caveseeker7
Contributor
With June gloom in high gear this weekend, I spend it at the SCUBA show in Long Beach. Yesterday just walking the floor, some more of that today before I helped out at the Northern Diver booth.
Rebreathers had a pretty good showing. Bubbleseekers of Woodland Hills attended with a CCR 2000 and an Azimuth. The latter was mounted to an OMS harness, the former the first time I've seen one in a few years. They replaced the Inconel spheres with DOT-approved steel ones (less than half the $$$), made a few other mods, and brought the price down from ober $18k to just below ten grand.
The rig still has the integrated deco computer, in a display that also shows the two sphere pressures and one off-board tank (the original one had three spheres for O2, air and heliox (or 2x air), they dropped one of them and added an off-board plug). They had inteded to bring a Megalodon, but couldn't. I did get, however, an invitation to check it out in the pool in a month or so, and will report back on that.
Scuba Schools of America had two Inspirations, a Hammerhead and several Dolphins in their booth, ANDI next door another Azi and Dolphin, as well as a MK15 with digital electronics. First time I saw the HH, very nice craftsmanship.
Malibu Divers had a Prism Topaz in their booth, with the current cover and Heads-Down-Display. Still like the analog secondary a lot. Having it (almost) side-by-side the other RBs, it IS a pretty compact package.
Halcyon had an RB80 displayed, and wins hands down for the best display setup. The unit was mounted on a custom stand that allowed it to be turned 360 degrees, which made it perfectly easy to check out. Both the scrubber cannister and the box the counterlung sits in were transparent, giving a nice view of the inside. The new tank-mounting hardware is nicely done, too.
Patrick Duffy of Oxycheq had all of his goodies there, analysers, gas switching hardware & swivels, ADV, new BC bladders, HS Explorers and plenty of other goodies. Jeff Bozanic was at his booth, signing books (they're available there, among other places).
Tamara Thomsen was there, with two VR3s mounted to a T-bar, one each Inspiration, Dräger and O2 test adapter and her personal unit (with dives in the log). A bunch of brochures, business cards and small posters, she definitely had the easiest to set-up and packing of the show. She's DeltaP Technologies lone US employee, and will help Kevin Gurr with the US distribution/market. Anyone who has a VR3 from OMS, or is intrested in that computer can get in touch with her at tami@diversions-scuba.com or at 608-347-2822.
Finally Nick Eickhorn (sp?) brought his annual display of diving history, including several RBs. Among them the Russian IDA164 O2CCR with twin absorbent cannisters and IDA59 Submarine Escape unit.
Even my "boss" for the afternoon, Peter Dan Haan, is a SCR/CCR instructor, so I din't have a dull moment. But my feet still hurt ...
Edited: About that IDA164, seems the tag was wrong, it's just a 64. And the twin scrubber wasn't one either. Here Janwillem's explanation after I send him the pics
(link below ):
Something els is that the rebreather does not have two scrubbers, but only has one. The other cartridge has KO2 inside. KO2 is a extremely dangerous product used by the russian to fabricate oxygen in the rebreather itself. One of the extreme smart things about this product is that it binds along a chemical way the CO2 produced by the diver. Together with moisture (H2O) the chemical produces oxygen! It is a exothermic reaction. Side effect is that the chemical gets extremely hot and burns through steel when it gets in contact with tomuch water.
First time I've ever heard of that. Pretty amazing, though it seems to need some work.
Rebreathers had a pretty good showing. Bubbleseekers of Woodland Hills attended with a CCR 2000 and an Azimuth. The latter was mounted to an OMS harness, the former the first time I've seen one in a few years. They replaced the Inconel spheres with DOT-approved steel ones (less than half the $$$), made a few other mods, and brought the price down from ober $18k to just below ten grand.
The rig still has the integrated deco computer, in a display that also shows the two sphere pressures and one off-board tank (the original one had three spheres for O2, air and heliox (or 2x air), they dropped one of them and added an off-board plug). They had inteded to bring a Megalodon, but couldn't. I did get, however, an invitation to check it out in the pool in a month or so, and will report back on that. Scuba Schools of America had two Inspirations, a Hammerhead and several Dolphins in their booth, ANDI next door another Azi and Dolphin, as well as a MK15 with digital electronics. First time I saw the HH, very nice craftsmanship.
Malibu Divers had a Prism Topaz in their booth, with the current cover and Heads-Down-Display. Still like the analog secondary a lot. Having it (almost) side-by-side the other RBs, it IS a pretty compact package.
Halcyon had an RB80 displayed, and wins hands down for the best display setup. The unit was mounted on a custom stand that allowed it to be turned 360 degrees, which made it perfectly easy to check out. Both the scrubber cannister and the box the counterlung sits in were transparent, giving a nice view of the inside. The new tank-mounting hardware is nicely done, too.
Patrick Duffy of Oxycheq had all of his goodies there, analysers, gas switching hardware & swivels, ADV, new BC bladders, HS Explorers and plenty of other goodies. Jeff Bozanic was at his booth, signing books (they're available there, among other places).
Tamara Thomsen was there, with two VR3s mounted to a T-bar, one each Inspiration, Dräger and O2 test adapter and her personal unit (with dives in the log). A bunch of brochures, business cards and small posters, she definitely had the easiest to set-up and packing of the show. She's DeltaP Technologies lone US employee, and will help Kevin Gurr with the US distribution/market. Anyone who has a VR3 from OMS, or is intrested in that computer can get in touch with her at tami@diversions-scuba.com or at 608-347-2822.
Finally Nick Eickhorn (sp?) brought his annual display of diving history, including several RBs. Among them the Russian IDA164 O2CCR with twin absorbent cannisters and IDA59 Submarine Escape unit.
Even my "boss" for the afternoon, Peter Dan Haan, is a SCR/CCR instructor, so I din't have a dull moment.
But my feet still hurt ... Edited: About that IDA164, seems the tag was wrong, it's just a 64. And the twin scrubber wasn't one either. Here Janwillem's explanation after I send him the pics
(link below
):Something els is that the rebreather does not have two scrubbers, but only has one. The other cartridge has KO2 inside. KO2 is a extremely dangerous product used by the russian to fabricate oxygen in the rebreather itself. One of the extreme smart things about this product is that it binds along a chemical way the CO2 produced by the diver. Together with moisture (H2O) the chemical produces oxygen! It is a exothermic reaction. Side effect is that the chemical gets extremely hot and burns through steel when it gets in contact with tomuch water.
First time I've ever heard of that. Pretty amazing, though it seems to need some work.
