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Can you touch your hands behind your back? If so, get a rear entry suit! They’re better than front entry in every way: cheaper, tougher, and tighter. If you have good shoulder mobility you can get in and out yourself with a short leader on the zipper. If you don’t, you’re stuck in there until...

I always thought that bezel should have been metal, but not going to pay to upgrade! Buzzer and extra tank pressure channels make sense too, but I wouldn’t use those features myself. Good incremental update.

View angle isn’t the only thing. Hydrooptix really did have unlimited peripheral vision, like you weren’t wearing a mask at all, but they’re not around anymore… It’s sort of a personal thing. Try renting for a while.

It was of interest to me! Watched the whole thing. Seemed a short run time but I guess you go through it at that depth. Great finning and buoyancy in there, kept decent vis throughout. You know the story of why they took the pistons and cylinder heads but left the engine blocks? Panicked diver...

I’ve only had positive encounters with the Rapture of the Deep. A calming feeling of well-being is not necessarily a bad thing. Situational awareness does tend to suffer though, it’s easy to get over focused on routine chores like checking the gauges. Experience is the key here: do your first...

Never been to ‘Coz, but if you can fish in a park what’s even the point of it being a park?!

I don’t even know! Had a deposit on Hornby for three years, then they folded up. I’ve been to Browning Hideaway in years past but John finally went bust for good. There’s still Gods Pocket but kinda pricy… My regular guy Jack Madro in Sidney hasn’t done much this year, although I’ll race over if...

Always tempting to jump on solo divers who run into trouble but it doesn’t sound like a buddy would have helped much here. He apparently made it to the surface alive, called for help, and somehow died on the shore? Guessing heart attack or other random medical emergency.

The first best dive site in all of Alberta is Lake Minnewanka, in Banff. Okay-ish vis most of the time, large historical structures to look at, good access and amenities. Even better as an ice dive in the winter! That’s quite a hike from Edmonton though, Twin Lakes is our local spot. There’s a...

Today I soloed the second best dive site in all of Alberta: Twin Lakes. Vis was less than 10’, dry suit was very necessary at depth despite bikini weather on the surface. Plenty of sunken junk to see down there but no macroscopic fauna this time. Had an incipient free-flow at 100’ just now...

It’s generally all about the vis. Of all the things likely to kill you underwater getting attacked by random fauna is on the list but it’s a fair ways down. Of all the things likely to make for a crappy recreational experience bad visibility is at the top. If there’s some otherwise...

I’ve never used it either, I’m more a rec diver with a single tank of plain air. The consensus seems to be that it does help keep you slightly warmer but is usually not worth the effort. Having a supply of totally unbreathable gas around is also a risk in principle. Helium works the other way...

If you’re going to use a dedicated bottle for the suit and wing, might as well put argon in it. Better than helium anyway.

“Equipment malfunctioned” ten minutes in eh? News articles never get the technical details we crave but that’s pretty vague. Sounds like that dude was having an unlucky day!

When the nitrogen narcosis just doesn’t cut it any more…

I see this as a “rec vs. tec” issue. I’m very comfortable trusting my Perdix AI to do it all by itself. If it ever did fail underwater I’d just come up slow because that’s always an option with the diving I do. If I was under some physical or virtual ceiling and several hours away from the...

The real crime is that clumsy sentence.

Brass and glass. Look for a used one, they’re everywhere nowdays! Keep the hose computer around as a backup, no sense taking it in the water every dive though.

Well, that’s sketch! It’s not uncommon with rental drysuits but it’s poor practice. Fit is important with these things. If you’re a little girl packing a big steel tank will be hard, your advantage is you don’t need to. An Al80 should have plenty of air for your reduced consumption. I don’t...