Tag Archives: SCUBAPRO

If you ever think you want some excitement, come to Extreme Sports Scuba, especially on a Wednesday, and see what crazy things we’re up to…. I truthfully should leave it at that to keep from incriminating ourselves… or else… sometimes there are pictures that speak for themselves…

If you’re looking at this picture and wondering… WHAT. ON. EARTH. is she doing?… well I’m so glad that is the thought that went through your head!

As you may or may not know, there was a trip to Cozumel this week and I may have been trying to decide if I could hide in Deb or Grady’s suitcase so I could go. Hey I’d have bought them some clothes when we got there, and paid the overweight baggage fee… but sadly as you can see, I can’t quite fit into the SCUBAPRO Caravan Bag.

Okay, the top question for today… Can you guess what SCUBAPRO Product I’m discussing today? If you guessed the Caravan Bag, you would be correct! By the way, I’m 5’7” tall and most of that is legs, in case you are wondering if you can fit in the bag as well.

SCUBAPRO Caravan Bag

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Now… I sure hope you remembered yesterday was Valentine’s Day or else you might be out in the cold with your significant other. Just saying….. But if you’re out in the cold, just remember, today is a new day. Yesterday I attended a beautiful wedding. It truly was gorgeous and on the day of love, what more could you ask for? I even made cookies for it. It’s kind of become my new thing… decorating sugar cookies. I was watching a video the other day that was showing a lot of techniques that I already knew, and one was called the spider’s web. It was pretty cool, even if you don’t like spiders… no one says you have to put a spider in the web, it could be used many many other ways.

Okay, okay, I’ll quit with the sugar cookie talk this early in the day, although maybe it’s late in the day if you’re reading this late in the day… just saying… and I say that a lot… just saying. Haha. Anyway… So you didn’t come here for my twisted sense of humor or to learn about my new hobby, what you did come here to see was the latest piece of equipment we’re going to discuss. Now, the question is, can I tie any of the upper in with this piece of equipment and I just want to share that, yes, yes I can. How you ask? Well today’s piece of equipment is the Mantis M2. Mantis… you know there is a spider called a Praying Mantis, right? Oh, gotcha! Your welcome. Now on to learning about the Mantis M2. (and yes I shake my head in disbelief every time I manage to do that….)

Mantis M2 with Transmitter (or without, say you already have one…)

The M2 Dive Computer is an Air Integrated dive computer. Now what’s the difference between air integrated dive computers and dive computers that are not air integrated? With an air integrated dive computer, the computer can calculate your remaining bottom time (RBT) based off of current air consumption rate. That is a handy thing to know because it gives you extended bottom times as it recalculates based off of air consumption rates and depth. So as we learned in the diver interviews, Dive Like Mike if you have to, there’s no shame in that!

When SCUBAPRO developed this dive computer, they created the Human Factor Diving™ component. Okay, okay, so what is that? The Human Factor Diving™ is an exclusive SCUBAPRO approach to equipment design that combines Human Factors and Ergonomics, Bio-metrics, and Wearable Technology. Laymen’s terms please. Okay, so basically it was designed for the interaction between products and the people who wear them, the science of measuring and analyzing a human’s make up, and making gear to be worn on the body. Through the combination of these things, a person gets “real-time” tracking reports on you body both at surface level and while diving at any depth. How cool is that?

This wrist style dive computer is marketed as the go-anywhere, do anything, “intelligent” personal dive computer.

This personal dive computer was created with you in mind. It uses “intelligent” abilities to monitor your personal data during workloads to maximize your operational efficiency while alerting you to over-stimulation to help avoid potential problems before they escalate into major issues.

This stylish dive computer that mounts to your wrist like a watch is loaded with surface features as well as dive features. This includes hoseless air integration, electronic navigation, plus the Human Factor Diving™ features.

The casing, or outside, is made of the highest marine-grade 316L stainless steel. The attractively machined bezel ring features engraved button labels and decorative hash marks. Wait a minute… what is a bezel ring? Good question!! A Bezel setting is a type of elevated collar that wraps the faceplate completely in metal edging.

Then there is a black inner face ring on the display which enables the mode indicators to stand out for easy reading adding a pleasing contrast to the LCD screen. On the outside of the watch are four metal control buttons allowing for easy navigation through menu’s. Each button is assembled in a module using triple O-rings to allow for leak-proof reliability.

The “fun” in this watch is I mentioned it sits like a watch… well it’s the size of a large watch so you can wear it all day every day. For your 8-5 job, it keeps time like a day watch, but it is great for after-work activities and exercise as well. The altimeter and thermometer allow you to monitor upper elevations while hiking as well as a chronograph with lap memory which is great for the runner. Better yet, wear it in the pool to record swimming times, number of strokes, and even distance. It is also a reminder on your arm that you are in fact a diver… so at any minute, you’re ready to dive in to that lake or ocean and take a scenic tour.

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They tell me it is Wednesday. I think I must have lost a day, but if you haven’t noticed, a lot of people have been sick and something is going around. I might be one of the lucky ones who caught whatever is going around. It can leave now, thankyouverymuch. I wish I had words of wisdom or something to share with you, but today I have nothing.

So let’s dust the cobwebs off my brain and think of something small to talk about… or big… did you watch that Super Bowl game? Whether it turned out how you wanted or not, that was one heck of a game. Now that the Super Bowl is over though, people are talking about how it’s Officially Nascar season or it’s Officially Baseball season… but I see it as one step closer to being Officially Diving season, unless you’re Dan La Due. He dives year round and has since getting certified in August 2003. I’m sure if you want to dive with him this month, he’d be happy to have a tag along. And being as though it’s February, it might be cold… so maybe, just maybe you want an extra layer of protection, such as a SCUBAPRO Pyroflex Rash Guard. Just a thought.

SCUBAPRO says, “You can’t fully appreciate comfort until you try on one of these long sleeve rashies.”

I’m assuming “rashies” is a technical term…. Either way, the great thing about the Pyroflex Rash Guard is it provides thermal protection, for say those winter dives with Dan La Due. When it comes to thermal protection, nothing beats the use of neoprene. This rash guard provides maximum stretch and comfort, which provides insulation under water as well as above (But remember, “It’s called SCUBA diving, not SCUBA standing,” Dan La Due).

So what makes the Pyroflex Rash Guard different from other rash guards on the market? I’m so glad you asked. The Pyroflex is a 1.5mm long sleeve rash guard made from 100% pure neoprene. That means that not only does this particular rash guard provide protection from scrapes and stings, but it also provides that layer of thermal protection.

The Pyroflex Rash Guard is made with special water-repellent, high-stretch Everflex X-Foam neoprene on the outside and a combination of fleece and plush on the inside. This revolutionary design offers lots of warmth, comfort, and range of motion, ideal for diving tropical locations (say Cozumel) or even just pool training. Plus, as an added bonus, it dries quickly. Why is that ideal? Well remember, there is a weight limit when flying and a wet piece of dive gear weighs more than a dry piece of dive gear. If this piece of gear dries quickly, that gives you more room for other souvenirs. Just a thought.

The best part of a rash guard, especially of this caliber is they are great for dives as is, or layer for those colder water dives.

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Last Wednesday (January 25) I found out that January 23 was National Pie Day. Not Pi as in 3.14 but pie as in that thing that has a flakey crust with nice creamy filling or a lovely fruit filling or could even be a savory filling, pick your poison. No, wait, not a poisonous filling. Anyway moving on, that discovery led to over an hour of looking up dates and finding out what random “National Day” holiday each day was. So because I like to share new found wisdom, here are the dates you have to look forward to this next week, and you know our motto is “If there is food, they will come” so it is focused around food, but there were non-food things I found as well….

• Wednesday, February 1, National Baked Alaska Day
• Thursday, February 2, National Groundhog Day, but also National Heavenly Hash Day. 2 thoughts:
  • What is Heavenly Hash? I’m so glad you asked because I didn’t know either… It is a fruit salad that is also mixed with marshmallow or some version of that.
  • Second thought: Did you know that supposedly hotel rooms in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania are more expensive around Groundhog day then the rooms are in Houston, Texas for the Superbowl.I saw it on the internet and as we all know, if it’s on the internet it must be true.
• Friday, February 3, National Carrot Cake Day
• Saturday, February 4, National Homemade Soup Day
• Sunday, February 5, Superbowl Sunday (1^st Sunday of February) and World Nutella Day.
• Monday, February 6, National Frozen Yogurt Day
• Tuesday, February 7, National Fettuccine Alfredo Day

Now isn’t your life so much better off now that I have shared all that with you? Oh and one other one I want to point out, as we know, Grady owns Ed’s Electric. Grady’s Birthday, October 7^th, is National LED Light Day.

Anyway, there is no way to transition from that into today’s SCUBAPRO Product Feature, which is the X-TEK BC with Donut Wing other than… that is the BC that Grady dives with. Bam, I just did it. Now that you all got a good laugh at my expense, let’s learn about the:

X-TEK BC with Donut Wing.

The first thing I can tell you, if you go to the SCUBAPRO website you’ll notice that X-TEK has its own tab up in the menu options, right next to BC’s. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, that could be intimidating, but don’t let it scare you off, remember, I am here to help demystify all insecurities you might have in this gear… that… or scare you off with my opening statements. I’ll let you decide.

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Lights, Camera, Action. Lights out, parties over. Okay those are the only two I can come up with… so do you have any idea what I might be talking about today? If you guessed a light, you would be correct! If you are correct, would that mean you had that ah ha, light bulb moment? Just a thought. Let’s see how many more of these corny things I can come up with. Probably not many… But don’t think for one minute I’m not trying!

So lights… what can I tell you about flashlights? Why would you want to dive with a flashlight? Well because sometimes when you do the wrecks diving, the deep diving, or possibly even cave diving (sorry never done it so I’m just guessing at this point) you want to light things up so you know what you’re looking at. Bingo.

What light might I be discussing today, because there are quite a few out on the market? Well, let’s look at the Nova 720. This is a pretty slick little flashlight.

The outside of the Nova 720 is made from heavy-duty aluminum, which makes it lightweight but durable. The light head itself is equipped with the newest CREE XPL LED that makes it capable of pumping between 700 and 800 lumens of brilliant light. One of the coolest features I noticed is the fact you can run at 50% mode allowing more burn time if you don’t need full power mode.

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When going through your open water classes, you’ll learn there are two types of divers, those who admit to peeing in their wetsuits and those who say they don’t but secretly do. You’ll also learn that if you’re diving, never grab Grady’s hand… and if you didn’t learn that, here’s your warning. Poor Grady! You’ll also learn there are 3 types of suits for diving, wetsuits, semi-drysuits, and drysuits. Now, you can pee in your drysuit, but it is socially unacceptable. Just going to throw that out there. The beginning of this post brought to you by the letter P… lol.

Now that we have all of that established, let’s talk about drysuits. Fun work in to talking about drysuits, wasn’t it?

The Evertec LT Drysuit, Underwear, and Drysuit boots. You’ll notice there are three things listed here. There are three things required for drysuit diving. With a drysuit, you’ll always be dry (that is unless you wet yourself which we discussed above….), hence the name drysuit. The only part on your body that might be wet would be your face, hands, and possibly your head depending on the mask, gloves, and hood you dive with. Instead of a layer of water to help regulate your body temperature and more so keep you warm, a dry suit allows you to add or remove air to help regulate your body temperature. For this reason, you need to invest in underwear to go under your drysuit. Finally, there are special boots that are purchased for drysuit diving, they are, get this, different than wetsuit boots.

Now that we know the three components needed for drysuit diving, let’s break the three pieces down individually, shall we?

Evertec LT Drysuit.

• There is quite a bit of maintenance required for a drysuit.
• The zipper has to stay well lubed and clean.
• A drysuit is different to hang up than a wetsuit.
  • You have to invert them to get the water out if you get any water in them.
• Drysuits come with trim-able seals.
  • The trim-able seals allow for a better, more comfortable fit for the different divers who choose to dive in a drysuit.

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I had a dream last night, no not Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech. Mine was had, his was have, it’s clearly all about the semantics. But seriously, I had a dream last night. In my dream I was a new SCUBA diver. Maybe I had classes, maybe I hadn’t, I’m not really sure. I had all this fancy new gear and didn’t have a clue how to use it or what it was or even why I needed it, so maybe I hadn’t had classes yet. We’re going to hope I hadn’t had classes yet if I didn’t know any of the answers to those questions… That is kind of the point of these articles. To help take away some of the mystery of our diving gear. And while you may be an experienced diver, maybe you’ll learn something new or find a new really cool piece of gear you didn’t know about and want to try. There are endless possibilities for these posts. Now that we have a lead in, what on earth am I going to introduce you to today you might be asking… well… meet the…

Frameless Gorilla Mask

One of the first pieces of gear you’ll probably own is your own mask. The best recommendation I have for you is during your open water certification classes, try every mask in the box. If you see a fellow diver wearing a mask you’d like to try, ask them about it. More than likely they’ll even allow you to try it. It’s also not a bad thing to have more than one mask, just a side piece of information.

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