Scuba Gadgets - what's great and what's not

[ScubaVideo]

My new favorite gadget is my EEZYCUT "Trilobite" line cutter. Here's my recent post on the topic:

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Recently picked up an EEZYCUT "Trilobite" cutting tool to replace my umpteenth z-knife. This thing rocks - it's what a z-knife type cutter should be: easy to use, sharp as hell, built solid. I'd post my own pictures, but my daughter seems to have lost my camera somewhere in the house, so I cribbed these here and there from the web:

It's made out of some kind of pretty solid plastic. Could be Delrin (?) as it has that same "milled" feel. Because of the design and since the blade is much longer than what you'd find in a z-knife (about 1.5" of exposed blade) it actually "slices" what it's cutting as opposed to simply "chopping" with a only small portion of exposed blade:

My LDS was selling it packaged with two additional free replacement blades

Comes in two mount options. Harness mount, which is what I went for...

Or wrist mount...(my computers are on bungee mounts, so not an option for me.)

My wife thinks I'm nuts as I'm running around the house seeing what it can cut...and I haven't found anything yet that it can't. I sort of look like the guy in this video cutting anything that's not nailed down...






PS: found my camera, and if you ever get entangled in co-axial cable... better hope you have an Eezycut Trilobite with you:

This looks great, just ordered one plus some blades. I like that it can fit on my waist and not be obtrusive like a traditional knife.

 

[sdiver68]

Providing, of course, that the local/national emergency services are equipped to track/locate beacons.

Good point, something to check into before your trip.

 

[ScubaVideo]

Good point, something to check into before your trip.

A PLB (personal locator beacon) is registered with your home country. For the U.S., it is registered with NOAA and first response is coordinated by closest of the Coast Guard, Navy, or AF. A signal is sent to COSPAS-SARSAT system on the 406MHz. If your out of their jurisdiction, they will still be able to coordinate a rescue. Then any ships local to you can be directed to you and then the secondary signal on 121.5MHz will help home in on you. Lots of countries participate and as we saw with the 16yo girl attempting sail around the world, it brought rescue to her in the middle of no-where - though it took some time to get to her using multiple resources from several countries. The one I carry only has 24 to 48hrs of battery, so I better not be too far away. Hopefully I will never get to test it. I'm also looking foreword to the Nautilus Lifeline becoming a reality.

Info on COSPAS-SARSAT System

The one I carry:

 

[DevonDiver]

Ah, ok!

PLB is a satellite system, allowing home nation monitoring world-wide. I was assuming it was a radio system

 

[ScubaVideo]

Ah, ok!

PLB is a satellite system, allowing home nation monitoring world-wide. I was assuming it was a radio system

The one I linked to from Nautilus Lifeline is a radio - it looks very promising. The PLB is a radio, you just can't talk on it, but it does communicate over emergency channels that marine operators can pickup - so in that sense it is a radio. And its saying "come get me!".

 

[Pauly854]

Does anyone have an opinion on Liquid Vision Camera masks? The price on these things look too good to be true.

 

[charlesml3]

I wasn't aware of any prohibition within climbing on the use of load bearing caribiners?!?

Prohibition? No. There are no "mountain climbing police" any more than there are "scuba police."

 

[bvanant]

You forgot the SubSee +10 and +5 wet diopters for your camera when you are shooting really small nudis. On the Miflex side, I like their low pressure hoses but have had two high pressure hoses simply burst (luckily on the boat). Bad design of the strain relief.
Bill

 

[bvanant]

Does anyone have an opinion on Liquid Vision Camera masks? The price on these things look too good to be true.

At $300 they aren't terribly expensive but you will need to add lights and there goes another $700 or so. Fun for shooting your friends but not terribly high quality lens or video codec. For the same money you might look at GoPro, not sure how different it is but the HD video quality looks better to me.
Bill

 

[terrylowe]

Oh!...Oh!....Oh!....rattle!...clang!...rattle!....OMG!.....OMG!.....OMG!....

clang!...clang!....clang!...rattle!....OMG!......Oh!.....rattle!....clang!....

clang!.....clang!.....CLANG!......CLANG!.....CLANG!.......CLANG!

....."I can see Nemo"..

Hey...that was US! We must have been on the same dive.!! Nemo WAS really cute. I dive with 3 of my children and their friends. There really IS a lot of clanging, clanking and rattling, but it is nifty to see them get so excited about seeing something that is exotic for them. (I'm glad they can't talk!!) I can certainly see how that would be annoying to the seasoned pro though. I'll have them tone it down a little next dive.

+1 for the retractor to hold my rattle