Technical Scuba Diving
Diving on deep wrecks can be very rewarding, but it can also very boring during deco. Sometimes you can do your decompression on a wall or reef that is nearby but that is not very often. Most often, you are just hanging around a down line or anchor line "watching the blue go by." For [...]
Given the storms this week, I figured there was no way I was going to get into a drysuit anytime soon. But then I got a call from central dispatch (aka the wife) about a search and recovery mission! The conditions at the San Pedro Buoy are pretty grim right now and calling for 11 [...]
Background There are two types of technical divers. Those who "tinker" with gear constantly and those that ... WELL, NEVER MIND, there is only one kind of technical diver.... This post will mainly be gear related, but don't worry, there will be some pretty pictures with fish at the end! I had a business / [...]
Diving and taking photos at the bell on the Typo wreck 180' deep in 40F water (Photo Credit: Mel Clark) Background Quite a few people have asked about the equipment needed to safely dive and photograph wrecks that are 200 feet deep in 38-40F water at the bottom and with reasonably long (75-90 minute) decompression [...]
(NB: experienced technical rebreather divers might find this post "boring" while beginning technical divers might find it interesting and provide you something possibly new to think about and non-divers will probably just frown and wonder what am I talking about). 🙂 I don't really know any technical divers who aren't also "gear hounds." I've lost [...]
Tyler recently "re-identified" the Corsair that we dove last October. While we cannot be 100% sure, we are pretty sure based on accident reports that the original team mis-identified it (newer accident reports were released in 2012). In the search for more clues, Tyler started reviewing the photos I had taken. The "version" of the [...]
Strobes are a useful (I would call them essential) tool for divers. I never conduct a dive without at least one strobe and I usually have 2-3 on a dive. I think of strobes as the proverbial "bread crumbs" to find your way home. I almost always put one on the "down line" to a [...]
I have 5 sets of rebreather tanks (4 x 3L steel, 1 x 2L carbon fiber) and two drysuit inflation bottles. They used to just be strewn all over the place, usually shoved under my workbench cabinets: Tanks, tanks, and more tanks Custom tank racks My brother's hobby is to build "stuff" out of wood, [...]
NB: For the non-divers who subscribe, we use the format of "XX / YY" to denote the gas in a tank whereby XX is the percentage of Oxygen (O2) and YY is the percentage of Helium (He) -- the remainder is assumed to be Nitrogen -- and we put stickers on our tanks with that [...]
On a whim, I entered the Marissa 2020 Photo Contest and I recently found out that I was the runner-up! https://www.facebook.com/MarissaCharters/photos/a.230572168441/10159356247963442/ I submitted three photos to the contest: Tyler @ Corsair EngineTBM AvengerUSS Hogan Drew Wilson, who I've done a lot of diving with in the past year, won the contest (Congrats, Drew!). He is [...]
Wrecked in my rEvo 