Sales

Shortly after returning from Mexico I sold my CamOne infinity & accessories at a fair price via Taucher.net. While satisfied with the underwater footage I got out of it in the darkness of the caves, the image quality of sunny above land takes wasn't quite good enough for me to want to keep it for any experimental action shoots.

A month later I let go of my Dive Rite reels and a Beaver lift-bag. Figuring I could use a finger spool as safety, rent a primary reel whenever needed and having no use for the salvage bag.

This month I also sold off my precious TillyTec LED 2000 VIDEO, TillyTec LED 1000 and three Scubapro regulator sets, based upon the improbability of a dedicated dive trip in my near future.

Solo check dive in Aktun Ha

Went to Xibalba this morning to set up my gear. To my dismay my backup second stage, a Scubapro S550, is not functioning, despite having been serviced recently by Gerda's Dive Shop. Had to swap it with my R190, brought for stage diving. So much so for german Gründlichkeit. As you can imagine, I'm quite disappointed :o/

After lunch a taxi drove me to Aktun Ha, where to my surprise I got greeted by Miguel surfacing from a photo dive as I was about to splash in. Miguel was my cave guide four years ago. Small world indeed :o)

Friendly surface chat over, I took my time slowly diving around the shallow open water area, still clear of algae, just getting used to being underwater again with plenty of gear all over, before lining my way into the cavern zone to check my lights and also drop a little deeper to pressure check my two DiveBoxes. The original remained dry down to 18m, but the modified housing alas leaked, from the looks of it, through the hand-glued prototype lens :o(

At 4pm my driver picked me up again and brought me back to the dive center for 180 Pesos return, i.e. only 100 more than for mexicans.

Enlightened caveman?

Worn in these pictures: stainless steel backplate, harness, pouch with spare mask (not visible), pouch with arrows & cookies, small knife, safety reel, primary light source (TillyTec LED 1000 + Goodman handle + umbilical + Green Force Flexi II NiMH battery pack), two backup torches (TillyTec MPL 500 & 1500) and my video lighting setup (TillyTec LED 2000 VIDEO ×2 + Y-umbilical + TillyTec TT 3 NiMH battery pack). All together about 10kg of gear.

To be added: wings, double tanks, regulators, backup knife, mask, fins, wetsuit, primary reel and housed camera with armed tray.

Gerda's Dive Shop

Day trip to Gerda's Dive Shop in Munich in order to have my Scubapro regulators checked, serviced & tested and get myself a new pair of Aqualung booties (40€) compatible with my Mares Plana Avanti fins.


By train it takes about 2h15 one way from Sonthofen to München HBF (21€ return with a Bayern Ticket, allowing day long use of any public transportation method). Quite a journey actually, but I like to see the people in person to whom I trust my life sustaining scuba gear.

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UPDATE: Got an email from Gerda yesterday with a very detailed maintenance bill (238€) for servicing my regulators (two recreational sets, each consisting of one 1st stage, two 2nd stages, inflator hose & SPG; plus a third 1st stage with SPG). I paid immediately via online banking and today DHL promptly delivered everything at my door.

UPDATE: I'm in Mexico and my S550 second stage is not functioning!

UPDATE: Had my S550 checked by Marco from Scuba Price Tulum, who quickly found out that one of the two small O-rings on the white inner piston was damaged. Replacing it apparently solved the problem.

Bursts happen

About 12' into the dive, as I grabbed my SPG to check my remaining air pressure for the third time or so, it suddenly started to release a constant stream of bubbles. Miguel being right in front of me, I gave him the emergency signal, whereupon he immediately turned around, saw the problem and quickly shut off my left tank and thereby my back-up regulator with the failing SPG. After that we of course swam straight for the exit. Hadn't he been right there, I would of course have shut off the valve myself, though not quite as fast and I would most probably have silted up the tunnel in the process.

At first I thought my SPG had somehow just unscrewed itself from the HP hose, there was no doubt however once I took the SPG apart in the dive center: a piece had broken off from one of the two tiny O-rings! How? Old and/or not properly lubricated O-ring plus friction could be one explanation, but who knows.

One thing's sure though: That's already the third regulator related issue on this trip (2nd stage elbow O-ring failure, free-flowing 2nd stage and now SPG O-ring failure). And that right after having had my regulators serviced & checked by Tauchsport Manta in Munich. I guess they really didn't want to see me back again. Well, they won't.

UPDATE: Check out gear maintenance for even more troubling info.

Dive gear set-up

Set up & checked my dive gear at Xibalba, my base of operation for the next few weeks.


After two self-imposed acclimatization days, I'm looking very much forward to start diving tomorrow. Of course without camera at first, as I'll have more than enough at hand just getting back into cave diving mode, an already gear intensive art of submersion as it is. Plus I'd like to do some basic safety drills and skill rehearsal exercises before going for the big motion picture.

Basic cave diving gear

exposure protection

• swim trunks
  
• hooded vest , e.g. Camaro hooded Ice vest 2/4mm
  
• dive suit , e.g. Camaro Stingray 2x7mm
  
• booties
  
  abc
  
• mask , e.g. Cressi BigEyes
  
• fins , e.g. Mares Plano Avanti
  
  monitoring
  
• dive computer , e.g. Suunto Vyper
  
• dive watch , e.g. Citizen Promaster Aqualand
  
• wrist slate & pencil
  
  buoyancy device
  
• stainless-steel backplate & harness
  
• wings , e.g. standard single-bladder from DiveSystem
  
• pocket with spare mask
  
• pocket with arrows & cookies
  
• primary knife
  
• secondary Z-knife
  
  primary regulator
  
• 1st stage , e.g. Scubapro MK25AF
  
• 2nd stage on 2m hose , e.g. Scubapro S600
  
• wing inflator hose
  
  back-up regulator
  
• 1st stage , e.g. Scubapro MK25AF
  
• 2nd stage on standard hose , e.g. Scubapro S550
  
• SPG
  
  stage regulator if needed
  
• 1st stage , e.g. Scubapro MK2+
  
• 2nd stage on standard hose , e.g. Scubapro R390
  
• SPG on short hose
  
  primary dive light
  
• light-head , e.g. TillyTec HID 35
  
• umbilical cable
  
• battery , e.g. TillyTec TT 3
  
• goodman handle
  
  back-up dive lights
  
• torch #1 , e.g. TillyTec LED W30
  
• torch #2 , e.g. Tektite Expedition Star
  
  reels
  
• primary reel , e.g. large Dive Rite reel
  
• safety reel , e.g. small Dive Rite reel
  
• jump & gap spools|reels as needed , e.g. Oxycheq finger spool
  

My basic cave diving set-up, with just one safety reel and without stage, weighs approximately 17.5kg plus about 17kg per full 11l aluminum tank! With two primary lights, underwater camera, primary-, jump- & safety reel make that 21.5kg plus tanks.

Dive watch

When you have to send your watch to its manufacturer just to get its battery replaced, you know it's going to cost you time and money. Three weeks and 58€ to be precise, including pressure check.


A tick more than just a cool dive watch, Citizen's Promaster Aqualand also measures depth & water temperature and warns in case of rapid ascent, exceeded maximum depth or bottom time. While not quite as smart as an actual dive computer it's still a wise to have back-up.

Regulators

It took five weeks to get my three Scubapro regulator sets serviced by Tauchsport Manta in Munich, but now they're supposed to be as good as new... and that for 164€ only, quite a reasonable price actually for maintaining three first-stages, four second-stages and various hoses.


Not only that, they also pointed me to Foto-Video Sauter, where I finally found a 40.5mm UV filter (19.50€) and a flexible sun hood (12.50€) for my camcorder, both made in Germany by Heliopan.

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UPDATE: ¡Be warned! After several regulator related incidents, I'd never trust Tauchsport Manta to service my SCUBA gear ever again.

Dive computer

After switching on my Suunto Vyper dive computer to check its battery status, I got the long expected "low bat" warning. Not so surprisingly after 252 hours of computing under pressure during 259 dives, down to a maximum depth of 69.7m, since its purchase in April 2003. Not that I keep that tight of a record, it does that all by itself :o)


I've actually been keeping a spare battery kit (10€) since February 2006, not knowing when exactly it would demand more power. Replacing the 3V lithium CR2450 doesn't require any special tools or expertise, just a small screw driver and a bit of Fingerspitzengefühl.

Gear maintenance

Yearly pilgrimage to the nearest trustworthy diveshop in order to personally hand over my three Scubapro regulators for revision & maintenance, so as to be able to dive with a clear conscience later on.

When venturing deep into Yucatan's underworld, fresh air left far behind, it's not the time to doubt your life support gear and lose faith.

Google's search oracle pointed me to Munich, so that's where I went and found Tauchsport Manta, a small diveshop run by an elderly man, in whose hands I laid my trust. (DB Bayern day ticket: 19€)

Whereas most open water recreational divers already have a mouthful with just one set, as soon as you get technical, two sets are the basic minimum to get started. Add to that as many stages as required for the mission. In my case, at most one stage should probably do.

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UPDATE: Having lost all trust in Tauchsport Manta after several regulator related incidents, this year I went to Gerda's Dive shop.

Here's what Gerda's technician wrote in the maintenance bill:

Bemerkung zur Reparatur: Letzte Wartung wurde Fehlerhaft ausgeführt. Es wurden O-Ringe vertauscht und O-Ringe eingesetzt wo eigentlich Teflonscheiben hin gehören. Teilweise fehlten die O-Ringe und Teflonscheiben ganz. Sitzhalter 1. Stufe beschädigt durch falsches Werkzeug. Schraubverbindungen teilweise Lose.

In short, he confirmed my worst suspicions: Whoever checked my regulators last time can not possibly have been a professional. And that's phrasing it nicely, considering the supposed internal state of things: unfitting replacements, missing parts and damage due to the use of inappropriate tools... Luckily, I can still blog about it.

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