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Another Weekend [Almost] Gone

Another weekend is almost gone and I haven’t even completely recovered from the week that was. I wouldn’t have thought that things could be that mentally draining. Meetings, classes, papers, studying… they all take just a wee bit and then… BAM!… you’re tired.

Good thing I have nothing much to do during weekends. Or more accurately, I can get away with putting off many things that I should be doing during weekends. So rest I did in between reading Principles of Corporate Finance and watching Firefly. I feel I need more. The problem now is fitting it into the rest of the day.

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Zeagle Scout

The Zeagle Scout is a back inflation bouyance compensator (BC). With back inflation BCs, the inflating part of the BC is located only at the back. Because of this, you won’t experience squeeze as in jacket-style BCs when you fully inflate. As an added advantage, this configuration allows you to more easily keep a horizontal orientation underwater. This is the best position for minimizing drag when moving along.

In terms of features, the Scout has minimal padding at the back, simple quick release straps, two what could be called pockets along each hip, a dump valve, and the requisite inflator/deflator hose which also acts as a dump valve. The only “extras” would be the retractor bungees (which you can remove) and the integrated weight pockets (which are supposedly just trim weight pockets). It’s a minimalist BC. And guess what? It’s great!

The Scout is definitely not for everyone. Because of its light weight and compact size, it is probably good as a travel BC or as a BC for the minimalist diver. Probably the only more minimalist BC would be a backplate with wing system. Incidentally, the wing is removable and, I suspect, used with a backplate. Now that’s a future project :)

Rating: 4/5

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Apeks ATX50

The Apeks ATX50 is the descendant of the famous AT50 regulator favored by many advanced divers. But it is smaller and lighter. It has a pressure balanced system which reduces breathing effort at depth. It also has venturi control and cracking resistance control to adjust breathing performance to your taste. I tend to just put them all at the max setting, though. The only less-than-good thing about the ATX50 is the exhaust which is rather small and if you’re upright, delivers exhaust bubbles straight up your face. But then you won’t be staying upright most of the time, will you? ;)

Again, I haven’t used too many 2nd stage so I can’t say much except that it works and it works well :P I’m pretty happy with the it but I know of someone who isn’t. Your mileage may vary.

Rating: 5/5

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Apeks DS4

Since I seem to be on a scuba phase of my preoccupation cycle, I’ll post some scuba related reviews. I’ll start with the Apeks DS4. This 1st stage regulator is a no-nonsense device. It has a dry-sealed (DS) system which means it has a sealing outer diaphragm which transmits pressure over the primary diaphragm. The water doesn’t get in contact with internals and freeze things in cold water. It is also overbalanced. This means the deeper you get, slightly more pressure is delivered to the 2nd stage regulator. It has 4 medium-pressure ports, and 1 high-pressure port. It came with a DIN fitting so I needed a yoke adapter for using it with the tanks that are commonly available locally.

I haven’t really used too many other 1st stages so all I can say is that it works and it works well. The fact that many advanced divers recommend it is testament to its capabilities.

Rating: 5/5

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Advanced Open Water Diver

Just came back from Anilao. Went there for my PADI Advanced Open Water (AOW) Certification. I didn’t want to get this certification because I don’t think it has value for the money. The fact that people joke that PADI means Put Another Dollar In shows that my opinion is not baseless. But it is a necessary stepping stone for other certifications. So after almost 3 years and 42 dives, I finally and reluctantly decided to get the certification.

I told Ren about my decision and he hooked me up with a class. Unfortunately, he will be unavailable during the scheduled weekend so he referred me to Norman, another dive instructor from Scuba1. I’ve met Norman before during a dive so it was fine. I met up with him and some of my classmates friday night and we proceeded to Ocellaris (don’t go there!) in Anilao.

Advanced Open Water Certification is basically just supervised “advanced” dives. In my opinion, most (if not all) of these should be required basic skills for every diver. That’s why these days, they’re called experience dives. Some of these dives you probably have done already but you won’t get credit for those. You have to be taking an AOW class to get credit. So during the course of the weekend we dived and dived. The class did the following:

  1. Deep Dive
  2. Drift Dive
  3. Night Dive
  4. Underwater Navigation
  5. Search and Recovery
  6. Peak Performance Bouyancy

For the deep dive, we went to Dari Laut. We descended to 30m and explored the skeletal frame of a fishing boat on the site. I’ve done a deeper dive or two before so it was nothing new. Nevertheless, it was interesting because of the wreck.

For the drift dive, we went to Bahura. The current was not really strong enough to drift along with when. I’ved dived once or twice in stronger currents. Again, nothing new there.

For the night dive, the class went to Ocellaris’ house reef. This was the second most exciting dive as I’ve never dived at night before. The undersea environment looks different. And the bioluminiscent plankton are cool! Wave your hand and glowing lights follow in its wake.

The underwater navigation dive was also done at the house reef. I screwed up the navigation. Reviewing my compass navigation is definitely in order X-(

The search and recovery dive was also done at the house reef. This was the most exciting dive. The teams were allowed to plan and dive without a dive guide. My team defined a search area and did a patterned search of the area to no avail. It turned out that the item we were searching was not even in our search area. But even though we didn’t find the item, it was still a ground-breaking (water-breaking?) experience for me and, I suppose, also for everyone in the class.

For the final dive, the peak performance bouyancy dive, we scooted over to the house reef of nearby Vistamar where there’s another wreck: a fishing boat hull sitting at the edge of a sloping wall. We played around with our bouyancy while exploring both the wreck and the wall.

And that was that for becoming an advanced open water diver B-)