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     I received my CF200 last month and was unable to try it out in the pool 
due a trip to Florida. Last weekend, I joined 35 other divers aboard the 
Vision in Santa Barbara for a dive trip to Santa Cruz and San Miguel Islands   (
Channel Islands). I took along my Monterey wet suit as a backup. My dive buddy 
was Jan Shaw from Seattle who normally wears a dry suit. I tried out the CF200 
in 50 deg F water at Santa Cruz, first without weights or scuba. After 
determining the proper weighting ( had to add just 6 pounds) under Jan's 
supervision, I tried scuba in shallow water. Major success! When I decended I 
tried to trim my bouyancy with my BC and Jan slapped my hands (underwater) and 
gurgled and pointed to the inflator button on the CF200. I found that I could 
easily control my bouyancy with the dry suit. Afterwards, I only used the BC 
at the surface. In three days we did 13 dives. We had 50' visibility at San 
Miguel and the highlight of the trip was running into a 15' long purple 
jellyfish with a 2.5' diameter bell (medusa) when extended. Fortunately I had 
just brought the Niknos V with a 20mm wide angle lens plus my video camera. 
The beautiful creature was 'photographed and videoed to death'. On the next 
dive we had a 15 minute encounter with a playful sea lion who liked to look 
into camera lenses and blow puffs of air bubbles. Life is but a dream.
     I was impressed with the CF200 eventhough I wore only sweat pants and a 
sweat shirt in addition to wet suit booties. When my budget allows, I will buy 
the proper underwear. Fortunately, my earlier training in heavy gear (Mark V) 
at Santa Barbara City College had trained me to use dry suits so I wasn't a 
neophyte. Many people on the Vision were impressed with the CF200 but not the 


                                                     Norman Thomas
                                                     UC-LLNL
                                                     L-350 P.O.Box 808
                                                     7000 East Ave.B235R1027
                                                     Livermore,CA 94551
                                                     (510) 422-0486
                                                     Email: norman@cm*.ll*.go*

retail price. I think there may be a few more sales in spite of the price!

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