Review Diving the Avelo System

[iliketopetsharks]

Your loss - and a HUGE loss at that…

I wouldn't consider cars that i can't service myself without special tools or software a loss.

 

[old frogman]

The Avelo System is innovative diving equipment that allows you to dive differently than with traditional gear. The Avelo System consists of the Jetpack and the Hydrotank. The Jetpack is a backplate, harness, battery, and pump. The Hydrotank consists of a flexible bladder holding the gas and a rigid outer cylinder. Buoyancy is controlled by pumping water into the outer cylinder and decreasing the size of the bladder. There is no buoyancy compensator and the air bubble traditionally used to control buoyancy. The Avelo System is advertised as providing neutral buoyancy that is depth independent, less weight than traditional gear, and improved gas consumption. The technology is very well described on the Avelo website Avelo (diveavelo.com).

My wife and I recently returned from a two week trip to Bonaire, December 6-20, 2023. We took advantage of the fact that Avelo training and use is offered by Dive Friends on Bonaire. Training and use of the Avelo System is currently offered in just three locations, Bonaire, Catalina, California, and Sydney, Australia. Early in our stay, we took the one day, two dive Recreational Avelo Diver (RAD) course and on the second day did two additional guided dives. Later in our visit, we rented Avelo gear and did three independent dives in a day.

The Recreational Avelo Diver course starts with a well-designed eLearning exercise in three sections, concepts behind traditional and Avelo diving, components of the Avelo System, and procedures for use of the Avelo equipment. Open Water scuba certification is a prerequisite for RAD certification. The RAD course begins with a classroom review of the Avelo gear and its use. This is followed by the two certification dives. These were done as shore dives at Something Special, across the street from the Dive Friends Retail & Dive Shop. The first dive was mainly getting use to the Avelo System and included a weight check at the surface, using the equipment to achieve neutral buoyancy, and then swimming around at different depths. You do use a small amount of weight in the base of the Hydrotank to adjust your buoyancy at the surface, I used four pounds and my wife used three. The ease of achieving neutral buoyancy and the depth independence was startling. The second dive consisted mainly of skills, doffing and donning, simulated pump running by adding two extra pumps, simulated loss of ballast water by purging at depth, a shared gas ascent, and deploying the integrated SMB at the surface. The two simulated failures were easy to deal with. The extra weight of the excess pumps was not difficult to swim with and one could always open the purge valve. Loss of ballast water only resulted in minimal lightness and swimming was still not difficult. For either failure, one would calmly terminate the dive. After successfully completing the second dive, RAD certification was conferred. I’m extremely glad that we did the two additional guided dives on the second day. We did two more shore dives and became much more familiar with the Avelo System while enjoying the dives. Dive Friends requires four guided dives before you are allowed to rent gear for independent diving. Dive Friends was very efficient and organized in offering the RAD and additional guided dives. Our instructor and guide, Stephanie, was absolutely phenomenal. The 4 dives were done with a modified Scubapro G2 dive console that includes the Avelo Mode. It was extremely interesting to see our dive profiles along with gas consumption rates and where we fell in the optimal buoyancy range.

Towards the end of our stay on Bonaire, we rented Avelo gear for a 3 dive day. We picked up two Jetpacks, six Hydrotanks, and 4 batteries and off we went. Our initial setup was a bit slow, we improved with practice. The dives went well with excellent neutral buoyancy and depth controlled with breathing and gently swimming up and down. We appreciated the lighter weight of the equipment. My gas consumption is better than average. After only 7 dives with the Avelo System, I have not yet realized the improvement in gas consumption. Some of this may be gaining familiarity with the equipment as my gas consumption was improving over my three independent dives.

Is Avelo the diving of the future, I don’t know? Expansion of the number of training sites, wider availability of equipment, sale of equipment to individuals, and presence of the Avelo Mode on a number of popular computer platforms are some of the variables. Information recently released at the 2023 DEMA sheds some light on the future. Avelo is currently opening central dive shops in diving regions that, in addition to professional and recreational training, will serve as a hub for expansion. Several new Avelo Dive Centers will open in 2024. Avelo equipment will be available for sale in the second half of 2024 with prices announced by the Avelo Dive Centers.

Our experience with the Avelo System in Bonaire was interesting and enlightening. The RAD course and two additional guided dives cost $700 per person and the rental day cost $110 per person. I will give Avelo another try and hone my skills when I have the opportunity to return to Bonaire, maybe earlier.

It would be interesting to compare the functionality of the Avelo system with a recreational level semi-closed circuit rebreather e.g .Draeger Dolphin or the new Mares Horizon. The recreational rebreathers use a small cylinder. Or perhaps fitted with a carbon fibre small cylinder.

 

[boqurant]

When I bought a Porsche Boxster my father told me it was just a dressed up Volkswagen. I told him if Volkswagen ever made a car like this I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

No diver needs Avelo. No diver needs Apex regs or Steel 80s either. Divers don't need much actually. It's about what we want to dive with. I have a friend who still dives a horse collar here on Oahu. I've never seen him in a bcd that wasn't at least 50 years old. I'm pretty sure he has well over 10,000 dives on Oahu. Great diver.

I like him but also like nice things.

I think your analogy is a bit off...

The 986 Boxster saved Porsche during the late 90s and alongside the Cayman remains their best sportscar because the engine is in the right place. I own a 987.2 Cayman S manual with a few chosen mods, and will die on the hill claiming it's the best driving experience you can get for the money. The 986 / 987 / 981 generations also have the boon of a proper flat-6 engine, hydraulic steering (986 / 987), and a proper old-school driving experience without all the BS emissions regulations, driver aids and annoyances that plague modern cars.

Now, to repurpose your analogy along what I would say are better lines, the Avelo is more equivalent to Porsche's proposed, dastardly replacement for the 718 Boxster/Cayman, with an EV Boxster/Cayman. This iPad car for children is going to be wildly more expensive, much heavier, offer a much worse driving experience, and probably be DOA. In fact Porsche have already pushed the launch back on several occasions, and I believe is now targeted for 2027. Seeing as they canned the EV Mission X flagship, I doubt it will ever see the light of day.

Moral of the story? Sometimes the tool is already near perfect, and the free market will simply and rightly reject nanny-state replacements.

 

[lexvil]

I wouldn't consider cars that i can't service myself without special tools or software a loss.

I’m pretty partial to cars that don’t need to be fussed with, I’d rather dive

 

[EdMcNeill09]

I think your analogy is a bit off...

The 986 Boxster saved Porsche during the late 90s and alongside the Cayman remains their best sportscar because the engine is in the right place. I own a 987.2 Cayman S manual with a few chosen mods, and will die on the hill claiming it's the best driving experience you can get for the money. The 986 / 987 / 981 generations also have the boon of a proper flat-6 engine, hydraulic steering (986 / 987), and a proper old-school driving experience without all the BS emissions regulations, driver aids and annoyances that plague modern cars.

Now, to repurpose your analogy along what I would say are better lines, the Avelo is more equivalent to Porsche's proposed, dastardly replacement for the 718 Boxster/Cayman, with an EV Boxster/Cayman. This iPad car for children is going to be wildly more expensive, much heavier, offer a much worse driving experience, and probably be DOA. In fact Porsche have already pushed the launch back on several occasions, and I believe is now targeted for 2027. Seeing as they canned the EV Mission X flagship, I doubt it will ever see the light of day.

Moral of the story? Sometimes the tool is already near perfect, and the free market will simply and rightly reject nanny-state replacements.

My Boxster was a 2002. It was my daily driver. I loved it. I put 155k miles on it before selling it to my brother in law when I moved to Hawaii. It was an utterly fantastic driving experience. I should have kept it.

Avelo is an utterly fantastic diving experience. Is it worth the money? Not for some. But definitely for many. I've now certified 40 Avelo Divers. Everyone of them is glad they got the cert. A couple prefer to dive their BP&W. The vast majority though love the Avelo experience. This is ultimately the thing that is hard to convey. It's not like diving a Steel 80 with little needed weight. That is a lovely dive. No doubt. Avelo is not that. The description I hear a lot is "it's like free diving with gas". It has the sense of freedom free diving provides with the duration of scuba.

I recently certified a PADI Course Director who has been teaching scuba and diving for over 50 years. There's not much he hasn't dived before. I don't think he's on Scubaboard but if he were he would say something like "this is the future of Scuba Diving" and "when you take the cert forget everything you know about diving and approach this fresh". Larry loves Avelo. He's now working towards his Avelo Instructor certification and then his Instructor Trainer cert.

If you're convinced it's not for you. No worries. If you can't imagine why anyone loves diving Avelo give it a try and find out for yourself.

 

[EdMcNeill09]

The weight thing is massive marketing BS.

It makes absolutely no sense to compare Avelo to a traditional BCD with AL80 and all the lead needed to sink those things. The inventor was attempting to save weight and minimizing bouyancy change even if it meant extra expense and hassle. So why wouldn't he be comparing it to the type of rig that those of us who are also concerned about those things are already using?

Because the industry standard is the Aluminum 80.

The reasonable starting point for comparison should be a minimal BP/W system with an HP80. Yes, it's an extra expense to procure an HP80 instead of an AL80, but if weight is a major concern it's still a whole lot less than paying for Avelo training and rental charges.

The Advantage of Avelo is not primarily weight. It's the incredibly wide range of stable neutral buoyancy. Weight is also an advantage but not the principle one.

This is exactly what I used for shore dives a couple of weeks ago in Coz. My BP/W weighs 8.8 pounds. This includes a long steel plate, wing with 18# lift, tank bands, harness with stainless buckle, pair of trim pockets, and a sheath for my EMT shears. It doesn't include regs or accessories like lights or a DSMB because I'd need the same things if I were using Avelo.

An empty HP80 weighs 28.3 pounds without valve. I assume the Avelo tank uses a standard valve and they would both start with the same weight of gas so that's a wash.

Avelo uses a 300 BAR valve. A little more robust than typically found on Scuba Tanks.

That's just under 37 pounds for the stuff that is equivalent to the Avelo jetpack + tank with all of its hardware (valve, pump, hose, and battery).

I did not need any additional lead on my dives (steel tank and steel backplate). From what we've heard, most people need between 3 and 6 pounds of lead with Avelo.

So how much above-water weight am I going to save with Avelo? There's no way it's more than a handful of pounds and I wouldn't be in the least surprised if my setup was lighter.

Note that I'm only talking about weight here. I'm perfectly willing to accept that the relatively stable bouyancy of Avelo is a pretty neat feature. But a BP/W has advantages too other than price and easy availability. A couple of the big ones are the flexibility to use higher capacity tanks and the reserve bouyancy from the wing if needed for a rescue or on the surface.

Some people love their setups and are content. Some of the people I have certified feel this way. Most though love the experience of Avelo. I suspect the weight advantage of Avelo will increase whenever the second generation of tanks and jetpacks are developed. No I have no idea when that will happen.

 

[lowwall]

Avelo is an utterly fantastic diving experience. Is it worth the money? Not for some. But definitely for many. I've now certified 40 Avelo Divers. Everyone of them is glad they got the cert. A couple prefer to dive their BP&W. The vast majority though love the Avelo experience. This is ultimately the thing that is hard to convey. It's not like diving a Steel 80 with little needed weight. That is a lovely dive. No doubt. Avelo is not that. The description I hear a lot is "it's like free diving with gas". It has the sense of freedom free diving provides with the duration of scuba.

I recently certified a PADI Course Director who has been teaching scuba and diving for over 50 years. There's not much he hasn't dived before. I don't think he's on Scubaboard but if he were he would say something like "this is the future of Scuba Diving" and "when you take the cert forget everything you know about diving and approach this fresh". Larry loves Avelo. He's now working towards his Avelo Instructor certification and then his Instructor Trainer cert.

If you're convinced it's not for you. No worries. If you can't imagine why anyone loves diving Avelo give it a try and find out for yourself.

If it's really that good, they should subsidize the training cost since they'll easily make it up on future rentals and sales. I'd love to try it, but not at the current price.

 

[SouthernSharktoothDiver]

@EdMcNeill09 As far as the weight comparison goes, I do think it's a fair point that you could achieve similar reduction of weight with a minimalist/hogarthian setup for a fraction of the cost, with the added bonus of being able to use parts of your gear in places that only have AL 80's. Right now, and even optimistically for the next several years, Avelo is available in only a handful of locations. Though, to be fair, some of those locations are among the biggest dive destinations on the globe, so you could definitely get some mileage out of that certification while you wait.

As for the stable buoyancy thing, I was wondering a while ago, how often, during a dive, does that come up? To be clear, I normally dive rivers, and so am crawling along the bottom, very negative, so I really don't run into this often, but on the handful of sightseeing dives I've done that were neutral, I recall only ever having trouble getting neutral to begin with (ie, when I was new out of OW and still learning). Once neutral, buoyancy only changes as gas is consumed (which happens with Avelo as well, and must be accounted for by running the pump) or when changing in the depth (the problem Avelo means to solve). And the thing that occurs to me is, when I'm changing depth, it's usually on purpose, and therefore not really much trouble to adjust my buoyancy as I do so.

I could see it coming up on shipwreck dives a lot, but the one real wreck dive I've done was deep enough that the change in buoyancy from 80-100 feet (ie, the height of the wreck) was little enough to worry about. Otherwise, on the reef dive I did, I stayed at a more or less constant 30-40 feet, and don't recall using my inflator mid dive.

So, my question is basically, how often you find yourself reaching for the inflator or the dump during a dive in standard scuba?

 

[boqurant]

My Boxster was a 2002. It was my daily driver. I loved it. I put 155k miles on it before selling it to my brother in law when I moved to Hawaii. It was an utterly fantastic driving experience. I should have kept it.

That's some decent miles! Glad to hear you drove it well. You could still get back into it - they're cheap now and I'd say 987.2 is the sweet spot for driving experience (hydraulic steering, better styling), engine health (the 987.1 and 986 are prone to engine issues), general condition, parts availability etc. Prepare to sink 5 - 10 k into whatever you buy to bring it up to snuff and you've got a belter of a sportscar again

 

[EdMcNeill09]

@EdMcNeill09 As far as the weight comparison goes, I do think it's a fair point that you could achieve similar reduction of weight with a minimalist/hogarthian setup for a fraction of the cost, with the added bonus of being able to use parts of your gear in places that only have AL 80's. Right now, and even optimistically for the next several years, Avelo is available in only a handful of locations. Though, to be fair, some of those locations are among the biggest dive destinations on the globe, so you could definitely get some mileage out of that certification while you wait.

New Avelo Dive Centers are being announced most months. Last March I was #5. Today there are 15 listed on the website and many more in the pipeline.

As for the stable buoyancy thing, I was wondering a while ago, how often, during a dive, does that come up? To be clear, I normally dive rivers, and so am crawling along the bottom, very negative, so I really don't run into this often, but on the handful of sightseeing dives I've done that were neutral, I recall only ever having trouble getting neutral to begin with (ie, when I was new out of OW and still learning). Once neutral, buoyancy only changes as gas is consumed (which happens with Avelo as well, and must be accounted for by running the pump) or when changing in the depth (the problem Avelo means to solve). And the thing that occurs to me is, when I'm changing depth, it's usually on purpose, and therefore not really much trouble to adjust my buoyancy as I do so.

I could see it coming up on shipwreck dives a lot, but the one real wreck dive I've done was deep enough that the change in buoyancy from 80-100 feet (ie, the height of the wreck) was little enough to worry about. Otherwise, on the reef dive I did, I stayed at a more or less constant 30-40 feet, and don't recall using my inflator mid dive.

So, my question is basically, how often you find yourself reaching for the inflator or the dump during a dive in standard scuba?

Avelo wouldn't be a great advantage for your basic diving where you want to be negative.

We like to train in 50'-60' of depth so divers can experience having a wide range of neutral buoyancy. It's even more impressive when we wreck dive. Imagine swimming down to 105' and still being perfectly neutral. Grabbing your camera to take a pic and still having a perfect hover. So a couple of things here. with Avelo you have to swim down or exhale completely and slowly drift down. You don't drop down and get neutral. You start neutral and stay neutral.

If you get neutral on standard at 45' and stay between 35'-55' you will likely not have to adjust until you burn off enough gas that you need to. Now if you swim up over a reef to 30' you probably adjust by keeping very little air in your lungs and use your lungs for fine-tuning your buoyancy. Very standard. Which leads me to the point. With a wide range of stable buoyancy you still fine tune your buoyancy with your lungs but it's like having a sharper knife in the kitchen. It's a lot less work and a lot more enjoyable. Your breathing changes with Avelo. Your heart rate slows as you relax more deeply. Your air lasts longer and you have a more enjoyable dive. Avelo is simply better scuba.