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COMPUTER
Voulez-vous plonger avec moi? Well, if you put it like that, how could I refuse? If you live in Britain and feel that our nearest neighbours, the French, seem a little foreign at times, imagine how they seem to Americans, who sometimes have difficulty relating to someone from an adjoining state.
The last French-made computer I tried was a Beuchat, and it was a little quirky compared to the other European-made computers I used alongside it. It seemed to use a totally different decompression philosophy and it could be set only for air or nitrox 32 or 36.
I wish my nitrox supplies came that precisely mixed (perhaps they will be, once membrane systems for producing nitrox are as widespread in Britain as they are in most other parts of the world). But then, I never got to see many people using those Beuchat computers, not even French people.
By comparison with that past model, the new Beuchat Voyager computer seems rather familiar. It uses a 12-tissue Haldane algorithm modified by Rogers and Powell, rather like many US computers. No-stop times seemed to be more in line with US figures than typically more cautious European ones.
I imagine that the Americans have put aside their resistance to French fries and "Jean L'Etranger" and cut a deal.
In line with most other computers on sale today, the Voyager can be used as an air or nitrox computer and in "depth-gauge and timer" mode, when it is rated to 120m maximum depth. It is set up with the aid of two push-buttons and is of the current popular hockey-puck style that can be mounted either on your wrist or in a console.
I took it on a series of typical leisure dives during a liveaboard trip in the Red Sea and used it in nitrox mode. I set it to 21% O2 when I used air.
This is a full-function nitrox computer adjustable from 21 to 50% O2. It reverts to a worst-case-scenario oxygen 50% nitrogen 79% if you forget to set it. I found it best to set it immediately before diving (pressing the two buttons together for a couple of seconds to get into nitrox setting mode) to prevent this.
If you forget, your dive will get very noisy because of presumed overloading with oxygen toxicity units, but the Voyager doesn't lock out. It still allows you to use it for the following dive, reset for proper nitrox values. You can choose maximum ppO2 values from 1.2 to 1.6 bar.
Ever pragmatic, as the French tend to be, the Voyager comes with a key for resetting it. I guess that's to make it more practical for computer rental at dive centres where different divers might use a single computer in a day.
Jump in the water with it and you will see that not only does it activate automatically but the LCD, which has big figures and is very easy to read under water, shows remaining no-stop times, stop depths and times, maximum depth and dive duration. An alternative display, activated by pushing the left button when the Voyager is set in nitrox-mode, gives current depth, water temperature and time of day.
A bar graph shows decreasing no-stop time and another displays increasing oxygen accumulation. A third indicates ascent rates, which are variable from 18 to 9m/min, depending on whether you are shallower than 18m or not.
After ascending to 6m from a no-stop dive, the Voyager automatically goes into Safety-Stop mode and counts down three minutes at 4.5m. If you get into deco-stops, it shows stop-ceiling depth and the time required to wait there.
At this time both the main display and three alternative displays are available. These reveal just about everything you would need to know on a single-tank dive, including the actual ppO2 of the nitrox mix set at the current depth, plus the total ascent-time needed.
The computer has the usual single-mix dive-planning features. Get it into set-up mode before diving, and you can access operations you might perform at the dive site, such as setting the nitrox mix and alarms for maximum depth or dive time, and also PC downloading. It remembers the last 24 dives.
A second set-up mode is for more permanent settings, such as metric or imperial measurements and setting the date and time. The usual history and logbook functions include total desaturation time remaining. Amazingly, you can also opt to disable the automatic wet-activation feature. Why would you?
The Voyager automatically adjusts for ambient air pressure, which takes care of diving at altitude, and its display is self-illuminating. Its user-changeable 3.5V lithium battery is said to be good for 300 hour-long dives.
I compared its no-stop times with those derived from modern Suunto and Uwatec computers also strapped on my arm. It was always far more cavalier with its recommendations than I would have preferred. In fact, I never got it near getting into deco-stop mode in more than 10 dives, though I did with the other two. Make of that what you will.
I made my last dive with it on 4 July, appropriate due to its country of manufacture. Despite the French branding, I didn't think it necessary to wait the extra 10 days for Bastille Day.
The Beuchat Voyager costs around £240.
Beuchat, www.beuchat.fr/catalogue
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+ Easy to use
+ Clear to read
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- Less cautious than some truly European rivals
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REGULATOR
REMEMBER WHEN BMW MADE BUBBLE CARS? The German manufacturer started selling in the UK with some very modest offerings, as did Apeks 20 years ago. Now the diving products of Blackburn are thought of in their field as the equivalent of the motoring products of Munich.
And just as there are BMW owners out there who wanted something extra to make their motor look a bit special, Apeks Marine can supply its top-of-the-range regulator with the equivalent of colour-coded skirts and mirrors.
It started with the ATX200 Black Pearl. It was offered experimentally in a limited edition and had a finish achieved by "physical vapour deposition". It's tougher than normal anodised brass. People liked the idea of something unique.
I suppose it stopped bickering over who owned what on crowded dive boats, or it could simply have been the reason people buy those Mercedes with enormous engines that they will never use other than for winning advantage at their golf club bar. It's a classic case of the buyer asking: "Haven't you got something more expensive?"
I'm told that people almost broke the arms of Apeks dealers to get their hands on the Black Pearl. Or was it just because Pirates of the Caribbean had captured their imagination?
Whatever the reason, if you were disappointed by the limited supply you need feel aggrieved no longer. Apeks has brought out an ATX 200 with the equivalent of lowered suspension and blackened windows, and metallic black throughout. It's finished in a hard and durable PVD coating that uses high-tech grades of titanium, zirconium and chromium (well, that's what they told me). The effect is quite fetching, and it works. When I unpacked my bag at a dive site, it elicited comments along the lines of: "Trust you to have the best" and "What's wrong with an ordinary regulator?".
Of course few stopped to think that the following week I might be using something quite primitive and likely to drown me. Then, I suppose, there are all the Black Pearl owners whose noses are out of joint because the Tungsten is a later model.
What about its performance? Well, it's exactly the same as a standard chromed-brass version of the ATX 200, and that has been well-documented on these pages. I still feel that the exhaust tee is a little small, which puts exhaled bubbles up directly in front of my face when I am stationary and trying to concentrate on what's going on in front of my camera. Divers who constantly press ahead will never notice that.
The ATX Tungsten's inhalation characteristics cannot be faulted, although the fact that every manufacturer now has its own ANSTI machine means that there are those that can do better in the numbers game.
But if a regulator can give you as much air as you need, what's the difference? When the CE criterion for the work of breathing is 3 joules, do you really think you will notice the difference between a top regulator that operates at 1 joule, and one that operates at 0.7 of a joule? You certainly won't be able to do that unless you have them side by side.
The Apeks ATX 200 has all the characteristics and features you might expect of a top regulator. The first stage is an environmentally dry-sealed diaphragm design with four medium-pressure take-offs and two hp ports. These are spaced such that there are no problems routeing hoses or employing transmitters for integrated-computers. The second stage has the usual venturi plus/minus switch to reduce the chance of accidental free-flow at the surface, and a big knob so that you can turn up the cracking-pressure needed to open the valves as you inhale Ð just in case your life becomes too easy. The purge is an easy-to-find, solid button at the front.
I was castigated in 1993 for writing that I preferred an Apeks to a Poseidon regulator. The ATX 200 Tungsten has all the features and performance that has led to such fierce brand loyalty (certainly on Internet forums) that we used to see with Poseidon regulator users then.
The Apeks ATX 200 Tungsten has just that extra look demanded by those who can afford £437 for such items.
Apeks Marine Equipment 01254 692200
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- Marks the user as someone who demands bling
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COMMS
During my last trip on the liveaboard Hurricane in the Red Sea, I noticed that Grant, the dive-guide, was talking to the driver of the pick-up boat from the diving deck via what seemed to be a rather toy-like walkie-talkie. He told me that tour operator Tony Backhurst had sent them to him from England, and that they had proved invaluable.
Because all the other boats in the area were using Marine VHF, there were often problems with interference on air-waves loaded with heavy traffic. That's not something encountered with these little babies.
They even have 304 dedicated channels from which to select, so if all the other boat operators caught on to the idea, it still wouldn't be a problem. They were also really cheap!
Grant went on to tell me that not only did they have a stand-by time approaching 22 hours and sufficient range (about two miles) to do the job, but they were so simple that even a child could use one. I can confirm this. Shortly after unwrapping the parcel in which a pair was delivered to me, my five-year-old daughter was calling me up from the garden.
Let's get it straight: these do not replace a good marine VHF radio as an emergency calling device. They are simply to be used by two parties who expect to be calling each other.
So the pick-up boat driver and a crew-member on a liveaboard can keep in touch, as can two groups on different RIBs diving in the same vicinity.
People who go ashore can keep in touch with those left to mind the boat, and even people travelling by way of two cars can keep line-of-sight contact without incurring big telephone bills or CB breakers on the side.
These walkie-talkies do not conform to the description of a mobile phone, either, so you can use one while driving as legally as you can eat an apple.
These walkie-talkies are very lightweight, and covered in a grippy rubber material, so they are quite resistant to being dropped as long as it is not into the sea! That said, don't do it!
As usual with electronic devices that come, presumably, from China, the instructions are unreadable. However, I soon got the hang of changing the channel-selector and, of course, there is the usual press-to-speak button.
It took me a little longer to find out how to switch the unit off. I checked with Tony Backhurst and it seems that the Hurricane crew are still
Walkie-Talkies from Nauticalia cost £40, including a charger and charging base, two units and two sets of batteries.
Nauticalia 0870 906 5090, www.nauticalia.com
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- No good for marine emergencies
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FUNNY THINGS CAN HAPPEN AT NIGHT. The knock on my cabin door caused me to jump out of bed and into the shower before the chilling rush of cold water brought me to full consciousness. It was still very dark outside.
Then it occurred to me that I had not been awoken for the early-morning dive. There might be an ongoing emergency. Maybe the boat was sinking! It was not, but the passengers of Coral Queen, anchored nearby the night before, were less lucky. All escaped to our vessel, though with only the clothes they were wearing.
I often sleep in unfamiliar surroundings. I can't claim its because I'm a man about town and go to work from a different direction each morning - it's because I often sleep in hotels or boat cabins. However, in common with the life of that bachelor, this leaves the problem of knowing the quick way out should the need arise.
Emergency evacuations at night are always dangerous but when travelling are doubly so, not only because you may need to escape in the dark, but if you're on a boat things might be at unfamiliar angles, and you might even need to swim under water!
So it's my habit always to have a torch handy next to where I sleep. As I might get very wet on the way out, I choose a small diving torch, and bearing in mind that once I get out I might need to mark my position for some hours before being rescued, I choose one with a long burntime LED light source. The new LED Lenser Frogman meets these requirements. It employs one of the new-generation of super-bright LEDs that provides a very usable light while still giving around 50 hours of burntime from one set of four AA batteries. That should be enough to get me out of trouble.
It is switched on by rotating its metal front shroud, as with many other economy-priced underwater torches but, unusually, you twist it anti-clockwise by one quarter-turn, just enough for it to fire up. The more conventional approach makes it more likely that you could flood a lamp by undoing it too much.
A single O-ring protects the Frogman's watertight integrity. The front glass and reflector is formed from one solid lump of plastic, so makes it seem very robust.
It stores very handily in the pocket of a standard BC, so you can take it diving and keep it for those darker moments. You could use it as your main light on a night dive, but only if you like making your diving more challenging than it needs to be.
I used it alongside a US-made super-bright LED lamp that I praised some time ago in these pages. At that time, I had been knocked out to find at last an LED-equipped torch that was actually usable under water, unlike those previously submitted for testing, so perhaps my write-up was more enthusiastic than it should have been.
I found the Lenser Frogman's beam even brighter and more clearly defined than that US torch, so praise where it's due.
Don't confuse LED with HID. The latter is responsible for making fish break out in Raybans, whereas LED stands for "light-emitting diode".
The colour temperature of both is similarly near that of daylight, but their light outputs differ by millions of lumens.
Unlike HID lamps, the strength of these LED torches is more to do with miserly power consumption than brilliant performance. The Lenser Frogman should be regarded more as a surprisingly good back-up light than as a primary light source, but it could be a great comfort when you need it.
The LED Lenser Frogman costs £40.
Mikes 020 8994 6006, www.mikesdivestore.com
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+ Convenient
+ Long burntime
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- Back-up and emergency torch only
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BC
When I was sent a wing-style BC bearing the brand DIR Zone, I almost felt that I was being tricked into writing a diving version of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, complete with a fatwa to follow.
A minority of DIR divers ("Doing It Right", for the uninitiated) have a limited sense-of-humour quotient, so if you fall into this category, please close the mag now and go down to WH Smith for something more serious, like Nature.
Regulators and computers are deadly serious in what they do, but a BC is simply a bag into which you put air and let it out again. I've recently experienced a miserable week's diving with a wing that didn't do this very well, but it was never life-threatening. So I try out BCs like the DIR Zone Cub Arctic wing with far less trepidation and the potential for a bit of light-heartedness.
Assembling it was a bit tedious but quite simple. The black Cordura buoyancy chamber is a simple slim doughnut-shape bag with an inner bladder and cut-outs for the two tank cambands and two stainless-steel bolts to pass through. It's strongly made and gives 15kg of lift while fully submerged.
A 15 litre buoyancy cell displaces only 15 litres of water when fully submerged. I make this point because wing-makers often claim that their products give massive amounts of lift, when in reality this lift may not translate into effective surface support.
When we do comparison tests of BCs, we always measure the actual height of the mouth above the surface, rather than simply quote manufacturers' lift figures.
This is because a big cushion behind the diver's head that is not under water does nothing for surface support. It's how well you're supported that counts, and I'm afraid the simplicity of the Cub Arctic's design tends to allow it to fall into this trap.
You may well find yourself lower in the water with it fully inflated at the surface than another diver with the same equipment but using a BC or wing designed (usually with an expanding gusset low down) to keep its inflated part fully submerged.
The tank cambands have substantial stainless-steel buckles made in an unbreakable Teutonic style. There is a simple corrugated hose with a direct-feed control and a single dump valve (with no toggle end) that ends up at the lower back when the diver is upright. The direct feed from the regulator passes neatly under a couple of rubber bands to integrate with the corrugated hose.
The buoyancy cell bolts on to a backplate that bears the one-piece harness. The harness has three movable D-rings and an over-engineered stainless-steel weightbelt-type buckle. The crotch-strap has two D-rings, mainly for attaching the lanyard for a tow-behind DPV.
The harness has several strategically positioned rubber bands for coping with extraneous webbing.
The waistband has a sheath with a small knife. This looks like an Oceanic Cutter, which earned almost full marks in our recent knife comparison. It's a sensible place to put a knife, because it is much more accessible than if strapped to a calf.
There came a time when I found myself struggling to get out of the harness when I was sorely tempted to use the knife, but more of that later.
The backplate has cut-outs for the cambands and holes for the bolts to pass through. There is a choice of materials for this backplate, but as both a poser and a person who hates carrying too much kit in my bag, I opted for an anodised black aluminium job.
Black magic. How cool is that? The backplate has the necessary perforations for stowing a light canister and so on. Pity the stainless steel D-rings and buckle glinted so much. I felt they might give away my position to the enemy.
Enemy? What enemy? I could imagine certain divers taking up their sniping positions. How dare I use one of these wings without having at least done a DIR Fundamentals Course first?
Well, I dared. I used the Arctic Cub wing with a wetsuit. When I use a single tank with a drysuit there is never any reason to use the BC for buoyancy control, because I maintain the suit at constant volume. I start off weighted for neutral buoyancy near the surface and stay that way throughout the dive. So a heavyweight wetsuit it had to be.
The one-piece harness with crotch strap takes some adjusting, but I finally got it to fit snugly. At this point, because it had no breaks in the form of pinch-clips or buckles, it took some getting out of. The harness certainly doesn't slip through the slots in the backplate easily. I'm used to slipping a strap off one shoulder and swinging a set round if I need to get to the valves under water. Otherwise I release a waistband and duck down and pull a twin-set over my head.
Reaching back to do a shut-down drill is the last resort when you're losing your youthful flexibility, but that seems to be the only option when imprisoned with a tank in this way.
You can dump air from the Cub Arctic by raising the corrugated hose and pressing the button. This naturally tends to let water back in the other way.
The prescribed method is to lie horizontally in the water and activate the dump at the lower back. In practice, this means being at least slightly head-down.
This slim buoyancy cell is not as bad as a wing for twins would be on a single tank, but it still tends to wrap itself around a single. Air always migrates to the highest point, so you need to make sure it's in the right side of the bag, which means doing a slight roll to empty the left side.
Just following your nose for the surface and dumping air as you go is out of the question.
I can appreciate the appeal of the simplicity of this well-made item. I understand that it is possible to practise routines so that even the most bizarre ritual becomes second nature.
However, I like gear that operates without a second's thought, leaving me free to consider my main task, whether that's photography or interacting with wildlife. With the DIR Zone Cub Arctic, I felt I was learning to be a DIR diver when I should have been getting on with the main business.
So if it's your pleasure to wear black and be a living example of perfect control and technique, this is the kit for you.
If, like me, you just want to get on with your job, squirt some air in on the way down and dump some on the way up, slipping niftily out of your rig once it's time to be picked up and otherwise acting like a complete diving slob, you might decide that it's too much bother.
Neither way is wrong. We all dive for different reasons. There will always be those who eschew the modern automatic washing machine and prefer the simple reliability of the tub and mangle. Who is to say that they're wrong?
The DIR Zone Cub Arctic with Diving Niknaks anodised black aluminium backplate costs £299. Cambands (right) cost £35 extra.
Diving Niknaks, www.divingniknaks.co.uk
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+ Robust
+ Good, simple design
+ Stylish for divers in black
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- Simplicity may not be its strength
- Not cheap for what you get
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WETSUIT
WATERPROOF IS A BIG NAME TO LIVE UP TO if you manufacture products for diving, as this Swedish manufacturer does!
I was off to Mozambique during the southern hemisphere's winter and wasn't sure what sort of suit I needed, so I took a 5mm Waterproof Lynx. This comes with or without a hood attached and with an optional 5mm Libra overvest (with or without attached hood) for wearing over the suit, or even on its own.
I felt that the combination would offer me the choice to get my insulation just right. In the event, I wore only the full-length suit and the separate hood, and left the shortie in my bag.
The Lynx is a semi-dry in that it has seals at wrist and ankle. These are of smoothskin, and so long that they felt like separate sleeves. The heavyweight sleeves that covered them were cut for someone with forearms like Popeye, so were a bit loose on my skinny limbs. These sleeves came with long zips.
The Waterproof Lynx is cut from a huge numbers of panels of very soft neoprene. This gives the advantage of a truly contoured fit but involves a lot of stitching which, in this case, looks incredibly well done. So often the weak point of an otherwise nice-looking suit is the fact that the stitching comes unravelled about a week after you start wearing it, but the high quality of the Waterproof product cannot be denied.
As there are so many panels, the manufacturer has the opportunity to use different materials in different places, too.
Inside the elbows and behind the knees are corrugated elastic sections and, at the outside, tough shaped-rubber knee-pads and elbow-reinforcement. There is a similarly corrugated elasticised section in the small of the back, and there is even a cut to accommodate a chap's bits and pieces.
The seat of the pants and the back of the thighs use a sexy patterned non-slip surface, ideal for sitting on the tubes of a RIB during long rides, and the well-integrated back zip has a thick comfort flap to keep it away from your skin.
There are other nice ideas too, like the non-slip shoulders that keep BC straps where they should be, and a relief-zip at the throat to stop that throttling effect during long and uncomfortable boat rides - and I experienced a few of those while wearing the Lynx!
The over-vest has matching details. The separate hood is a substantial affair with its own acronym - HAVS, or Hood Air-Venting System, two sets of unaligned holes in the double-lined upper panel. It works. No more pointy-looking heads caused by exhaled air trapped in the hood while diving.
What does not work is the extended collar with which the hood comes. It's OK in the dry, but under water it inverts and turns into an Elizabethan ruff. If I owned one, I would simply cut it off. It's not needed.
So what was it like to use? With all those different sections and its contoured cut, it promised to be very comfortable, and it was at the surface. Under water, it felt a little restricting.
Have you ever seen an Indian rhinoceros? It looks like an African rhino wearing armour! With the Lynx semi-dry and hood, I felt like an Indian rhino! It also made me look a bit corpulent, so if you're a little plump to start with, the Lynx may make you look too fat to dive.
Well, who worries about looks?
The Waterproof Lynx 5mm semi-dry one-piece suit costs £169. The matching Libra over-vest (without hood) costs £70 and the separate hood costs £24.
CPS Partnership 01424 442663
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+ Well-made
+ Feels like a suit of armour
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