Category — Equipement

Thursday brought the return to more normal diving for me.  I met up with Alain, a swiss tech instructor, helped him through some issues with his Nomad Sidemount rig and drove down to Minotauro for a leisurely cave dive.  Minotauro is nestled in the jungle near the Zero Gravity Dive shop.  The landowners are super nice people and there is always a laugh when we meet with them.

Which brings me to another related topic.  There is a rumored connection between Minotauro and Taj Ma Hal.  I haven't found it if there is.  Maybe it is like the swimming pool at my grammar school.  You know, the one in the basement.   Every once in a while we get the feeling like we should go looking for it.  The entrance to Taj Ma Hal and Minotauro are less then 2000 apart.  I need to make a general survey of each system and see if they trend toward each other and how far apart they might be.  Could be an interesting project if I were bored.  If you have any information on this rumor, let me know?  Might save me some heartache.

Back to the dive!  Alain and I suited up in our side mount rigs and got in the water.  Alian asked me to look at his rig and check it out.  It looked pretty good, there are some danglely issues like his pressure gauge, his crotch ring and his regulator.

If you are wondering what sidemounting looks like, here is a little video.  The first part of the video is Alian in his Nomad Side Mount rig.  The second part of the video is me in my Steve Bogaerts' Razor Sidemount Harness.

The primary complaint with the Nomad is that it is a recreational side mount harness.  It is very general purpose.  It takes a lot of work to get the configuration correct and in the end you may not ever get it.   This complaint is handled completely with the Razor.  The Razor harness is a custom side mount/no mount harness worn under an open water bcd.  I was fitted for my harness when I took my basic side mount class with Steve Bogearts.

Taking the class and getting a custom harness provides two huge benefits.  First, the harness and the bcd fit me perfectly and put me in very good trim and my gear in the right places.   I made two adjustments after I left class.  The first was to add more give in the bcd for more lift.  The second was to add more weight when I got a 9MM suite.

Second, Steve very closely analyzed my configuration and diving for a couple of days providing constant feed back including video.  This feedback accelerated my adjustment to sidemount by 10-15x.  In 5 dives, I was more comfortable then many people I know with 50-100 sidemount dives.  Side mounting just takes a lot of tweaking, and people would rather dive then spend time in open water analyzing and tweaking.  Taking the class enforces a little discipline and starts you off on the right vector.

Ok, back to the dive now.   The entrance to the 'other upstream' is at the back of the cenote under a duck under.  I have dove about 60% of this section in backmount, however, it is tight and hard to not have some impact in that configuration. In sidemount it is much more enjoyable.  This dive includes a very cool carousel formation.  The line passes around the carousel and up into a highly decorated air dome.  After the carousel, it is easy diving until you pass the second T.  The two T's are actually of two circuits of the main line, sort of.  If you go left at each T and then swim to the end of the line, you end up a the second T.  Just prior to getting back to the main line there is a jump to the left.  That is the end of the line from the first T.  it all sounds very confusing and the first time I was up there it was a little confusing.  But now I have a pretty good mental picture of the area.

I should warn you that after the second T it becomes sidemount sized passage and the chance for zero or no visibility, if you are careless, is pretty high.  Please tread lightly and stop when you hit your limit.

I do have one question, there is a mystery arrow at the back of the loop of the main line.  Alian and I searched for the jump for a couple of minutes and couldn't find it.  If you know where to look, email me at: hans@quietdiver.com.

When we reached the cenote again, we had plenty of gas remaining.  This dive has a max depth of 20feet (6 meters).  So, we decided to recalculate and extend the dive again.  Near the duck under there is a line arrow, the jump is 50-60feet and hidden.  That line leads to a very silty side mount section.  This isn't the down stream section.   The line and its branches are pretty short but a lot of fun.  When we arrived the line was in bad shape.  It was loose and the rock it was tied to was broken in lots of places.  Someone trashed the line and left it.  I guess they were a little freaked out.  It goes to zero visibility pretty fast.  In any event, we took some time and restored the line.  It was a good exercise to work on the line in reduced visibility.

The dive was 110 minutes long and we had a great time.  Minotauro is still one of my favorite places to dive!

A traverse from Naharon to Mayan Blue on rebreathers.

This past week has been very busy for Patrick and me.  With the arrival of "Slow Season" here in Playa Del Carmen, we have found more time and more opportunities to get ourselves into some serious dives.  We have made two trips to The Pit and one trip to Sistema Naranjal with our Megalodons.  Luckily, the dives at The Pit were relatively excitement free, other then Patrick reaching the restriction at Jill's Chamber at 105 meters.  However, the dive at Naranjal was anything but boring.

Patrick had finished up a full cave class at Mayan Blue on Sunday.  Unfortunately, the student didn’t complete the A Tunnel / Death Arrow circuit, so we had to retrieve the remaining gear, one spool.  We decided the only reasonable way to do the clean up dive was to traverse from Cenote Cristal (Cenote Naharon) down to the Death Arrow jump, pick up the spool, and swim back.  The swim from Naharon to Mayan Blue typically takes about 2 hours.  We decided to cut the swim a little short by only going to the end of the Death Arrow passage.

When we were planning our bailout gas, I was worried about having enough.  I hadn’t swum this distance and I wasn’t sure of the depths.  Patrick and I agreed to take 2 Aluminum 80’s each.  We ran some calculations and it was enough to get us out if we needed it.  Patrick’s calculations showed that two 80’s would last him 4 hours at this depth.  My SAC is higher, so I didn’t have same cushion.

When it came time to decide on our gas mixes, I asked Patrick what he was taking?  He told me Air.  And then we got into a discussion about bailout.  He very sternly explained to me that the choice of bailout gas didn’t really matter.  He didn’t believe he would ever have to bailout.  However, if he did he would only be punished with deco time.  He explained that he follows a checklist and is meticulous about assembling his unit.  I told him I was going to take 32% regardless of his feelings on the topic and I was going to drop a tank of O2 in the cavern for good measure.  You really never know when something unexpected is going to happen.  Isn't that the definition of unexpected?   We agreed, or I decided in my head, I can’t remember, that if someone bailed out, they would get the 32% and the Air would be the gas of last resort.  At this point, Patrick’s attitude really concerned me and I decided that I was going to have a sit down with him, but I was going to wait until after our dive, as to not mess with his head.

Wednesday arrived and we got on our way.  The dive was going according to plan.  We passed the restrictions heading for Mayan Blue.  At the T, I wanted to "drop" a cookie.  As I got my markers out of my pocket, I dropped my safety spool. I reached for the safety and lost control of my buoyancy and started to fall.  I reached for the inflator, but no luck!  I ended up rolling down the windows saving myself from crashing into the mud, but creating some silting.  I could hear Patrick laughing as he watched this comedy of errors.  I finally got my act together, marked the T and proceeded.  I am sure it looked hysterical, you know how things happen in super slow motion, I know I was laughing about it.

We arrived at the spool at 80 minutes.  He retrieved the spool and we rested briefly.  When we finally got going on the return trip I was in the lead.  We were singing into the DSVs and just enjoying the dive.  After about 10 minutes we settled into a decent rhythm and pace.

At about 20 minutes, I saw a quick flash of the light head of me.  I instinctively turned and started to swim to Patrick.  We were about 50feet apart.  It took me a second to process the situation.  What I saw was one of the breathing hoses from the KISS Classic just floating in the water and I saw Patrick deploying a bailout reg.  My first thought was, ‘Oh shit, what do I do?  My bailout regulators are really secured and are not quickly accessible.’  Before I was close enough to help, he got his regulator out.  I arrived and assessed the situation.  The exhale breathing hose had disconnected from the canister.  At Patrick’s request, I reattached the hose.  We thumbed the dive, changed positions and started swimming.  This is when my heart rate finally picked up and I became aware of the gravity of the situation.  This was a real live catastrophic loop failure way back in a cave.  This is the exact type of unexpected situation we train and prepare for.  I knew we had enough gas, but I still got hit with some adrenalin.  I had to stop and think about my breathing and heart rate for a second.  My heart rate really isn’t under my control sometimes.  The base of the brain just reacts.

As we swam, I stayed near to Patrick in case something else went wrong.  I checked my computer and marked the time.  We had 60 minutes of swimming up stream to exit the cave.  Patrick cleaned up his hose routing and attempted to go back on the loop.  As I watched him attempt this, I just kept thinking, "You can’t recover a KISS from a total flood.  Don’t try."  He found out in short order it was a done deal.  Then I offered him my 32%.  He waved it off, and he started to play with his X1.  Patrick later told me he thought he would be fine on air.  However, a couple of minutes later when we reached the T, he realized he was running out of no stop time and asked me for some 32%.

He asked at the worst time for me.  I was about to pick up my cookie and had too many things going on at once.  I struggled with my tank for a minute and finally told him to start swimming.  It would be easier to make the switch underway instead of hovering.  At this point I made a mistake, I think I was a bit overloaded and my brain was fried.  Instead of doing one thing at a time, I had the tank neck out of the bungee in the left hand.  I reached down to get the cookie with my right.  Now I was swimming with both hands full trying to get my tank completely off.  Ug! What a nightmare!

I finally stopped and stowed the cookie.  Then I passed the tank to Patrick.  He reached down to pull the regulator off the tank and the mouth piece came off!  The irony is that Patrick recently told me it was stupid to put the bungee necklace under the same zip tie as the mouth piece and that the mouth piece would come off at the worst time.  I defended my choice and didn’t change my configuration.  The bungee was wrapped around the tank neck and under the single zip tie.  When he showed me the regulator without the mouth piece, I could hear his voice in my head and I laughed.  I have since changed my configuration for CCR diving.  I removed my 120 degree swivel and the necklace on the bailout regulators.  I want them to be as accessible as possible.  Now, I believe that I will need them at the worst possible time.  He replaced the mouth piece and started to enjoy the joy that is 32% EAN.

Patrick swam off and I struggled with his tank.  This dive taught me my sidemount bungees are too short to be useful in an emergency.  As I struggled with the tank, I swam into the ceiling with my rebreather.  It got a little hung up so I jerked my head down.  I immediately realized my head was way heavy and I was heading for the floor!   A huge rock had broken loose and was on its way to pinning me.  I rolled to the right and the rock fell off my head before I hit the ground.

Again, I laughed.  I couldn’t believe how many things had happened to us on a single dive.  We have been diving for seven months together and all of those dives had been incident free.  A series of walks in the park, including cave dives to 300ffw.  The type of diving that breeds complacency.

I caught up to Patrick and we continued to exit.  We decided to pull our gear.  As I pulled my spool from the jump between Southern Sacbe and Southwestern Sacbe, I created a nasty knot around the main guideline.  I ended up cutting the spool free from the guideline.  It was the last in a row of incidents.  We exited safely with a total run time of 180 minutes.  I estimate the total distance at around 8000 feet.

Patrick and I agreed that we handled all of the situations acceptably.  We did a serious review of the dive and have both made changes to our rigs and attitudes.  As I mentioned, I changed my regulators and I lengthened the sidemount bungee.  Patrick also made some changes to his regulators to ensure they are accessible.  We adjusted our bailout gas attitudes.  And we agreed to take better care to avoid team separation.

Once the stress started to pile on, it made simple tasks like a tank swap more difficult.  A task he and I normally can handle in a minute or less took a couple of minutes.  My overall awareness decreased and we got a good distance apart more then once after the main failure.

I feel it was an excellent dive!  We both returned and no one was hurt.  We tested our abilities as a team, and as individuals in a stressful situation.  We both stayed calm and controlled our breathing.  We reacted instinctively and completed the tasks at hand.  We realized our performance wasn’t perfect but it was acceptable. The whole dive confirmed to me the following idea.  Bailout is for unexpected situations and it does matter.  No matter how bullet proof you might think you are or your procedures, unexpected shit happens and it will happen at the worst time.  And these situations never happen alone, they are always compounded by other events.

Patrick used just over 2000PSI from one Aluminum 80 to exit from 60 minutes into the cave.  I hope you learn a little from this, I know I have learned a lot.

As always, your comments and criticisms are welcome here.  If you want to know more about the incident, leave a comment and one of us will respond.

Okay, they are not really spy photos.  I emailed Rob after I saw his post on his wreck diving blog about his new sidemount rebreather and asked him some questions and if he had any other photos.  I thought that my "valued" readers would love to see more of his unit.   And I have my own selfish motives, I really wanted to learn more about his unit.  I think it is totally RAD!

One of the most popular questions I am asked is, "When are you going to sidemount your rebreather?"  My standard response is, "I am not planning on it anytime soon."  That is followed with, "Why not, Hans?"  I usually answer, "Any place I would want to use my rebreather sidemount would require too much bailout to sidemount effectively.  It might work for survey where I need a lot of bottom time, but I might not be covering a lot distance.  However, I just haven't felt the need."  I think at some point, I might change my mind, just not today.  But I digress, the point here is that you want to see photos of Rob's sidemount Prism rebreather.  Here they are.  Click the images to see a large version.

The unit is still in development in these photos.  Rob had some issues to work out, like the wing and the placement of his light canister.  My understanding is it is progressing nicely.  I asked Rob a couple of questions and here are his answers.

Hans: Have you dove it in the ocean?

Rob: I have indeed taken the sidemount rig into the  ocean.  Did two nice dives on the Arundo last Sunday, 100 minutes and 70  minutes.  Big bag oflobsters, 3.5 dozen scallops, plus an old  bottle.

Hans: How hard is it to kit up on the boat?

Rob: Kitting up is definitely different.  Put on the harness/counterlungs,  cinch everything up.  Sit down, butt clip both sides, hook up manual O2,  display and hud on one side, adv and wing on the other.  plug in the hoses  and connect, a bit of a pain but a one-click manifold is in the works.   Then bungee both sides and I'm set.  Easiest thing is on an engine cover,  barring that to just sit on the ground.

Hans: What modifications did you make to the Prism?

Rob: As you can see from the pics, I'm still wearing the standard counterlungs, just customized - Y-pipes, meg adv, inspiration opv, stock prism drains.

Hans: How is the work of breathing?

Rob:  WOB is the same as a stock unit.  The counter lungs are in the standard position, so I still get all the benefits of over the shoulder counter lungs.

Hans: What kind of weight do you need to trim the unit in the water?

Rob: Weight wise I am using:

• Two 2lbs on top of the harness
• A 3lbs and a 4lbs in the counterlung pockets.  (Prisms have these on the back.  Very convenient.)
• A 5lbs in my right side weight pocket.  Nothing in the left.
• The rig itself has a 3lbs and a 5lbs weight zip tied to the base.

I am possibly a bit heavy in this configuration, but not terribly so for salt water.  I can also use an AL80, in which case I can drop a few pounds.

Hans: Is it hard to turn off the O2?

Rob: It takes nothing to shut off the O2 as the knob is pointed right at my  hip. Can also unclip either side and swing it around in front of me to get through restrictions.

I want to thank Rob for allowing me to post his photos and his response!  And now for the extra special treat.  Here is a photo of a Prism (Right) and a Megalodon (Left) rebreather.  Both are sidemounted in the same fashion.  Click the image for a larger version!

If you want to see a video, I posted a link to Rob in his sidemount rebreather. If you have any questions you want me to ask Rob, let me know by commenting. I will follow-up and get responses as fast as possible. Safe diving and keep on pushing.

My buddy in NJ, has finally received his side-mount Prism.    Check out how slick it looks!  He says he has a little more tweaking to do to make everything thing streamlined.  I can imagine how much time will really need to be invested in getting something so cool exactly right.

He has posted a very cool video of him diving it at Dutch Springs.  Notice all the exposure protection?  If you take a look at his rig, he is wearing his bailout/diluent on one side and the rebreather on the other side.  There is a sphere of 02 at the bottom of the canister.  Overall it is looking very very slick.  Rob, you are a rock star.  Now tell us how it dives!

The interesting thing about side-mounting the rebreather is that it handles the one cylinder or two cylinder for bailout question.  Now you only need one to balance you, the unit is the other.  If you need more bailout, then you just wear them like you would side-mount stages.  And it just looks so much easier on his back.  Of course there are many other benefits, but I am not going to go through them today.

Rob, answer me this, our hungry readers want to know:

• Where are the counter lungs?  Are there 1 or 2?  Looks like they are in the standard position....
• How hard is it to shut down the O2?
• How is work of breadth in the different orientations?  I know I end up in some strange ones in side-mount.
• I wonder what the kitting up procedure is like on the boat?  I have tried to mount my side-mount bottles standing and it can be a real PITA.  I wonder if the same is true about the ccr?
• I wonder how much weight he added to balance that big steel cylinder?

So many questions!  Maybe I will try and score a visit with Rob in September, when I am home.  I would love some detailed photos and answers!

If you have any questions, let me know.

At some point, I asked Steve where I should go diving. He asked if I had been to: Casa Cenote, Temple of Doom or “the cenotes across from Xpu Ha”? At the time, I had to answer no to all three. It dawned on me how many obvious places there are to dive here. Drive down Highway 307 and stop at the places with a Cenote sign and ask to dive. If they allow it, that is a place to dive. Of course, there is risk in trying to dive without a guide. First, the adventure might be a complete diving bust. You might pay your entrance and find the location undivable or unrewarding! Second, you may not get very far at all once in the cave. The first time I went to Car Wash without a guide, I spent the entire first dive looking for the main line. Luckily, I have the opportunity to waste time driving around looking for a Cenote or swim around looking for the main line. If you are a visitor, you may not have the same luxury. Plus, I love to explore! And for me, even if there is line in the cave, every dive to a new site is exploration. How do I enter the water? Where is the entrance to the cave? Where does the line go? What is the geology?

If you are coming to Mexico and you are looking for a guide or someone to dive with, email me at: hans@quietdiver.com. I will make sure to hook you up with the right people! Having a guide will save you a ton of logistical work and will ensure you have a fulfilling trip. I know guides that specialize in rebreather cave diving, side-mount diving, exploration, dpv, extended range, deep diving, and I even know someone with an excellent boat on Cozumel. The guide will arrange tanks, transportation, food, entrances, sorb and any other special needs you might have. The same applies if you are looking for an instructor. I know it sounds like a pitch, it sorta is. I just don't like to read posts from people on CDF or The Deco Stop that didn't enjoy their trips.

I recently wrote an article detailing my Advanced Side-Mount Cave Diving Class with Steve Bogaerts. In that article I made reference to feathering my valve after a regulator failed underwater. One of my favorite readers, Anna, sent me an email asking me, “What is feathering? I mean I know your valve was leaking and I'm useless at valve drills. So I guess it means you blew a burst disc and just had to let the tank run down?” I thought I should explain and I wanted to provide a brief explanation of a systematic approach to practicing valve drills as it was taught to my wife and me.

Valve Feathering
Feathering is the act of actuating, opening and closing, the valve on a scuba tank to control the flow of gas. I originally learned the skill to deal with a stuck open solenoid on my rebreather. I adapted the skill for dealing with my leaky regulator. The idea is to limit the gas loss from the leak to extend the time you can use the tank. When done correctly, I open the valve as I start to exhale and close it before I am finished; drawing the regulator empty at the end of my breath cycle. This limits the regulator to leaking just when I am drawing gas. This same skill is a prerequisite if you ever find yourself breathing off a tank valve 3000 feet back in a cave.

The specific problem I had was that my low pressure inflator hose had loosened itself from the first stage of the regulator and was leaking from the connection. I was diving brand new Apex XTX 50’s with DST first stages. I had just assembled them, and I didn’t tighten the hose enough. I was diving side-mount and practicing bottle handling skills, so I was forced to don and doff my tanks many times that day. In the course of rotating the tanks out in front and back, the hose came loose. Of course it loosened in zero visibility and I was unable to figure out the source of the leak. Therefore, I was forced to isolate the leak by shutting down the valve and going on my other side-mount tank. Once I handled the priority emergency, being entangled and cutting the wrong side of the line, and I had passed the remaining restrictions, I switched from the fully functioning system to the leaky system. At this point, I started to feather the valve to control the gas loss and maintain the air source as long as possible.

Valve Management!
“Valve” and “Management” are dirty words in the tech diving community. I know many people who have suffered with valve management, including my wife. They all had trouble with it until they learned a logical process for executing them and dedicated time in a pool or on their safety stops to practicing.

I believe there are three primary reasons people have trouble with these skills:

1. They can’t reach their valves.
2. No one ever taught them a logical process and gave them the reasons for each step.
3. People don’t practice.

The first reason is non-sense. Your rig should be configured in a way to allow you to reach your valves. If your dry suit is too tight or your valves are too low, they you have a real problem. It is a problem that may lead to your drowning. Stop diving and fix the problem. Why would you ever enter the water with a system you know if broken? It just does not make sense.

The second reason is reasonable, not everyone has an instructor that has a logical easy to remember system. My Advanced Nitrox/Deco Procedures class provided no methodical instruction on this issue other then, “Let me see you close your valves. It is ok to do it one at a time.” This is where your choice of instructions really makes a difference. It might save your life.

I am going to share with you the system Allie and I learned. Keep in mind this is for a person diving manifolded doubles with an isolator. It also assumes you are breathing off the right post to start:

1. Close your right post first. Breathe it empty and switch to the left regulator. Why? It is the most dynamic regulator and will be prone to fail first. You breathe it to the end to confirm you have shut off the correct regulator. Switching to a regulator that is off will come as a nasty surprise.
2. If the leak continues, turn your right post back on and turn your left post off. Breathe the left post empty and switch back to your right post.
3. If the leak continues, shut down the isolator and try and figure out which tank is leaking.
4. Turn on the left post and switch to the tank that is leaking. Breathe it empty then switch to the remaining tank.
5. Open the isolator at the end of the drill.

If you practice this in the same way each time, it will go into muscle memory. It also helps to do an audible gear matching exercise, at the start of the dive, where you call out each piece of gear and touch the post it is attached to. This helps build a reflex to turn off the correct post in the event of an easily identified leak, such as a leaky SPG. As you become more proficient, you can start to close the isolator at the same time you close the post. I would suggest the first couple of times you practice, have a buddy watch you to ensure you maintain an air source. I would also advise you to not practice this if you have mandatory deco and you don’t have a buddy. It would suck to blow off deco because you find yourself without an air source. When you are short on air, one second is forever!

The last reason I outlined, lack of practice, is just that. We all have to do three minute safety stops, it is a perfect time to practice pain in the ass skills we need to survive. For weeks I practiced my reverse frog kick and my lay throwing skills on my safety stop. Prior to that, I practiced my valve drills and buoyancy control on every safety stop I could. There is no excuse for not practicing; you have time built into every dive for it. Use the time; practice a skill that might save your life.

I can tell you from first hand experience, you may need to shut a valve down while entangled in zero visibility. It could be fishing net, monofilament, cave line or the long tail of someone’s snot that grabs a hold of you. You want to be prepared so you can maintain a calm cool collected manner. I promise, when the trouble comes, it is never alone.

This morning there was a post on Cave Diver’s Forum asking:

When I’m swimming a stage, horizontal of course, the bottom hangs down too low to my liking. I use an aluminum 80 but the bottom doesn’t float up at all. My lower clip is wrapped around the handle strap to take up all the slack, but I still have to hold the bottle up when I’m close to the bottom. Anybody ever use a bungee to hold it in line with the body? ...

To start, I cave dive CCR back mounted, doubles and side mount. The following information focuses on carrying stages or bailout bottles in a back mounted configuration. My current approach has been heavily informed by my experience diving sidemount. I have gone through at least three major evolutions in this process and it is still evolving. This article is based on my personal experience. I have stolen or purchased ideas from a number of people I dive with here in Mexico and in New Jersey. Those people are: Steve Bogaerts, Andrew Driver, Patrick Widmann, Rob Infante, Nando and others. Sorry if I don’t credit you properly. And remember to click on the images!

I remember asking myself the very same question over and over. When I started to sling a bottle, I learned how to do it from my Deco Procedures class and the north east wreck divers. The approach was to buy/make a sling kit for the respective bottle and mount the bottle to your chest d-ring and the waist strap d-ring. Depending on the buoyancy of the bottle, the position of your waist d-ring and the length of your clip lines, this might put it sticking up at a 45 degree angle or leave it dragging in the mud. It was never streamline with my horizontal body. However, in NJ I could get away with this non-sense. I knew it wasn’t right. So I started to look for another solution. When I moved to Mexico and started to dive my CCR in the caves, the inefficiency of this system was magnified. I remember picking up the tank to pass small areas. I remember the tank swinging to and fro as I kicked. It was maddening.

The second evolution was to purchase a butt-plate. I selected the ArmadilloCCR Sidemount System. I mounted the butt-plate to the back plate on my rebreather. I decided to use a neck clip instead of the bungee. My neck clip is just a loop of bungee with a clip attached. I put the neck clip on the tank before I install the regulator. I found this easier to deal with then the bungee loops. As soon as I mounted an AL 80 to this setup, I discovered I was woefully leg heavy. The butt-plate transfers the negativity of the tank to your thighs. It was intolerable. It made cave diving frustrating, because I was fighting with my trim the whole time. I like to be able to float in mid water without making adjustments, this was impossible.

As luck would have it, I dropped my CCR head and broke it. While my unit was being repaired, I had to dive backmount which forced me to use a buddy bottle or a stage bottle. I was in sling bottle hell again. However, I started to smarten up. After a couple of dives, I put my butt-plate on my doubles back plate. That failed to live up to the promise. The door handles were in the way. I couldn’t reach my butt ring and my trim was off. However, the tanks were sitting in a much nicer position.

After some discussion with Patrick and going through training with Steve, I finally figured out the problem. The door handles are the wrong solution. They put the tanks too far back on my body and are inflexible. They can’t help but be in the way.

For evolution three I removed the door handles and installed two d-rings on the butt-plate. The d-rings move the bottle down my body just enough to balance me and put the tank in the correct position. Eureka! The mobility of the d-rings allows me access to my butt ring. Without the door handles gearing up is much easier and the d-rings are much more accessible.

The d-rings are in the correct position when the tanks are negative. However, when you breathe down the tanks to about 1500, they become buoyant and you need to move their clip position. Or suffer tanks that are bouncing off the ceiling. I use adjustable homemade d-rings on my waist strap for this job. I picked this one up from Steve.

One more thing I learned is, "Balance is key." I make an effort to always carrying two stages, one on each side. If all I need is 80cuft of gas, then I carry two Al40's. If I need more gas, then I add bottles in a sequential way. I up one bottle to an 80 and then the other bottle. I have not found a balanced and streamlined solution to carrying only 1 bottle. If all I need is a Al40, then I suffer with one bottle. An AL40 doesn't throw my balance off wildly.

My rig will continue to evolve as the diving I do demands different configurations and optimizations. I believe there are at least two ways to approach a problem like this: trial-and-error or training. The trial-and-error approach is valid and is time tested, but damn it takes a long time to figure things out and we have a finite number of dives available to experiment. I would prefer to spend my time diving and not hating my gear. If you don’t live in cave country, how will you ever have the time to get it right?

The training method takes years of experimentation and distills it down into the state-of-the-art. It has been demonstrated to me over and over, that this is the most efficient route. I could have gone out and self taught side mount, but after going through training I now know why that is stupid. I estimate that training evolved my skill and gear configuration by at least 50 dives or more.

Find an instructor who is practicing and teaching the state-of-the-art in your desired disciple and schedule a couple of days with him/her. You will be amazed how some of these fundamental issues are resolved immediately and how your diving improves dramatically.

Contrary to the title, I am not going to tell you how to convert your regulator. However, a member at The Deco Stop was kind enough to turn me on to a link to the XTX Tech Manual from Apeks. On page 14 you will find instructions for converting your XTX second stage regulator.

I converted one of my Apeks XTX 50 second stages this morning and it took me a total of 10 minutes and I was really taking my time.

The last couple of months of diving have been fantastic but I knew the role had to come to an end.  This week I am back in the states to do some paper work and get some much needed dive gear!

The first stop when I got back to New Jersey on Friday was the dive shop.  For the last two months Nando from Protech has lent me his sidemount regulators, two Dive Rite RG3000's.  They worked great except for the swivels he used.    For the right tank he mounted a Scuba Pro second stage so the hose routing could be reversed.  The left tank was a standard RG3000.  The hoses were shorter then standard and I mounted replacement  120 degree Scuba Pro swivels.  I want to thank Nando, becuase I didn't have access to anything but my Apeks ATX200's and they were sub-optimal.

That has changed!  I purchased 4 Apeks XTX50s with DST first stages.  No more dicking around with borrowed gear and worrying about it.  I am completely stoked to have my own rig and a dedicated set of regs.  Things are really coming together.  I can't wait to get to Mexico and get them setup.  I love the way new well tuned regs breath, especially Apeks regs.   In addition to the regulators, I got some 6" HP hoses, some dive slates for making survey slates, some new compasses for the survey slates, plus some other assorted goodies.

While we were at the dive shop, Allie tried on a bunch of semi-dry suits from Pinacle, Camerao and Mares.  NONE OF THEM FIT RIGHT!  The best suit by far was the Mares.  It was really slick.  The problem was the arms and legs were a couple of inches too long.  But it looked very well constructed and the seals were looking sealed.  The Camerao suits just didn't really fit, water would have leaked in from the neck defeating the purpose of the semi-dry.  And by the time she got to the Pinacle she was so exhausted, she only got through one suit.  She isn't sure how she is going to solve the freezing problem.  1.25 hours into a dive and she is shivering and her hands are numb.  She is going to keep looking and I will keep you posted.

The only other item of note is that I received my Sartek lights on Friday!   I am looking forward to getting them south of the boarder and in the water.  The new cable looks very slick and I have a new LION battery.  Gotta love the advertised 8 hour burn time.

I have one dive post that is waiting in the wings.  I had a very interesting dive at Pet Cemetery last Wednesday.  But I am going to save that for after I have spoken to the proper authorities.  Remember my advice about not relying on little plastic discs (line markers) to get you home, maybe I should expand that to not relying on the continuous guideline that was there 80 minutes earlier.  More on that in a couple of days.

Remember, in additional to diving the line, you really need to dive the cave.  Your never sure the line will be there when you get back!

Today was my 400th logged dive. John took the early ferry over from Cozumel. I picked him up and we left for the fill station. At the fill station I asked John to review all of his gear and let me know if he had everything he needed. I told him I didn’t want to get to Tulum and find out we were missing something. He assured me everything was there and we were ready to go.

As luck would have it, once we arrived at Grand Cenote and started to assemble our rigs, I realized I forgot John’s bailout regulator. I was supposed to loan him one of mine, and since it wasn’t part of my kit, I totally spaced on it. I jumped in the car and headed over to Xibalba Dive Center in town and Robbie kindly assembled a regulator and rented it to us. I was back at the Cenote in 10 minutes. Problem solved and we were back in business.
John and I decided to do one long dive. The plan was to head down to Lithium Sunrise and then return to the first arrow and make the shortcut jump down to Cenote Ho Tul and Cuzan Ha. The dive went very well, except that when we got to the second jump on the way to Lithium, there was another team with gear. I started to install our gear and realized I was in the wrong position. So I picked it all back up and re-laid the gear in. I really like nicely placed lines. Messy lines will make for a messy exit and they look hideous. This debacle wasted about 6-7 minutes. I hate to be robbed of the time, but I could just hear Patrick correcting me about my line placement.

Total run time for the dive was 2:32 minutes. John seemed really happy with the dive. He pointed out all the hand and body prints and I told him it is the result of being on the top ten list of places to dive. You really have to get off the beaten path and away from the typically guided locations to find pristine cave.

Diving the Megalodon has been great! In the last 21 days I put in 15 hours on the unit over 10 dives. I finally felt comfortable again, the last couple of weeks have been full of setup changes and discomfort. The only thing that remains is to move the clips up the 40cuft cylinders so they pull a little tighter into the body. I hate the feeling of bottles swinging forward and aft with each stroke. Just feels like it is robbing energy.

It was a pleasure to dive with John and I look forward to diving with him again. Just take a look at the picture of the scrubber. That is the evidence of two days of great diving. I love the satisfaction of pulling a hot scrubber out and checking to see how much I have burned through.