Quote: (Originally Posted by RonMicjan)
The Skatch is a great dive, I have many hours poking around in that boat, heading back up to Nanaimo at the end of this month (nov) to hang out with Dave (wedivebc) and dive it and the cape breton. They are swimming distance apart, both in a line on the other side of snake island (east side, I think)
one can dive at 80 fsw for 2 hours at a 1.2 setpoint and only accumulate10-15 minutes of deco time, however if one has to bailout to OC your deco obligation can increase significantly. I make a habit of switching my dive computer over to OC while in deco to get it in my brain whats going to happen if I have to bailout. (and then switch back, of course) Part of your deco procedures training on CCR must be a full bailout and deco on OC, managing your loop expansion and deco while off the loop.
part of your bailout calculations must include horizontal swimming at depth if you are doing overhead enviroment or a dive which requires you to come back up the same line you went down (which is the procedure on BC wrecks due to current)
see ya in the cold clear waters of canada!!!
I have a couple spots open for a dive trip on these wrecks November 25,26 and 27th, email me at
ron@tmishop.com for more details
In my humble opinion, there are much better rBs out there than the optima, I just had to fix one for a dive buddy recently so we could dive CCR together, I wasnt impressed, as for all the hype about "off the shelf" components, thats nonsense, nothing, other than the BC, is off anyones shelf. Before you plunk your hard earned money down, go look at a Meg, if you want to deep dive, or a KISS if you are a recreational type diver.
now donning my flame proof suit and hopping inthe river
The optima looks like a good option to me.. My only real concern at the moment is the scrubber untl some data is published..
The Optima has superior electronics to the Meg at this point.. All the recent upgrades to the elctronics are quite impressive.. The switches are now totally sealed and adition sealing is done on the battery compartment and kept out of the head.. I would still like to see a bigger display added...
Most of the wiring is sealed.. the only part that can have an issue is the sensor harness which goes from the banana block in the head to the cells and that can be swapped out in under a minute...
The adv looks quite well designed and the lungs look like they will dive well.. The DSV is basic, I'd like to see the inside of it.. I don't like the idea that the megs DSV doest use orings to seal the loop but rather machined surfaces, although its machined quite well..
The megs T -pieces are more robust, but I dont see an issue with the ones on the optima...
I do have a complaint about the color coding of the hoses, in my mind a big scre up, the have the inhale hsoe signaled with a RED ring.. everyone else who uses red,means its expelled gas.. If they didn;t want to introduce another color it should have been put on the exhale t...