As we get nearer to our imminent departure (9th of June) the last few bits of kit are arriving and we are putting it all together. My brand new high end Scubapro kit arrived last week which is different to what I had been using.
They sent me and Ciaran a Back Plate, Wing and Harness with an integrated weight system along with their MK17 G260 Regulator with an environmentally sealed first stage. Basically a great regulator system for the cold water we will be dealing with in Greenland. I have recently learnt about a thing called 'Freeflow' which is caused by cold water temperatures and your regulator freezes in the open position and you lose your air at high speed.
This is one of our many concerns for cold water diving but these regulators from Scubapro are top class and hopefully will minimise that risk.
I had been using a BCD jacket courtesy of
Scubadive West and I was expecting the transition to the new system to be a challenge. Not so....I instantly liked as I can now dive without a weight belt and I feel much freer in the water. Big thanks to Andy Shears and all at
Scubapro.
I spent a very interesting evening at the National Aquatic Centre testing both my Canon 16-35mm and 14mm lenses. It was an evening run by the Ocean Divers Club and I basically plonked myself at the bottom of the pool with my camera and tripod photographing tiles. Very different diving in a light wetsuit and I ended up at the bottom of the pool with way too much lead in my pockets with a couple of drysuit fins that didn't work.
End result......I could barely get back to the surface with the tripod. BCD was popping with too much air!
Good to test the lenses and I am a bit further along in understanding how they perform behind a glass dome underwater.
Cillian pressure testing my O'Three drysuit at Scubadive West. As mentioned in a previous post (See below) we have 'P-Valves' attached to extend our dives. I thought I had a leak in the drysuyit but it turns out I wasn't closing the valve tight enough and a small amout of saltwater was leaking in through the valve.