Making Recreational Divers "Better"

by Dan Volker

So what's wrong with recreational diving in its present form?

Four main issues need to be addressed:

The dive gear marketplace is flooded with poorly designed gear that creates so much drag that movement through the water is slow and labor intensive.
A real "fear" exists in handling out-of-air (OOA) emergencies.
Most recreational divers, regardless of skill level, are poorly informed on which gear will be ideal for them as they progress in ability.
Current dive instruction does not place enough emphasis on how to be a better "Buddy".

1. Divers should not be covered with non-hydrodynamic gear that creates so much drag that movement through the water is slow and labor intensive.

This issue relates directly to a marketplace driven by yearly overhauls of product lines and the push to sell "tech-like" equipment. Manufacturers have created the "image" of the present BC as a large jacket with big roomy pockets to put "stuff" into, and which surrounds the diver with the "protection" of buoyancy on virtually all sides. The problem with this concept is that by spreading out the buoyancy as they do, jacket style BCs create a very large surface area for drag, and the addition of large gear pockets makes this drag even worse. To manufacturers and dive stores, the more complicated and large they can make the BC, the more they can charge for it. As the buoyancy device becomes more complicated, manufacturers can create a seemingly unending variation of color schemes and add-ons, and make it look like a spectacular fashion accessory.

From our perspective, the "perfect BC" would be a device which adds no drag at all to the scuba tank. If anyone ever tried using one of the old backpack harnesses (which had no buoyancy device, only the harness and tank attachment) you'd know how much faster you'd be in the water, and how much less work you'd perform getting around. But most divers need the buoyancy assistance of an air bladder. Our solution is a simple harness covering the front of your body with no profile for drag in the water, and a horseshoe shaped air bladder which wraps close to the structure of the tanks, creating no new lines for drag. When completely deflated, as when near neutral buoyancy exists from the combined effects of a weight belt, your body fat/ lung volume, and a Lycra suit, the drag added by this system would be nearly identical to the old tank harness, but now with the ability to lift you if needed. If the need to burden yourself with drag inducing accessories arises, they will clip on to the harness, in the many attachment points available. On your "normal" dive, you will use this ultra low drag set up to maintain the very lowest work level for propulsion, requiring small efforts to attain speeds which were labor intensive with the typical full BC jacket designs. Your low work rate will allow very low heart rates, which in turn will allow low breathing rates, longer bottom times if desired, and lower in-gassing of nitrogen per minute of bottom time. Should you ever decide to use a scooter, you will be amazed at how much faster this low drag set up will make you--this means you get FAR MORE "range."

2. A real "fear" exists in handling OOA emergencies.

Divers working in the most demanding of exploration diving have long ago adopted a better way exists to assist another diver, one that is not yet implemented by most training agencies. This is the concept of the deploying a second stage attached with a long hose to an out-of- air diver. The long hose should be your primary regulator, and it wraps once around your neck-- allows a rapid straight up and out deployment to an out-of-air diver. At 4 to 7 feet long for open water use, it provides you with a good safety margin for reaching the other diver if they are in a small confined space, and once in the open, your control and swimming are not hampered by constantly bumping in to the other diver who is pulled to close by a short hose. As the diver who has donated their primary, you instantly switch to a short hose which hangs right under your chin, held in place by a necklace made of surgical tubing. In the buddy breathing scenario, the diver who is OOA may typically be in great panic, unable to breath for much longer than they can stay calm. As tunnel vision closes in on them, you DO NOT want to leave their fate to chance by handing them a secondary that may not be working, or that is not purged, or that may take you an extra 4 seconds to deploy. This type of delay will have them reaching for the regulator in your mouth anyway. The long hose will place a regulator in their mouth immediately, and they have room to become comfortable. By breathing the long hose, the OOA diver does not feel like the hose may rip the regulator out of their mouth at any moment, such as by a sudden body motion that one might expect in an emergency situation. And they will feel comfortably supported by a functional breathing system. They will be far more likely to calm down, and assist in the swim to the surface.

3. How to buy gear. . .

Most recreational divers, regardless of skill level, are poorly informed on which gear will be ideal for them as they progress in ability. The goal is to educate yourself to actually speed your learning curve over typical first choices, and understand from the start which gear will NOT become obsolete as you jump to much higher levels of skill and dive site choice. Gear purchases can actually be modular. If you start with the "Doing it Right" mind set, and if you begin with the single tank and Halcyon type harness and wings, any advancement in your skill and diving location choice will be a natural progression, allowing you to use the same type of gear configuration. The diver who starts with the "backplate and wings" type system, in a basic single tank configuration with a long hose primary, will be very comfortable moving into the wreck penetration arena, to deeper diving, or the cave diving arena. Once you are familiar with a harness set-up--with a streamlined profile and proficient use of a minimum number of d-rings to standardize gauge and gear placement--the move from a single tank to doubles becomes a non-issue.

For those who will NEVER want doubles, but have attained very advanced recreational and nitrox levels, they may find they want a 40 cubic foot aluminum pony for that really cool 130 ft deep , non penetrating wreck dive. Using this Halcyon type Hogarthian setup, the addition of the pony to the front of the harness will be very close to second nature. Note that in this "mind set," the use of the pony is NOT as a redundant air source. The pony bottle would be for deco gas, typically pure Oxygen or a rich nitrox mix. You would use the pony as a tech diver uses a stage bottle. In the event of an out-of-air emergency, you have your redundant back up swimming nearby--your buddy. A good buddy will be there. If he's not a good buddy--one of your most important "gear choices" was VERY BAD!!!

The addition of doubles will not cause the relearning of an entirely new BC system-- you will feel a bit more inertial mass, but everything else is the same. This is ideal, because familiarity with your equipment should be totally in a comfort zone, so it will not detract from the sensory processing of all the NEW components to the dive (the lines followed in the cave or wreck, the attention to not silt the cave or wreck with your fins, added concerns of an overhead environment, etc.). Familiarity with new gear components will also be a factor if your change is only to "deeper" dive sites, where you want the doubles for added safety in air or gas margin. After reaching a plateau of experience, many advanced divers will want to push their limits, to visit the 160 ft deep wreck or the 180 ft deep ledge. While they will need training from the right instructor to do deeper dives safely, choice of gear is also critical. Total familiarity with this gear is one of the keys to increased safety. At some point in this scenario, a nitrox tank (or two) may be added to the front of your harness for use in a decompression dive. Since you are really not changing your harness from what you are already used to, the addition of stage bottles to your rig should not be a threat to your comfort with your existing gear configuration. Yet if you had been using a typical full jacket BC with your single tank, and suddenly wanted to use doubles with a stage bottle or two in the front, you would have a traumatic change to the gear your are comfortable with. This will NOT help your safety on subsequent dives.

4. How to be a better "Buddy."

Lets say that you and your three friends all get set up with a recommended "Doing it Right" harness and wings configuration. Each of you breathes off of your long hose as the primary, each has your alternate hanging right under your chin, and each of you is moving effortlessly along on the bottom. If anyone of you has a problem, the other three have exactly the same equipment configuration, so each knows exactly what the problem is, and each knows how to solve the problem. If it was as simple as an OOA emergency, you'd have three guys trying to stick a regulator in your mouth--you'd feel little threat of not receiving air quickly and easily. Conversely, how many times have you seen someone on a dive swimming along, and suddenly their tank slips off--this actually happens frequently on charter boats. You've NEVER seen this BC before, and the tank band system is so convoluted you really don't know how to help this guy quickly. In the meanwhile, the unfortunate diver has lost air and buoyancy and could provide a threat to your own safety as well as his or her own--especially if you donated a second-rate octopus on a short hose. From this example, you have just experienced one of many reasons why your diving buddies should all have the same gear--they will all know how to fix the typical problem, and anything they can't fix right away, they can still get you safely to the surface.

And of course, keep in mind an even bigger rule than all others mentioned in this article--Rule number one is don't dive with unsafe divers. Try to dive only with people you know are safe, and who dive the same procedures and configurations you do. If you are "stuck" with someone you see gearing up badly, with a poor configuration, try a good natured explanation of why the "Doing it Right" system would have him/her configured differently. Perhaps you can get them safer on this dive. You can always look around on a boat for someone who seems closer to your gear and diving mind set, and try to buddy up with them. Remember, if you don't bring a good dive buddy with you, you have no sure way of knowing you have redundancy. You may decide that the more extreme 120 foot dive you were planning to make is not appropriate without a good buddy, and so you may opt for a different site for your first dive. Use a first dive to check out your buddy, and let them check you out, before you dive with them on that more extreme dive site you are still looking forward to. At least in Florida, most boats will have multiple dive sites you can choose from, so you should be able to pick two dives with your new buddy where you can limit the risk by choice of dive site. And once you find a good buddy you can trust, treat them well--someday your life may depend on them.