Inner Space
2006
WOW! Patti and
I just returned from
Group photo with the 3 signed dive flags from the 3
years of Inner Space. This was much
easier to organize than the underwater flag planting the 2 years prior.
How it came about is of little consequence, however, what
goes on there is of much interest, judging by the number of participants who
came to dive, dive, dive, swap stories, try out different manufacturers
equipment and listen to presentations from industry professionals. The final count was 55 divers. The crew of the resort and the dive shop had
their hands full, filling cylinders, running boats, counting divers, cooking
the food and organizing. Speaking of
organizing…the crew did a great job, I was paying attention and my fills were
prompt, and precise, if the tag said 10/50 then the analyzer read out within 1
% of that on every fill, and usually within .5%. Nice job!
I breathed a lot of 10/50 in one week, as well as used a bit of
scrubber. There were 2 grades of
granules available as well as plenty of Micropore Extendaire cartridges for the
units that used them. The deep divers
had 2 stages filled also, with whatever mix you required. The predominant setup was 10/50 as back gas
(diluent) and 15/45 as deep bailout in a 40cf or 63cf stage cylinder and a
cylinder of EANx 50 for a deco gas in another stage of 40 or 63cf. A few divers had custom mixes set up for some
deeper diving, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.
150 feet down and dropping fast onto the Carrie Lee…
The
Carrie Lee sits on the bottom with her stern in the sand at 210 fsw and her bow
hanging over the wall as if contemplating a slide into oblivion.
One of the greatest things about this type of event is
the terrific people you get to meet. I
already knew about half the folks who attended, but when I left, I felt like I
was friends with everyone. We all shared
stories of diving, where we live, our families, the gear we used and what we saw
daily in the clear warm waters of the Caribbean.
Kevin Gurr prepares to strap a few curious divers into
his Ouroboros for a pool demo, including yours truly.
Every evening, after dinner, we were treated to one or
two presentations by folks in a CCR related industry. Mike Fowler, of Silent Diving Systems
presented information on the AP Rebreathers, the Inspiration and Evolution as
well as a nice rundown on the Vision electronics package. SDS also provided some nice prizes including
a dive computer, for the last day award ceremony. I had two presentations to give, one for
Innerspace Systems Corporation, the manufacturer of the Megalodon CCR and
another for my own company TMIShop.com.
My ISC presentation included the past, present and future of CCR products,
design and technology and my second was demonstrating the content of my web
page and products. Jeff Gourley of Dive
Rite showed us the O2ptima CCR and even went diving on it, when he finally woke
up, usually in the afternoon. : ) Kevin Gurr provided plenty of really nice Delta
P branded clothing and a brand spanking new, fully optioned out VR3 for the
giveaway (won by Jason Houle, lucky guy).
Kevin also showed us a slide show featuring some really neat projects he
has been involved in, including a trip to the Titanic aboard a MIR Russian
submarine. Kim Smith of Jetsam and Alan
Studley, Jetsam’s North Americas Sales manager, demonstrated the Classic and
Sport KISS CCR’s. Tom and Doug McKenna
of Micropore shared with us their solid CO2 absorbent technology bundled into
the Extendaire cartridge system and its future in the diving world. (Doug and his charming wife KC also showed
off Gage, the newest diver in the family, who was definitely the hit of the show! Rumor has it that Gage was conceived at
Innerspace 05, but he was neither confirming nor denying the rumor.)
Doug
and Gage McKenna.
Tomar Gross and Larry Shreve of Bubble Seekers showed
us the soon to be released Titan recreational eCCR which uses the Extendaire
scrubber system and Shearwater Research electronics. The unit had some problems during the week
but still saw quite a bit of underwater time.
Look for an article on the Titan on at www.tmishop.com.
Bruce
Partridge of SRI showed us his new dive computer and CCR controller, the
Shearwater GF, to be available soon. He
and wife Lynn were also sporting some nifty stand alone HUD systems.
Bill and Jill, newly engaged, doing a sharing air
exercise at stingray city. Notice the
hoses making a bit of a heart shape?
The diving was nothing short of spectacular and anyone
who have dived the
Rebreathers on hand were from Jetsam, with 1 KISS
Classic and 6 Sport units in attendance.
ISC had 5 Megs and 2 mini-Megs, SDS had 10 evo's and 14 inspirations,
there were 2 Ouroboros’s present, 4 O2ptimas around and one Titan. People were from all over with most from the
The amenities were great, rooms were clean and towels
were everywhere, great for drying off or keeping the hot UV off of your spendy
gear. Security was hired for night
patrol and we all left our gear out on the benches overnight, that was a nice
touch. Meals were included except for
one evening where most of us went out to sample the local fare, including
Pappagallos or the Calypso Grill, both having excellent food but with prices to
match.
There were 4 boat trips per day, two first thing in
the AM and again in the early afternoon and they were split up into experience
and depth. One boat was for the OC
divers and one for recreational CCR divers, another for normoxic CCR and one
for hypoxic trimix divers. Run times
were allowed up to 3 hours from the boats and whatever you could stand from
shore, check in and out at the dive shop was highly recommended. No Australian rules here!
ATATude loads up for the morning dive.
The two boats, TenAta and ATAtude spent lots of time
motoring to and from dive sites and hanging at mooring lines, only resting at
night. Shore diving was wide open for
anytime, day or night, from the dock at Cobalt Coast or with a short drive over
to Divetech’s other shop at Turtle Reef. (Turtle Reef is getting a bit of a
makeover, with a new outdoor bar and restaurant over the dive shop.) Anything
you needed or wanted was available for the asking. There was even a trip to
Patti and her dive buddy Psycho.
Jamie Verghagan of Toronto,
Getting to Cayman from the Pacific Northwest is quite
a trip, we flew from Portland, to Houston, to Miami and then on to Grand
Cayman, nearly missing two of our 3 flights, due to major hassles from American
Airlines (wont book with them again), the total time was around 12 hours,
getting back was better as we were on Delta this time and they had it
together. Its impossible to pack light
when you have 2 CCR divers, Patti and I both check 2 bags and carry on 2, for a
total of 8 bags, each right at the weight limits and usually one 25 lbs
over. The megs go in TravelPro roller
bags and usually fit in the overhead, small backpacks come aboard too with
books, snacks, some clothes, laptop, and
my camera and 4 lenses. The rest of the
dive gear, fins, BC, stage regs, reels, liftbags, harnesses, wetsuits, go into
checked baggage as well as my underwater housing and strobes. I keep trying to cut the gear down to a
minimum, but its just no use, it all gets used sometime during the week.
So the CCR industry is alive and well, we all had a
wonderful time, thanks to the efforts of Nancy, Jay, Arie and the whole crew of
Divetech and
I have been home for a few days and I’m still exhausted,
I need a vacation from my vacation. Next
week its up to Canada to assist with a Meg and Normoxic class…
Ron Micjan
1JUN06