Short video of wreck dive

[phsdive]

Took my Aquamaster on a wreck dive and a friend took a short video. The wreck is in about 160ft and is an old ferry. Reg worked great. Mixture of old gear (reg) and bail out with deco mix and dry suit. I need to get another back pack to get the tank lower. (Hope the link works!)

http://vimeo.com/32820564

[JES]

Thank you for sharing!

[swimjim]

Very nicely done. Thanks for posting that! I think the new VDH back plate system is in order. I'm about ready to get one of those myself.

Jim

[luis]

Nice video. Thanks

[1969ivan1]

Very cool.

[Drado]

For some reason, Vimeo is giving me a hard time and isn't playing any alternative link?

[phsdive]

Sorry Drado, I don't know why Vimeo cuts out and the link doesn't work sometimes; Here it is again. If anyone has any info on why the link doesn't always work, please post.

http://vimeo.com/32820564

[scubasteve59]

Nice! Congrats on the successful rebuild......nice relaxed style and kick...

[SurfLung]

- Really neat to see that DH regulator doing so well at 160'... With all of the brand new rebuild parts we can get, there's no reason why these regulators shouldn't work just as well and at the challenging depths they functioned fine on when they were new. It's still satisfying to see.
- 160' feet is really deep to me. The rate of air consumption must be very high. How long can you dive with just the single tank? Are you using a mix in the main tank to avoid narcosis? When do you switch to your deco tank?
- Sorry so many questions... I'm fascinated by this stuff since watching videos of SwimJim and Eric doing similar depths on great lakes wrecks.

[phsdive]

Surflung, glad you like the video. These old reg's can match it with the newer models provided you get the position right. I've ordered by VDH backplate so looking forward to trying that out. Answers to your q's.

At 160' or so a large 12 litre or 100 cu ft tank (pumped right up)will give a bottom time of around 15 - 19 minutes depending on your consumption. A total run time will be somewhere between 45 to 1 hour. I'm happy enough to use air down to 55 - 60 metres ( I think thats about 180ft) but in Truk and Solomons we were diving around the 60 - 70 metre mark on air (like everyone else), which is a bit to deep for my liking on air.

I carry a 5 litre sling tank with a 40% deco mix. I get onto that at about 75 feet. I use air tables and use the nitrox deco as a safety margin. Hope that info assists.

[SurfLung]

- Thanks PH, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I'm still in a 1970's mind set on deep diving... Basically the old Navy Dompression tables and repetitive dives were calculated by just figuring total time for both dives as bottom time for the second dive. I never felt confident enough in that stuff to try it, plus everywhere I dove was pitch black and ice cold at those depths.
- At Fortune Pond, I went down to 84 ft (which is deep for me) and the crystal clear water, eery light angle, and utter stillness were intoxicating. I could see the small silhouette of my son-in-law hovering about 60 feet above me and he seemed SO far away! I used a Suunto Viper and only stayed a minute or two but it was neat.
- So now, I'm fascinated with you guys that do the deep stuff!

[Gilldiver]

There was a time, back when I had time, that a dive on the submarine USS Bass was a standard Saturday morning dive. The Bass is at 160 to the sand with the deck at 145. So by the time I got into the engine room and back 1 or 2 hatches I'd be cruising at 155-158. So the dive was on air for 20 minutes on the 160 table which give you 3 minutes at 20 and 11 at 10 for your deco. We would pad the table by rounding up to 5@20 and 15@20. Totaling a 40 minute round trip. Double 80's were needed and I preferred my double 100's.

Then 2 hours latter do another 20 minutes on a wreck in 110 and call it a day. Only a few ever did 2 160 foot air dives in the same day and one got a US Coast Guard helicopter ride to the Groton, CT Sub Base for free, or better known as "2 dives on the Bass = 1 ride in the chamber........."

On the new computer tables, a 20 minute air dive to 160 calls for a 54 minute round trip for the same 20 minute bottom time.