STEVE WARREN joins MIKE WARD this month for our new-look twoman divEr Tests. Steve has some fresh ideas for testing BCs, while Mike tries out a versatile suit and some unusual picture-editing software
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO MASTER precision buoyancy control and enjoy safer diving, it helps to own your own BC. The reasons have less to do with the BCs themselves than with the human factor.
While some BCs are, as successive DIVER Tests have revealed over the decades, better than others, it’s discomfort and unfamiliarity with rental BCs that can prove most problematic.
We don’t dive as well as we could or enjoy our dives as much as we should when we’re distracted by an uncomfortable BC. Unfamiliarity with controls can make us slow to react to emerging problems, such as failing to stop a descent beyond our safe depth with nitrox or preventing a runaway ascent, allowing problems to become emergencies.
So how do you choose a good BC for yourself? It needs only to be comfortable, provide stability and have trustworthy safety features.
TUSA’s description of its BC0102 Soverin Alpha piles superlatives on top of jargon. Everything it says promises a superb BC, and every feature seems to have a hi-tec slogan to prove it. The “Advanced Weight Loading System” is outdone only by the “Ultimate Stabilising Harness”.
But how does this BC, aimed at single-cylinder recreational divers, measure up to TUSA’s claims? As DIVER’s new Technical Editor, I’m a little embarrassed. A fault-free review looks bad and smacks of foul play and partiality. So let me start by saying that I didn’t much care for the manual.
We won’t be diving with the manual, however, so let’s quickly move on to see how the BC fared.
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Esta historia es de la edición October 2017 de Diver.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Appointment with Dr Anemone
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The Wreck Of The Zenobia: Disneyland For Divers
The Zenobia is one of those wrecks most divers have heard of, even if they haven’t dived it, but what is that makes some return to Cyprus year after year to revisit the site? DAVID BAKER, Chairman of Richmond Sub Aqua Club, has been asking around
Well And Truly Tested
MIKE WARD does the honours as a new Apeks regulator hoves into view – and for the rest, it’s all a matter of shedding light, with new products from Mares and Weefine
Man Jailed For First- Time Diver's Lake Death
THE OWNER OF A WELSH online company that sold golf balls retrieved from lakes has been jailed for 32 months for manslaughter, following the diving death of an employee.
God's Pocket
This coldwater Pacific classic can create dilemmas for photographers, says MARK B HATTER, torn between tiny rockfish and huge ‘GPOs’ in British Columbia.
In The Glassy Ripples
Tonga is a place of myths and traditions, and until 1978 whales were welcomed there only as food. Now things have taken a very different turn, as JENNY STOCK, only slightly hampered by her wetsuit, relates.
Baby Diver
Father-to-be HENLEY SPIERS decided that he needed a better understanding of diving and pregnancy.
Sumbawa
It’s alway good to feel that you might be ahead of the pack – we often hear about Bali and Lombok on one hand, and Komodo and Flores on the other, but what lies in between? JOHN LIDDIARD finds out.
Nudi GB
When you get your eye in you realise that colourful sea-slugs are not confined to the tropics – southeastern Scotland, for example, can also be a happy hunting-ground for macro enthusiasts. RICHARD ASPINALL drops into the Scottish Nudibranch Festival
Early Learning With Alligators-That's So Sick
The arrival of children can change divers’ lives – you don’t know if they will share your passion as they grow up or – inadvertently – stifle yours. So CHARLIE OLDFIELD went through a range of emotions when son Dylan announced that he wanted to dive…