We are now Official A.P. Valves (Buddy) stockists.

Today we picked up our stock of Buddy gear. We now have in stock a Buddy Commando BCD and a Buddy Tekwing.

We also have a Buddy DSMBC & DSMBCi delayed surface marker buoys. As well as a 25kg lift bag, a 65kg lift bag and a 65kg self sealing lift bag.

This brings our range of new boyancy compensators to three BCD's and three Wings. A small but encompassing range.

We also have over a dozen second hand BCD's in stock ranging in price from £50 to £80.

A couple of days at the beach, diving of course

We've had a few busy days, confined water one day then Open water 1 the next for one student. Open Water 2 & 3 for another and a Scuba discovery. The weather played ball, almost.

Tuesday was a little choppy in Falmouth so we headed to Newquay. Wednesday morning improved at Falmouth but we had to find the most sheltered spot for the scuba discovery. By late Wednesday, Falmouth Bay was calm, and hot.

Two excellent days of diving, it's what makes the job special.

No Landline yet but Boat steering works.

The phone engineer came today to connect up our new landline. Couldn't complete the task as the wires have been connected in the road and they need a road crew to access it. Wires to the building have been 'prooved' so they just need to connect the wires up in the road. That is good as we'll be in the sea for the next 2 days and no-one will be in all day.

While waiting for the phone engineer, between serving customers, I managed to get the boat steering together and adjusted.

Slowly getting there.

A.P.Valves and Buddy dive gear

In our continuing effort to find suppliers and be a little 'different' we have decided to stock some Buddy BCD's. We are starting off with a Buddy Commando -

I have been using my Buddy BCD for well over 10 years and have completed around 2,500 dives with it. It may be a bit faded now but still works well. About the Buddy Commando from the AP Valves website -
"The BUDDY Commando is probably the most famous BCD ever built

It was originally developed to meet the punishing demands of Navy SAR divers - and is still in service today. It subsequently took the sport and technical diving market by storm outselling its rivals for over 20 years

The new Commando retains the essential qualities and features on which this success is based – such as superior build, lift and surface support characteristics - and adds the new advantages offered by re::flex technology

Comfort & Fit

New element:: Comfort Fit System – adjustable to the finest degree at shoulders, waist and back plate. This removable harness offers the best tailored fit of any jacket on the market. It also takes the strain off the jacket and buoyancy cell greatly prolonging their product life

Anatomically contoured and padded throughout at shoulders, waist and back with open-cell fast draining material for rapid post-dive drying

Optional RRS – Rapid Release System Integrated Weights offers comfortable weighting taking the load off your back and hips
Unique high traction, stabilising cradle on the backpack eliminates tank roll and caters for the 2 common cylinder diameters. Can support up to 4 cylinders (with the Twinset and Ponyband upgrade options)

2 way adjustable chest strap – can be tightened left or right (to allow for dry-suit valve position for example) and is situated low enough on the chest to suit both men and women

 

Buoyancy Control & Safety

  2 rapid response Air Dump/over-pressure valves at kidney and shoulder with large easy-find pull-grips. The kidney grip is designed to float for easy location when diving head down while the shoulder grip is negatively buoyant and always to hand
Third shoulder exhaust/over-pressure valve built into the inflator assembly

Choice of high performance AP Emergency Breathing Valves: the new and improved balanced Auto Air (EN250 regulator standard) alternative air source/inflator or the superb AP200 power inflator

Optional lightweight aluminium 232 bar mini-cylinder for emergency breathing and buoyancy

Rapid Release System (RRS) – with Cargo Clips (included as standard and an alternative use of the RRS to the integrated weight option below)

RRS Integrated Weights Upgrade – The RRS is a unique and secure mechanical locking system (+ve lock with audible click). The weight pouches hold up to 10kg total (5kg each weight pouch) hard or soft lead and feature sturdy easy-grip release handles

Reflective silver piping offers enhanced diver visibility. It is PU encapsulated for hard-wearing longer life

Tank positioning and safety strap

Super Cam cylinder band grips the main cylinder with absolute security

 

Quality & Performance

   

The toughest Twin Bag construction ever made with our unique new 1000 denier Endura FX100 outer shell material and a PU airtight inner bladder so good it comes with a Lifetime Warranty on the HF welded seams
Patented Stud System construction protects the buoyancy bladder by transferring the main stresses to the tough outer shell. The system also allows rapid flow of air around the jacket allowing the diver to move freely underwater unhindered by trapped air pockets

Spacious Side Pockets securely sealed with chunky snag-free10mm Zips and long easy-grab zip-pullers. The pockets feature handy internal 35mm D rings and mesh gussets for rapid drainage
Super-strong 50mm side release catches at shoulders and waist for simple and rapid removal of kit with or without gloves
Ergonomic solid-grip BCD carry handle

Strobe or Snorkel attachment point at the shoulder
Foldaway mini-cylinder pouch at rear

Foldaway SMB pouch at rear
Foldaway hose runners for efficient equipment management

Unique Valve Protectors – a soft rubber base protects the airtight bladder from wear by the hard plastic fittings. Crucially, they also ensure that bladder material does not get sucked into the fitting and impede air flow. Other manufacturers leave this to chance - we remove the risk by design
Expandable gusset structure holds the bcd in a low profile body shape that will not flap around or create drag during the dive. It also ensures that the buoyancy cell expands away from the body minimising squeeze on inflation"
 
We will also be stocking the Buddy Tekwing -

An all round wing and harness, from the AP Valves website -

"The BUDDY Tekwing (27.44kg) is a fully customisable technical buoyancy control package with a wide range of optional features allowing you to configure the kit precisely to your needs.

Options include redundant buoyancy, weight integration, emergency breathing and buoyancy systems and multiple cylinder camming and side-mounting options

The Tekwing includes the new element ::backpack with all its advantages of comfort and fit.

The new backplate also features double cam band slots allowing you the option of fitting two sets of twin-set cam bands top and bottom. This cylinder cam setup will retain a twinset consisting of two independent cylinders (i.e. with separate first stages rather than a manifold) as firmly and rigidly as steel bands

BUDDY Super Cam webbing bands have the advantage over steel bands in that they are easier to pack for travel, require no tools to fit and are easily adjustable to suit other diameter cylinders"

As well as the two BCD's above we will be keeping their famous DSMBCi, delayed surface marker bouy with inflation bottle as well as a standard DSMB. Also a choice of lift bags, 25kg & 65kg lifting capacities.

Training and more training.

It's all starting to kick off already. Confined water completed on Sunday and now Open Water 1 today. Starting another confined tomorrow, then hopefully get all 3 students to Open Water 2 together.

So far this year 2 Rescue Divers completed and now continuing onto Dive Masters.

Diver Accident Responder Course

Diving Diseases Research Centre (DDRC) advertised a new course on Facebook, the Divers Accident Responders Course (DARC). It sounded interesting so we signed up. We chose the Saturday course rather than mothers day.

We arrived at DDRC around 8:45 and signed in. We attached our badges and joined the rest of the attendees for the introduction. The attendees were split into four groups, the four groups would rotate through four different areas (stations) covering different aspects of the course.

We were in the red group and started with a tour of the recompression facility and a dry dive. I have had a dry dive before and was more interested in the operation of the chamber, so stayed outside to watch. The rest of the group entered the chamber and were compressed down to 40m for 10 minutes, then decompressed with some deco stops. I watched the operation, which all seemed quite straightforward but there's always more going on rather than a few levers. After the dry dive we were shown the rest of the recompression chambers. Station one over.

A quick tea break and off to Station two, Basic Life Support. Most of our group had done some kind of BLS training before, it's always good to refresh and get a slightly different view of things. Our tutors for the section were from different backgrounds than ones I have had before, so the course was slightly different. It covered basic chest compressions and rescue breaths with some reference to Vinnie Jones and his 'Staying Alive' technique as seen on TV. The TV version is for the average person on the street with no BLS training, whereas we are told to give rescue breaths if we could. After a quick practice with some 'Little Annies' and the various oxygen administration setups, we were shown the Automatic External Defibrillators and their use. It's been five or six years since I last tried and AED, they are even easier to use now.

Lunch was then provided and what a good buffet it was.

Station three was recognising DCI, what it is, how it happens and then a 5 minute neuro exam for suspected DCI injuries. Again all very good and a slightly different version of the 5 minute neuro we have seen before.

Tea break and then station four. Station 4 was split between some case studies taken from the DDRC case files with some interesting information regarding surveys that had taken place by DDRC, and, an insight into the role of the Maritime and Coastgaurd Agency & Coast Gaurd. Both were very interesting and having taken part in some of DDRC's surveys it was good to see the results. Ken Bazeley, MCA national diving liaison officer, did a very interesting presentation that couldn't have been better on the subject.

So what did we learn from the weekend? For us, well lots of little bits of information from each station. The most significant would be the use of an AED on a boat like ours, it is usable knowing what to do, so a possible future investment. Another useful snippet was the use of personal Automatic Information Systems (AIS) locators. AIS has been compulsory on all vessels over 300 tons, it would tell any boats with a receiver what was around them. A new personal AIS would let any boat with a receiver within 4 miles know of that persons location, one of the units was rated to 60m. I can see these catching on with some divers who have been worried after seeing the film Open Water.

All together an excellent day and well worth the money. If you are a diver, do this course.

Cylinder testing commenced.

Today we started testing cylinders. It'll take a while befre we get into full swing, finding the right place to put all the test kit. We are not yet IDEST accredited, under HSE regulations we do not need to be IDEST accredited. HSE legislation states qualified or experienced, which we are both. We will become IDEST accredited once everything is running smoothly.

Boat Steering assembly problems.

Switching from Yamaha engine to Mariner engines should have been relatively simple, or so I thought. If it was a single engine, no problem, but, as there are two engines it has raised a problem.
Where the connecting rod attaches to the engines it is fouling the lower shroud. There is no way it will fit in there, so we need so brackets made up. Luckily the other boat in our organisation has twin engines that have had the same problem. So what we need fabricated are two brackets like :-

To fit our engines here :-

Calling Vinnie, your services are needed.