Last week off Comox BC

I did a few dives up in BC last week. 3 cave dives waaaay up north by Port McNeil, a shore dive at Madrona Point off Parksville, the wreck of the Capilano by Savary Island, and the wreck of the Scepter Squamish off Comox. I took this video with my CSI cam on my X which is a less than TV perfect tool. Basically its silly light sensitive and I need my HID to see yet the cam itself gets washed out by that much light. I'm still working on getting this balance down along with overall cam stability (its on the nose of my scooter). Anyway this video is of the Scepter Squamish which was a work barge with various deck machinery and winches along with a tracked crane - all of which sank in 1986. Noteworthy are the pretty large cloud sponges you can see in several frames, many divers consider those to be "slow growing" and a sponge of that size might be interpreted as being "hundreds" of years old. Obviously that is not the case for this site. There are also an unbelievable number of lingcod and some very nice adult yelloweye rockfish. Its a fun wreck with the sand at about 180ft so we got 30mins on the bottom.



Nadwidny (on the KISS rebreather in the video) should have some cave footage edited up soon that I can cross post. Yes we dove a mixed team on the wrecks :shocked2: But on the other hand he had more bailout than we had rockbottom so it was all good.

That is a lot of Ling.
What kind of light was the BM diver holding at about the 3 minute mark? Very bright.

I don't know what all those lings are eating, small rockfish it seems since there weren't any! KMD has a 21W HID with a video reflector. Same basic light as mine (which has no video reflector) I think it probably seems brighter due to the camera's sensitivity. Its hard to recalibrate your eye underwater to get the right amount of light without blowing out the video, I edited out most of the footage where my HID beam was anywhere near the camera's field of view.

Yes, that wreck seems to be CARPETED in lings, which makes finding the GPO a little surprising . . . I don't think I've ever seen a GPO tucked into a wreck before (except for under the Honey Bear, which is a bit different).

TSandM:

Yes, that wreck seems to be CARPETED in lings, which makes finding the GPO a little surprising . . . I don't think I've ever seen a GPO tucked into a wreck before (except for under the Honey Bear, which is a bit different).

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We saw one tucked under a ledge of the Triumph (I think) at Edmonds ....

Thanks for sharing, Richard. Nadwidny, why so many slinged bottles with your rebreather? Is it to get over the rockbottom?

Slamfire:

Nadwidny, why so many slinged bottles with your rebreather? Is it to get over the rockbottom?

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That's an 80 of bottom mix and 2x 40s of deco mix (EAN50 and 100%). Does that seem like alot to you for a 180ft dive with roughly 50mins of deep stops & deco?

rjack321:

That's an 80 of bottom mix and 2x 40s of deco mix (EAN50 and 100%). Does that seem like alot to you for a 180ft dive with roughly 50mins of deep stops & deco?

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With that particular rebreather, I don't know. That's why I'm asking. I'm not very familiar with rebreather protocols. I thought that some rebreathers allowed you to have a variable custom mix that changes with your depth. I would have thought that this flexibility provided by rebreathers would allow you to carry less bottles, not more than OC divers. The OC divers are using three gases, why then does the rebreather diver carry 3 slinged gases plus the rebreather. I'm not judging or pointing fingers. I honestly want to learn about how and why people do their thing.

Slamfire:

Thanks for sharing, Richard. Nadwidny, why so many slinged bottles with your rebreather? Is it to get over the rockbottom?

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If something happens to my RB then I have to bail out to open circuit and I plan for that. So one 80 of bottom gas, one 40 of 50% and one of O2.

Don't forget also the 80 is not just my gas, it is also my buddies' if they have a problem.

Slamfire:

With that particular rebreather, I don't know. That's why I'm asking. I'm not very familiar with rebreather protocols. I thought that some rebreathers allowed you to have a variable custom mix that changes with your depth. I would have thought that this flexibility provided by rebreathers would allow you to carry less bottles, not more than OC divers. The OC divers are using three gases, why then does the rebreather diver carry 3 slinged gases plus the rebreather. I'm not judging or pointing fingers. I honestly want to learn about how and why people do their thing.

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Yes the CCR is mixing up his selected ppO2 on the fly but when it goes kapooy he needs to bailout out to a reasonable ppO2 on the bottom - potentially as deep at 180ft. Then still complete his deco obligation on OC, hence the 2 deco gases. Someone probably <could> bailout to an 80 of a richer bottom mix like 21/35 and then ascend all the way a modest deco gas like EAN80 @30ft and then hang at 30-20ft for a long time completing their deco obligation. So its not like 3 bottles are absolutely required I'm pretty sure 2 bottle bailout is a possiblity although it might be a little skimpy depending on SAC rate and how fast your able to get off the bottom and ascending to your first stops.

But he was diving with us, and us DIR goobers use EAN50 and O2 for a dive like this. So it made sense for him to bring the same deco gases as we were using plus something he could bailout to on the bottom. Net = 3 bottles. Thus if he had to bail out to OC he could follow our deco schedule and we could stay together. E.g. if he had EAN80 for some reason he'd be hanging at 30ft while I would need to get up to 20ft for O2. I'm certainly not going to leave a CCR diver on his bailout alone at that point, too many things have already gone wrong.