Posts by Dan

I've never heard of those specifications, sounds like manufacturer mumbo jumbo to me. The carbon fiber fabric I know is specified in #K and #g/m² twill or plain.

Nice mangrove. Did the other side of his face look worse? <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">

What does semi-private wreck mean?

Chuck, there is no way to know which card is real so brand names don't mean much and I can't recommend anything. Other than the general recommendation to buy from a reputable vendor who will stand behind the product if there's a problem. If I were to sell cards I'd make sure they're good and compatible.

I agree with Harry too, it was well said. I do appreciated Terry's efforts and believe the FRV may save someone's life.

X 2 on Pinncacle Studio 14. Great program.

Holy crap that's a scary thought.

Nice footage Was it shot with the flat lens because some of it wasn't very focused?

This post is intended to inform those who are not aware of the SD memory card problem. I'm talking specifically about SD (Secure Digital) cards because that's what the Gopro and another camera that I own require, but I'm sure the problem is not restricted to this type of memory card.

Not only Gopro camera users but digital camera users in general are usually on the lookout for good deals on high capacity memory cards. High capacity nowadays is 16GB and 32GB. If you find such memory cards on ebay for example, at a price that's too good to be true, you're probably going to be ripped off. This is not exclusive to ebay though, fake cards are circulating everywhere and even find their way into reputable stores in your area. They look exactly the same as the real deal, but all it takes is a paper label.

When talking about a fake card what we usually refer to is the storage capacity being less than what is stated for the card. In the case of the Gopro camera you should also be aware that cards don't necessarily need to have fake storage capacity to cause problems. It's also a question of card quality which is designated as class. Class refers to the minimum read and write speeds that a particular card is capable of, which need to be high when the camera is writing large amounts of data as in the case of high definition video. A table showing minimum read and write speeds per class:

Consequently the Gopro requires a class 4 or higher memory card. So a problematic card is also fake because while the storage capacity (designated in GB) may be correct, it may be labeled as class 4 but the actual read/write speeds are less than what a class 4 card should have. Using a card like this in a Gopro can really mess up the camera, although never permanently. The symptoms of an incompatible card due to lower read write speeds may be mild with the video footage being slightly distorted at times. In more severe cases the camera will freeze, and you will not be able to turn it off or on until you remove the card and battery, put the battery back and then turn on the camera, sometimes with a good card inserted and sometimes without any card. The freezing problem can also be caused by a card that's simply bad/not usable at all. Here is a program called Crystal Disk Mark that you can download and use free, which will test and report your card's read and write speeds.

Cards with fake storage capacity. To make a fake large capacity 16GB or 32GB card any size card can be used, even one as small as 128MB. Such a fake card is not as easy to spot as plugging it into your computer, clicking on properties and seeing what the storage capacity is. What happens with these fake cards is that the fraudsters mess with the card's programing, so that when your computer reads the card it will tell you the fake storage capacity. This programming can't be simply undone by something like formatting the card, and is difficult for the typical user to ascertain.

Often the fraudsters will use a higher capacity card, like a 2GB or even 4GB to make the fake card. Doing this is particularly devious and damaging. The reason for it is that a camera user will often not pass the 4GB mark until some time has passed since the card purchase. Up to 4GB the card will work fine. When the user does pass the 4GB mark the camera will keep on filming, except the data will not be stored. It will be visible in the card as large files, but when trying to view the video it will not play and will say the file is corrupted. In this way users who thought they were getting footage, possibly of something very important, will end up with nothing, and spend a lot of time trying to understand what is going wrong with their camera. The buyer also would've already given irreversible positive feedback to whoever they bought the card from shortly after receiving it. This is why in these fraudulent ebay vendor's feedback you see many satisfied customers and only a few people complaining.

I learned all this the hard way buying a bunch of cards. I thought I was getting a regular deal because I was buying wholesale, but I got ripped off too. I first determined a problem when I tested the card by transferring a large file to it, in this case a DVD just over 4GB. When the card wouldn't hold the data I started to research online for tools that will show me the true capacity of the card. There are a few little utility programs available that will test the card's storage capacity. But the test takes time which I didn't want to spend. I just wanted to revert the card to it's true capacity if possible, to make it usable; so that when the card is full the camera will stop filming and the data will be saved. I did find a simple to use program that will do just that without it being necessary to test the card. DISCLAIMER - I haven't used this program with a healthy high capacity card, so I don't know how it will affect it, although I think it should be fine. If you have problem card you've got nothing to lose. In a few easy steps this program restored %90 of the 16GB and 32GB cards I had to their true capacity which turned out to be 3.3GB. The other %10 of the cards became completely unusable, but they were probably unusable to begin with as I never tested them. The program is HP Drive Key Boot Utility and is free to download and use. The procedure to restore a card after the program is installed on your computer is:

1. Insert card into your card reader.
2. Start HP Drive Key Boot Utility
3. Click next
4. Select the drive the card is in and click next.
5. Select "Create new or replace existing configuration" and click next.
6. Select "Hard Drive" and click next.
7. Select "Create new filesystem" and click next.
8. Let the program work. When it's done and the interface changes to "HP firmware flash package" close the program.
9. Find the card's drive in My Computer, right click on it, and select format from the menu.
10. in the format menu it should already show the card's new true capacity, FAT32 should be selected as the file system, and default allocation size. Select quick format and click start.

That's it, it all takes one minute and the card will be formatted and ready to use with whatever smaller capacity it has.

This is exactly the reason I like to go diving only with guys who I know are experienced.

Ironic that Hypnautical talks about safety and at same time loads and fires the speargun out of the water.

BTW it's vultures not vulchers.

I was reading a review on it by Bill Mac and thought I'd start a thread about the FRV here.

Quote from Bill McIntyre

Back in February, I was fortunate to get a ride on Terry Maas's boat to try out his prototype FRV. I got to see it inflate all the different ways it can inflate and got generally familiar with the menus and buttons, but this week I finally got my own in the mail. Today was the first time I went spearfishing with it, so I thought I'd relate some first impressions.

I realize that they damn things are expensive as hell. I realize that some people just wouldn't want to be bothered or may not think its "pure" to wear such a thing. I'm not trying to convince anyone. I'm simply telling what it was like diving with it in order to provide information to anyone who is curious. I'll be making some comparisons to my D3 since that is my frame of reference for the display features, but obviously the D3 doesn't inflate anything.

The FRV arrived Monday. The users manual is a 45 minute DVD, and I spent a lot of time in front of the computer following the instructions for use. Its all pretty easy after you spend some time with it, but its not something that you should take out of the box and jump in the water with.

At my first stop today, I decided to go in the water without the vest just to establish a sort of baseline in terms of how I felt diving. Then at the next stop I wore the vest to see if I could tell any difference in terms of drag, etc.

I can't possibly mention all the features, but I need to mention the basics for those not familiar with the vest. It lets you set trigger depth and trigger time. If you exceed either one on a dive, it inflates and gives you a rapid trip to the surface where it leaves you on your back looking at the sky. You need to give some thought to your selections.

At that first stop, my longest dives were 1:07. You can adjust trigger time in increments of 5 seconds. It didn't make much sense to set 1:10 since just a slight improvement would interrupt my dive. Setting 2 minutes would not be appropriate for obvious reasons. So I selected 1:15. You can change the trigger any time you are on the surface, but not during a dive. If my dives had started getting longer (or shorter) then I could have changed the trigger appropriately.

Then I had to select a trigger depth. The water was 45 feet deep and I wanted to be able to get to the bottom if a fish wrapped up, so I set the trigger at 50 feet. In effect, it wasn't going to be a factor in this situation.

The 0.7 cubic foot air bottle holds 3000 psi full. Mine had 2400 psi. As I scrolled down through depths, the display told me how much lift I would have at each depth. The fully inflated vest has 43 pounds of lift. At my selected depth of 50 feet and with the pressure I had, it told me I would have 37 pounds of lift. That is a hell of a lot more than a Carter float. I would imagine that if I had a good grip on a white sea bass that was wrapped up in kelp, the vest would rip the line out of the kelp. Oops- that brings up another way it can inflate in addition to exceeding the triggers. You can push a certain button sequence on the wrist console and direct it to inflate.

I could tell it was on my back, but I really can't say I could detect any drag. My dives felt normal. Terry says that if bubbles are a concern (and they are for white sea bass), then the first few feet of the dive should be vertical to let all the bubbles out. I often dive at a shallow angle when I'm not going deep, so I had to take care to start out vertical.

The console is a lot bigger than a D3, and it shows a lot of information. You can see your surface interval, tank pressure, water temperature, and depth and time of last dive without toggling between presentations. The surface interval numbers are huge compared to the D3. The last dive numbers seem to be slightly smaller, but I could still read them without my bifocals. If you want to know the time of day, you have to push a button, then push it again to go back to the surface display.

When you dive, it goes into dive mode automatically, and the present depth and time numbers are huge, much bigger than on the D3.

I was worried about the thing being a pain in the ass to don and doff. It is one more thing to put on, but it wasn't that big a deal, and you guys who haven't had surgery on your shoulders should find it very easy. I'm not sure what I'll do moving from spot to spot. I suspect I'll just keep it on and sit in the helm chair for short moves, and take it off for longer moves. I guess I'll have to see where the break point is between short and long.

So far I'm glad I bought it. I suppose you could say that I got to age 72 without one, so why now? But you only have one life to give, and I'd like to dive at least until 82 if I can. And while the instructions emphasize that its not a replacement for a buddy, I'm like most CA divers. The only time I have a buddy close by is if I have a fish hung up. It might be a strain for a buddy to help me at 55 feet if I needed it, so hopefully this will make me much easier to help if it ever comes to that.

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The review is good. I think the FRV is a great idea and kudos to Terry Maas for bringing it to the freediving community. Me personally I don't think I'll be using it, and it doesn't have to do with the cost. I think it's because I just don't want to deal with another piece of gear. Also as in any situation where you relegate responsibility to a machine, there are things that can go wrong. One situation I envision is being tangled at depth in some way, and needing to reach down to free yourself at the very end of your breathhold. If you had any kind of chance of success, and the vest deploys at this moment, you're toast.

Looks like the older Spetton grand Pacific. If it is indeed like it, I've handled it and it's too big and bulky for my taste. I'm sure it shoots good though.

A timeless spearfishing classic; Extreme Underwater Hunting with the legend Antoine Berry, at the oil rigs off the coast of Gabon Africa. While the taking of sharks and giant grouper may appear unsporting to the uninitiated, the risks to the unaided freediving spearfisher are very real. This is another aspect of spearfishing that few of us will ever get to experience. Many fish species other than grouper and shark are taken in this video. All fish were for local consumption.

Available from www.FreediveStore.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGSP-FrA8Ms

LOL

Welcome to the forum.

Didn't you try the Pathos f/p when you were here?

Bill, I'd love to see the video.

What's stopping the rubbers from popping off the rollers?

That's actually ET (enclosed track) not EF.

Congrats on the new gun. Please post back about how the finish holds up.

Good story Adrian, glad you had a fun trip.

Yes they can, good wishbone material here http://freedivingspearfishingg…es/116-wishbone-line.html

The notches may have to be smoothed out.