Precision Diving

My previous post about owning your own scuba compressor was written for a reason. A little over a month ago, I fired up the compressor to start filling tanks for an Advanced Nitrox & Decompression Procedures class that I was teaching. As it started, it sounded funny. After a couple minutes, the compressor stopped running, but the motor was still on. After I turned it off and removed the compressor shroud, I saw the first stage piston and rod were almost completely out of the bore. The bolt that held the rod to the main bearing had come loose (at 3600 RPM I might add) and pulled the whole assembly out. (more…)

When my wife landed her new job, we were extremely happy. We were hoping things were turning around and would go back to normal. Unfortunately, her new job didn’t pay as much as the old one. Facing this deficit in our monthly income, it has forced me to make sacrifices. I have had to work at the shop more than normal just to get some extra cash each month. It is not fair for me to ask my family to continue to dip into our life savings, just so I can go scuba diving. (more…)

Like many Americans, this year has been very tough for my family. Last year I lost my job as a business manager at Motorola. I became a stay at home dad for our two daughters. This year, my wife lost her job as a career coach at Deloitte and Touche. As of this writing, neither of us have found a steady job yet. I’ve been teaching college classes part time for some extra cash. As Christmas approaches, we have had to make hard decisions as to what kind of gifts we will get the girls. As a parent, you want to give your kids everything, but many times that just isn’t possible. As I’ve thought about Christmas for my kids, I’ve thought about other people who are in a similar, or worse, situation than me and how this affects their diving Christmas season. (more…)

I get asked many times about what kind of doubles people should get when they want to move into technical diving. Should they get 130s, 100s, 120s, or aluminum 80s? There is no one right answer for selecting which size tanks. However, special consideration must be made in regards to selecting the manifold, valves, and bands to build that set of doubles. (more…)