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If you love to hunt there are more animals underwater than you will find on land. The reason there are money animals is because it is easy to kill something with a gun on land that doesn’t see you coming, but if you want a real rush and a great challenge then you should try hunting underwater. I know what you are thinking, “What diving equipment do I need?”

The scuba diving equipment that you need for this are the neccesities; scuba mask, scuba tank, scuba fins, and any other scuba gear you normally dive with. The one thing that you need to bring that you don’t on  a normal dive is a spear and a hunting knife. When hunting underwater your scuba diving equipment doesn’t play a huge role in your mobility like it does on land,  the speargun comes in many sizes and are extremely light.

I know you must carry a knife with you on all dives, if not you should for safety reasons. The difference between a normal knife and a hunting knife is the length, I would recommend getting a larger knife and one with better grip. You don’t want to be about to kill a big fish for your dinner and you drop your knife would you? Just make sure what ever you do that you have the right scuba gear or you will have a tough time catching anything.

Here are some thot provoking articles, have you lost the joy of scuba?

• Explore the adventurous side of you | Philippine Travel Blog – Adventure. Do you actually remember the word? When was the last time you went out for some real adventures? Well, you might be having some wrong perceptions.
• Scuba News Flash- Where did the fun go? – Live Adventurously is a premium provider of SCUBA diving vacations and advice on SCUBA diving travel & the adventure lifestyle. We provide our friends the experiences and knowledge to live an extraordinary life through adventure.

Thanks for reading, comment and tell us what you like. . .

Tevis

Why training and experience can help you keep your head while diving.

By Eric Douglas

Phil was diving deeper and farther than most divers ever got to go. He was going deeper than he had ever been before as well. He had just entered the world of technical diving — newly certified in the special techniques and practices it took to make a successful dive beyond recreational depths — and he was close to 170 feet deep. He was thrilled with this new experience and the freedom it gave him. He couldn’t wait to tell all of his diving friends and convince them they needed to seek out the training as well. And then he inhaled, but nothing came.

The Diver

Phil had been diving recreationally for years. He dived in the local lake and took a trip or two each year to resort destinations with his family. The entire time, though, he wanted more. Wanted to see more, do more and go to more places. Finally, the world of technical diving was opening up new opportunities for him. He had recently completed his technical training, but hadn’t done much diving beyond recreational limits yet. He had also just purchased a complete set of technical gear and was itching to put it to use.

The Dives

The shipwreck rested at nearly 200 feet and was about an hour-and-a-half boat ride offshore. Phil had wanted to make a dive there ever since he saw it profiled in a dive magazine. It had become one of his goals as he learned about technical diving. He made the trip alone and found a dive buddy on the boat, learning they both had the same goals. Phil’s buddy was a bit more experienced than he was, but they figured their diving would be compatible enough, so they planned to make the dive together. Both divers were carrying three gas mixes on the dive.

They would use one mix, their travel gas, on the descent to the bottom. It was simply “air” in a smaller tank Phil had mounted on his left side. The second was for the actual dive, called a bottom mix. This was trimix, a specially combined mixture of nitrogen, oxygen and helium. This mixture (40 percent nitrogen, 17 percent oxygen and 43 percent helium) would give them adequate oxygen without becoming toxic at depth, along with minimal narcotic effects from the nitrogen and ease of breathing from the helium.

Both divers carried the trimix on their back in a set of twin tanks called doubles. The third gas they carried was 80 percent oxygen, which they planned to use during their decompression near the surface. Phil carried the oxygen in a tank hanging from the right side of his dive rig.

According to the dive plan, when the divers reached the top deck of the wreck at around 150 feet, Phil would switch to his bottom mix. He would continue the dive using the gas on his back until he reached his planned time, or remaining pressure, and then he would begin his ascent. He was to switch to the decompression gas when he reached his stop depth and complete a series of stops that would allow the nitrogen to escape from his body. The dive was planned to exacting detail using special decompression software.

The Accident

When Phil and his buddy began their descent, Phil realized they weren’t as compatible as he thought they might be. They used different hand signals as soon as they dropped below the surface and Phil didn’t quite understand what his buddy meant. They hadn’t discussed hand signals on the surface before they began. Phil’s new buddy descended much faster than he was ready to go. Within just a few short minutes, Phil lost track of his new buddy altogether. That didn’t matter though, because at the same time he realized he was on top of the wreck, the place he had dreamed about for years. He noticed his buddy’s bubbles on the stern so he decided to swim toward his partner, following along the contours of the wreck. Between the narcosis brought on by breathing air at that depth and his excitement at reaching his goal, he forgot to switch to his bottom gas. His travel gas for descent was intended for only a short duration, and he quickly ran out of his supply.

He went from euphoria to panic in just a moment, and the only option in his mind was to swim for the surface, but he never made it.

Analysis

Technical diving requires a tremendous amount of equipment to ensure a safe dive, as evidenced by the three different gases Phil carried on this dive. Each gas had at least one, if not two regulators that would provide backup in case of failure. But buying all the equipment in the world doesn’t take the place of training, experience and following a well-crafted dive plan.
Phil had a dive plan. But he failed to follow it, allowing the narcotic affects of nitrogen at depth to cloud his judgment along with the excitement at reaching a goal for the first time.
Nitrogen narcosis has varying effects on different people, and even different effects on the same people on dive days. But there is no question that air becomes narcotic at depth, especially at a depth of six atmospheres (165 feet) or more. It can become so narcotic, in fact, that some people become almost catatonic. In Phil’s case, he forgot all about switching to a breathing gas with a reduced concentration of nitrogen that would have helped him keep his head at depth. One reason for the use of trimix is to avoid nitrogen narcosis. Had he remembered to make the switch, his head would have cleared almost immediately.

The most important thing about that switch, though, was that he had his bottom gas in much greater supply than he did his travel gas. He quickly breathed through his travel-gas supply during the descent and while swimming after his buddy, and ran out of gas. Even then, if he would have had the presence of mind to switch to his bottom gas, he would have been fine. The combination of the nitrogen narcosis from the depth and suddenly running out of air limited his options dramatically. It’s not possible to know exactly what went through Phil’s mind when he took his last breath. Probably he panicked, leading to perceptual narrowing and a fight-or-flight response that would cause Phil to attempt to flee to the surface. The only thing known is that he drowned at depth. When his body was recovered, the tanks on his back holding his bottom gas were still full and his travel gas was empty.

Phil’s dive buddy didn’t realize Phil was missing until he began his own decompression stops. There was nothing he could do at that point, having more than a half-hour of obligated decompression before he could reach the surface and alert the dive boat. It took searchers two days to find and recover the body.

Lessons for Life

1. Seek training. Before attempting any new type of diving, you should seek appropriate training. The more complex the diving technique, the more time you will spend in training.

2. Have a dive plan and follow it. It’s important to understand the limitations of your dive and follow your plan.

3. Stay with your buddy. Diving is a social sport and the shared experience is what makes diving exciting. Buddies can also help should you get into trouble on a dive.

4. Discuss details like appropriate communications with your dive buddy. When you are diving with a new buddy, you should always discuss diving techniques, planned descent speeds and communication techniques.

5. Don’t let a goal cloud your judgment. No dive is worth dying for. Use your head when making a dive. Don’t let your desire to achieve a goal get in the way of making a safe dive.

Eric Douglas is the director of Training for Divers Alert Network. He also co-authored the book Scuba Diving Safety and has written a series of dive adventure novels and short stories as well. Check out his website at www.booksbyeric.com.

This is Seeded from John McKenzie of http://blog.wetcatscuba.com/?p=704

it is much too important NOT to spread this virally. . . don’t count on the manufacturers. . they don’t have your best interests in mind.

We can take care of your Dive Rite wing OPVs if you need help.  Welcome to the Tribe called K2!

By John McKenzie, on February 7th, 2010

You giant stride from the gate of the dive boat into the cold swells of the Pacific Northwest’s emerald sea. But unlike on other entries you don’t bob quickly back to the surface with your OK sign beaming. “What’s up?! I am sinking!” goes through your mind. You have an important first choice – whether or not to panic. No panic and you have some good options for recovery and more dives. Panic and you may have only a few minutes before drowning.

That was just one scenario that went through my mind upon a recent discovery while cleaning my dive gear. Thankfully I was not jumping off the back of a boat with my defective gear; instead I was in the comfort of my garage trying to understand why my Dive Rite wing was blowing air out from the lower dump valve. I shuddered as I watched the corroded spring that holds the valve closed and the air inside crumble to bits in my hand. Luckily, I dodged that bullet, as did my partner, my friend and dive shop owner Grant, and the owners of every Dive Rite wing recently inspected by another local dive shop owner at his shop.

The story I wanted to be able to write was one that told how the folks that run dive equipment companies, most likely divers themselves, are extra vigilant and responsive to safety issues with their products. I wanted to hear that upon finding one corroded stainless spring, that was never supposed to rust under any dive conditions, they immediately launched a full scale investigation and rapidly notify dive shops and customers of the potential threat to their life. That’s the responsible thing to do. And when you read this in the recall statement, “…the company is working closely with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPC) and has instituted a VOLUNTARY recall…,” it spins the impression that they “recently” found a problem and are taking quick action to protect divers.

But I cannot tell that comforting story. The story of what we learned

shouts loudly this message to every diver, “If you want to maintain good odds of coming back alive, do not depend on the manufacture, the dive shop, the government recall, you must check your own gear often and have regular professional maintenance.” From our research and many news stories we have seen over the years, we can be confident that the Dive Rite OPV recall story is just one example of how the incentives for a company NOT to respond quickly to prevent injury or death can muddy the ethical waters. It is not all bad news. It does appear that months before the Dive Rite recall, Halcyon, finding the same problem, did take responsible steps in the interest of safety. But, given what we learned about the timeline at Dive Rite, it is possible the even Halcyon found bad springs well before the recall was instituted. From talking directly with Dive Rite staff there is evidence that Dive Rite was much slower to respond and may have only done a recall to cover their butts. It shows that we dare not overestimate the good folks that run our favorite dive business. The sad reality is that CYA and money fears can and often do eclipse thoughts of your safety in business.

THE PROBLEM

The spring that holds the over pressure valve (OPV or dump valve) closed on the (some unknown) number of BCD wings sold by Dive Rite (and by Halcyon and maybe other brands) was supposed to be made of quality marine grade 316 stainless steel. However, someone at an unknown factory in (wait for it…) China made some of the springs out of not so good 304 stainless steel. After a while of being immersed in saltwater, these bad springs will corrode and literally crumble to bits. Before they completely crumble the bladder will start leaking air. And if you are not one of the few divers that routinely inspect for these kind of things, you may get a leak when you are hanging from it over a significant amount of water.

We know of at least three equipment sellers that bought problem OPV springs from the same supplier. These are Dive Rite, Halcyon and Custom Buoyancy Inc. (CBI). CBI is reported to be out of business. Could there be more? The general consensus is yes. Most OPVs on scuba BCDs and other equipment look and work alike. Other suppliers could be getting their valves from the same Chinese factory. But this is a hard trail to follow. Dive Rite claimed to not know the name of the manufacturer and while admitting that divers should be warned, they flat out refused to tell us the name of their supplier. We have filed a freedom of information request with the CPSC…stay tuned.

THE RECALL STORY

As mentioned above, Halcyon came out first with the recall on October 1, 2009 (CPC date) (see our article at http://blog.wetcatscuba.com/?p=563). Our conversation with Halcyon took a much different tone than with Dive Rite. At the least, Halcyon seemed to have a culture of serious concern for their customers’ safety and an indication that they took every step to “do the right thing.” They saw the problem and instituted the recall on their own accord (although a Dive Rite marketing director said she believes Halcyon had in “incident” that prompted the recall). Halcyon staff were not sure of the quantity of bad springs, so they made the recall broad in scope to cover over 20,300 units. They later augmented the recall to ask dealers to replace springs in those units within the range, even if they showed no signs of corrosion. Our Halcyon contact said, “We realized that some units may not have been in the water long enough to corrode, but could corrode later. Why take chance for the measly price of a spring. We told dealers to replace them and we would cover it.” Unlike Dive Rite, Halcyon did not wait for or require their dealers to ask for replacements. They sent the dealers replacement springs with a log book to track replacements. They also created two informational/instructional videos and posted them on their website (see link above).

Dive Rite’s recall came in late December 2009. Why did Dive Rite wait over two months? Did it take them that long to figure out that they also had some bad springs. Not according to their own staff. One Dive Rite source admitted that they saw the problem well over a year before the recall. I was surprised that told me that they only instituted the recall because they knew that people, seeing the Halcyon recall, would sooner or later would figure out that Dive Rite springs were the same. This would look bad if they did not do a “voluntary” recall like Halcyon. He also played down the likelihood that anyone would get hurt by this problem.

Previous to this call, we spoke with another staff member of Dive Rite who also minimized the the numbers, claiming “maybe 100 world wide and only 35 in the U.S. We already had 2 cases in our house, the shop owner who sold us the wings said his was also bad. The second person I talked with was another area Dive Rite dealer. He said, “every spring we checked so far in the 2006-2208 year range tuned out to be corroded.” Other dealers reported similar findings. Now either those bad wings were highly targeted to the Pacific Northwest or our Dive Rite contact was low-balling. We later talked with another Dive Rite contact that admitted the numbers were likely much higher.

I asked Dive Rite if they have sent replacement springs out to their dealers (as Halcyon did) or do dealers have to request them? The response was, “we are sending free replacement springs to dealers, when they ask for them. We do this because we would like to get them to tell us how many they need. We don’t want to send them a pile of springs they may not need. And we need at least some of the serial numbers and counts for the CPC paper work.” During my conversations with Dive Rite, I told them that our LDS had given us a two non-dive rite springs to help get us back in the water. I also told them the shop owner’s spring was bad and he had sold a bunch of Wings within the recall period. A week later he received only four springs from Dive Rite.

After our calls to Dive Rite, the marketing director called us and complained that we were just looking to slam them. She wanted to know “who, at Dive Rite told us those things.” She then admitted that they did see bad springs 18 months before the recall, but claimed that they did take immediate action. She said they notified all dealers about the springs and put an announcement in each of their monthly newsletters since then. However, when we checked more sources we found little evidence of her claims. A former Dive Rite sales representative, who was a liaison between Dive Rite and Dive Rite dealers during the this time said he never heard about the spring problem. He sent us all of his monthly newsletters for the past year and we found no mention. Other dealers had similar stories.

THE COMPANY LINE

Here is the text from the Dive Rite site at: http://www.diverite.com/products/service/opvspringrecall/

Dive Rite takes the safety of our consumers very seriously. In cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Dive Rite is issuing a voluntary recall on various Dive Rite Wings.

The Over Pressurization Valve (OPV) springs found on Dive Rite wings manufactured between June 2006 and October 2008 may rust and fail allowing the buoyancy compensator devices to leak. The wings may be red, blue or black in color and have serial numbers falling between 42000 and 72000. The following models are affected by this recall: Travel, Venture, Rec, Trek, Classic, Nomad and Super Wings It does not affect EXP or 360-branded wings. The recall does not affect lift bags, surface marker tubes or other Dive Rite inflatable devices.

We apologize for any inconvenience and encourage Dive Rite wing customers to contact your local Dive Rite dealer or Dive Rite directly at 800-495-1046 with any questions.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY SHOULD BE REPEATED

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is just a story of the failings of one dive equipment manufacturer. Even for the most responsible of companies, it will still take months for them to institute an official recall. Dive equipment manufacturers need to do better. But, if you want to improve you chances of living through you next dive, get religious about checking and maintaining your own gear. We dive weekly and on every group dive trip I can remember someone on the trip had found they had some kind for equipment problem just before or during the dive.

While you do need to have a professional check your gear on a regular schedule, most of the problems found can be fixed by any diver (e.g. loose hoses, bad o-rings). The training agencies offer specialty courses to help you get more knowledgeable about maintaining your kit. This spring problem is simple to check and fix. If you find any bad springs in any other brands (or any other equipment failure patterns) let us know (john@jmckenzie.com) and we will warn our fellow divers.

The incentives for companies to take the wrong path cannot survive if divers will report problems, demand better gear and better ethics from your equipment vendors. These companies have the technology to catch problems and communicate the resolutions quickly to dealers, shops and customers and only some are doing it. You can also vote with your wallet for companies that have the good values to build safe equipment, with parts from manufacturers they know and trust, and when they do have a problem to handle it quickly and responsibly.

Italy’s Marco Fois dives into the Tiber River from the 18 meter (59 feet) high Cavour Bridge in Rome, Friday, Jan. 1, 2010, to celebrate the New Year. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Andrew Medichini

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROME – Four Italians have dived into the cold and dirty waters of Rome’s Tiber river to mark the start of the new year.

Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the four men plunge from the Cavour Bridge in the centre of the city from a height of more than 50 feet (about 15 metres) on a cold and windy day Friday.

The stunt – including flips and turns by the divers – is regarded as dangerous since the waters of the Tiber are cold and muddy, and the river is not really deep enough for a dive from such a height.

But everything went fine Friday, and one of the divers emptied a bottle of champagne into the river before diving from the bridge.

The event is an annual New Year tradition dating back to 1946, when a lifeguard who was trying to find work leapt into the waters from the Cavour Bridge to advertise his skills. Since then, it has become annual event.