DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX

Ronbo · 19th May 2007, 11:41

OMG! I can't believe the interest and response I've been getting for the upcoming CSSP Tech-Tour. This is going to be fantastic!

And did I mention we're supposed to have a "Surprise Guest or two" from DiveRite HQ? Oh yeah, I did. But it's still going to be a surprise!

Definitely make plans to be out at Clear Springs for our very own DiveRite Tech-Tour event. I can't wait to meet and visit with everyone, it will be so much fun.

See you there!
Ron

Oh, and Andrew? When Heather gets you that new O2Ptima... I'll buy the first 2 airfills for it. I calculate that should last you about 10 months, even with all the diving you do!

**hoppyinca** · 1st June 2007, 21:56

I plan on showing up for a long early morning dive...
who is showing up when? and where?...

hoppyinca

***caveseeker7*** · 4th June 2007, 07:15

So, how'd that go?

Report, pictures ...

Crazyduck · 4th June 2007, 16:21

Well for starters the weather in Texas has been biblical in proportions. This has been the wettest spring in memory. So for good measure it rained again Friday night.

Saturday morning was nice, cool, and not too muggy.
So by 9am it was a mad house. We had new divers, technical divers, cave divers and rebreather divers. I have not seen such a selection of NSS cards outside of Florida in a long time.
Diverite brought out all… the toys. We had multiple drysuits and sizes. New BC, regulators, multiple HID lights to dive, Fins, Underwear for the drysuits and all the fun stuff to dive and try out. Divers varied from the travel divers playing with Transpac's, travel wings and stream lined regulators. At the other end of the spectrum was the rebreather divers. One of the pictures will be of two Optima’s packed into a single storm case with steel 27’s- now that’s compact!

In attendance we had-
One PRISM, One Mk15.5, One Evolution, AND FIVE… Optima’s.
I will let the guys volunteer their thoughts of the event that were in attendance. I appreciate those gentlemen that came out and joined us! A community works best with diversity and everyone was very gracious. It’s not every day you see a “Bad Kitty” sticker on someone’s rebreather.

I did get time to meet an Optima diver that was recently Trimix certified and did a series of dives at 300ft in the Caymans. It was interesting to hearing his option of diving the unit. He had nothing but praise for the unit; then again it was his ride. Thanks guys…

As an open circuit guy standing on the surface knowing that six closed circuit divers were on a platform and no bubbles on the surface was a pretty amazing.

Diving the Optima-
So it was my turn to cowboy-up and try out this bad boy.
We did a pre-briefing of the system, HUD lights, setup, bailout procedures, and other elements of the system. My prior pool dive with a PRISM was invaluable.
The harness was the new Diverite Nomad with the butt plate and wings. That was a dream and slick as snot to get on. I pre-fit all the sizing on the Nomad and then attached it to the rig. All the hoses had double o-ring seals and the loop size was as expected. Slipping in the rebreather was not a problem with the hoses attached- smaller than doubles and not heavy at all. I had to wait on someone; so I had the opportunity to stand in the unit and it was comfortable even with the steel 27’s. So in my group we had James shooting video on his evolution, we had the instructor Erik on an Optima, Wade on his Optima, Harvey on his plus me making trouble.
Entry was Giant Stride- no problem there and I was comfortably floating on the unit. We all had pre-breathed the units at the gear up table and I checked the system while floating and reviewed gauges and handsets.
We descended down the line and I could hear the system kick in and a glance at the handsets all was good. The HUD was in clear view and flashed the appropriate light sequence. I am not one that enjoys intense observation and having one cameraman, one instructor and two other divers pushes you to really do your best. Once I was settled; I did the usual buoyancy drill to plain out. It was only then that I realized that we had changed out the harness to the Nomad and I was wearing no weight. Normally, with a three mil I tend to pack in 10lbs with a steel tank so I was pretty amazed. If it had been noticeable I would have surfaced but I was maintaining quite well. We swam around the platform once and all was good. Buoyancy is so much easier on closed circuit.
Once all was good we went ‘walk about’ and for a little swim. Down the lake, around the bend was a sunk American Eagle short body jet (just the body.) We cruised around and checked out the body for the thousand and one time; but this time we were all silent and no bubbles. This was the first time ever a bass swam by with it’s swam of fry. I just sat there like a 6ft long log and watched them swim right through me; that was pretty amazing. On the way back I came a little shallower only to stay warm and we enjoyed the swim in the Hydrilla and all the local wildlife. Max depth 30ft, time was 40minutes.
Like most people I dumped air from my wing for ascent and had no problem surfacing. Nice and slow swim up to the surface.

Concerns-
I had a little excess loop pressure- chipmunk checks. This was from the dump valve being too tight and the ADV being sensitive. We opened up the dump valve during the dive and I dumped gas twice. Since this is a trial run and not my personal unit I was not concerned. I would change these to fit my profile and needs if it was my personal unit.

I hung the bailout regulator around my neck and that made it difficult to read my gauges. In the future one or the other will have to be moved. Again not a design issue but a user issue. I was thinking of maybe hanging the regulator on a d-ring- something to contemplate.

Positives-
The Nomad was a dream with the fit- no roll, no drift or other issues.
Totally surprised that I made the dive with no weight at all.
The Hammerhead was a dream and ran like a champ (excellent Dude.)
Onboard deco with the computer was very nice, easy to read, and it felt meaty enough to hold up.
Scrubber was excellent- even though it had been trounced by dropping the rebreather on it earlier. (Noted below)

Interesting side note-
Earlier in the day one of the Optima’s fell off it’s stand into the dirt and landed on one of the scrubber canisters in its foiled tube- I truly and honestly expected the canister to be toast. Well, it worked just fine and in fact I dove that rig with the canister on purpose and had no problems- Very cool.

Relationship with Diverite- I do not work directly for Diverite however I do have vested interest. I did work the show and I have a great working friendship with our reps. So I am more of a dedicated volunteer with an attitude.
Thanks too all the people that made the event possible. Thanks to Kathleen and her Husband who drove the truck out and bringing all those goodies for us Texas divers to play with. I think we need a new t-shirt that says- Diverite Texas “kicks ***.”

Closing-
After spending the day at the lake with all the divers we meet, questions we covered, and one on one face time it worked out very well. I hope as a community that we can come together and attend events together and try out gear. I appricate the divers from the board that attended and seeing what was available.
This covers Saturday only- I spent time with the family on Sunday.

I am open to questions and comments but please keep in mind I am a newbie compared to this group.
Andrew

**jstovall** · 4th June 2007, 16:44

To all the Diverite folks and local staff that help put this together--Thanks.

I had a great time diving and talking with all of you. Thanks for the info. The atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable. And all those toys in one place, I think i am still dreaming about it all. Hope all the other weekends go just as well for ya'll. All the best,

James

**hoppyinca** · 5th June 2007, 02:52

It was a good time...

Thanks again Andrew for letting me jump the line in trying out the Optima...

it was nice, but not Mk15 nice... IMHumbleO...

But then again, I do own a Mk15...

to correct the record, "bad kitty" is a Mk15, not a 15.5.

it was nice to meet those who showed!

hoppyinca

Ronbo · 5th June 2007, 12:36

Thanks to everyone that participated in the first annual SouthWest Regional Tech-Tour event last weekend at ClearSpringsScubaPark (TerrellTX).

It was a huge success, even in spite of the rain early Saturday and Sunday mornings. By 10-11 am each day it had cleared off and we were treated to a terrific time. We got to meet a lot of enthusiastic divers, and they in turn got a chance to learn about and try the DiveRite equipment that they’d been researching, heard about or maybe even didn’t know was out there.

The full-line of DiveRite gear was available to dive; from fins to TransPacs/Aircells, to regulators, to rebreathers. We even had 4 O2ptima rebreathers available for demo-dives, and I wish we’d had 4 more! Everyone went away from their test dive with a smile on their face and a one-of-a-kind ‘DiveRite Tech-Tour Demo-Shirt’ (hold on to yours if you got one, it’s becoming a classic already!)

The staff was kept busy the entire time, but we all absolutely loved it. Thanks again to everyone that helped out, and especially to the area divers and the dive-stores that made it such an enjoyable event.

We’re working on our next-year’s Tech-Tour Event schedule already, so if you missed out this time, give me a call and we’ll try to get it on the calendar.

DiveRite also hosts “Demo-Day” events, basically the same type of venue as the Tech-Tour (demos and try-ons for all of our equipment) but on a more local scale. Talk to your dive-store and we’ll make that happen too.

Thanks!
Ron

Ronbo · 5th June 2007, 12:54

Well, I was going to submit a detailed minute-by-minute report on the weekend, but I think CrazyDuck, hoppyinca, and jstovall pretty-well summed it up for everyone. Thanks guys.

BTW Andrew, that was MY rebreather that took the headfirst dive into the dirt. I have to say that it survived without incident, only damage was a little more mud on the Transpac...
Cost of an O2ptima: $7200
Bungee-cord that should have been holding it: $4
Andrew's Expression when it happened: Priceless

I have to stress that we do NOT toss our divegear off tables at every Demo Event. I would love to host an Event for you and your divestore anyways, and we'll think up some different entertainment. Just name the time and place.

And heck, who knows, maybe CrazyDuck will have his own Rebreather by that time, and I can push his into the mud.... Just kidding

Crazyduck · 5th June 2007, 21:26

Hey Ron- Yeah, I about had kittens when your rig fell.
Glad it was just mud! I won't wish that on anyone.

Well, I don’t know about you but when Kathleen flashed us her 2 liter counterlungs I was pretty impressed. Nice shape, compact, good color and yet very proportional.

Glad everyone had fun.

Chad we need to go get a beer sometime.
Regards all, Andrew

19th May 2007, 11:41	#11 (permalink)
Ronbo New Member Current Rebreather/s: Optima Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: USA Posts: 10	Re: DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX OMG! I can't believe the interest and response I've been getting for the upcoming CSSP Tech-Tour. This is going to be fantastic! And did I mention we're supposed to have a "Surprise Guest or two" from DiveRite HQ? Oh yeah, I did. But it's still going to be a surprise! Definitely make plans to be out at Clear Springs for our very own DiveRite Tech-Tour event. I can't wait to meet and visit with everyone, it will be so much fun. See you there! Ron Oh, and Andrew? When Heather gets you that new O2Ptima... I'll buy the first 2 airfills for it. I calculate that should last you about 10 months, even with all the diving you do!
(Offline)

1st June 2007, 21:56	#12 (permalink)
hoppyinca New Member Current Rebreather/s: MK 15.X Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Laguna Niguel, CA USA Posts: 250	Re: DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX I plan on showing up for a long early morning dive... who is showing up when? and where?... hoppyinca
(Offline)

4th June 2007, 07:15	#13 (permalink)
*caveseeker7* Who loves ya, baby Current Rebreather/s: Sport Kiss Other Rebreather/s: Prism Topaz Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Too far from Neverland Posts: 5,402	Re: DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX So, how'd that go? Report, pictures ... __________________ Cheers Stefan "It is still a good day if you are on the green side of the grass! Su amigo Roberto!" Sponsor Lou in Race For Life!
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4th June 2007, 16:21	#14 (permalink)
Crazyduck Underwater Mechanic Current Rebreather/s: Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Other CCR Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: TEXAS, Dallas/ Ft.Worth Posts: 702	Report on Texas- DIVERITE Tech-Tour Well for starters the weather in Texas has been biblical in proportions. This has been the wettest spring in memory. So for good measure it rained again Friday night. Saturday morning was nice, cool, and not too muggy. So by 9am it was a mad house. We had new divers, technical divers, cave divers and rebreather divers. I have not seen such a selection of NSS cards outside of Florida in a long time. Diverite brought out all… the toys. We had multiple drysuits and sizes. New BC, regulators, multiple HID lights to dive, Fins, Underwear for the drysuits and all the fun stuff to dive and try out. Divers varied from the travel divers playing with Transpac's, travel wings and stream lined regulators. At the other end of the spectrum was the rebreather divers. One of the pictures will be of two Optima’s packed into a single storm case with steel 27’s- now that’s compact! In attendance we had- One PRISM, One Mk15.5, One Evolution, AND FIVE… Optima’s. I will let the guys volunteer their thoughts of the event that were in attendance. I appreciate those gentlemen that came out and joined us! A community works best with diversity and everyone was very gracious. It’s not every day you see a “Bad Kitty” sticker on someone’s rebreather. I did get time to meet an Optima diver that was recently Trimix certified and did a series of dives at 300ft in the Caymans. It was interesting to hearing his option of diving the unit. He had nothing but praise for the unit; then again it was his ride. Thanks guys… As an open circuit guy standing on the surface knowing that six closed circuit divers were on a platform and no bubbles on the surface was a pretty amazing. Diving the Optima- So it was my turn to cowboy-up and try out this bad boy. We did a pre-briefing of the system, HUD lights, setup, bailout procedures, and other elements of the system. My prior pool dive with a PRISM was invaluable. The harness was the new Diverite Nomad with the butt plate and wings. That was a dream and slick as snot to get on. I pre-fit all the sizing on the Nomad and then attached it to the rig. All the hoses had double o-ring seals and the loop size was as expected. Slipping in the rebreather was not a problem with the hoses attached- smaller than doubles and not heavy at all. I had to wait on someone; so I had the opportunity to stand in the unit and it was comfortable even with the steel 27’s. So in my group we had James shooting video on his evolution, we had the instructor Erik on an Optima, Wade on his Optima, Harvey on his plus me making trouble. Entry was Giant Stride- no problem there and I was comfortably floating on the unit. We all had pre-breathed the units at the gear up table and I checked the system while floating and reviewed gauges and handsets. We descended down the line and I could hear the system kick in and a glance at the handsets all was good. The HUD was in clear view and flashed the appropriate light sequence. I am not one that enjoys intense observation and having one cameraman, one instructor and two other divers pushes you to really do your best. Once I was settled; I did the usual buoyancy drill to plain out. It was only then that I realized that we had changed out the harness to the Nomad and I was wearing no weight. Normally, with a three mil I tend to pack in 10lbs with a steel tank so I was pretty amazed. If it had been noticeable I would have surfaced but I was maintaining quite well. We swam around the platform once and all was good. Buoyancy is so much easier on closed circuit. Once all was good we went ‘walk about’ and for a little swim. Down the lake, around the bend was a sunk American Eagle short body jet (just the body.) We cruised around and checked out the body for the thousand and one time; but this time we were all silent and no bubbles. This was the first time ever a bass swam by with it’s swam of fry. I just sat there like a 6ft long log and watched them swim right through me; that was pretty amazing. On the way back I came a little shallower only to stay warm and we enjoyed the swim in the Hydrilla and all the local wildlife. Max depth 30ft, time was 40minutes. Like most people I dumped air from my wing for ascent and had no problem surfacing. Nice and slow swim up to the surface. Concerns- I had a little excess loop pressure- chipmunk checks. This was from the dump valve being too tight and the ADV being sensitive. We opened up the dump valve during the dive and I dumped gas twice. Since this is a trial run and not my personal unit I was not concerned. I would change these to fit my profile and needs if it was my personal unit. I hung the bailout regulator around my neck and that made it difficult to read my gauges. In the future one or the other will have to be moved. Again not a design issue but a user issue. I was thinking of maybe hanging the regulator on a d-ring- something to contemplate. Positives- The Nomad was a dream with the fit- no roll, no drift or other issues. Totally surprised that I made the dive with no weight at all. The Hammerhead was a dream and ran like a champ (excellent Dude.) Onboard deco with the computer was very nice, easy to read, and it felt meaty enough to hold up. Scrubber was excellent- even though it had been trounced by dropping the rebreather on it earlier. (Noted below) Interesting side note- Earlier in the day one of the Optima’s fell off it’s stand into the dirt and landed on one of the scrubber canisters in its foiled tube- I truly and honestly expected the canister to be toast. Well, it worked just fine and in fact I dove that rig with the canister on purpose and had no problems- Very cool. Relationship with Diverite- I do not work directly for Diverite however I do have vested interest. I did work the show and I have a great working friendship with our reps. So I am more of a dedicated volunteer with an attitude. Thanks too all the people that made the event possible. Thanks to Kathleen and her Husband who drove the truck out and bringing all those goodies for us Texas divers to play with. I think we need a new t-shirt that says- Diverite Texas “kicks ***.” Closing- After spending the day at the lake with all the divers we meet, questions we covered, and one on one face time it worked out very well. I hope as a community that we can come together and attend events together and try out gear. I appricate the divers from the board that attended and seeing what was available. This covers Saturday only- I spent time with the family on Sunday. I am open to questions and comments but please keep in mind I am a newbie compared to this group. Andrew __________________ Howdy Senor- What’s Happening! Rob Davie April 2005- Presently in a state of transition from Open Circuit to Closed Circuit. "You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by it." - Buddha.
(Offline)

4th June 2007, 16:44	#15 (permalink)
jstovall Supporting Member Current Rebreather/s: Prism Topaz Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: New Braunfels, TX Posts: 55	Re: DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX To all the Diverite folks and local staff that help put this together--Thanks. I had a great time diving and talking with all of you. Thanks for the info. The atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable. And all those toys in one place, I think i am still dreaming about it all. Hope all the other weekends go just as well for ya'll. All the best, James
(Offline)

5th June 2007, 02:52	#16 (permalink)
hoppyinca New Member Current Rebreather/s: MK 15.X Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Laguna Niguel, CA USA Posts: 250	Re: DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX It was a good time... Thanks again Andrew for letting me jump the line in trying out the Optima... it was nice, but not Mk15 nice... IMHumbleO... But then again, I do own a Mk15... to correct the record, "bad kitty" is a Mk15, not a 15.5. it was nice to meet those who showed! hoppyinca
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5th June 2007, 12:36	#17 (permalink)
Ronbo New Member Current Rebreather/s: Optima Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: USA Posts: 10	Re: DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX Thanks to everyone that participated in the first annual SouthWest Regional Tech-Tour event last weekend at ClearSpringsScubaPark (TerrellTX). It was a huge success, even in spite of the rain early Saturday and Sunday mornings. By 10-11 am each day it had cleared off and we were treated to a terrific time. We got to meet a lot of enthusiastic divers, and they in turn got a chance to learn about and try the DiveRite equipment that they’d been researching, heard about or maybe even didn’t know was out there. The full-line of DiveRite gear was available to dive; from fins to TransPacs/Aircells, to regulators, to rebreathers. We even had 4 O2ptima rebreathers available for demo-dives, and I wish we’d had 4 more! Everyone went away from their test dive with a smile on their face and a one-of-a-kind ‘DiveRite Tech-Tour Demo-Shirt’ (hold on to yours if you got one, it’s becoming a classic already!) The staff was kept busy the entire time, but we all absolutely loved it. Thanks again to everyone that helped out, and especially to the area divers and the dive-stores that made it such an enjoyable event. We’re working on our next-year’s Tech-Tour Event schedule already, so if you missed out this time, give me a call and we’ll try to get it on the calendar. DiveRite also hosts “Demo-Day” events, basically the same type of venue as the Tech-Tour (demos and try-ons for all of our equipment) but on a more local scale. Talk to your dive-store and we’ll make that happen too. Thanks! Ron
(Offline)

5th June 2007, 12:54	#18 (permalink)
Ronbo New Member Current Rebreather/s: Optima Other Rebreather/s: Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: USA Posts: 10	Re: DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX Well, I was going to submit a detailed minute-by-minute report on the weekend, but I think CrazyDuck, hoppyinca, and jstovall pretty-well summed it up for everyone. Thanks guys. BTW Andrew, that was MY rebreather that took the headfirst dive into the dirt. I have to say that it survived without incident, only damage was a little more mud on the Transpac... Cost of an O2ptima: $7200 Bungee-cord that should have been holding it: $4 Andrew's Expression when it happened: Priceless I have to stress that we do NOT toss our divegear off tables at every Demo Event. I would love to host an Event for you and your divestore anyways, and we'll think up some different entertainment. Just name the time and place. And heck, who knows, maybe CrazyDuck will have his own Rebreather by that time, and I can push his into the mud.... Just kidding
(Offline)

5th June 2007, 21:26	#19 (permalink)
Crazyduck Underwater Mechanic Current Rebreather/s: Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Other CCR Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: TEXAS, Dallas/ Ft.Worth Posts: 702	Re: DIVERITE Tech-Tour, June 2 & 3, Terrell TX Hey Ron- Yeah, I about had kittens when your rig fell. Glad it was just mud! I won't wish that on anyone. Well, I don’t know about you but when Kathleen flashed us her 2 liter counterlungs I was pretty impressed. Nice shape, compact, good color and yet very proportional. Glad everyone had fun. Chad we need to go get a beer sometime. Regards all, Andrew __________________ Howdy Senor- What’s Happening! Rob Davie April 2005- Presently in a state of transition from Open Circuit to Closed Circuit. "You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by it." - Buddha.
(Offline)

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