Phuket Diving: Gear and abilities part the waters | Phuket News

Posted by phuketnews on Aug 1, 2012 in phuketgazette | 0 comments

PHUKET: When was the last time something truly fresh hit the dive market? Yes, per annum we get niftier regulators, more swanky dive watches and new fin designs that we won?t resist at the least window-buying. But, when was the last time something was placed on the marketplace for recreational divers that actually parted the waters ? changed the way in which we considered diving?

In an activity it truly is becoming a growing number of relaxing and accessible to most of the people, those desirous to ?push the bounds? without doing the heavy lifting of tech-diving books, have found themselves at a loss.

Those people with full time, non-dive industry jobs still want that sense of discovery; to finish up inside the footnotes of a history book; or, a minimum of, to be greater than 50 minutes down on a dive trying.

This year PADI has finally gotten the ball rolling with the launch of 3 new specialty diving courses: recreational rebreathers, sidemounts and self-reliant diving.

But, this is not tech diving.

Kevin Black from Kiwidivers in Chalong, one among only four recreational rebreather dive instructors currently in Thailand, explained that PADI was bringing the ?Wow? factor back to scuba diving. The brand new certifications let recreational divers safely push the bounds of what they give thught to sports diving.

The only closed-circuit rebreather currently available at the recreational market is Poseidon?s MKVI. Here?s a kind of bits of drugs that guys piecing together their tech kits of their garage years ago would have dreamed of, and now it?s here, safe and in fact designed for sports divers.

Before sitting down with Kevin, my understanding of rebreathers was fairly simple ? they do not make bubbles.

Well, i used to ben?t wrong, but I was missing a bit little bit of the purpose too. Yes, they do not make bubbles because the air you breath out is cycled and scrubbed through a closed system, after which has pure oxygen from some of the two tanks within the kit automatically blended with the oxygen-depleted air, making it good for an additional breathe, time and time again. Sounds complicated, but i used to be assured that they were dummy proof ? so i would not have any issues.

However, by focusing only on not blowing bubbles and disturbing the fish, I missed the purpose. Rebreathers don?t just add a pair more minutes for your dive, as i presumed. They do not just double your dive time. They really can turn a one hour dive right into a three hour dive, Kevin explained.

That means, you?re the first to leap, after which after everyone has arise, had lunch, equipped and booked a second dive, you?re the last to return up ? and still do not have decompression time, unlike a tech-diver.

Recently PADI ran an event showcasing both the Poseidon recreational rebreather and sidemounts on Koh Phi Phi.

For the various 30 to 40 divers on Phi Phi who attended the development, this was their first time strapping a tank under each arm for the sidemount configuration and feeling the recent diving ?flow?. Sidemount configurations had been around for a very long time, first reportedly getting used in England for cave diving, and subsequently used around the world for cave diving and penetration dives.

The weightlessness and balance that sidemount divers gloat about is sufficient to make me subscribe to the course, simply to join the club. And the redundant gas supply and reduced returned strain are both advantages that i am waiting for.

Though the course is aimed toward recreational diving, it also provides a pleasant view of the tech-diving world. It is a little step that leaves you totally comfortable once you start shooting to your ultimate goals, from exploring cave systems to only feeling like you?re portion of the ecosystem after you hover above the corals and snap a stellar photo.

Different from the recreational rebreather course and the sidemount course, the PADI self-reliant course isn?t about becoming ok with new equipment; it?s about becoming happy with yourself.

PADI has, since time immemorial, preached (and maybe rightly so) that divers should never dive without a buddy. Though that philosophy has not changed, PADI is now willing to admit that it does happen, either intentionally or unintentionally. And let?s be honest: who is a dive instructor relying on in an emergency when they are taking two ?Discover Scuba? divers on their first dip into the big blue?

PADI?s position is clear in their released statement: ?Diving without a Dive Buddy, by choice, while not advocated, is something which PADI recognizes to be occasionally either necessary or preferred by some divers.?

This recognition is in many ways a new frontier for experienced recreational divers (100 plus dives is necessary to take the course). Those who have only been loosely following the buddy system, or ignoring it completely while taking photographs, spear fishing or lobster hunting, can come out of the closet.

Not only can they now stop hiding in some murky underground social circle, but they have the opportunity to be trained in ?self rescue?, to be tested in order that they can at least engage in a more risky activity in the safest possible way.

?One of the key things you learn is how to deal with running out of air when you don?t have a buddy to rely on. You also learn a lot about calculating just how much air you use in different circumstances, and how to plan dives around your estimated consumption,? Kevin explained to me.

Yes, I?m stoked about this and over the next several months plan on taking the chance to try these courses, log some stunning dives and shoot for the foot notes of somebody else?s history book.

This is a part one in every of a four-part series on PADI?s new specialty diving certifications.

by phuketgazette

Source: http://www.phuketnews.asia/2012/08/phuket-diving-gear-and-abilities-part-the-waters/

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