Welcome to the Dark Side….we have lovely Black Techie stuff
Since former Yugoslavia, and the purchase of my SUUNTO Solution and my first ever dry-suit, (the DMS 5mm Neoprene “Bravo”) my kit had, again, stabilised for the last couple of years ’94 to ‘96 or so. Perhaps it is the rhythm of forces life, we moved between units every 3 years or so and you got used to the cadence, maybe that was the same with diving kit….more likely it took at least 2 years to get enough money to pay for an upgrade, at least that is what seemed to limit me! I had just come back from the Falkland Islands dive expedition and my conversations with Don Shirley were leading me astray, I had taken my first Nitrox course with Don and qualified as a Nitrox Diver, that led me to get my 12L Cylinders “Nitrox Cleaned”, out came the neoprene “O” Rings in the cylinder valve, and in went “Viton” equivalents (neoprene derivatives do not tolerate higher concentrations of Oxygen well, becoming a fire risk due to degradation, Viton O Rings tolerated the higher Oxygen….but ironically do not last as long) which meant partial pressure blending wouldn’t be an issue. The cylinders were cleaned of all hydrocarbon debris and would stay so for 12 months as long as I didn’t get a fill from standard, uncleaned air-sources, as most of my fills were from Stoney cove, from a clean air system that wouldn’t be a problem! Last of all I got a nice shiny sticker just above the stab-jacket cylinder band, advertising the fact I was a Nitrox Diver…..the real purpose, of course, being my cylinder should not be confused with those to fill with anything other than clean air or a gas blend
The most important decal on the cylinder was its clean date and its “status” or O2 cleanliness, both carried on a neck decal applied at the time of cleaning by the service centre. The decal indicating the date of cleaning (and therefore the “in service” date for the cylinder), had punched out holes marking the cleaning date and the type of cleaning the cylinder had been subjected to, which indicated the % of Oxygen that could be used with the cylinder, and restricted the gas mix it could carry, “Oxygen Enriched” or “Nitrox Clean” meaning mixes up to 50% maximum and “Oxygen Service” meaning mixes up to 100%, to facilitate richer mixes for decompression purposes. These were mandatory for getting gas fills, no decal? out of date inspection?……no gas! It had to be that way, the use of pure Oxygen in Nitrox fills, although not the only way of achieving a gas blend, was by far the most common, Oxygen is a catalyst, it encourages fire, acting as an accelerant and the last thing anyone wants in their filling station, usually half full with dozens of pressurised dive cylinders…..is a fire
I had also purchased a 3L cylinder after Yugoslavia, it had sat in my “Pony Bag” alongside my 12L cylinder for around 2 years now and Don suggested it would make a decent enough decompression set-up, if suitably cleaned and put into Oxygen service. I liked the idea, it was minimum investment and offered a great way of getting use out of what had, to date, been just a safety passenger on my dives, a very welcome one, but I had yet to use it other than in practice to swap my regs and ensure they worked and that I maintained the skill-set. I had the pony “cleaned” and Stoney kindly supplied another shiny Decal…….”Decompression Gas” and another neck decal, this time punched out for Oxygen service!
I liked the decompression set-up, despite it not being quite so compact and squared away, it was to my front and at my Right hand side, I could see it and access it which felt more comforting and, having sight of it during a dive, you could see the gas wasn’t quietly bubbling away through a leak, far safer in my opinion. I achieved the transformation with a readily available quality piece of kit from Lumb Brothers, consisting of a webbing strap running the length of the cylinder, with a clear plastic tube as a handle, a neck ring and a stainless steel worm clip at its base, at either end, just below the neck ring, and again below the worm clip, were two loops with piston clips on them for easy “clip-on….clip-off” operation. It was well thought out and I have used several since, I even keep a spare although they are now for my two 7L 300 bar travel & deco gas cylinders. The move from rear to front was more of an issue whilst diving, the additional weight was slightly higher on the body and there was more “clutter” to your front which, for the first few dives, took some getting used to, but the advantage of being able to check your gas supply and to see everything was accessible and to hand soon outstripped any feeling of inconvenience
The last step in the transformation was my regs, I loved my Spiro Arctic, it was a great reg, it was environmentally sealed meaning it didn’t suffer in the frigid North Sea, and it was a very low effort to breathe (work of breathing) which meant no real problems from additional Carbon Dioxide build up on deeper dives, so parting with my main regulator was going to be a tear….my secondary was the first reg I’d ever bought and it had served me well, the Scubapro R190 was rugged and functional, it had been with me for over 4 years and never let me down, I trusted it, even though it was a basic “no-frills” reg. However, I had been offered the chance to dive Poseidon Jetstream’s when I was in the Falklands, Don had negotiated a significant discount for the expedition divers, from Poseidon, and had bought a full team’s worth with Army funding, he trusted the regs having been into technical diving for several years now, he wanted regs he knew and could service whilst we were isolated from anything other than self-support on the distant Southern Ocean Islands
The idea was that whoever wanted the regs after the expedition, could buy them from the expedition and the remainder would stay with the Army Sub Aqua Diving Association (ASADA), under the care and stewardship of Mal Strickland and Jimmy Dowling. I had struggled a bit at first with the Jetstreams, being a 45’ side vent the diaphragm could, in the right current, lift a little and lead to a wet-breathe, which I wasn’t used to and at first did not like one bit, but over the weeks we spent there I’d persevered and they had grown on me, and on deeper dives they were sweeter than my Spiro, which came as a shock. There was another advantage, the Cyklon had a very different “feel” being a completely different shape to any other reg I’d seen, ideal for distinguishing high Oxygen mix from a travel gas should my diving ever get beyond basic Nitrox diving, into longer decompression phases, or dare I say it Tri-Mix……the ultimate Devil’s Gas
So I took the plunge, I bought a Jetstream and a Cyklon off the expedition when I finally parted company with the Army in June of 1996. It had been 13 years since I’d joined the T.A at Grace Rd in Liverpool, it had been 9 years since I had enlisted in the regular army, and I knew I was going to miss it, this was a kind of leaving present to myself, one I could not have afforded in any normal circumstance, well perhaps could not have justified at least, but I now owned two of the best (and most expensive) regulators of the day. It stands as a tribute to the design and durability of the Poseidon regs, that I am still using them today, and I will keep using them until I’m gone or my diving comes to an end, it goes to show, not everything you like immediately is good enough to keep, and not everything you don’t immediately take to won’t end up being your favourite “go-to”
As my Nitrox diving gradually took over from air diving and I began to want to spend longer underwater, (perhaps as a result of the experience of foreign dive trips and distinctly warmer waters), I took my advanced Nitrox course in May of ’97 and in August of that same year took my first Red Sea live-aboard, with a couple of the divers I had trained through Deep Blue Diving. The months leading up to the Red Sea trip were all Nitrox and I knew I would eventually take on the IANTD Instructor course with Don Shirley. Don had taken his Instructor Trainer course and I was hoping to be his first Instructor Student, I knew that would lead to more kit purchases, but if I could teach another level of diving, then I could justify the expense with the additional students
I needed more Gas, I had looked at a reasonable transition and decided on buying 2 of the 7L 300 Bar cylinders, the idea being I could use them with adaptor bands on the Buddy Commando stab jacket, (I was now diving the Commando “TD” the “Tech” version of the jacket with additional lift and a set of D Rings placed strategically to clip deco cylinders and DSMB’s) with the 3L pony as deco, that meant I could extend my depth or my duration accordingly, pumped to 300bar the smaller steel 7’s would have the same gas as twin 12L cylinders at 232 bar, give or take 600L or thereabouts….. Once I’d got enough funding together I would buy a wing and move to twin “manifolded” 12L cylinders, at that point the 7L 300 bar cylinders would become my “travel” and “Deco” side slungs, that was the plan. I have to say, the twin bands worked ok, the jacket held up with the twin 7L set-up and I dived it for a while until I could make the cash available, through the Deep Blue business, to buy an OMS wing, I was lucky, Don was upgrading his and was happy to pass it on to me at a “mates rates” price, I was delighted, all I needed now was an isolation manifold and the job was done
Did all of this mean I gave up on air diving, hell no, I was teaching PADI courses all week, I still dived air on a regular basis, I still used my Commando TD almost every week and I still used my Spiro Arctic and my Scubapro R190. What it did mean is that I had become a better diver, not because I used Nitrox, but because IANTD took their diver training seriously, very seriously. This was the first time I had ever been asked to fully exhale and then fin after my buddy (given a 5m head start), attract his attention, calmly, and then commence air-sharing……. This, and the level of planning and preparation drilled into you for the use of Nitrox and decompression mixes, meant you applied the same rigor to the courses you taught and the students on them. I had initially balanced my military instruction approach for trainees, and softened my presentations somewhat accordingly, IANTD tempered that with a deeper understanding of diving, underpinning the messages of the PADI courses and giving me the unshakable belief in teaching and accepting only high standards, I would work with students relentlessly until their demonstrations were as good as my own, it meant I “back-coursed” quite a few trainees, but I believe it made a difference
I have dived this set-up now for Twenty Years, I have never tired of it, the rig fits like a glove, every piece is where it should be for me, is it the best rig possible….for me it is, I have tweaked it over the years, playing with positioning and hose runs, lengthening hoses, changing the position of the cylinders up and down the wing for trim, but it is how I dive, and how I want it to be….are there better set-ups, probably, for other divers…..could I improve it, perhaps, and I continue to try….but the bottom line is, this set-up works for me and I love it
