Review Diving the Avelo System

[inquis]

We only add 2lbs or water at a time.

If you're neutral with a 5mm suit after taking on 2 lbs of water, you would be quite negative without that suit. Purging that 2 lbs doesn't fix the problem, and you've said there's no lead to remove.

I'm greatly appreciative that an Avelo instructor has offered their insights, and I'm hopeful that you can resolve my confusion. What changes must be made to use this wearing board shorts instead of a 5mm wetsuit?

 

[We are Osea]

I'm really not offended at all. I get it actually. I'm on Oahu so it was an easy trip to go to Maui to try Avelo out for myself. I would have never gone at all except one of my DMCs started working for Avelo as the VP of Operations. She's helping them bring Avelo to market. Michele kept telling me I had to try this. I was dubious. It looked gimmicky and frankly I love my xDeep Zen. I couldn't imagine needing or wanting Avelo. But I went over and drank the koolaid. I was the 17th person worldwide certified on Avelo and became the 5th Instructor. Like a lot of Avelo Divers I prefer diving Avelo over standard scuba. It's a more sublime experience. As an instructor I love that my divers have no inflate button to press and hold!

I know there's a lot of chatter about using Avelo for Sidemount and Tech. To the best of my limited knowledge Avelo isn't working on this. I expect some of the Avelo Dive Centers may be playing with configurations but honestly I have no idea. That said I think it would be easier to do this with a twin set rather than side mount. Going side mount would require a pump for each tank or very careful management of PSI. If you exceed 4350 in a tank you will almost certainly get an uncontrolled free flow of the regs. The limitation on PSI for Avelo is not the tanks. It is our regs. Until someone develops or adapts a reg set for higher PSIs we're limited to 300 bar. If that happened going Sidemount with a single pump and battery would be a matter of hose routing. Actually I wonder about that. Would running the pump to 4 tanks simultaneously cause all pumps to see similar PSI increases or would the low tank get more of the ballast? Lots of questions.

Finally, I didn't think I thought that much about buoyancy until I didn't need to. Currently I frequently switch between Avelo and standard. I log 10-12 dives a week. Going back to standard after a couple of days on Avelo is disturbing and increasingly annoying. I heard this from other Avelo Instructors and now get it.

Will the system increase safety while teaching new divers?
In the single tank, tourist dive industry we get many individuals, that's only trying it out.
Could you take a DSD out and teach them enough to deal with this system?
Is it easy for the instructor to control the gear?

 

[scubadada]

Will the system increase safety while teaching new divers?
In the single tank, tourist dive industry we get many individuals, that's only trying it out.
Could you take a DSD out and teach them enough to deal with this system?
Is it easy for the instructor to control the gear?

My wife and I took the Recreational Avelo Diver (RAD) course with Dive Friends on Bonaire last December. My review is the initial post in this thread. At that time, Open Water certification was required to take the RAD course. Some of the Avelo course skills really require OW skills to be able to safely and adequately execute them. The mid-water doff and don is one example. Two additional guided dives after the RAD were required to independently rent Avelo gear. We did that and rented Avelo gear for 3 independent Avelo system dives.

It appears that Avelo certification is not currently configured for initial scuba certification and does not appear to be applicable to Discover Scube Diving activities. There is additional information on the Avelo website and/or you can contact them with questions.

 

[lowwall]

Will the system increase safety while teaching new divers?
In the single tank, tourist dive industry we get many individuals, that's only trying it out.
Could you take a DSD out and teach them enough to deal with this system?
Is it easy for the instructor to control the gear?

You can't use it to teach OW or a DSD because the current standards require use of a "buoyancy control device with low-pressure inflator".

Also the minimal available positive surface buoyancy make it ill suited for teaching in general.

 

[EdMcNeill09]

If you're neutral with a 5mm suit after taking on 2 lbs of water, you would be quite negative without that suit. Purging that 2 lbs doesn't fix the problem, and you've said there's no lead to remove.

I'm greatly appreciative that an Avelo instructor has offered their insights, and I'm hopeful that you can resolve my confusion. What changes must be made to use this wearing board shorts instead of a 5mm wetsuit?

I could opt for the 8 liter tank if I was in board shorts or add a buoyancy pad if needed. Buoyancy pads are generally used for much smaller divers who need 1-2 lbs extra buoyancy. So far I've only had one diver who needed this. It's uncommon. I suspect the rumored next generation tank which is rumored to be significantly lighter will resolve this.

 

[scubadada]

I could opt for the 8 liter tank if I was in board shorts or add a buoyancy pad if needed. Buoyancy pads are generally used for much smaller divers who need 1-2 lbs extra buoyancy. So far I've only had one diver who needed this. It's uncommon. I suspect the rumored next generation tank which is rumored to be significantly lighter will resolve this.

Our instructor in Bonaire was a petite woman. She used an 8 liter tank and a buoyancy pad.

 

[EdMcNeill09]

My wife and I took the Recreational Avelo Diver (RAD) course with Dive Friends on Bonaire last December. My review is the initial post in this thread. At that time, Open Water certification was required to take the RAD course. Some of the Avelo course skills really require OW skills to be able to safely and adequately execute them. The mid-water doff and don is one example. Two additional guided dives after the RAD were required to independently rent Avelo gear. We did that and rented Avelo gear for 3 independent Avelo system dives.

It appears that Avelo certification is not currently configured for initial scuba certification and does not appear to be applicable to Discover Scube Diving activities. There is additional information on the Avelo website and/or you can contact them with questions.

This is currently correct. At this time Avelo is only available as a Specialty for Certified Divers. Avelo is trying to become a Certification Agency. When that happens we will be able to teach OW and conduct DSDs for non certified divers.

Doing a DSD on Avelo will be a dream. I expect the same 3 skills will be required. It will be very similar to PADI DSDs but probably with a smaller ratio. Something like a max of 2 students per diver. It will be a better experience for the student and the instructor as there is very little buoyancy issue to worry about.

 

[EdMcNeill09]

Will the system increase safety while teaching new divers?
In the single tank, tourist dive industry we get many individuals, that's only trying it out.
Could you take a DSD out and teach them enough to deal with this system?
Is it easy for the instructor to control the gear?

Avelo is safer than standard scuba. There are fewer things that can go wrong and if something goes wrong it is a slowly developing problem and easy to manage. On standard scuba a problem can be an emergency. Having seen a shoulder dump valve blow off a divers bcd at 70' I can assure you that this does happen. Not often but it happens. And it's urgent. A more common scenario is a self inflating bcd. This can also get ugly fast.

For a DSD the biggest issue is how well they can swim. If they can swim well they will have an amazing experience providing their mask fits well and they are comfortable with their skills.

 

[lowwall]

This is currently correct. At this time Avelo is only available as a Specialty for Certified Divers. Avelo is trying to become a Certification Agency. When that happens we will be able to teach OW and conduct DSDs for non certified divers.

Anybody can declare themselves a certification agency. The problem is getting insurance. Especially if the whole purpose of creating the agency is because your product can't meet the WRSTC standard because it doesn't use a low pressure inflator to modify buoyancy.

Please note I'm not saying this makes the product unsafe. The intent of the standard is for the student to have a method other than manual inflation for modifying buoyancy. Avelo does have this, but it's by adding or removing ballast water from a tank instead of gas from a wing.

Doing a DSD on Avelo will be a dream. I expect the same 3 skills will be required. It will be very similar to PADI DSDs but probably with a smaller ratio. Something like a max of 2 students per diver. It will be a better experience for the student and the instructor as there is very little buoyancy issue to worry about.

I agree it will be better underwater. But what are you going to do on the surface with only a pound or two of positive buoyancy available and students who may have no snorkeling skills?

This would be attempting to reverse the history of scuba instruction. Once instruction was formalized, the rudimentary buoyancy control devices of the day required a lengthy period of snorkeling and watermanship skills practice before the tanks and regs were handed out. It was the invention of the stab jacket that allowed all of that to be eventually dispensed with. This was because with a jacket BCD, students could just hold down the inflator button until they became little buoys serenely floating with their heads well out of the water. No swimming skills required.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

At this time Avelo is only available as a Specialty for Certified Divers. Avelo is trying to become a Certification Agency. When that happens we will be able to teach OW and conduct DSDs for non certified divers.

That makes it a hard sell. There's absolutely no way many divers are going to shell out money to take a course of something that simplifies buoyancy on a single tank. It has to be a throw and go solution.