Yesterday's adventure/experiment with a group of Hawaii Skin Diver forum guys that I rounded up:
Video edited/ put together by my dive partner Derek... http://www.vimeo.com/13609237
A single plain self-clip by myself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kznqBQ3Ket4&hd=1
We learned a few things very quickly. By watching Tom's wreck head-butt we learned that we should always be watching where we're going. Derek quickly swam over in case Tom passed out. He hit pretty hard, but made it back up fine and was in good spirits about the whole thing. He just left my home a few minutes ago and doesn't seem to be any worse off. TCK learned that he has to stay on top of his ear clearing process since the sink phase is quite fast. The strangest incident actually involved Derek and how long it took him to sink through the first 20 feet. I thought he was never going to come down. 5mm two piece wetsuit will do that apparently. :shock:
Here's how this came to be:
Kurt Chambers (PFI and FII instructor and occasional dive partner), Derek and myself started talking about the possibility of using variable weights for spearfishing in excess of 150' about a month ago. Our biggest issue was how we would carry around a heavy piece of weight and line up our drops correctly from the surface. A boat would be too difficult and time-consuming to maneuver especially in any wind or current. A kayak would work, but could be a bit unstable, especially when loading and unloading the weight. None of our floats could carry the necessary weight.
I then noticed that kettlebells were on sale at Sporting Authority for 20 percent off and since it was the day after a payday, I was able to convince the wife to let me pick up a 25 pounder. I figured we'd come up with a weight transporting solution eventually.
At about the same time, HaoleHawaiiaz on HSD from Kauai contacted me through HSD PMs and hooked me up with a float that was developed by Metal Fabricator/Dive Master Harry Wood. Let me quote what Mr. Wood wrote me in an e-mail when I contacted him for further information on his product.
QuoteI was working on becoming a PADI instructor about seven years ago, however while on my way to working on my diving skills I took a rescue class, during the body recovery portion of the class where you recover a body at a depth of say 45 feet you bring the victim to the surface, begin CPR in the water and strip off all equipment of his and yours. We were using one of the typical dive floats which consisted of a nylon cover over an inner tube with a zipper in the top, we would unzip the zipper and put the victims and my weight pouches in it before we remove the BC for tow to shore. In the process after putting about 60 lbs of weight into the nylon covered inner tube the bottom seam split and out pouches went to the bottom. We all laughed about it in fact gave us another excuse to dive after the skill was completed. It was at that time I told my dive buddies I was going to build a platform that could hold the weight and give us a good hand grip for classes. I came into the shop and in one Saturday I built the first prototype, my dive buddies could not believe I could even weld let alone build something...
.... we spent 18 months built about 36 platforms each with slight modifications that made sense, what you are holding is a collaborative effort of dive masters, instructors, and dive buddies that gave input in the development process. We have been selling them now for a little over four years with about 500 world wide.
http://www.thediversplatform.com/index.htm
My take on this float: It's big, it floats a lot of gear and it doesn't flip at all. Is it going to replace my primary spearfishing Fox float? No - it has too much drag and is on the bulky side. Since I run a float line attached to my gun at all times, I need something that I can easily pull behind me without noticing it. The Divers Platform is ideal for spearos who like to anchor in one spot and spearfish around the area. You could pile up a fair amount of fish or even opihi in there and not worry much about a shark taking away your catch. Also good for chumming in blue-water. Just keep the chum in the float. Also can clip multiple guns/back up guns or polespears to the railings. For the opihi guys swimming along the cliffs in the ocean, the metal ring around the float will protect the air tube
What it really is PERFECT for would be free-diving specific events. Multiple divers can hold on to it, it can be anchored tightly for pull-downs and it can carry drinks/snacks for long training sessions. Finally there's the safety factor - I was able to lay across it to pull up the 25 pound kettlebell up a couple of times. Since us freedivers are pushing our limits, blackouts are part of the game. This will easily support a body should further revival work be required on somebody other than the simple "pat and blow" technique.
Great float, concept/idea, I love it. I'd post my own photos if I could, but I've exceeded my monthly bandwith on photobucket so here are a couple taken from their website.
-Paul
