Re: Helmets, bells (was: "Bootlegging Real Psubs")

[Michael B Holt <michaelbholt@juno.com>]

On Fri, 9 Jul 1999 09:37:56 EDT SJSVOB@aol.com writes:
>From 14 to 17.  Sounds kind of old to be doing that but it was alot more
fun 
>skinny dipping with the girls and our diving bell then staying at the 
>boring  parties we were at.

Actually, that's the right ages.   You could recognize why it was
and was not working.

>Oh my mother never knew.  I still can't forgive her for not letting me
go on 
>my open water check out dive at age 12.  

Isn't the age supposed be 14 or so?

>It was fun being underwater 
>with a  source of air.  Especially something as inexpensive as a bucket
and an 
>anchor. 

Certainly sounds like fun, doesn't it?   So many don't know . . . 

> Who needs expensive regulators and tanks?  Lately I've been thinking 
>of attaching a ball valve to a snorkel.  Then connecting a pony bottle 
>filled with oxygen to the snorkel with a needle valve.  So when I'm skin
diving and 
>I want to stay down longer I can give a twist of the ball valve, then
hit the 
>needle valve and fill up my lungs.  

I dunno about that one.   Sounds like you'd be setting yourself up for
an embolism.

>In scuba diving classes they scare the 
>hell out of you, talking about air embolism (air expanding in the lungs
on 
>ascent) and build up of carbon dioxide (skip breathing).  But the
majority of 
>my diving has been in shallow pools, rivers and shallow anchorages on 
>lakes.  

You can get an embolism in as little as six feet, they told me.

>On canoe trips I just can't feasibly lug heavy scuba gear around.  I
need 
>something compact to satisfy my desire to really explore those rivers. 

Why not just use a snorkel?

(When I was about 14, I read up on the original rebreathers.   It came to
me that it was possible to exghaust to the CO2 absorber but take air
in through a snorkel.   This would give me cleaner air.   But I also
thought 
about filling a flexible bag with air, and using that for a breath or two
while down.  Then I found out about girls, and kinda lost interest in
diving.   Submarines offer greater opportunity, especially in the cold
water around
 here.)

> The reason I haven't built this rig yet is because I don't know much
about 
>shallow water blackout and I want to do more reading first.

Ah, better to read than to experience!


Mike Holt
-- 

___________________________________________________________________
Get the Internet just the way you want it.
Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month!
Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.