Sherwood Blizzard - Last minute questions

[EricPuryear]

Hi everyone . I'm about to purchase my first regulator, and after reading opinions in this forum and talking to the instructor/salesperson at my local scuba shop, I think I will get the Sherwood Blizzard. I live in Chicago and plan to do some diving in cold water, but I also like diving in warm ocean water... So I guess my questions are:

1) Given my desire to do cold water diving in fresh water and warm water diving in salt water, is this a good choice for a regulator? It is sealed, so I know it will be OK for cold, but I haven't seen many people discussing this regulator for warm water dives.

2) What about maximum depth and maximum comfortable depth? I've seen some people say that this regular gets difficult to breath from below 100 feet, but then I've seen other people say that this was not true. I've also looked on the Sherwood website, but they don't list a maximum depth or a maximum "comfortable" depth.

3) Even know I have done my research for the past two weeks, I get the feeling that I've overlooked something since I am pretty new to diving and purchasing gear... Anything else that I should consider?

 

[Arduous]

I have one, but don't use it any more. I never liked the dry bleed on the 1st stage. I stripped it down and now use the 1st stage as a flow restrictor for my oxygen testing.

 

[spectrum]

Hi everyone

3) Even know I have done my research for the past two weeks, I get the feeling that I've overlooked something since I am pretty new to diving and purchasing gear... Anything else that I should consider?

It sounds like you're doing your homework. We went through the same thing and ended up with a pair of Blizzard set-ups. Here's some of what ebtered into our decision.
* Cold water performance is a concern and a search of posts and local conversations came back very positive for cold use.
* Reliabillity came back very positive
* Simplicity got good marks
* Cost of annual service was less than many
* Most popular one sold at LDS and they discount them nicely
* We expect to be doing predominantly shore dives so the mentioned deep performance was not a big driver. We do expect to do a little bit of deep diving and as you mentioned some divers say they do fine. In any event for occasional deep use they should be acceptable.
* The plated heatsink delivers the same moisture return as the Oasis model. I have yet to attach a value to this but it may be noticable.
* The dry bleed is something of a novelty and only equates to a few breaths per dive. By all or most accounts it works.

Is it a high performance regulator? I'd say by all acounts no. I did get a lot of feedback that it's perfectly adequate for our intended use. If money were no object I would have bought something else but in gearing up 2 divers we needed to make choices and this seemed like a fit. So far we have been very comfortable breathing off them though our use has been very limited.

One thing I have come to recognize in this sport is that there are divers participating at different levels be it deep, cave etc. these demands color recomendations. Same holds true for financial means, for some money is no object. The choice would be easy if you had high demands and unlimited finacial resources (maybe you do)

I hope this helps, let us know what you go with.

Pete

 

[wreckchick]

OK, I'll do it....

Have you looked at other high performance dry sealed regulators such as an Apeks DS4? It's not a very expensive regulator and it will do whatever you want. I've had Mares, Scubapro, Apeks and Sherwood regs and the Apeks I can just beat the snot out of and it's fine. The Mares sucked, the Scubapro is a good reg, but it's currently on the shelf because service is such a pain. I have Sherwood Bruts for my rental gear because they're pretty well bulletproof, but I don't really consider them appropriate for serious diving and I'd never send them into cold water.

JMHO

R

 

[derwoodwithasherwood]

I have Sherwood Bruts for my rental gear because they're pretty well bulletproof, but I don't really consider them appropriate for serious diving and I'd never send them into cold water.

The Brut may well be the source of most Sherwood criticism. The Blizzard is a different animal (first and second stages) and I think it breathes better and more consistently than the Brut. Never had a problem in cold water. Never tried it in truly warm water.

 

[EricPuryear]

Thanks for the help everyone. I just bought the blizzard and will (probablly) try it out tomorrow at Haigh Quarry in Kankakee, IL. If anyone in that area wants a dive buddy for tomorrow let me know.

 

[spectrum]

Thanks for the help everyone. I just bought the blizzard and will (probablly) try it out tomorrow at Haigh Quarry in Kankakee, IL. If anyone in that area wants a dive buddy for tomorrow let me know.

Welcome to the family!

DIN or yoke?

The Wide""walrus" exhaust tee is nice. The stock Wisdom mouthpiece is surprisingly comfortable. My wife and I both forget they are there.

Pete

 

[EricPuryear]

Welcome to the family!

DIN or yoke?

The Wide""walrus" exhaust tee is nice. The stock Wisdom mouthpiece is surprisingly comfortable. My wife and I both forget they are there.

Pete

I got the yolk... The walrus exhaust tee came with it in the box, and a lower profile one was attached. I think I'll have my dive shop switch them out next time I go in (which may be this weekend for a nitrox class).

I got to use my blizzard for the first time today, and it was great. Way better than the rental sherwood brutes that I've been using, and my mouth didn't feel as dry. Breating was pretty easy, although I didn't get below 45 feet due to a horrible thermocline and my 3mm wetsuit.

Thanks again for the help