tombiowami
Contributor
Was not really sure where to post this since it crosses over into a few sections, but here is where it would have helped me the most...
Ok, here are my observations after actually using the Halcyon BP/Wings. I have 25 dives under my belt in quarries and some Fla. springs and just got certified AOW and Nitrox under Naui. I plan to do more of the springs and here in NC wrecks are the main diving centers and most are fairly deep. I have dove with a few jacket BCs and the Zeagle Ranger and Scout. I had purchased the Ranger a while back, and really liked it in the store, and it seemed to fit the bill on the diving I wanted to do. I had also used the Concept which is more similar to the Ranger. In one shop I had inquired about the Halcyon rig but got instead a 15 minute talk on why that was not a good one, too expensive and you had to buy a bunch more stuff making it even more expensive. This was also a Halcyon dealer, but with none of the rigs on display, just some safety sausages and lift bags.
The Ranger was an adequate BC, though I did not like all of the dangling straps and buckles everywhere, I thought they took away from the overall simplicity of a back inflate BC. When at depth the BC would slip and I had a hard time tightening it back up and adjusting it underwater. The other thing I did not like was that the pockets were pretty hard to get into, especially with weights right next to them.
After diving a bit I came across the Extreme Exposure website and read a lot about the DIR style and the equipment. I also saw their offer to let you get the stuff and try it for a month and return it. I said wow! That is a pretty good deal. A couple weeks ago I took them up on the offer. It would be 15 bucks each way for shipping if I did not like it. I emailed a bit and then called down there and spoke with Tyler and Dave. I talked with Dave the most and I told him exactly how long I had been diving and asked many questions. He was one of the friendliest dive shop employees I have ever spoken with. Very helpful in suggesting different pieces and tips and tricks. He also was honest about Dive Shop Salesman Dave, and Actual Diver Dave and why the two were sometime different. How many dive shop employees can you say that about?
I ordered the rig coming with the steel bp, 27 lb. wing for single tank, acb+ weight system, a regular weight belt, (this is what he recommended, over the $110 system they sell, I just wanted to try both), and it comes with a padded thin cushion that attaches to the bp, and a pocket that attaches to the webbing belt. When it arrived a couple days later I was amazed at the equipment right off. Each piece was of fantastic quality. Extremely sturdy. It was impressive to think this is the same gear that people feel comfortable taking (though probably not with my Aluminum80s, haha) a few miles into Wakulla springs cave system. It should be good enough for the local quarry here.
My first chance to use it was on our trip to the Florida springs. We stopped by the Extreme Exposure and they were as nice and helpful as on the phone. They offered to help me fit the bp and ran a few other tips by. Fantastic staff. We got some gas fills (this was the end of my Nitrox and AOW course) and went on down to Ginnie Springs.
I was very impressed by the entire operation at Ginnie. The dive shop was first rate, tons of actual good gear. A lot of dive shops seem to just have a few, very old and dusty pieces of gear. The campground is beautiful, right on the Santa Fe river, with Cypress trees and a nice forest all around. Several herons flew by every so often, ducks abounded, and owls screeching at night. We looked around for some reasonable springs for me to dive but did not really find anything but the commercial sites.
The next day we setup and went diving at Ginnie. I was a bit apprehensive, being my first cavern dive and using lights. The water is as clear as described. It is an amazing area to be in. I later on became a bit nauseous, I think due to vertigo since it is very odd to the body to be veritably flying above the rocks. There were several places that too me seemed to fall into the cave category. If you look at technical descriptions of caves for scuba divers, such as and over head area where 2 people cannot proceed side by side, then Ginnie has them. They also allow night diving, which runs into another definition of a cave, an overhead environment in which no sunlight existsAfter that we went over to Little Devil spring which is a fissure about 20 deep that you go down in and look up. You can actually almost count the leaves on the trees and watch boats go by. (canoes, kayaks) Then up and down the chute/run to Devils Eye, a round hole about 30 or so I think. It has a cave entrance but I stayed away and just looked around. Several cave divers came in and out while we were there. Then up and over a bit to the Devils Ear, a more fissure like area again, and back up the chute to the exit. We did those two dives over again and then a night dive that evening that was gorgeous.
Next day we were off the Blue Grotto. Again billed as open water OK. The presentation is very explicit about the dangers, the baby fine silt that can get stirred up by finning even 5 feet above. The Grotto has water as clear as Ginnie but in a huge room. There is little flow compared to Ginnie so if silt gets stirred up it is staying for a while where as Ginnie will clear itself out with its tens of millions of gallons of water a day shooting through. Upon entering the water one sees 150 or so feet across the room, which is about 50 feet deep and 30 feet at the top of the cavern. There is a permanent line course that takes you to the back, it drops at a very steep angle to 87 feet, and very little light, again running into the definition of caves. Around this area even the sides of the boulders have the silt. I stayed right on the line and we came on back up and played around in the air bell they have set up. We saw a turtle in this one also in addtion to the fish. Concerning the gear, it had officially become intertwined with me, it is really amazing how much of a difference in comfort it is to use this old style minimilist gear. We hopped out and a couple hours later went down again. I felt a lot more comfortable this time. I had gotten my skills to where I can descend from the surface slowly and horizontally, and stopping with breath a foot above the bottom, then frogging it along without stirring the silt or I would not have done much of this. I did not find it all that fun in the deep parts due to the lack of light and task loading. Much more relaxing in the big room looking around. One neat thing is to go to the top of the cavern, and your depth guage reads out 30. Helps bring home a lot of the Nitrox course info on gas and pressures.
Our next day we went to Devils Den. This place held no qualms. The attendant called them swim throughs. They were 50 down, single file complete and sometimes barely that. Vis was 30 at best. There are several open caves, there idea of figuring the difference is to enter them, darken your light, and see if you can see any ambient light. Oh yes, and pretty silty. On our next swim around we stuck to the shallower areas and watched the huge catfish swim. It is a very dramatic area above the surface.
Overall we did 8 dives with water time of about 9 hrs. We used 32 and 35% O2 and dove on the Naui tables all square dives and no deco but did do some longer safety stops. I passed the test on the way back up going through Georgia and South Carolina.
Awesome trip and I am completely sold on the Halcyon setups. As I stated before, it does its job very well so I can concentrate on what I am down there for. I also used the long hose setup and found it just as good overall. The only problem was the spg and getting the d ring in the right place to be able to see. I felt the wing several times and could never really feel much air in there.
The wing fills up completely with 2 breaths of air. Wow!
I did over weight myself by accident one time and it was just barely able to keep me up. Have to be more cognizant of that. We were switching Alum80s with a steel98 and well you get the idea.
Tommy
Ok, here are my observations after actually using the Halcyon BP/Wings. I have 25 dives under my belt in quarries and some Fla. springs and just got certified AOW and Nitrox under Naui. I plan to do more of the springs and here in NC wrecks are the main diving centers and most are fairly deep. I have dove with a few jacket BCs and the Zeagle Ranger and Scout. I had purchased the Ranger a while back, and really liked it in the store, and it seemed to fit the bill on the diving I wanted to do. I had also used the Concept which is more similar to the Ranger. In one shop I had inquired about the Halcyon rig but got instead a 15 minute talk on why that was not a good one, too expensive and you had to buy a bunch more stuff making it even more expensive. This was also a Halcyon dealer, but with none of the rigs on display, just some safety sausages and lift bags.
The Ranger was an adequate BC, though I did not like all of the dangling straps and buckles everywhere, I thought they took away from the overall simplicity of a back inflate BC. When at depth the BC would slip and I had a hard time tightening it back up and adjusting it underwater. The other thing I did not like was that the pockets were pretty hard to get into, especially with weights right next to them.
After diving a bit I came across the Extreme Exposure website and read a lot about the DIR style and the equipment. I also saw their offer to let you get the stuff and try it for a month and return it. I said wow! That is a pretty good deal. A couple weeks ago I took them up on the offer. It would be 15 bucks each way for shipping if I did not like it. I emailed a bit and then called down there and spoke with Tyler and Dave. I talked with Dave the most and I told him exactly how long I had been diving and asked many questions. He was one of the friendliest dive shop employees I have ever spoken with. Very helpful in suggesting different pieces and tips and tricks. He also was honest about Dive Shop Salesman Dave, and Actual Diver Dave and why the two were sometime different. How many dive shop employees can you say that about?
I ordered the rig coming with the steel bp, 27 lb. wing for single tank, acb+ weight system, a regular weight belt, (this is what he recommended, over the $110 system they sell, I just wanted to try both), and it comes with a padded thin cushion that attaches to the bp, and a pocket that attaches to the webbing belt. When it arrived a couple days later I was amazed at the equipment right off. Each piece was of fantastic quality. Extremely sturdy. It was impressive to think this is the same gear that people feel comfortable taking (though probably not with my Aluminum80s, haha) a few miles into Wakulla springs cave system. It should be good enough for the local quarry here.
My first chance to use it was on our trip to the Florida springs. We stopped by the Extreme Exposure and they were as nice and helpful as on the phone. They offered to help me fit the bp and ran a few other tips by. Fantastic staff. We got some gas fills (this was the end of my Nitrox and AOW course) and went on down to Ginnie Springs.
I was very impressed by the entire operation at Ginnie. The dive shop was first rate, tons of actual good gear. A lot of dive shops seem to just have a few, very old and dusty pieces of gear. The campground is beautiful, right on the Santa Fe river, with Cypress trees and a nice forest all around. Several herons flew by every so often, ducks abounded, and owls screeching at night. We looked around for some reasonable springs for me to dive but did not really find anything but the commercial sites.
The next day we setup and went diving at Ginnie. I was a bit apprehensive, being my first cavern dive and using lights. The water is as clear as described. It is an amazing area to be in. I later on became a bit nauseous, I think due to vertigo since it is very odd to the body to be veritably flying above the rocks. There were several places that too me seemed to fall into the cave category. If you look at technical descriptions of caves for scuba divers, such as and over head area where 2 people cannot proceed side by side, then Ginnie has them. They also allow night diving, which runs into another definition of a cave, an overhead environment in which no sunlight existsAfter that we went over to Little Devil spring which is a fissure about 20 deep that you go down in and look up. You can actually almost count the leaves on the trees and watch boats go by. (canoes, kayaks) Then up and down the chute/run to Devils Eye, a round hole about 30 or so I think. It has a cave entrance but I stayed away and just looked around. Several cave divers came in and out while we were there. Then up and over a bit to the Devils Ear, a more fissure like area again, and back up the chute to the exit. We did those two dives over again and then a night dive that evening that was gorgeous.
Next day we were off the Blue Grotto. Again billed as open water OK. The presentation is very explicit about the dangers, the baby fine silt that can get stirred up by finning even 5 feet above. The Grotto has water as clear as Ginnie but in a huge room. There is little flow compared to Ginnie so if silt gets stirred up it is staying for a while where as Ginnie will clear itself out with its tens of millions of gallons of water a day shooting through. Upon entering the water one sees 150 or so feet across the room, which is about 50 feet deep and 30 feet at the top of the cavern. There is a permanent line course that takes you to the back, it drops at a very steep angle to 87 feet, and very little light, again running into the definition of caves. Around this area even the sides of the boulders have the silt. I stayed right on the line and we came on back up and played around in the air bell they have set up. We saw a turtle in this one also in addtion to the fish. Concerning the gear, it had officially become intertwined with me, it is really amazing how much of a difference in comfort it is to use this old style minimilist gear. We hopped out and a couple hours later went down again. I felt a lot more comfortable this time. I had gotten my skills to where I can descend from the surface slowly and horizontally, and stopping with breath a foot above the bottom, then frogging it along without stirring the silt or I would not have done much of this. I did not find it all that fun in the deep parts due to the lack of light and task loading. Much more relaxing in the big room looking around. One neat thing is to go to the top of the cavern, and your depth guage reads out 30. Helps bring home a lot of the Nitrox course info on gas and pressures.
Our next day we went to Devils Den. This place held no qualms. The attendant called them swim throughs. They were 50 down, single file complete and sometimes barely that. Vis was 30 at best. There are several open caves, there idea of figuring the difference is to enter them, darken your light, and see if you can see any ambient light. Oh yes, and pretty silty. On our next swim around we stuck to the shallower areas and watched the huge catfish swim. It is a very dramatic area above the surface.
Overall we did 8 dives with water time of about 9 hrs. We used 32 and 35% O2 and dove on the Naui tables all square dives and no deco but did do some longer safety stops. I passed the test on the way back up going through Georgia and South Carolina.
Awesome trip and I am completely sold on the Halcyon setups. As I stated before, it does its job very well so I can concentrate on what I am down there for. I also used the long hose setup and found it just as good overall. The only problem was the spg and getting the d ring in the right place to be able to see. I felt the wing several times and could never really feel much air in there.
The wing fills up completely with 2 breaths of air. Wow!
I did over weight myself by accident one time and it was just barely able to keep me up. Have to be more cognizant of that. We were switching Alum80s with a steel98 and well you get the idea.
Tommy
