I was bummed out to miss Rebreather Forum 3 (RF3), as who really knows when the next one will be. I noticed today that some of the presentation were recorded and are now available online. I took particular interests in the talks by Evan Kovacs given his focus on imaging making, and he certainly builds some cool toys! Simon Mitchell’s talks as always are great, and there are lots of interesting views to be heard within the community.
I stopped by Scubapix today to pickup some parts and suffered a serious case of “pressure pot” man-envy. Peter’s new pot is a monster, capable of fitting a full size DSLR with grips and can go to 120-150m; depending on your level of fear. It’s quite a handy device when you do any bulkhead changes to a DSLR, or when you’re just not sure if things are 100%. I took the opportunity to test both my Aquatica rigs after a few changes to the bulkhead configurations.
If you’re in Cairns, give Pete a visit at Scubapix whether you need to use his pot (he takes payment in beer), or need to pickup a new DSLR housing or accessory.
Here’s my top to underwater GoPro tips:
I’m a grown man, and I pissed myself. There, I’ve said it!
Before I begin my rant, here’s Pee-valve 101 for the uninitiated. You put a one-way pee-valve in your drysuit, put a disposable, self-adhesive condom style device over your you know what, and connect the two via a hose. All going well, you’re able to take a leak with your drysuit on (above and below water). There are pitfalls however, including kinked hoses, complex shut-off valves (see below), and the mythical bug that can swim through the valve, up the hose and into your penis (I still get shivers about that one!). You might think YUCK, but when you’ve got to go on a 4-5 hour dive, something has to give. The alternative is adult nappies, to which I say YUCK. For the laddies, I’m aware of a device called the She-p, however I’m woefully unqualified to provide an opinion.
With my brand new drysuit zipped up,
I jumped in the water and began to relieve myself. Immediately I thought “OOOH NO! – there’s too much back pressure”. Moments later I came to the realisation that I had urinated inside the drysuit and had to face the ridicule of my peers, all of whom laughed as they heard me scream like a girl on the surface next to the boat.
Some say I’m incontinent, but I deny those rumours and am blaming the poor instructions that accompanied my Si-Tech pee-valve. Before you ask, I read the instructions thoroughly, which stated “Push the lid down and turn to close (off) and turn top open (on). When using, turn the valve open and then urinate.”. “Turn top to open “, what the hell does that mean? What they neglected to say was that the valve has 3 states, fully left is closed, full right is closed, and open is in the middle. Like any normal person, I assumed that a turning mechanism would use the same logic of “righty tighty, lefty loosey”, which was a mistake!
To be fair to Si-Tech, I’ll add that on subsequent dives I have used the device and am now master of my domain. I’m far from an expert on the topic, but have used a few models to date including the Dive Rite and OMS ones. I can’t tell you which is better, as all the balanced models seem to work, though the Si-Tech model does seem to have the need to check for an open state.
So be warned kids, if you choose to plumb yourself into such a device, you may want to test it by blowing through the hose prior to soiling it. Oh, and before you ask where to buy the condom things from, I’m a fan of Conveen Optima Urisheath from brightsky.com.au in Oz – though tec dive shops and some pharmacies carry an array of brands.
Here’s the nerd coming out in me, but after missing out on a deep dive because someone had the wrong marks I’m now taking control of the situation. 
I was going to buy a GPS, but after some research I found out that Navionics make an IPAD App that is basically a full blown chart plotter and GPS for $45. It includes Australian and New Zealand waters, and is very detailed in terms of chart plotter information. I’ve only used the app out in the wild once thus far, but it paid for itself and certainly helped us located and dive a new wreck.
The only issue I’ve found with the app is that it doesn’t bulk import marks from other sources, so you have to enter this manually but it’s not the end of the world. You can export anything that you enter or snapshot though.
I posted a review mini review of the Shearwater Predator on my old site. Unfortunately that’s gone now, but I’ll sum it up by saying that my opinion of the Predator and Shearwater Research as a company is very high. My Predator, which began life as a Pursuit and was upgraded, works like a charm. Warranty and support from the factory and their distributed service team is also excellent.
I noticed this morning that they have just released a new stand alone computer, the Shearwarter Petrel. I’ve not seen one in the flesh yet, but they look great. The reduction in size and ability to run of a normal AA batteries is a big plus in my book. No doubt the model is designed at attacking the competition’s with the LiquiVision Xeo and Heinrich Weingkamp’s OSTC 2N; both also very good looking computers.