Avelo system review

[RecklessAmateur]

Hi divers! I thought some of you might be interested in my quick review of the Avelo system. A couple weeks ago my buddy and I took the Avelo certification class on Catalina Island with Catalina Divers Supply. For context, I’ve been diving for a while and have about 650 dives in all kinds of conditions, cold water and warm water.

So here’s the quick story. Once you get it dialed in, the Avelo system is way cool. It's not quite set it and forget it when it come to your buoyancy, but it’s pretty close. The ability to be neutrally buoyant at 10 feet and 90 feet without fiddling with anything is pretty magical. And for you shore divers, 35 pounds on your back with the Avelo system beats the heck out of 75 pounds. That first step back into the Casino Point Dive Park is a literal walk in the park!

Now about that dialing in. If you're an experienced diver, you're going to need to learn some new habits. For one, you’re no longer a little negative at the beginning of the dive, so you can’t count on that as a way to settle yourself, check your gear, etc. Throughout the dive, you have to resist the temptation to add a little or dump a little air in your BC because (guess what) you don’t have a BC!

How about weighting? Well, for reference, I weigh about 210 pounds. Wearing a seven mil, one piece suit, I added 12 pounds to the system. Wearing a bilaminate Whites dry suit with undergarments for 63 degree water, I wore about 18 pounds,. Both of those are about 60% of what I would weigh with a normal scuba rig.

One note. Learning the system in a dry suit is absolutely doable, but Is a little more complicated. If you think about, it having done away with managing an air bubble by using the Avelo system, when you put on a dry suit you’re adding another bubble. Again just a little more complicated, but certainly manageable. But I would recommend learning the system in a wet suit and then moving your skills to a dry suit once you gain a feel for things.

I was certified Avelo diver number 256 in the world, which I have to say is pretty cool! Am I ready to toss my BC and weight belts and go all in on the Avelo system? Well, not quite yet, mostly because they’re only three or four locations in the world that rent Avelo gear. And from what we hear, they anticipate major upgrades to the system over the next couple years. I have no idea about the economics behind the company, and whether they have the capital to fuel the growth that they’ll need to build market share. Have to wait and see on that one but this is super cool technology And I have to say if you learn to dive on the Avelo system, I'm sure you'll find it safer, lighter and easier than diving a traditional rig.

Hope that’s helpful and happy to share other thoughts. By the way, I have to say that the Catalina Divers Supply folks are absolutely awesome. Mark and Chelsea with him we worked are both great instructors, and Chelsea probably knows more about Avelo and how to dive it than anyone outside of the company.

 

[Tripp]

Thanks for your explanation and evaluation. I will be watching developments closely!

 

[inquis]

It's not quite set it and forget it when it come to your buoyancy, but it’s pretty close.

Given the sizeable buoyancy swing in a 7 mm wetsuit as depth changes, I'd expect you would need to adjust buoyancy for any substantial pressure/depth change. Is that what you found?

For example, if I pump ballast water in to be neutral in my 7mm one-piece at 5 ft, I'd be 9-10 lbs negative at 80 ft due to wetsuit compression. I'd have to pump out over 4 liters of water ballast at depth. How quick is that process?

 

[34109411]

they should go to Shark tank to get funding. I watch a webinar with Dan Orr talking about it and saw different you tube video on the subject.

So what about other air source, Let's say you plan a deco dive , stage dive etc... Or to purely have a redundant air source, most likely the product was not designed for that, i assume adding any extra al bottle will make the system obsolete.

Anyway glad you try it ! I don't know about that water pump what about it clogged during a dive ?


Interesting

 

[scubadada]

Given the sizeable buoyancy swing in a 7 mm wetsuit as depth changes, I'd expect you would need to adjust buoyancy for any substantial pressure/depth change. Is that what you found?

For example, if I pump ballast water in to be neutral in my 7mm one-piece at 5 ft, I'd be 9-10 lbs negative at 80 ft due to wetsuit compression. I'd have to pump out over 4 liters of water ballast at depth. How quick is that process?

I think you may have a misunderstanding of wetsuit compression. The majority of compression occurs at a shallow depth. The weight swing is much less than you think.

 

[inquis]

The majority of compression occurs at a shallow depth.

Agreed. A surface buoyancy of 16 lb would be about 14 lbs at 5 ft, 8 lbs at 33 ft, and about 4.5 lb at 80 ft. 14-4.5 = 9.5 lb. Boyles law on the trapped air in the neoprene. Granted, there's the more ridgid material as well, but I would expect the rate of decrease would greatly decrease somewhere deeper than 100 ft (after the air is mostly squashed). Call it 4.5 lbs at 90 ft or 100 ft if you want. The point is that it's a sizeable amount in a thick wetsuit.

On the flip side, since buoyancy does change quickly when shallow (where the majority of divers will be), swimming between 15 and 40 ft will need to be compensated with a thick suit.

Trying to compensate for ~4 lbs with lungs alone will give someone a headache from CO2 retention. If splitting the difference, it's hard to achieve -2 lb by breathing shallow.

In other words, I believe you're going to have to run the pump more than the one time halfway through the dive if you're up & down. (That's the case I'm asking about, because if your depth is constant, there's no in-water advantage over a traditional BC. Yes, there's a dry-weight reduction.)

 

[cgardens]

Hi divers! I thought some of you might be interested in my quick review of the Avelo system. A couple weeks ago my buddy and I took the Avelo certification class on Catalina Island with Catalina Divers Supply. For context, I’ve been diving for a while and have about 650 dives in all kinds of conditions, cold water and warm water.

So here’s the quick story. Once you get it dialed in, the Avelo system is way cool. It's not quite set it and forget it when it come to your buoyancy, but it’s pretty close. The ability to be neutrally buoyant at 10 feet and 90 feet without fiddling with anything is pretty magical. And for you shore divers, 35 pounds on your back with the Avelo system beats the heck out of 75 pounds. That first step back into the Casino Point Dive Park is a literal walk in the park!

Now about that dialing in. If you're an experienced diver, you're going to need to learn some new habits. For one, you’re no longer a little negative at the beginning of the dive, so you can’t count on that as a way to settle yourself, check your gear, etc. Throughout the dive, you have to resist the temptation to add a little or dump a little air in your BC because (guess what) you don’t have a BC!

How about weighting? Well, for reference, I weigh about 210 pounds. Wearing a seven mil, one piece suit, I added 12 pounds to the system. Wearing a bilaminate Whites dry suit with undergarments for 63 degree water, I wore about 18 pounds,. Both of those are about 60% of what I would weigh with a normal scuba rig.

One note. Learning the system in a dry suit is absolutely doable, but Is a little more complicated. If you think about, it having done away with managing an air bubble by using the Avelo system, when you put on a dry suit you’re adding another bubble. Again just a little more complicated, but certainly manageable. But I would recommend learning the system in a wet suit and then moving your skills to a dry suit once you gain a feel for things.

I was certified Avelo diver number 256 in the world, which I have to say is pretty cool! Am I ready to toss my BC and weight belts and go all in on the Avelo system? Well, not quite yet, mostly because they’re only three or four locations in the world that rent Avelo gear. And from what we hear, they anticipate major upgrades to the system over the next couple years. I have no idea about the economics behind the company, and whether they have the capital to fuel the growth that they’ll need to build market share. Have to wait and see on that one but this is super cool technology And I have to say if you learn to dive on the Avelo system, I'm sure you'll find it safer, lighter and easier than diving a traditional rig.

Hope that’s helpful and happy to share other thoughts. By the way, I have to say that the Catalina Divers Supply folks are absolutely awesome. Mark and Chelsea with him we worked are both great instructors, and Chelsea probably knows more about Avelo and how to dive it than anyone outside of the company.

Thanks for your review. I’m going to Bonaire in February and Dive Buddies there have the Avelo system with certification program. I was considering it since I’m a new diver and older (weaker) and it’s seriously difficult for me getting out of water after being tired from a dive. But as you said there are very few places you can rent equipment, and I don’t see anything about options to buy on their website. I think as a recreational warm water diver I would love this system. I’m definitely hoping for expansion for their product.

 

[RecklessAmateur]

Thanks for your review. I’m going to Bonaire in February and Dive Buddies there have the Avelo system with certification program. I was considering it since I’m a new diver and older (weaker) and it’s seriously difficult for me getting out of water after being tired from a dive. But as you said there are very few places you can rent equipment, and I don’t see anything about options to buy on their website. I think as a recreational warm water diver I would love this system. I’m definitely hoping for expansion for their product.

Yeah, I don't think they have any short term intentions of selling the units. IMHO, it's tailor-made for a recreational warm water diver who's looking to take some weight off their back. Hope you give it a try. I'm going to Bonaire in early March and will have a chance to get a feel for the system in a warm water environment.

 

[RecklessAmateur]

Agreed. A surface buoyancy of 16 lb would be about 14 lbs at 5 ft, 8 lbs at 33 ft, and about 4.5 lb at 80 ft. 14-4.5 = 9.5 lb. Boyles law on the trapped air in the neoprene. Granted, there's the more ridgid material as well, but I would expect the rate of decrease would greatly decrease somewhere deeper than 100 ft (after the air is mostly squashed). Call it 4.5 lbs at 90 ft or 100 ft if you want. The point is that it's a sizeable amount in a thick wetsuit.

On the flip side, since buoyancy does change quickly when shallow (where the majority of divers will be), swimming between 15 and 40 ft will need to be compensated with a thick suit.

Trying to compensate for ~4 lbs with lungs alone will give someone a headache from CO2 retention. If splitting the difference, it's hard to achieve -2 lb by breathing shallow.

In other words, I believe you're going to have to run the pump more than the one time halfway through the dive if you're up & down. (That's the case I'm asking about, because if your depth is constant, there's no in-water advantage over a traditional BC. Yes, there's a dry-weight reduction.)

It's been a couple months now but I might have run the pump more than once. It's no big deal, just have to listen to a pump work for 30 seconds or so.