Undercurrent is Temporarily Suspending Publication

[tridacna]

Subscriptions. I've had a subscription for about 5 years now. $39.95/year

That’s the 90%. Where’s the rest?

 

[kelemvor]

That’s the 90%. Where’s the rest?

Good point, I'd glossed right over that statement. Donations maybe? They don't say on the website (I just looked) but they are a nonprofit. I don't see a donation form, either.

They do have "staff writers" who travel and write about it. I bet they are writing off their trip costs as donations to undercurrent for a tax deduction or some similar tax shenanigans. That's just a WAG, no science involved.

 

[Steve_C]

Great one to keep your eye on when they re open
There's a millions of bunch of stuff in the archives


Regulator Service Do I have to do it every year?

Past experience tells me two things: (1) the mostly likely time a regulator will malfunction is on the first dive after it has been serviced, and (2) if I take good care of my reg, I can go for three seasons without service and never have a problem.
So if I dutifully take my regulator in for its annual service, does that mean that, when I get the little plastic bag back with a handful of parts that look perfectly fine, I’ve just shelled out 50 to 100 bucks for nothing?

I called a buddy with a dive store who I knew would forgo the industry line and tell me what he thought. He did, but he also said he would like to remain anonymous.
“No, I don’t service my regs annually. I think the annual thing got started back when O-rings were made of rubber. Now that they’re made of more durable Regulator Service Do I have to do it every year? material, I don’t think it’s as necessary.

Manufacturers won’t back off because of liability reasons, and most dive stores want the service business. When a customer who’s an experienced diver brings in a reg, I can crank off the dust cap, look to see if it’s clean, check the filter, look for salt crystals, snap it on the test bench, and check the cracking pressures. If it passes all of these tests, I say there’s no reason to overhaul it.”


Rudy Mola of the International Association of Scuba Technicians (IAST) has a very different view. “Of course you should do an annual checkup — it’s a life-support system. You can’t tell anything about a regulator by slapping it on a test bench.

Some regs will even perform (for awhile) with the wrong parts. In a less than perfect world, a repair technician can’t find the right part, but ‘here, this one looks almost like it.’ The resulting problems may not happen until you’re at depth. A technician has to have already worked on the reg before he or she can tell anything about it on a bench. “Another good reason for regular servicing is that manufacturers sometimes modify components, replacing them with superior products.
Even without use, regulator components can dry out and become defective.

Yes, it’s true that most regs will fail positively (free flow rather than cut off your air), but why take a chance? It’s life support, and parts should be checked and replaced annually.”

Some of Rudy’s arguments are compelling, but I’m still not a hundred percent convinced that it’s necessary to replace all those components every 12 months if I take good care of my regulator. However, one of the IAST contentions is hard to argue with: that people who service underwater life support systems should be qualified. IAST points out that manufacturers offer courses lasting from a couple of hours to a day on how to service their regs, but as it stands now, anyone who wants to call himself a scuba technician is one.

It’s IAST’s goal to set minimum standards for the training of scuba technicians and organize an international registry of scuba technicians and repair training facilities. If this would mean that regulators would no longer be most prone to fail on the first dive after servicing, I’m for it.

John Q. Trigger IAST can be reached at 954-748- 4772, fax 954-748-0637, or e-mail IAST@aol.com.

©1996 Elephant Socks Publishing, Inc.



Magnificent!

Was on a boat when a DM went to unhook the boat and his reg shut down at 60 ft. Had to do an emergency CESA. Done diving for the day. Turned out he had put a part in upside down when he had checked it himself. He did not have redundancy since the had leant his other reg to a customer.

 

[chillyinCanada]

That sucks! I just joined 2 weeks ago. What a waste of money now

No it isn't. Your subscription will still be valid after the return to business, for the length of time that there were no new circulation due to lack of new content.

In the meantime, you can read back issues to your heart's content.

 

[living4experiences]

I had only subscribed two weeks prior to the suspension of their publication. I took a chance and wrote in to request a refund of my $29.95 for the subscription and it was refunded within two days. Kudos to these guys!! I will certainly rejoin when they are up and running again. Much better treatment to the customer than the live-aboard industry is doing. Thanks again, Undercurrent!!

 

[Ben Davison]

I had only subscribed two weeks prior to the suspension of their publication. I took a chance and wrote in to request a refund of my $29.95 for the subscription and it was refunded within two days. Kudos to these guys!! I will certainly rejoin when they are up and running again. Much better treatment to the customer than the live-aboard industry is doing. Thanks again, Undercurrent!!

Thanks for your kind words. Been doing honest business since 1974

 

[Ben Davison]

That sucks! I just joined 2 weeks ago. What a waste of money now

We provide money back to anyone during the first term for any reason. email deb@undercurrent.org and we'll take care of it

 

[Ben Davison]

Where is other revenue sourced from? They don’t do ads. Curious.

On the website, resorts, etc. are allowed to buy a link to their website for around $200 a year, about $2400 a year The webmaster handles that and he doesn't report to me who buys. On occasion in our email, we have had paid items, for example, the New England Aquarium pays us $250 to recruit divers for their fish collecting. Our webmaster is paid for his work, so that pay the costs. And, we get some donations, including and annual $1000 for excellence in environmental journalism.

Also, we are involved in stopping poaching in Africa, and last year raised and sent more than $4million to NGO's and our costs were covered, like the price of an audit

 

[tridacna]

On the website, resorts, etc. are allowed to buy a link to their website for around $200 a year. The webmaster handles that and he doesn't report to me who buys. On occasion in our email, we have had paid items, for example, the New England Aquarium pays us $250 to recruit divers for their fish collecting. Our webmaster is paid for his work, so that pay the costs. And, we get some donations, including and annual $1000 for excellence in environmental journalism

Always liked Undercurrent. When you come back, so will I.

 

[wnissen]

That sucks! I just joined 2 weeks ago. What a waste of money now

Sounds like you are getting a pretty great deal, access for longer than you would have before. I subscribed for the first time this year as well and they are doing really well in my opinion.