January 1999
Flying in the face of convention
How does using a full-face mask compare with a traditional mask and separate regulator? John Bantin tests the Neptune II to find out if this new set-up offers sport divers any real advantages beyond being mistaken for Darth Vader's out-of-town cousin
Imagine being under water with a group of irrepressible Italians wearing full-face masks fitted with underwater communications. I went to Nole in Italy with Dave Morrell, the UK importer of the Ocean Reef Neptune II full-face mask, and did just that!
We swam along while our two Italian companions chatted continuously to each other and their friend Salvatore in the boat. Eventually, we interrupted and asked if we could have the chance to talk (in English), but in the event were reduced to inane comments such as: "See that? That's a fish, that is!"
Ocean Reef would like to believe that its vision of every diver using a full-face mask is a real possibility. When I tried Ocean Reef's first offering more than a year ago, I came to the conclusion that the added discomfort wasn't worth the effort unless you were diving in polluted waters - hardly a leisure activity. Ocean Reef was anxious to prove me wrong and ensure that I knew how to use the new Neptune II full-face mask properly, hence my trip to Italy.
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The Neptune II has a reduced internal volume over its predecessor (0.75 litre rather than 1 litre) and now comes with a fixed Nira regulator. The version we tried was also fitted with a prototype version of the communications system that will be available later.
Taking no chances, Ocean Reef had employed the services of its top full-face-mask instructor and test diver to teach me the proper way to use it. What a pity that we had no language in common and everything had to be done with the aid of lengthy translations.
The important point seems to be that you must tighten the straps in strict order - centre, top, then finally the bottom straps.
The first problem I encountered was while still on the surface - with the mask in place I was unable to be heard or to breathe except through the regulator. Temporary removal of the side plug for an optional second regulator proved the answer, although I would have preferred the plug to have been fitted with a short lanyard to ensure I couldn't accidentally drop it overboard.
The Nira regulator is designed to squirt the breathing air via the internal surface of the face-plate, thus preventing it from misting up. An internal skirt also helps by keeping nasal and oral exhalations separate.
Under water, I found it was best to breathe through my nose - breaking the diving habit of a lifetime - because dropping my jaw to open my mouth put a round mask skirt against my pointed chin and gave me the insecure feeling that the mask was about to leak.
If you need to clear the mask of water, it is easily done by pressing the purge button of the Nira regulator, although just breathing normally seems to expel any small amount that might find its way in.
I have to admit that the reduced volume makes the mask much more user-friendly. However, there are still the same disadvantages to a full-face mask in comparison with a separate mask and regulator - most notably when it comes to taking it off. Once you get back to the surface and offer up your tank and BC to the dive boat, your mask has to go with it, and I for one prefer to keep my mask in place until the last possible moment.
More seriously, should you need to take the mask off under water, naturally you lose your regulator too. My instructor said you should locate your octopus rig and place that in your mouth as soon as you've removed the Neptune II. Then you need to sort out the complex tangle of straps prior to repositioning the mask and dropping the octopus from your mouth as you do it.
I have to admit that I baulked at doing this at 18m and decided to practise this important manoeuvre in the shallows first. However, during this process of discovery, I found that a quick press on the purge button certainly got rid of the water.
But underwater communications apart, what is the advantage of using a full-face mask? Putting polluted-water diving firmly into the realms of the professional, the only advantage I can see for leisure divers is the fact that the face is kept separate from icy cold water, so no more crushing headaches from too much time in flooded quarries.
I did note that my three companions, when equipped with their full-face masks, looked like something out of a sci-fi film, so I expect there will be a ready market for the Neptune II among divers who want to look the part. There will also be tekkies who want to use it in conjunction with a gas-switching block, but there are differences of opinion about the use of those too, so I'll save that for another time.
The Neptune II with Nira regulator costs £376.
DCM Ocean Reef 0181 399 7049
Always stay on the alert
Good divers ensure that every aspect of their diving is well under control. However, I'm very aware that once I reach the surface I'm going to bob there at the mercy of the waves and dependent on the skill of the coxswain of the dive boat - someone I might not even know.
Experience has taught me always to be equipped with a visual marker like a flag or a safety sausage, but there's nothing worse than waiting while the boat's occupants intently look for you in the wrong direction.
Yelling just gets you tired. The ocean is a very big place, and your voice is soon lost on the wind. So I also carry a Dive Alert.
I usually feature recent arrivals to the diving scene on these pages, but the Dive Alert has been available for such a long time that I'm now beginning to see newly trained divers without them. So I make no apologies for bringing this important piece of kit to your attention once again.
The Dive Alert fits in-line with the direct-feed hose and inflator mechanism of your BC. However, I prefer to have it on a hose of its own, and I will explain why.
Powered by medium-pressure air from your aqualung, one press on the Dive Alert's recessed button and it emits a whistle that will grab anyone's attention. In fact, it's so loud that when someone inadvertently let theirs off next to my head while I was lifting their kit into the inflatable I had tinnitus for a long time afterwards.
So with mine installed at the end of its own hose I can lift it into the air above my head, should I need to use it in earnest.
Dive Alert fits most BC direct-feed hoses (specify when ordering), and costs £38.
Ideations Design Inc 0115 9521222
Take it to the Max
Let's not be coy about this. Following the allegations last summer in the German diving magazine Tauchen, implicating Sherwood's SRB5300 regulator in the deaths of two divers, the eyes of the diving world were sharply focused on the launch of Sherwood's new regulator, the SRB5600.
I was keen to try one out - and was able to do so in the Sea of Cortez, on some pretty adventurous blue-water dives in search of hammerheads.
The first stage is a balanced piston design with Sherwood's now familiar dry-bleed system that keeps the internal workings under a raised pressure, bleeding off a tiny amount of air as it does so. The amount of air lost during a dive is minuscule, but it can be slightly annoying on two counts.
First, misinformed divers insist on coming up to you and trying to explain that your tank O-ring looks like it's about to blow; second, photographers will dislike the fine mist left in the water - it gets into shot if you have to back away from your subject.
Two high-pressure ports and five medium-pressure ports are arranged around the first-stage drum. These include two primary ports for second-stages, which mean that you will always find one positioned just where you need it.
A Teflon-coated piston seat limits the amount of sticking should it ice up.
The A-clamp is very sturdy-looking, with a large knurled knob, and the hose protector fitted to the medium-pressure hose of the second-stage comes with two plastic rings. The service agent removes a ring each time he does a part-free service and you get two of these during the life of the regulator. I'm assured that it's very easy to service.
The second-stage is rather more unusual in its design - the hose is intended to pass under your arm rather than cross your shoulder. I found this very useful when using a twin-set and a more conventional regulator, because it did away with some of the inevitable clutter caused by similar hose routeings. There is a sufficient length of inter-stage hose to make it practical.
There is a breathing-resistance adjustment knob and a venturi +/- switch that is used to avoid free-flows when first hitting the water, and the exhaust Tee puts exhaled bubbles well clear of the front of the mask.
I set up the other half of my twin-set with a Mares Ruby, one of the best performi regulators of our last comparison test. The Maximus had to perform well to compare with such a high-flying and costly performer.
Although I can say that at the greater depths I detected a distinct difference, I was never short of air from the Maximus.
I actually preferred the Maximus mouthpiece - it sits well back between the rear molars and can afford you some very long dives without any sign of jaw fatigue. The spec says it's made from liquid silicone, but in fact it had a very rubbery taste.
I made around 30 dives with the Maximus SRB5600. It's a useful regulator for any leisure diver and those tekkies who want an additional regulator with a very different layout to the ones they already have.
Maximus SRB5600 costs £325.
Sherwood UK 01159 458634
The B'Air necessities of life
Computers are getting smaller: so small that some can even double as everyday watches. The Dive Rite B'Air is the right size - and tells the time - but it's really not beautiful enough to wear as a watch.
Dive Rite's established diving computer, the Bridge II, is well thought of among the technical diving fraternity. The B'Air is Dive Rite's first attempt to woo ordinary leisure divers away from the until now lack-lustre, home-grown computers available to the American leisure-diving market.
With US litigants in mind, the B'Air's instructions are laced with warnings not to use it for deco-stop diving. However, Lamar Hires, principal of Dive Rite, is a well-known cave diver - and you would expect no less than a full decompression-stop function instrument from this leading exponent of technical diving techniques.
The B'Air probably uses the same algorithm as its senior sibling does when set to nitrox 21. I found that the information it displayed while diving was very much in line with Aladin and Suunto computers. So it's a serious contender among full-function deco-stop air computers.
Under water, it's automatically activated, as you'd expect of a diving computer, displaying current depth, dive time and remaining no-stop time. It also has a useful nitrogen-loading graph that builds up to a caution zone. At this point it goes into deco-stop mode, displaying the deco icon along with the depth and time of the first stop. The total safe ascent-time is also shown.
Ascent rates are variable, from 16m per minute at depths greater than 20m to a cautious 8m per minute for the final 6m. If you breach the deco-stop ceiling or ascend quicker than the required rate, displays start to blink. The word SLOW also appears, but it's so small you can easily miss it.
Naturally there are audible alarms for everything too. I didn't noticed the SLOW icon when I was under water, but I later found that many of my logged dives revealed I had made a fast ascent. I can only think that this was caused by the big sea swells and the quick exit I often made up the boat ladder.
Once out of the water, the whole thing is activated by two large buttons marked Log and Plan. In Log mode the computer displays the average depth as well as the maximum depth of each dive. The water temperature, date and time of starting and surfacing from the dive are also displayed. An interesting feature is that you can press the Plan button when under water and see the time of day and temperature of the water.
The Dive Rite B'Air automatically selects a mode to match the altitude at which you use it, but doesn't have a Time-to-Fly function. This falls in line with current thinking that although the mathematicians might have it right for an aircraft pressurised to 3000m of altitude the question remains - is the aircraft up to pressure when you take off? Probably not.
It's safer to wait at least 24 hours.
The Dive Rite B'Air costs £237.
Sea & Sea 01803 663012
Snug as a weezle in a rug
"It's the sort of thing we wear when we climb Everest," offered my friend Duncan, an ex-Gurkha Rifles officer now running trekking expeditions in Nepal. He's also a keen amateur diver. He was unstuffing the Snug Pak Microdive Extreme undersuit from the football-sized bag in which it was supplied.
I put it on for the initial photo-shoot. It was like wearing a high-tech sleeping bag - ideal for bivouacking in a snow shelter - and there was no danger of me being run down as I crossed the road to the beach, thanks to its high-visibility yellow! (Four colour options are available.)
The Microdive suit comes in four sizes, plus extra-long torso variants, and in two weights. The Extreme is complemented by a lighter-weight Compact version that packs down into an even smaller space than its more heat-retentive sibling. But then it is recommended for use in water temperatures in excess of 10°C.
The filling for Snug Pak suits is made in Switzerland and is an example of a very sophisticated approach to the problem of keeping heat in where it's needed. The result is a suit that feels like it's filled with down, but its light and slippery nature, I'm informed, is the result of great advances in the combination of man-made fibres.
The outer layer is Pertex - without getting into the realms of techno-bore, it lets sweat out but doesn't let water in! There is a reinforced shoulder section that discourages the suit from billowing out of the gap when you're closing your drysuit's dry zip. I was also impressed with the knee-length Weezle Soft Long Boots, which pull up over the shins and prevent those uncomfortable rucks you sometimes get when sticking your leg into the boot of a drysuit with a conventional undersuit and sock.
I had some doubts about the Microdive's voluminous properties when the time came for me to put on my drysuit. I wondered if I would manage to stuff it all in - it gave me time to reflect that some people have bodies that prove difficult to stuff into their clothes. I needn't have worried - the Microdive compressed down nicely and I didn't have to add any more weight to my belt to compensate for its buoyancy. It gave me a very comfortable dive.
The Extreme was easily recompressed into its little bag after use, seemed to be both windproof and water resistant, was nice to wear and kept me warm. Even though I didn't do anything quite as adventurous as climb Everest!
The Weezle Snug Pak Microdive Extreme and Compact cost £139 each.
Weezle Diving Services 01535 655380
Appeared in DIVER - January 1999
