomfortable when I went ashore to do a bit of rock-climbing in them, but in the water they were as slinky to wear as the suit.
I got a friend to photograph me running down the beach at Young Island. One of the onlookers later asked me if I was a professional model.
He said he was impressed at the way I could run! That was flattery (I know it wasn't irony because he was American), but I put it down to the appearance of the suit. A coating of black rubber can hide so many defects.
The O'Neill 3000X super-stretch 3mm wetsuit costs £99 and the FX-5 5mm wetsuit boots cost £30.
O'Neill, www.oneilleurope.com
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+ Good stretch for easy donning. Great fit
+ High-quality finishing
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Drysuit
I suppose few of you will remember when Aquion had a lion's share of the British drysuit market. That was because it came up with a simple membrane suit that didn't fit like a dustbin-liner and actually kept the water out.
That was then and this is now. Aquion has been under new ownership for a few years and it still makes suits to that popular formula, but today it has fierce competition, even from within its own production lines.
The Aquion drysuit is just one of the many products made by John Gordon's Airsub International. It was sent to me in an off-the-peg size. The difference from previous Aquion suits is that this one has the telescoping body feature that was once unique to the products of the Californian drysuit company DUI, and protected by a now-defunct patent.
With a diagonal front-entry zip, this allows you to pull the top half over your head from the back once you've got your legs in the bottom half. The bottom half, meanwhile, is held up with internal braces, and once your arms are in the sleeves and your head through the neck seal, that extra bit of torso is taken care of by a tuck, and kept there by an adjustable strap that passes between the legs.
One good thing about the internal braces: they're white and pale grey. Thank goodness someone has listened to me at last. I was getting fed up with black braces that got lost inside the gloomy black interior of every drysuit so that I often got them, along with my knickers, in a twist. My only criticism here is that the fixing points for the braces look a little flimsy.
With a front diagonal zip, the suit is almost self-donning. I just needed a little help closing up the last bit. I've never had a suit that I could zip up unassisted.
The heavy-duty zip is covered by a flap held closed with Velcro patches. The tri-laminate material is labelled "titanium" and evidently has this metal oxide within the butyl-rubber mix. This is meant to give it some insulating qualities.
It certainly has some stretch. I punched a perfectly neat round hole in the thigh for the power lead of my Typhoon Icebreaker heated vest, hung the drysuit up for a couple of weeks while I was away, and came back to finish the job to find that the hole had temporarily turned oval.
Whatever the significance of the titanium-oxide metal within the trilaminate sandwich, the suit looks to be simply if strongly made, with serious-looking double stitching and lots of tape in evidence on the inside.
The neck seal is conical and made of latex. I like this type of neck seal, because those of us with scrawny necks never stay dry with any other type. There is a heavier rubber collar over it to help stop heat-loss from the main arteries in your neck. The wrist seals are heavy-duty conical rubber, too.
It was ominous that the 5mm thick neoprene-rubber boots were wet inside when the suit arrived. I hoped it was not a portent of things to come, and it was not.
The ripple-padded shin areas of the legs are matched by natty Velcro-covered ankle-flaps that allow you to secrete a kilo of lead in each. This will help keep your feet down. The back of the suit is gathered at the waist, too, giving it a more fitted look than would otherwise be the case.
A useful touch comes with the thigh pockets, one of which is short and fat and suitable for a small reel (I dropped a 2kg weight in there) while the other is flat and long for a knife, with a D-ring to attach a lanyard, too.
Neither is big enough to act like a sea-anchor. What a shame that neither was suitable for the battery-pack of my heated vest.
Finally, an Apeks rotating inflation valveis fitted via a heavy gasket at the chest. An Apeks low-profile constant-volume dump valve is similarly fitted at the left shoulder. I got a bit wet when I first tried the suit, but then I tightened up the valves. Doh!
The titanium film inside the neoprene hood supplied with the suit makes it quite slippery to the touch, and is claimed to minimise water entry. It is also said to minimise heat loss by acting as an infra-red reflector, keeping the heat of your head where it belongs, around your brain.
It certainly felt very comfortable, and I noticed the difference when I forgot it one day and had to borrow another.
So, after fitting an electrical connection for the heated vest, I set off for Sweden in February. The suit kept the water out, and a Weezle undersuit combined with a Fourth Element base layer kept the heat from the Typhoon Icebreaker vest in. If only I had been able to keep my hands adequately warm,I could have stayed in that balmy 3¡ water all day!
As it was, I found myself scrabbling up among the slippery boulders on the shore trying to drag out myself, my steel twinset and 12kg of lead, with totally numb hands. Thank goodness the Aquion Extreme was tough enough not to puncture on the sharper rocks, and stayed watertight all week.
The Aquion Extreme drysuit is a robust, workmanlike job that should see years of service. It comes in a range of off-the-peg sizes, with short and tall versions. It costs £625.
Airsub International 01404 890196, www.aquion-dive.com
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+ A workmanlike job
+ Quite well fitted
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- Not particularly pretty
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