I saw a fascinating talk last night by Johan Olivier. The initial part covered his work with Nuno Gomez and some of the factors that come into play when doing dives over 300 meters. Little details like thermal protection - he couldn't use argon in the dry suit at depth because at those pressures, the body would absorb the gas throught the skin, and argon would then cause a significant narcosis. Also when blending gases, he used pure grades of gasses to mix with; not using air to blend as the trace levels of gasses usually ignored on the surface (eg argon @ 0.934%, CO2 @ 0.0314%, Neon, methane etc) at pressure would have a significant narcotic effect. All in all, a very interesting talk; If you get the chance to see it, I'd recommend you go.

Vid of Nuno in the water
Nuno pics
..and and article

In addition, Johan is closely involved with an auckland hyperbaric chamber. I'm going to follow up with him to get a SODS club 'dry dive' to 50m if possible....

In the 8th pic of the sequence someones wearing a pair of split fins-shock, horror,
So i'll hear no-more of the rubbish about split fins that's bandied about will i?

Buying split fins? Bit like buying pre-torn jeans

That diver was the only person the lose their life, and he was a support diver, suddenly a huge .1knot current came up from nowhere, and the split-fin diver was swept away to his death.

Your all simply jealous. If anyone has bothered to read any tests on fins you will find that split fins are often the highest scored for speed through the water.
But you won't like them or consider them because mr big nob or whatever doesn't use them

Sheep, the lot of ya.

Baa.

Tell yaaaa whaaaat Maaartin, You put on your splits and I will put on my Grintas and we shall see who has the best speed thru the water.

With my stick legs a sheep without fins would have more speed through the water.

How about you put on my split fins and i put on your things and then see who has the best speed through the water? Those things you wear would snap my legs in half. Horses for courses and all that, or sheep.

I'm only hassling mate, I've done a few in water tests, and found the total power output is about the same, but the 'rpm' is higher with the spilt fins.

So you can in Jill's car doing 3.1k rpm at 100kph or 1.3k in the Disco, the result is still the same. The difference is the amount of torque required, therefore having stick legs and spilt fins makes sense.. to me..anyway.

In the blackness of the lermy, having very low rpm fins is a good thing. Two light kicks, to escape is better than having to kick more to get out IMO.

Lucky i don't do wrecks then innit.

In all honesty i use split fins because of the lack of resistance they provide for my skinny legs. I have tried using 'real' fins but i get cramp constantly. I have stamina not strength.
Bloody hard work doing a helicopter turn in splits though.

As with a lot of things in diving-it's what you feel comfortable and confident with. Not what other people tell you you must use. I'm never going to be a serious tec diver-it's just not for me. It would take up too much time and effort. If your not suited to something then it's pointless trying to force the issue. I love my diving but i love diving the way that i feel comfortable with.
I much prefer the filling of cylinders, servicing gear and providing a good service for other divers to enjoy their diving. I'm really looking forward to finally getting our Nitrox system sorted out so i can spend hours being a nerdy geek and getting the mixes perfect. There's nothing as good as seeing you guys enjoy your diving knowing i've done all i can to make it safe and enjoyable.

Not with that attitude you aint!!!

Top man - so when's the next tech outing
We really need a Taravana day. No doubt about it

I'm planning a trip with a few of my techie mates on the 9/10th of August. You lot are more than welcome So far we've got 5 of us. Just book in through through Jill.
We'll be diving mix gases, but not super deep. 40max unless there is something to see down there

We would like to get you guys into Taravana. Also we reckon you'd like 12 fathom reef and the canyon. Recently we have discovered a few sites along the coast that are superb too. Not saying where they are-you'll have to dive with PKD to find out

Sadly (fortunately?) I'm away on holiday that weekend. I really hate turning down dive trips!

Bring it on! Just name a good date (when I'm not way on holiday!)