This is the third follow up of my diving with Avelo gear. My initial review is the first post in the thread, the previous 2 follow ups are post #465 and #710.
My wife and I recently returned from our 13th trip to Bonaire, spending two weeks from September 24 to October 8. I rented Avelo gear on 2 days and did 6 more independent dives, now 22 since being Avelo certified in December 2023. Dive Friends has modified the Avelo rental program. Equipment rental is $55 per day. If you have an existing unlimited shore diving plan with Dive Friends, the Avelo Hydrotanks are included in the plan. My Avelo rental for 2 days cost me $110. I you do not have an unlimited shore diving plan, unlimited Hydrotanks per day run $42.
Again, I used the modified Jetpack with the pump button moved forward and upward to make up for limited mobility of my right shoulder. This Jetpack resides in Bonaire and works like a charm for me. I used my own 300 bar DIN regulator set and my Teric running the Avelo Mode, so did not need this equipment that comes with the rental.
My 6 dives on Avelo gear generally went well. Dive Friends has switched to a newer version of the Hydrotank, blue top rather than silver top. This tank is 4 pounds more buoyant and generally would require 4 pounds of additional ballast weight. As I thought I was a little heavy using 4 pounds with my 3 mm full suit and a sliver top tank, I chose to use 7 pounds and placed it in the tank boot, as done previously. The amount of weight seemed correct as I easily achieved neutral buoyancy with a single pump. Unfortunately, all the weight in my tank boot made me somewhat tail heavy and interfered with my trim. In a retrospective discussion with the Dive Friends Avelo lead, placing some of the weight on the waist belt and/or reducing the amount of weight and pumping twice to descend might have alleviated my complaint. I was unaware of these options up front or would have used them and would use them in the future. In addition, the new Shearwater Jetpack will be announced with commercial plans at DEMA in November. This will be a jacket style and, who knows, it may have integrated waist and trim weight pockets.
Depth independent neutral buoyancy is very easy for me to achieve, and Avelo gear is about 15 pounds lighter than my traditional gear. As per my previous reports, my gas consumption with Avelo is good, but not quite as good as it is with traditional gear. On this visit, my RMV with Avelo was 0.34 +/- 0.01 cu ft/min (9.6 +/- 0.3 L/min). On comparative dives, my RMV with traditional gear was 0.31 +/- 0.1 cu ft/min (8.8 +/- 0.3 L/min). Avelo gear is somewhat more complex and time consuming to set up, switch tanks, and to break down compared to traditional gear.
I look forward to my next opportunity to dive Avelo and will take advantage of improvements in my weight distribution. Perhaps I will be able to dive the Shearwater Jetpack.
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