Inner Space 2006

Inner Space 2006
Grand Cayman
By Ron Micjan



WOW! Patti and I just returned from Grand Cayman and the Cobalt Coast/ Divetech event Inner Space. This is the third year of this rebreather only event and the best attended so far. This is now the largest event of its kind in the world. The first year of Inner Space was in 2004 and was limited to Inspirations only. 2005 saw the event opened up to any rebreather and this may have been because of the demise of “Zero Gravity”, the Sunset House sponsored all rebreather event, which ended when Reg and Erica, the two who ran it, left Cayman after Hurricane Ivan to return to their native Vancouver, Canada.


How it came about is of little consequence, however, what goes on there is of much interest, judging by the number of participants who came to dive, dive, dive, swap stories, try out different manufacturers equipment and listen to presentations from industry professionals. The final count was 55 divers. The crew of the resort and the dive shop had their hands full, filling cylinders, running boats, counting divers, cooking the food and organizing. Speaking of organizing…the crew did a great job, I was paying attention and my fills were prompt, and precise, if the tag said 10/50 then the analyzer read out within 1 % of that on every fill, and usually within .5%. Nice job! I breathed a lot of 10/50 in one week, as well as used a bit of scrubber. There were 2 grades of granules available as well as plenty of Micropore Extendaire cartridges for the units that used them. The deep divers had 2 stages filled also, with whatever mix you required. The predominant setup was 10/50 as back gas (diluent) and 15/45 as deep bailout in a 40cf or 63cf stage cylinder and a cylinder of EANx 50 for a deco gas in another stage of 40 or 63cf. A few divers had custom mixes set up for some deeper diving, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.


One of the greatest things about this type of event is the terrific people you get to meet. I already knew about half the folks who attended, but when I left, I felt like I was friends with everyone. We all shared stories of diving, where we live, our families, the gear we used and what we saw daily in the clear warm waters of the Caribbean.


Every evening, after dinner, we were treated to one or two presentations by folks in a CCR related industry. Mike Fowler, of Silent Diving Systems presented information on the AP Rebreathers, the Inspiration and Evolution as well as a nice rundown on the Vision electronics package. SDS also provided some nice prizes including a dive computer, for the last day award ceremony. I had two presentations to give, one for Innerspace Systems Corporation, the manufacturer of the Megalodon CCR and another for my own company TMIShop.com. My ISC presentation included the past, present and future of CCR products, design and technology and my second was demonstrating the content of my web page and products. Jeff Gourley of Dive Rite showed us the O2ptima CCR and even went diving on it, when he finally woke up, usually in the afternoon. : ) Kevin Gurr provided plenty of really nice Delta P branded clothing and a brand spanking new, fully optioned out VR3 for the giveaway (won by Jason Houle, lucky guy). Kevin also showed us a slide show featuring some really neat projects he has been involved in, including a trip to the Titanic aboard a MIR Russian submarine. Kim Smith of Jetsam and Alan Studley, Jetsam’s North Americas Sales manager, demonstrated the Classic and Sport KISS CCR’s. Tom and Doug McKenna of Micropore shared with us their solid CO2 absorbent technology bundled into the Extendaire cartridge system and its future in the diving world. (Doug and his charming wife KC also showed off Gage, the newest diver in the family, who was definitely the hit of the show! Rumor has it that Gage was conceived at Innerspace 05, but he was neither confirming nor denying the rumor.)


Tomar Gross and Larry Shreve of Bubble Seekers showed us the soon to be released Titan recreational eCCR which uses the Extendaire scrubber system and Shearwater Research electronics. The unit had some problems during the week but still saw quite a bit of underwater time. Look for an article on the Titan very soon. Bruce Partridge of SRI showed us his new dive computer and CCR controller, the Shearwater GF, to be available soon. He and wife Lynn were also sporting some nifty stand alone HUD systems.


The diving was nothing short of spectacular and anyone who have dived the Cayman Islands knows of what I write. This is my seventh trip to Cayman and I have never been disappointed. The only grumblings I heard were with the C.I. Government rules that Divetech enforced, no solo diving and rigid depth limits based on your provable certification level. Most divers of this experience level frequently dive solo and when I am shooting photography the last thing I want is a dive buddy (not to mention what a lousy buddy I am when I have a camera in my hand!) You cannot blame Divetech for enforcing the rules emplaced by the country they operate in, but it did occasionally put a crimp in ones diving style. (Thanks JR, for following me around Ghost Mountain)

Rebreathers on hand were from Jetsam, with 1 KISS Classic and 6 Sport units in attendance. ISC had 5 Megs and 2 mini-Megs, SDS had 10 evo's and 14 inspirations, there were 2 Ouroboros’s present, 4 O2ptimas around and one Titan. People were from all over with most from the US, Canada and the UK, one from Jamaica, several who live in Cayman and I’m sure I am missing some locales. Above all there were no chamber rides, but I did see lots of blisters, band aids and even some masking tape used attempting to avoid blisters.

The amenities were great, rooms were clean and towels were everywhere, great for drying off or keeping the hot UV off of your spendy gear. Security was hired for night patrol and we all left our gear out on the benches overnight that was a nice touch. Meals were included except for one evening where most of us went out to sample the local fare, including Pappagallos or the Calypso Grill, both having excellent food but with prices to match.

There were 4 boat trips per day, two first thing in the AM and again in the early afternoon and they were split up into experience and depth. One boat was for the OC divers and one for recreational CCR divers, another for normoxic CCR and one for hypoxic trimix divers. Run times were allowed up to 3 hours from the boats and whatever you could stand from shore, check in and out at the dive shop was highly recommended. No Australian rules here!


The two boats, TenAta and ATAtude spent lots of time motoring to and from dive sites and hanging at mooring lines, only resting at night. Shore diving was wide open for anytime, day or night, from the dock at Cobalt Coast or with a short drive over to Divetech’s other shop at Turtle Reef. (Turtle Reef is getting a bit of a makeover, with a new outdoor bar and restaurant over the dive shop.) Anything you needed or wanted was available for the asking. There was even a trip to Stingray City, the coolest 12 foot dive you will ever make. It was a riot to see 15 or 20 divers with CCR’s in a circle with as many stingrays weaving in and out of them, absolute chaos and a huge amount of fun. Some of us even visited Psycho, the venerable but still spunky Moray eel who comes out when she smells leftover squid from feeding the stingrays. This was a great photo opportunity and I shot lots of pics. Patti was very jealous of the image Jim McCann took of me last year handling Psycho, I got a great one of her this year.


So the CCR industry is alive and well, we all had a wonderful time, thanks to the efforts of Nancy, Jay, Arie and the whole crew of Divetech and Cobalt Coast. If you have not managed to make it to Innerspace, you owe it to yourself to book it for next year, space is already filling up fast. There is so much to learn and terrific people to learn from, oh, and did I mention the diving?


Jamie Verghagan of Toronto, Canada attempts to gather an image of a lobster in a rock crevice. I was attempting to gather an image of him doing exactly that. The problem he was having was his strobes were not firing, mainly because when I would shoot; his strobes would fire in slave mode, draining their charge. Sorry Jaime!


Getting to Cayman from the Pacific Northwest is quite a trip, we flew from Portland, to Houston, to Miami and then on to Grand Cayman, nearly missing two of our 3 flights, due to major hassles from American Airlines (wont book with them again), the total time was around 12 hours, getting back was better as we were on Delta this time and they had it together. Its impossible to pack light when you have 2 CCR divers, Patti and I both check 2 bags and carry on 2, for a total of 8 bags, each right at the weight limits and usually one 25 lbs over. The megs go in TravelPro roller bags and usually fit in the overhead, small backpacks come aboard too with books, snacks, some clothes, laptop, and my camera and 4 lenses. The rest of the dive gear, fins, BC, stage regs, reels, liftbags, harnesses, wetsuits, go into checked baggage as well as my underwater housing and strobes. I keep trying to cut the gear down to a minimum, but its just no use, it all gets used sometime during the week.

So the CCR industry is alive and well, we all had a wonderful time, thanks to the efforts of Nancy, Jay, Arie and the whole crew of Divetech and Cobalt Coast. If you have not managed to make it to Innerspace, you owe it to yourself to book it for next year, space is already filling up fast. There is so much to learn and terrific people to learn from, oh, and did I mention the diving?

I have been home for a few days and I’m still exhausted, I need a vacation from my vacation. Next week its up to Canada to assist with a Meg and Normoxic class…

Ron Micjan


www.tmishop.com


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