Of course I do. Shut up already and take my money!
Jokes aside, going closed is a big decision, with ramifications that are not obvious at the time the decision is made. As a result, quite a few folks who take the training and maybe even buy a unit end up reverting to open circuit, thousands of [insert currency unit] in the hole.
To avoid such frustration, it is worth doing some research into the actual prerequisites, beyond mere agency standards, for making the transition to closed circuit a rewarding endeavor.
For this article in Alert Diver, I interviewed six renowned and prolific instructors to learn what it takes to become – and remain – a CCR diver.
Those who have dived with me know how highly I value scooters (DPVs) as tools to enhance both the fun the safety of technical diving. The Suex XJ-S I purchased a couple years ago continues to be one of my favorite pieces of kit.
Yet as with any powerful tool, improper use can get you in trouble in new and possibly unanticipated ways. Here’s my take on the matter for Alert DIver.
Coming back safely from an ocean dive is more than a question of personal dive skills and a prudent approach to decompression. After surfacing, there is one more step: getting picked up by a boat. It sucks when that doesn’t happen.
From basics like DSMBs and good coordination with the crew all the way to personal locator beacons and other electronic communication devices, here is my review of ways and means to make sure you will be back home in time for dinner.
I had to read this out loud: “A revolutionary advancement in underwater propulsion meticulously engineered for exceptional performance and versatility.” Well, well, well. What might this marketing blurb be about? A fully autonomous, fusion-powered nuclear submarine captained by a sentient AI maybe?
No? Hold on, we’re talking about scuba fins! Really? By Halcyon? Tell me more!.
I will do exactly that, in a minute. But first, a DISCLAIMER: This is not a paid review. I have no business affiliation with Halcyon Dive Systems.All opinions expressed are my own, to the extent I am able to accurately express them.
Context
All right, so Halcyon Dive systems has released a new fin – its first. To me, this is interesting for a number of reasons.
As a brand affiliated with Global Underwater Explorers (GUE), Halcyon is laser focused on the technical diving market – a demanding community of divers who, in their majority, have used heavy rubber Scubapro Jet Fins (or their various clones and derivatives) for decades.
For these divers, Jet-type fins deliver everything they need – a stiff, wide blade for frog kicks and precision maneuvering, and negative buoyancy to help with trim in a drysuit.
Arguably, Jet Fins are so prevalent in tech and cave diving that finning technique as taught in courses has been built around them. Jets are simple, relatively cheap, virtually indestructible, and they do the job.
Jet Fins have their disadvantages though: The foot pocket design clearly predates the discovery of ergonomics, and if your feet are too small to wear sizes XL and above – true for most female divers – you’re stuck with a disproportionately small blade that makes pushing multiple cylinders through the water a lot of work.
For use in a wetsuit, many divers find them too negative to easily maintain good trim, thus necessitating a second, lighter pair of fins for warm-water dives. In the technical diving world however, Jet Fins are ubiquitous, and have been for a long time.
Given Halcyon’s focus on this very market, it stands to reason that any fin released by Halcyon has to at least match the performance of Jet Fins in a drysuit. This is the context in which I am reviewing the Vector Pro fins.
First impression
Halcyon took to the challenge with an unusual design: a retro-futuristic looking, thin blade made of stiff monoprene, wide at the root and tapering toward the tip. The foot pocket comes in three sizes, with a steel spring strap that is adjustable in 8 steps. With these sizing options, virtually any diver should be able to find a pair that fits.
So far, so interesting. The truly novel feature of the Vector Pro fins however is that their buoyancy can be adjusted using removable metal weight plugs, to make the fins more suitable for diving in a wetsuit. According to Halcyon at least, this should make the Vector Pros the one-stop shop for all your propulsion needs, regardless of the diver’s physical size and equipment configuration.
All this however comes with a price tag of about $400 in the US – easily twice the going market rate for a pair of good quality kickers, and not exactly what you’d call an impulse purchase.
Testing
A few days ago, courtesy of GUE instructor Jimmy Choo from Singapore, I had a chance to take the Vector Pros for a spin on a 75-minute decompression dive. I was in a drysuit with a light undergarment using double Al80s and a single deco stage. I used the exact same weighting as I do with my Jets.
And boy, was I surprised. The Vector Pros are really, really good.
First off, the foot pocket feels great. These fins attach to the whole of your foot, not just the front half, as Jet Fins tend to do.
Even with the ballast in, the Vectors weigh less than my Jets. Combined with the weight distribution being biased toward the diver’s feet – the weight slots are near the foot pocket – this makes the Vectors feel almost like you’re not wearing fins at all. I even found it a bit confusing during the first few minutes of the dive.
My initial confusion quickly gave way to joy when I realized that despite their light weight and agility, the buoyancy of the Vectors is about the same as that of my significantly heavier (but also more voluminous) Jet Fins. Power-wise, they need not shy comparison either. These fins deliver an impressive amount of propulsion with all types of kicks.
In a nutshell:, the Vectors do everything Jet Fins do, but with less effort. In terms of the benchmark I set in the introduction, they pass the test with flying colors.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to try these fins in a wetsuit. However, I think it’s safe to assume that removing one or both of the weight plugs will have the desired effect on the fins’ buoyancy characteristics.
Conclusion
Scuba fins are relatively simple objects, and as such difficult to improve. As a working diver, I keep seeing the same handful of makes and models being used by divers from all over the world, with little change over the years.
When innovations are made, they tend to be a little gimmicky. Split fins and spring-loaded models, such as Scubapro’s Seawing range, cater to recreational divers who mostly flutter or scissor kick. More radical designs like Force Fins require divers to completely change their technique, which makes them a niche product at best.
Not so the Vector Pros. To my mind at least, Halcyon has accomplished something remarkable with these fins: They took a product that was simple and good to begin with and made it better without sacrificing any of the simplicity.
Whether or not the difference in performance is worth the hefty price tag remains of course up to the individual. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a pair of Vector Pros in my crate – better is the enemy of good, after all.
With this, I would ask you to excuse me – I have to go and find 400 dollars in the crack of someone else’s sofa.
In the first part, I shared a personal close-call story and gave a brief overview of the carbon dioxide metabolism in the human body.
In the second part, we examined the mechanics of carbon dioxide generation and elimination, the complications introduced by depth and dive equipment, as well as the deeply unpleasant and potentially devastating effects of hypercapnia.
In the third and final part, I’m talking about ways and means at our disposal to prevent the kind of problems we spent the first two parts seeking to understand, avoid common mistakes, and become better and safer divers overall.
Excess carbon dioxide can be a source of danger at any level of diving, yet it is barely mentioned in course curricula. Here is part two of my three-part mini series for Alert Diver on the subject, in which I get into the nuts and bolts of how carbon dioxide affects us, and the special considerations we need to take into account when diving.
At last year’s RF4, Dr. David Doolette dropped a few remarks about how Bühlmann with gradient factors might not be the be-all and end-all of decompression models when it comes to very deep and long technical and cave dives. He encouraged divers to look into the US Navy’s Thalmann algorithm.
Here’s my piece for GUE’s InDepth magazine explaining what this is all about – an interesting variation on traditional Haldanean models that has been around since the 1980s, more or less ignored by the civilian dive community. Buckle up for some theory!
Carbon dioxide buildup is a common contributor to diving emergencies. In this first part of a three-part series for Alert Diver (EU), I’m sharing a personal experience and take a brief look at the metabolism of carbon dioxide in the human body.
Part two will focus on how the carbon dioxide metabolism is affected by diving, and what makes hypercapnia – excess CO2 in the bloodstream – so dangerous.
Part three will focus on countermeasures – skills and procedures to keep our CO2 load in check.
My latest piece for Global Underwater Explorers magazine InDepth is an interview with Mike Winters, a US military veteran with a habit of volunteering for hyperbaric chamber experiments. As a consequence of this habit, he has more experience with, umm, let’s call it physiologically challenging breathing gas compositions than pretty much anybody else. He is also a great storyteller.
Special thanks are owed to my friend Dr. Rachel Lance for the introduction.
Caffeine has played a key role in the creation of this article. If you like what you read (or feel that it needs more caffeine), please consider adding fuel to the fire: https://bmc.link/timblmk
Tim Blömeke 