Dema 2005

DEMA 2005 REPORT
PART I
Shearwater, Dive Rite, APD/SDS, Jetsam and The Rebreather Party
By Stefan Besier



Intro

On Wednesday, October 5, 2005 I picked up Stuart at LAX for the 300 plus miles ride to Las Vegas. About an hour late, as he had weaseled past customs and immigration even before the scheduled arrival of his flight. After spending three hours in Los Angeles traffic to travel the 50 miles to the outskirts of the greater L.A. area we managed to get to Las Vegas in another three and half hours. Arriving at the hotel around 11:30 we were quite worn out.


Before getting a night’s sleep Stuart got to check out the Rebreather World logo shirts we had made for DEMA. We had ordered them in black, white and navy blue for visiting the show on Thursday and Friday, and the Rebreather Party on Thursday evening.



Thursday

Thursday morning we met with fellow Rebreather World members for breakfast as we stayed in the same hotel. Moderator Rob Davie, Tracy Robinette from Divematics and Shelly, and Bruce and Lynn Partridge from Shearwater Research. Besides thoroughly enjoying the company and relative quiet (it is Las Vegas after all) we got our first look at the new Shearwater Deco Computer that Bruce wore.


The prototype has a beautifully finished metal case that won’t make it into production and the display is great. Spreading data and prompts across four rows makes reading and navigating easy. Having never used any of Bruce’s electronics I’m quite happy to report that the user interface is intuitive.

Tracy was dressed up nicely, too, wearing the new Shearwater Controller Computer around his neck. Also a prototype, it combines Bruce’s Shearwater electronics with Tracy’s cases and will be used to control the setpoint and provide deco calculations Divematics Shadow Pack III CCR.


The Divematics Shadow Pack III is a fairly small and lightweight rebreather, great for traveling yet still capable to perform deep dives. Combining it with the Shearwater makes an even better CCR that I hope will be offered soon.

As Divematics is located in Southern California I had the chance to photograph the unit since DEMA and will feature it in its own article.
After breakfast we took the convenient Monorail to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

And off we were to the show ... .


Dive Rite

One of the new items of course was the production version Dive Rite O2ptima. Like last year’s prototype it was located at IANTD’s booth, a good place as that’s where the instructors for the unit were. And they, after all, had spend the last year diving the prototypes, testing their performance in real world dives and giving feedback and suggestions for improvements and changes.


And improvements over the prototype were plenty. Board member and O2ptima instructor J. P. Jones talked me through the displayed rig and his experiences he had with the rig in Florida’s caves.

The O2ptima comes in Dive Rite’s signature colors red and black and looked quite good. It was displayed as it comes standard from the factory, with ADV and rear hose covers. No BCD was installed as that is not a standard item, which gave the rig a deceptively sleek and clean look.


The O2ptima was displayed on a Pelican 1650 that can contain the unit for transport. As the new plastic case folds the unit can be transported in a smaller case for air travel. Weight without tanks/valves and empty scrubber is around 26 lbs. Either the stock 4 lt. steel tanks can be used or al 2 lt. tanks more commonly found on CCRs. Weight ready to dive with the larger cylinders is about 61 lbs, about 47 with the smaller ones.

The unit was also equipped with the updated version of the Juergensen Marine’s Hammerhead, which added quite a lot of BLING! as Stuart pointed out.


The new metal case is nickel plated, the display and most of the software the same as before. Whereas trimix software used to be standard it is now an option on both JM Hammerheads as well as the O2ptima. The HH must be unlocked by a code, and the same must be done to access the trimix option.

The picture above also shows the new push buttons. As the Hammerhead on display wasn’t operating I can’t tell you much about them other than that they look good. The “head” end of the Micropore canister that contains the solenoid, sensors and connectors is also shown. The two cables go to the handsets, the empty space will connect to the HUD/DIVA. Between the handset and its connector is the connector for the O2 supply hose.


Another upgrade is the use of two O-rings to seal the battery compartments in the handsets. Behind the battery cap is a screw that allows a lanyard to be attached, giving the option of either clipping the handset to a D-ring or using the slots for wrist mounting.

While the new Hammerhead handsets seem exceptionally sturdy and outBLING! everything else I’ve seen I find the two line display outdated and disappointing. No matter if I compare it to other CCR electronics like Ambient Pressure’s Vision or Divematics' Shearwater, or to deco computers like the Explorer, VR3, Shearwater, Cochran and even decade old Uwatecs, they all have better displays with more info available.

Here is look at the disassembled Micropore canister.


The end cap (top right) gives access to the Extend Air cartridges. Access and use couldn’t be simpler. The opposite cap, as mentioned above, contains the needed bits for O2 addition and control, and in between is a simple pipe. Due to the solid cartridge there’s an insulation space for the absorbent.

One oddity on the displayed unit that I noticed was the coloring of the loop. The gas flow is clockwise, in from the diver's left and out to the right. In the pictures above you can clearly see red the connectors on the inhalation side, opposite the standard in the industry. I hope that this will not the the case on customer units.


This close up shows the spaces for the three sensors and provision for a fourth. The solenoid is just off center and inserted between the O2 supply hose and clear tube to the metal rod.


The opposite end of the rod shows that it is indeed hollow inside, routing the gas to the opposite end of the scrubber for injection.

John also introduced me to Farallon’s project manager for the O2ptima, Phil Eng. I talked with Phil for quite a while about using a cartridge based scrubber rather than granular absorbent. He told me that Farallon had required Micropore to test the O2ptima scrubber thoroughly and that said testing had been performed to a depth of 300 fsw. The results of which where promising in regards to performance and duration.

Phil promised to send me info regarding the tests and results after getting back into the office last week. So far however all I got was an e-mail claiming that a “published version of the results from Micropore is not yet available” and I should contact him again. That I will do, and post whatever data he and Micropore can supply.

I did however decide against waiting any longer with the publication of my DEMA report.

Eventually, I was told at the show, Dive Rite will post duration limits for various depth based on these tests on their website, giving divers a safe tool to plan their dives. If or when this will be done it will be a novel approach that other manufacturers will hopefully follow.


Ambient Pressure Diving/Silent Diving Systems

Ambient Pressure Diving and their North American distributor, Silent Diving Systems had a large and busy booth again this year. Too large for either of my on camera flashes to cover. Nicely set up though, with plenty of rebreathers to look at and plenty of people to attend to customers. Since there wasn’t any new hardware available there are no pictures.


While not taken at the APD/SDS booth, this picture shows their Evolution CCR with equiped with Greenforce dive lights. The slim dual cannisters tucked nicely into the gap between scrubber, tanks and lid, making this a very space efficient and streamlined solution.

The only news, at least to me, came from Silent Diving and was bad indeed. SDS partner Cliff Simoneau is battling cancer. There is a press release on their website. Those of you who pray may want to put in a good word for him, he will need all the help he can get.


Jetsam Technologies

Gordon and Kim Smith and their crew at Jetsam had their rebreathers on display, the Sport Kiss with a new, gun metal gray finish for the aluminum scrubber container. Not only does it look as snazzy as the black one, it looks just like it in my picture ... not what I had hoped for.


Gordon also showed me two prototypes of the new, molded DSV. As they were not production units he didn’t want them photographed. But in true Gordon fashion, the open circuit integrated DSVs were very nice and ... different. The KISS was different with its simple and reliable manual control. The Sport Kiss was different with its small size, low price and unusual scrubber. Gordon thinks outside the box, a trait I admire. And he did it again, with one way flapper valves that hinge on one side rather in the center. According to tests he performed they lower the WOB while giving a superior seal.

The BOV looks slick, is very easy to operate with a small lever on top rather than a big knob on the bottom and easy to (dis-) assemble.

He also showed me a new deflector for the upcoming on-the-shoulder counterlungs. Those, as well as the larger scrubber are still planned for production, though he didn’t give me a timeline for any of the new items.


Strolling through the isles I tried to get an idea of who was where and what they had that needed coverage. All in all I didn’t get much work done on my first at the show. Instead I was busy chatting with many people I had met in the past and several that I met for the first time. For someone as notoriously unsocial as I am it tells a lot about the people at the show and the good time I had ... and I still had all day Friday.


The Rebreather Party

Thursday evening The Rebreather Party was held at Villa Roma, a small motel a block and a half from the convention center. They kindly let us have the patio next to the pool free of charge. Everyone chipped in a few bucks for supplies and Ron Micjan, Tom Rose and friends supplied. Enough that there were a few cans left over at the end of the night. Thanks for that guys, to Tracy and Dr. Bob for organizing a party this year, and to people in the Rebreather booths who spread the word.

Dr. Bob had several of his FEORs at hand for a spin around the pool, as well as his UW NVGs and the “Jack” twin hose regulator that puts Aqualung to shame.

Meanwhile Tom Rose invited a small group of people to his room to explain his CO2 sensor project and showed his beautifully made conversion kit. From O2 CCR to mixed gas in 5 seconds, with a digital pO2 monitor that comes on when you pick it up and switches between cells when you turn it.

0:21 am ... twenty one minutes ... or seconds ... how he got a transparent electronic device with a digital readout that looks a lot like a timing device and two clearly visible mercury switches past the Homeland Security chaps onto a plane is puzzling.

From Florida cavers and Northeast wreckers to Jason from Australia, and manufacturers from the US, Canada, England and Germany we had a good and interesting crowd. It was a success with around 40 people and we had a great time. Not enough of it to meet and talk with everyone, but it lasted way past midnight. Stuart and I were among the last to leave, with only Dr. Bob, commanding officer of CEDU, staying behind with a bunch of divers from NEDU. Last men standing, or better sitting, around his three RBs talking shop.

Needless to say, we slept well that night.