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The BSAC Diving Officers conference (DOC'94) was held in London over the
last weekend. Quite a few interesting bits of info for techdivers.
Bill Stone came over from the USA to give a report on the Cis-Lunar
rebreather Mk.4. Some interesting photos of early development of the Mk.1,
Mk.2
& Mk.3 Cis-Lunars. Also some nice slides taken inside Wakulla Springs & the
recent Mexico cave-diving expedition usink Mk. 4's. A nice video clip of
rebreathers in use polished off what was for me the best talk of the weekend.
Bill reminded us that 'Cis-Lunar UK' was up and running at Poole in
Dorset. 1-day intro courses are being held by Kevin Gurr/Jim Booth. Tel.
01202-670345 (international tel. 044-1202-670345) & fax 01202-667997 for anyone
interested. I'm going down to Poole early Jan to have a look @ the Mk.4
Cis-Lunar. I'll try & post the techdiver list-server with 1st impressions soon
afterwards. The restyled/modified Mk.5 unit should be available for sale
'early
in 1995' & costs about 8000 UK pounds.
Oceanic gave the first preview in the UK (I think) of a working
prototype of their 'Phibian' rebreather. The model displayed a fully-closed
system, using twin 3 litre cylinders, a single inhalation counter-lung and a 4
hour/6 hour scrubber. The whole system is back-mounted in a hard glass fibre
case & even as a prototype looked very compact and tidy. The final model will
undergo a lot of restyling & the computer-rendered pictures I was shown made it
look cosmetically very attractive.
The 'Phibian' is planned to be launched 'early in 1995'. A first
production run of 24 units is planned. 12 of these are for the USA and 12 for
the UK. These first units are not for resale, but will be availible for
instructional use. Oceanic are building/have built a heated 10m deep pool in
Devon, UK for all training on this side of the Atlantic. A similar facility is
(to be ?) located in California. *All* training will take place in one of these
2 facilities....so you may have some distance to travel to get your hands on
one (!).
The 'Phibian' will have *four* O2 analysers (!) to ensure 'fail-safe'
operation. It was claimed to be able to handle a entry of water into the
mouthpiece. It can be switched to semi-closed mode in the event of a complete
system failure & can also be switched to fully open circuit if needed. With
only a 3 litre cylinder of breathable diluent in the prototype model displayed
(the other 3 litre cylinder contains 100% O2), the open circuit option is not
going to last long at 70m !!(but maybe this option is available just to 'buy a
few minutes of time' to sort a problem out...?)
Like the Cis-Lunar rebreather, the Oceanic unit will include a constant
ppO2 computer to work out decompression schedules. The first models for sale
will be restricted to Nitrox-only and no-stop only diving. Once the diver has
logged a certain number of hours & dives like this, Oceanic can reprogram the
unit (once they have interrograted its computer & comfirmed the dives/hours)
for
decompression nitrox diving. Again after a sufficient number of dives/hours,
the unit can be reprogramed by Oceanic for heliox diving. The deep heliox unit
would be reconfigured to have two counterlungs, one for exhalation & one for
inhalation. By maintaining control over the type of diving that a 'Phibian'
owner is permitted to do, Oceanic can keep the British 'Health & Safety
Executive' happy and can ensure a safe, progressive build up in experience.
The price of the 'Phibian' was not revealed, but it should come in @
'less than 5000 UK pounds' & 'maybe around 3000 UK pounds'. Don't hold me to
this, but it's as good as I could get out of Oceanic.
I spoke to Peter Ready @ the DOC about updates on the 'Prism'
rebreather. He is joining forces with a major UK manufacturer & is planning to
release a restyled, updated version of the semi-closed 'Prism' rebreather
'early
in 95' He affirmed that the modular nature of the 'Prism' would enable it to
be
tailored to individual requirements and that it can be upgraded to
fully-closed,
mode if needed. I believe 1-day tryout courses using the 'Prism' are still
being
held. Peter is also offering follow-up courses for divers who have 'had a go'
on the 'Prism' and now want more experience using it, before commiting
themselves to a purchase. Any more details Peter ?
News of yet *another* British rebreather being developed was informally
given during conversations over the weekend. This will be a semi-closed unit,
suitable for open water recreational diving & is planned to be available in '18
months', ie summer '96.
Other items of interest at DOC'94...
- Having turned their backs on nitrox use, BSAC are now having another
look at the issue. They have a working party reporting next spring and are
presently surveying who is presently using nitrox in the UK.
Maurice Cross @ DDRC gave an excellent talk on 'invisible damage' in
nervous tissue from diving, where bends are *not* reported. A *sobering* talk
!!
My shoulder started to 'ache' after listening to his talk....and I haven't
even
been diving for a while ..!! :-) Seriously though, it's worrying to see
slides
of damaged nerve tissue in the eye and cortex and to be told that your own body
probably looks pretty much the same. No details given of the real effects of
this 'invisible damage' on the functionality of ones brain/eyes/body. Too soon
to tell. I guess.
Maurice also mentioned increasing recreational use of tri-mix & stressed
that using tri-mix didn't resolve long-term medical problems. It merely moves
them elsewhere. Bone necrosis in commercial divers (& some sport divers..!)
normally occurs @ the joints of bones when diving on air. Using tri-mix, this
problem moves to the 'middle' section of a particular bone.
Many decompression problems arriving @ DDRC are being substantially
helped by the use of oxygen before arrival in about 50% of cases. Use of
post-incident oxygen was a recent trend that was to be encouraged. However,
symptoms that 'go away' with the use of oxygen should still be taken to a
decompression chamber. One diver arriving @ DDRC had recieved a 'hit' in the
morning following a provocative dive. He took oxygen after the dive and the
symptoms dissapeared. He then went back in the water in the afternoon (!) and
got another bend...suprise, suprise !! Unfortunately the second 'hit' was
serious & resulted in partial paralysis, which has not been resolved by a
series
of recompressions.
Maurice ended on a 'high note' & told BSAC that in his opinion the most
positive trend to be occurring in diving practices that makes diving safer and
decompression illness less likely/serious, after the carrying of oxygen kits,
was the increasing use of Nitrox for diving. Let's hope that BSAC now 'see
some
sense' and bring nitrox diving 'under their umbrella'.
Buddy Ltd. have brought out a prototype of their tech-diver 'wings' for
evaluation. Cost = approx 380 UK pounds. It's a 2-bag system. The outer bag
is a non-expanding cordura cover. The pockets around the front are more like
those seen on a conventional 'stab' and are *much* better than those on my
Dive-Rite wings. The Buddy system has a hard backplate & used a double
cam-band
system to hold a set of twins.
That's about all I have time for. Anyone else @ DOC'94 can fill in the
gaps that I have left.
Safe diving.
Regards, Steve M.
**************************************************************************
* * *
* Dr. S. G. Millard, * E-Mail : ec96@li*.ac*.uk* *
* Senior Lecturer, * *
* Department of Civil Engineering * Tel : 051 794 5224 (UK) *
* University of Liverpool, * 44 51 794 5224 *
* PO Box 147, * (International) *
* Liverpool L69 3BX, * *
* UK. * Fax : 051 794 5218 (UK) *
* * 44 51 794 5218 *
* * (International) *
* * *
**************************************************************************
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