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 CLASSIC AIM OF EVERY INVENTOR is said to be to build a better mousetrap. Why? Because the classic sprung trap is simple and effective and therefore hard to beat. Making something more complicated is rarely the answer.
     Among the plethora of complicated equipment available for us divers to buy, fins remain among the most simple. Even if subtle improvements in the way of flutes and splits have been added to some designs, there are still divers who swear by original black rubber Jetfins circa 1953.
     Just as there will always be better mousetrap seekers, similarly there will always be an inventor trying to come up with a radical improvement in the design of fins.
     At the international diving trade show DEMA in the USA last autumn, I counted two new exhibitors with revolutionary new ways of turning leg-muscle power into swimming power.
     We have yet to see any sign of these designs in the marketplace but I should not be in haste to belittle these efforts.
     That lovely man Bob Evans, someone who surely must be the doyen of nutty inventors, has designed 101 different new fins. To his credit, several versions of his Force Fins are available, even if he did have to make them himself.
     So are we likely soon to see Gills New ICE fins on every diver's feet?
     "Gills are striving to design futuristic with the times diving fins to make all types of diving experience with a new edge," says the publicity material.
     Evolved and manufactured in South Africa, Gills New ICE fins make the most extraordinary products of Bob Evans' creatively tortured mind look positively dull! They had to be prototypes, surely? But no, the publicity material clearly stated that these were the actual product.
     My first impression was that, constructed as they are in bent transparent polycarbonate material and fixed together with stainless-steel rivets, the "new edge" is such that I wouldn't give a child a pair to play with in case they cut themselves!
     They look as if they are made by the people who make those clear plastic display dummies, the sort of thing you might see adorned with a BC or a computer in a dive-shop window, or wearing a bra elsewhere.
     Your foot sits in a pre-formed shape with the toes held in place by a wide Velcro strap, and your ankle is secured by a traditional fin strap, used in a less-than-traditional way over the top of the foot. I was disappointed to find that I needed to wear wetsuit boots, because the plastic at the sides dug into my feet.
     Four flimsy-looking side rails, made from hollow tubing, structurally support the paddle, which has what I can only describe as a biplane design. I had little confidence that the fins would survive the rigours of travel but I took them on my next dive trip across the Atlantic because they are so lightweight, at around 1.5kg a pair.
     The manufacturer says that, in addition to ordinary paddle power, the second layer of fins adds a hydrofoil effect and the hollow pipes give a pumping action to the water. They call it "jet power".
     Well, they work, which came as something of a surprise to me. I was able to fin alongside those with more conventional propulsion methods and keep up. They did get a little uncomfortable after some time because I could have done with thicker boots, but otherwise they were effective in the water.
     Of course, on the deck of the dive boat I had to put up with a fair amount of ridicule from other divers, but I'm used to that. It's just that these fins look so unattractive, and I was waiting for that fatal crunching sound when someone inadvertently stepped on them, but it never came.
     So I should be writing a good report but I guess I'm just not enamoured of a pair of fins fabricated from bent plastic and riveted together.
     I also have a problem with the name. Fish live in water, breathe through gills and move by swimming with fins. Gills New ICE fins is a mixed metaphor if ever I saw one.
Gills New ICE fins cost £112 including shipping to the UK direct from South Africa.

Gills Fins, www.gillsfins.com

+ Very lightweight + They work

- You could be the object of ridicule - Be careful not to cut yourself!

Pro performer at an amateur price
THE MARES AXIS PRO MIGHT SOUND AS IF IT'S AIMED AT PROFESSIONALS but at first glance you would assume that this was an entry-level regulator. I'm told that it's called Pro to distinguish it from its less-well-performing predecessor.
     It uses the MR12 diaphragm-type first stage designed with a fixed barrel, a well-thought-of performer when it comes to deliveries of gas. This has four medium-pressure and two hp ports.
     The Axis Pro has a lightweight polymer second stage uncluttered by any knobs or switches. Exponential free-flows, against which other manufacturers provide a venturi plus/minus switch, are taken care of by the patent Mares "Bi-pass tube", which avoids drops in pressure caused by fast flows of air across the back of the pressure-sensitive front membrane.
     The mesh front proves good in a front-on current in that it too resists any tendency to cause a free-flow. It unscrews after a simple locking-pin is removed, should you need to clean debris from inside the spacious main chamber. The purge button is clearly seen and easily accessed in the middle of this.
     In fact the Axis Pro has all the features of its much more expensive siblings combined in a less expensively made package. I say this because the second stage, in the way it feels, evokes those cheap plastic toys made in the Far East.
     The first stage, on the other hand, exudes the usual Mares high manufacturing quality, although the fixed barrel design does mean that, if a full set of hoses is used, some will take up a rather uncomfortable routeing and may encounter some strain.
     The Axis Pro is a big chunk of kit. It seems to make no concessions to the complications of diving in cold, fresh water either, but if you're looking for a standard design while being budget-conscious, you could do worse than this uncluttered regulator.
     Under water I found it good enough to be uneventfu - something I could use and take for granted on every dive I did with it, save for a slight whistling sound that became apparent only when I had exactly 50 bar of gas remaining in my tank.
     I could have kidded myself that this was a design feature, but I simply thought it fortuitous that it gave me an audible warning just as I was about to consider ending the dive! At higher and lower tank-pressures it was silent. I'm sure it performs as well as more expensive Mares products.
     The typically small Mares mouthpiece doesn't suffer from having to support a heavy second stage but I needed to position my lower jaw slightly forward, so tended to swallow air into my stomach, leading to a bit of heartburn during deeper dives.
     Although not large, I found that the exhaust-T was quite effective in routeing exhaled bubbles away from the front of my face.
The Mares Axis Pro costs a competitive £150.

Blandford Sub-Aqua 01923 801572, www.blandfordsubaqua.co.uk

+ Good performance at budget end of price spectrum

- Poor hose routeing - Large and cheap-looking second stage

My favourite weightbelt
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, I EQUIPPED A LITTLE DIVE CENTRE I ran in Mallorca with SeaQuest weightbelts. I chose them because they were the best I had ever encountered.
     When I sold up, I kept some of the belts but, being the forgetful person I am, I had a tendency on my travels to leave them with the weights I had borrowed at overseas dive locations. Two years ago, I left the last of the bunch of these SeaQuest weightbelts at Small Hope Bay, on Andros in the Bahamas.
     I got on to Aqua-Lung UK, the British distributor of SeaQuest products, with the idea of buying a couple more, but to my disappointment I was told that SeaQuest had not made them for years. So when I went back to Small Hope Bay this year, the first question I asked when I got there was this: did they still have my weightbelt?
     To my delight, I found that the resident dive-guide was using it. As he reluctantly unthreaded his weights and handed it back, he too admitted that it was the best weightbelt he had ever used. Perhaps I should have been more generous and let him keep it but - tough!
     To my delight, I have discovered that IST, the Taiwanese manufacturer, is now making a weightbelt of the same design and that the IST distributor (the former distributor of SeaQuest products in the UK) had just started importing a consignment.
     Alas, I didn't get there in time, but I am told that there are more on the way. So here's a review of a 15-year-old weightbelt made with the assumption that you will be able to buy the IST product by the time you read about it.
     It's made from the usual 5cm-wide webbing and you thread the weights on in the usual way. It's important that you use the two H-clips provided at either end of the line of weights to prevent them sliding onto the buckle.
     One end of the buckle is threaded back on itself and the loose end of webbing can be tugged on to pull the weightbelt tight. This can be done easily at depth, when your suit may be compressed and the belt in danger of slackening its grip on your waist. It can be kept tidy by threading through an extra slotted piece of plastic.
     The buckle has a rigid loop that is hooked onto the opposing part of the other half of the buckle. This opposing part has a short loose end finished off with a toggle. Although the whole thing clunks together very firmly, pulling on this short toggle, normally secured out of the way with a patch of Velcro, affords an instant release.
     I can tell you that the weightbelt photographed here has endured 15 years of heavy use, including virtually two or three dives a day without break in the past two years, without providing any problems. However, I must remind myself that when I first used it back at the Inland Sea site in Gozo, I stupidly dispensed with the H-clips. The weights slipped round to the front and pushed the quick-release buckle open.
     It did this just at the moment I had decided to remove my mask and swap it for another. I'm sure George Vella of the Calypso Diving Centre will remember the scene well, as I swam round blindly at 30m looking for the weightbelt.
The IST weightbelt is remarkably cheap at between £6 and £10. That's a lot less than the SeaQuest version was all those years ago, and there's not much in diving that costs so little. Rest assured, I will send a replacement back to the dive-guide at Small Hope Bay.

Sea & Sea 01803663012, www.sea-sea.com

+ The most secure but instantly releasable weightbelt ever + Very inexpensive

- Takes a little time to thread the weights on

Highlights of light engineering
SOMETIMES I COME ACROSS A PIECE OF EQUIPMENT which is very good indeed. The Suunto Finn Light range is a case in point. These underwater lanterns have now been upgraded with even more sophis-ticated charging electronics, so I make no excuse for telling you about them again.
     The main difference between the Navy 208 and the new 209, and the Navy 80 and the new 90, is that the charging circuitry is now inside the lamp unit. The power feeders are of universal voltage (120-240V) and come with two-pin Euro connectors with a three-pin UK plug on a secure adapter.
     They each take about four hours to charge from flat and, because of the electronic wizardry, during concentrated diving trips you can leave them permanently on charge between dives without fear of harming the battery, knowing that your unit will always be fully charged at the start of the next dive.
     These Finn Lights have charge-at-any-time ni-mh batteries, high colour-temperature xenon bulbs, and sequential switching which allows you to vary the output (and burntime) from quarter- through half to full power, and with a setting for permanent flashing of an SOS signal. Positive click-and-twist operation makes accidental switching almost impossible.
     The sleekly designed, anodised aluminium casings are double-O-ring sealed but there is no routine need to open them, as the charger leads connect to the outside.
     Open one up to change a bulb and you'll find the electronics all neatly sealed behind a second, inner sleeve.
     Both models have tempered-glass fronts that allow you to use them both in air and under water. Light output is controlled by electronics too; a built-in microprocessor adjusts voltages so light output is constant throughout the battery charge.
     When it nears the end of its charge, the lamp is dimmed to around a fifth of normal output for a short period before finally switching off, to preserve the life of the battery-pack. It also knows if any gas is given off by the battery and switches the lamp off as a safety precaution.
     Both the Navy 209 and Navy 90 provide soft, even beams. My only criticism is that on the full-power setting during a night dive, fish were waking up and reaching for their suntan lotion!
     The larger Navy 90 is nearly 30cm long and has a burntime of around an hour with its 14V battery and 50W bulb. The 208 is around 8cm shorter and has only a 20W bulb powered by a 7V battery, but offers an additional 20 minutes of burntime for one charge. Both weigh around half a kilo when submerged and an optional neoprene sleeve can mitigate this further.
     The convenience of both size and burntime of the smaller Navy 209 makes it the better choice for most applications. Unless you dive alongside someone with a much brighter lamp, you will never notice the difference in light output. Either will make a satisfying purchase.
The Suunto Finn Light Navy 209 costs £269, the Navy 90 £359.

Suunto UK 01420 567272, www.suunto.com

+ Excellent build quality + State of the art

- No cheap bargain

Hours of entertainment
THE RECENTLY INTRODUCED OCEANIC OCEAN PRO FX is a conventional-style BC that I can foresee being well-received in the British diving market. It has a comfortable back cushion and an elasticated cummerbund, three ways to dump air, including a valve integrated with its corrugated hose, four stainless-steel D-rings including two big ones at the shoulders, and two easily accessed and capacious zipped pockets.
     Its integrated-weight system is excellent. This includes two large pockets (big enough for around 3kg each) at the upper rear for trim-weights. These prove handy when used with an aluminium tank .
     Then there are large curved weight-pouches at the front. These are closed up with large helpings of Velcro before being inserted into slots in the BC. They are held in place not only by Velcro but through a new Oceanic retention system. This includes a pinch-clip that levers open in a moment by pulling on the rigidly fixed toggle provided.
     I managed to load 10kg of lead in the front with absolutely no danger of any falling out when I was not expecting it.
     The integrated weight system is optional. Should you choose not to use it, flaps are provided that close up the slots so that they provide no drag under water, nor any risk of entanglement.
     I carried a lot of lead, which made the full rig hard to pick up, but once it was on my back I found it extremely comfortable, and in the water there was none of that "swimming with saddle-bags" effect I have encountered with some similar BCs.
     Pulling the weights out when I wanted to was a doddle. There was no doubt about the release and I was even able to reinstall the weights easily while under water, after that simple test.
     It was actually slightly harder in the dry on the deck of the boat. This system would afford a slick method of passing up your weights to someone in an inflatable.
     I tend to dump air by using the right-hand shoulder dump, but found the toggle on this dump cord a little irritating, because it floated. After jumping into the water from the boat it was often caught up under the shoulder strap and at other times it was hard to find. I suggest that Oceanic substitute this for a negatively buoyant ball that hangs down just where you expect it to be. Otherwise, the BC released air without any drama and without any sign of air getting trapped inside it.
     At the surface it provided masses of support but when fully inflated it put me into a bear-hug that was less than comfortable long before the pressure-relief valve blew off. That means that the buoyancy cell expands both outwards and inwards, whereas some BCs expand only away from the wearer.
     Oceanic also supplies a neat little pocket that seems ideal for a rolled-up delayed SMB. This too is held closed by masses of Velcro.
     I had the optional Personal Safety Device (PSD), a two-colour orange/yellow 1.5m safety sausage that is inflated similarly to an aircraft lifejacket. It comes with a long strap and pinch-clip, so once inflated can be attached, at the surface, to a waiting diver's waist. It also has a zip so that it can be turned into the equivalent of a lifebelt or even rigged in such a way that it can be used like old-fashioned water-wings.
     If you find yourself with time to spare while waiting for your pick-up boat, it offers hours of amusement!
Other divers commented that it looked a little bulky on me, though I felt it fitted snugly. I certainly had no qualms about using it. £286 (PSD £25 extra).

Oceanic SW 01404 891819, www.OceanicUK.com

+ Secure integrated- weight system + Comfortable

- A little bulky - Floaty dump toggle

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