- UNDERWATER BREATHING APPARATUS -
The Problem...
I have gotten old enough that climbing in and out of rough surf, or up a swim ladder into a boat, with 70 lbs. of cumbersome gear, is no longer the effortless joy it once was.The Solution...
So, why carry all this stuff with you? Why not leave the tank on the surface
in its own little raft, and have a hose long enough to let you go down a ways?
As it turns out, I'm not the first person to think of this. There's a rig called "snuba" (from "snorkle" and "scuba") that's pretty much exactly this idea. I found a patent on it (actually, the patent was for a donut-shaped float with a tank suspended in it vertically). There are no systems like this commercially available. There are franchise operators licensed to take uncertified divers out with gear similar to what you see in the photo. The owners of the franchises own all the gear, under license from the patent holder.
This unit is put together almost entirely from off-the-shelf components. The airhose
is borrowed from the Brownie "Third Lung" system (which uses a compressor at the surface
instead of a tank). The raft is 2/3 of a Coleman one-man inflatable (the outermost air
chamber is cut away to reduce the size). The only part fabricated from scratch is
the cradle that holds the air tank.
- UNDERWATER CAMERA SIGHTS -
The clear plastic box on the right is the underwater camera case, good to 100'deep. The camera's LCD screen, in shallow water on a bright day (read "perfect conditions") is very difficult to see. The viewfinder is equally difficult. With both your dive mask and the case between your eye and the viewfinder, you can't get your eye close enough to the view window.
In short, it's really hard to aim the camera when it's in this case. I was getting lots of fish tails and fish heads, and very few whole fishes.
The contraption shown on the left above (and shown mounted on the case in the other) has proven an excellent solution. It works much like a gun sight. You line-up the two beads with your subject, and "click" - dead center in the frame every time.
It's made entirely of components found in a good "ACE" hardware store. (well, actually the red beads were borrowed from a collection belonging to a friend's granddaughter).
Most parts are obvious from the photo: fender washers, nylon spacer washers, a 1" x 1/4" hand knob. The wire is a medium grade stainless steel, which resists getting bent up. The steel assemblage is held together with epoxy.
