Easydive underwater kit? Safe for a newbie?

[lustyd]

I've met many people who assumed their level of knowledge was good when it wasn't.

And that's why mandatory training exists for pilots, drivers, container ship captains. Dive qualifications, quite rightly, are not mandatory. You're free to choose who to dive with, and who to sail with, but others are free to partake in these quite safe activities without formal training and qualifications.

 

[capnsensible]

I blame the giant inhuman insurance companies for insisting that people take responsibility to their shipmates.....and dive buddies .....seriously. what do they know, bah.

 

[harvey38]

I've never showed any certification to buy dive gear and never been asked experience or qualifications, so yes I'd imagine they would sell you one. Diving isn't hard or dangerous, it can all be learned from books etc. if you choose to. The dangerous thing is people who don't do any prep or are generally unaware type people, but they will be dangerous in a boat or car too.

"It can all be learned from books".........Really?

You can read books and watch YouTube and think you're a diver but reality only kicks in when it starts to go wrong and you realise you don't have the knowledge. A bit like flight simulator jockeys, they think they can fly until............

Yes, I'm QUALIFIED diver and flight instructor!

 

[Daydream believer]

No because it's not my business. But I do conduct assessments and tests for Pilots and that includes a full check of all their qualifications license and medical before they can start their skill check. Because that is my business.
I've met many people who assumed their level of knowledge was good when it wasn't.

Perhaps you are comparing tasks that require 2 totally diferent skill levels. One has to use common sense otherwise the whole exercise become an H & S nightmare lead by idiots ( Sorry that is not a reflection on you ) & many of us can point to that in all walks of life. But conversly one can point to idiots who do need skill levels that they clearly do NOT have in spite of what they think. It is just a balance of common sense.
A sensible person with a few basic pointers should be able to get under a boat without becoming entangled. If they do they & their crew should be able to deal with the situation if acting sensibly. Unfortunately some are just totally clueless & that is why one needs training forced on all. Even then it will not always prevent idiots from being idiots,

 

[lustyd]

"It can all be learned from books".........Really?

You can read books and watch YouTube and think you're a diver but reality only kicks in when it starts to go wrong and you realise you don't have the knowledge. A bit like flight simulator jockeys, they think they can fly until............

Yes, I'm QUALIFIED diver and flight instructor!

I'm a qualified diver too, said several times above. You seem to take this stuff way too seriously, but if that's how you like to do it, go for it. Personally I like the freedom of being able to learn and do things without taking courses and getting badges like I'm in the Brownies.

 

[srm]

When I was a club diver one of the experienced divers told a beginner who wanted to know why he had to do some of the initial pool exercises:
"any fool can breath with an aqualung, its knowing what to do when something goes wrong that is necessary"

 

[Skylark]

I watched the OP video with interest as I like to keep abreast of developments within the recreational diving community. I can see value with the kit as described but, like most things in life, it’s a compromise.

Light weight is one of its key features. This is positive for some as, generally, dive gear is heavy. It features a very small cylinder which would be consumed quite quickly (deeper under water equates to increased consumption, as does strenuous activities). There is no provision to compensate for buoyancy, either at depth or at the surface. I’m not sure about the regulator to snorkel changeover valve. It’s an early learned skill to change mouthpiece safely under water.

It is most likely marketed with warm water in mind. In our cold waters, comfort becomes significant. This adds complexity and includes issues such as clothing and gloves etc. (and probably increased air consumption).

Overall, I can see convenience but little else to commend it above more commonly available dive gear.

As others have mentioned, physics tells us that there is significant pressure-volume changes in the shallows. There is real potential for a number of barotraumas in the first few metres. These includes eyes, ears, sinuses and lungs.

I’ve been involved with recreational diver training for many years, including the training of instructors. It saddens me to read “badge collector” tag. I’ve learned a great deal from books and have an extensive diving and sailing library. All of my knowledge is built upon first class basic training.

In my retirement from a real job, I qualified as a cruising instructor. 5 years on I’m now a YMI so I’ve witnessed very many people progress through BSAC diving and the RYA cruising scheme.

Most people over the age of 10 have probably lost the ability to learn something new intuitively so they have to work at it.

Reading around a subject prior to doing a course can be very helpful but, for most adults, progressing through a structured training scheme built upon a solid foundation of learning is hard to beat.

It is possible for someone who has only studied books to have failed to correctly grasped a concept. I’ve seen this several times but it’s usually easy to correct.

I know of one student who had taught himself sailing by watching online videos, never having set foot on a boat. He joined a course and wanted the instructor to only clarify the parts that he didn’t understand. In his words, much of the syllabus was irrelevant to his needs. Conversely, students with an open mind and a will to learn are a pleasure to teach.

 

[ashtead]

I guess a lot depends here on one’s experience and location. I can see it’s appeal if parked up in say Thailand with warm water, few tides etc for a long term cruiser with no medical conditions. Personally if I was setting of for say WI on the ARC I would be buying a buoyancy device,weight belt and empty tank ,body wet suit and would spend a week sitting on the bottom of a pool learning how to cope with mask loss, clearing mask etc as a minimum before using this device one day when anchored up in say St Lucia and having a cheap local class perhaps. Ideally you would a yacht large enough to have a means of filling tanks and blowing up fenders etc but perhaps rather OTT but at least having basic kit seems wise. For a uk or med sailor not certain I can see need though of this mini device and I would be worried about capacity particularly for untrained novice breathers ,risks of snagging in obstruction and lack of any buddy diver. I certainly don’t think I would want to rely on this device in a serious fashion save for a comfort factor in warm waters.

 

[Dave 71]

On the face of it, that looks like a handy bit of kit, if you understand the very real limitations, but (at the risk of being thought a 'ticket collector') I hold BSAC advanced diver and OW instructor qualifications and have done a lot of diving, so was thinking about how I might use it from a position of having a good deal of knowledge. But then I thought about it a bit more, and the thought of someone with zero diving experience using it is actually frightening.

I can see what they've done with the snorkel/regulator switch - along with clearing a flooded mask/removing replacing a mask, removing and retrieving/swapping regulators was one of the skills that many trainee divers struggle with, even in a pool. So what they've done is 'design out' the need to learn a basic but very important diving skill to make it's use accessible, but this is an important skill and one that gives a great deal of 'diving confidence' as well. My view is that its over simplified to the point of being dangerous. I really didn't like his comment at the end of the video about going and getting a 'dropped BBQ' from 40 feet of water - over that distance an uncontrolled ascent can cause serious even fatal damage.

The target market is clearly people splashing around off a beach in the Florida Keys or the Bahamas whilst wearing a pair of swimming trunks or a bikini, where it will probably be ok for most people most of the time, as long as they remember to breath out on the way back up after taking their photo or 'catching their game' (I can only assume that a Bahamian lobster puts up less of a fight than a British one!) but some idiot is going to over reach themselves with it sooner or later.

Use it in the UK, to work on the bottom of a boat? No way. It'll be cold and dark. You'll need a wetsuit (if not a dry suit) so you'll need a weight belt. Then you'll need to know how to control your buoyancy, so you'll need a proper BCD. You'll be doing physical work in challenging circumstances, it's not about being 'only a metre or so down' its about having a massive object over your head, a pontoon to one side and another boat to the other, or, if you're on a buoy, dealing with tides and current. So you'll be troughing through the air in that tiny cylinder in no time.

 

[ryanroberts]

I have one of these which is a lot of fun in summer Tankless Diving - AirBuddy . The boat is only 1.5 meters though, so i just use a mask to deal with hull / prop issues. I learned to SCUCA dive as a child, though and recently got a qualification.

 

[Graham376]

I'm a qualified diver too, said several times above. You seem to take this stuff way too seriously, but if that's how you like to do it, go for it. Personally I like the freedom of being able to learn and do things without taking courses and getting badges like I'm in the Brownies.

I also like the freedom to learn but, where diving is concerned, a total novice (which we all were at the start) often doesn't know the questions to ask or understand basic dangers such a ascending with held breath.

I went down to local BSAC club and took it from there, using their gear for pool training and got advice for purchase of my own gear (some second hand from members) for quarry and open water use, which I carry on board.

 

[KevinV]

I have one of these which is a lot of fun in summer Tankless Diving - AirBuddy . The boat is only 1.5 meters though, so i just use a mask to deal with hull / prop issues. I learned to SCUCA dive as a child, though and recently got a qualification.

That curly pipe is going to be pulling your head up the whole time, surely? That said I have seen similar (but with straight pipe and the compressor on board) successfully used in the Caribbean for scraping the hull while at anchor, but always with someone on deck. I know diddly about diving, but I've done the same job snorkelling (jolly hard work when I was 20 years younger) and it's surprising how much current you get round the hull just from slight veering, and how hard and abrasive a hull to the head is, even when it's not bobbing up and down much. I can't imagine it being much fun or very safe in the case of a fouled prop, which would occur at sea, either drifting or hove to and with a load of tangly stuff floating around you. If you have the kit on board to do the reasonably safe thing (scraping the hull at anchor) I can't help thinking you'd be very tempted to do the unsafe thing when your boat is at risk, the adrenalin is up, and your assessment of risk is duly compromised. Safer to stay dry and call for help imo - there are limits to self-sufficiency.

 

[lustyd]

a total novice (which we all were at the start) often doesn't know the questions to ask or understand basic dangers

Simply not true, there are plenty of resources including the BSAC training books which explain every aspect of the sport. They have to because the course literally just follows the book! It’s disappointing how many people think it so hard to learn without instruction

 

[Buck Turgidson]

It’s encouraging to see how many understand human factors.

 

[Graham376]

Simply not true, there are plenty of resources including the BSAC training books which explain every aspect of the sport. They have to because the course literally just follows the book! It’s disappointing how many people think it so hard to learn without instruction

Quite possible to read books about flying but they can't replicate feelings of G forces for instance which can very easily disorientate a pilot when entering cloud. Fortunately, apart from having to share air one time, I've had no problems when diving but a girl with us one time did. She had little experience and had borrowed a membrane dry suit which was a bit too big for her and had not practiced in the pool. We were in Vivian quarry and she got inverted, legs full of air and boots off her feet. Uncontrollable inverted ascent from about 15 metres and unable to right herself at the surface without assistance. Had she had some training beforehand, it likely wouldn't have happened. In the same situation in open water alone, it could have ended very badly.

Unlike PADI courses which are a money making organisation, BSAC clubs are cheap to join and some basic training would be a far safer route than just buying unsuitable gear with ridiculous statements about lengths of times and depths possible. Look at this, 15-20 minutes at up to 30 metres on just 1 litre tank of air - Scuba Diving Equipment 1L Mini Scuba Tank Support 15-20 Minutes Underwater Breathing(No More Than 30m)New Generation S400Plus Diving Tanks for Water Rescue/Diving Sightseeing/Backup Air Source, Orange : Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors Anyone would be plain stupid to try that.

Edited - 1 litre "tank" of air, not 1 litre of air.

 

[lustyd]

I've seen people get into trouble with full training, and I know some people with decades of experience of highly technical diving who've had issues. Anecdotes about problems don't change the fact that training isn't the only way to learn.
The most important thing for safety is the ability to not panic and think through the situation. If you genuinely think the way to avoid problems is to be taught how to deal with each problem then you'll eventually come up against one you've not been taught. Far better to develop a learning attitude and become a more competent person overall who is capable of dealing with new things.

As I've said repeatedly above, training is great for a lot of people, but it's far from necessary for everyone.

I see nothing wrong with those statements. I can dive to 30m without a tank, so a 1l cylinder is certainly able to get up to 30m depth, it's also capable of up to 20 minutes. If you choose to read it as 20 minutes at 30m then that's on you.

 

[Skylark]

………a total novice (which we all were at the start) often doesn't know the questions to ask or understand basic dangers………

Simply not true, there are plenty of resources including the BSAC training books which explain every aspect of the sport. They have to because the course literally just follows the book! It’s disappointing how many people think it so hard to learn without instruction

I wholeheartedly agree with Graham for the vast majority. Given your ability to learn from books alone, I’m also happy to acknowledge your above average intelligence and natural aptitude. However, I’d respectfully suggest that your views are misleading to others, we lesser mortals.

I know that you like badges so doubtless you’ll be impressed with my diving array culminating with BSAC National Instructor which I was awarded in 1998.

I’ve been involved with recreational diving for many years and I don’t believe I’ve come across a skilled and competent self-taught diver. Funnily enough, I know of one club that would not allow a self-taught diver to join. They put him in the pool to assess his skills and his performance and attitude was such that he was considered a danger to himself and others.

There is no UK Legislation to prevent self-learning, it’s up to the individual to decide their route of choice.

 

[Graham376]

As I've said repeatedly above, training is great for a lot of people, but it's far from necessary for everyone.

There's also a very big difference between having a go at something yourself and accepting the risk as opposed to encouraging others to stick their necks out, particularly when alone at sea.

 

[Skylark]

I can dive to 30m without a tank, so a 1l cylinder is certainly able to get up to 30m depth, it's also capable of up to 20 minutes. If you choose to read it as 20 minutes at 30m then that's on you.

Assume the 1 litre cylinder is pumped to 232 bar so it contains 232 litres of air.
Assume surface breathing rate of 20 litres per minute.
30m water depth equates to 4 bar absolute pressure.
Breathing rate at 30m therefore equates to 80 litres per minute
80 litre per minutes will consume the content of the cylinder in less than 3 minutes.

At the surface, the cylinder content would be consumed in a little over 10 minutes.

 

[lustyd]

There's also a very big difference between having a go at something yourself and accepting the risk as opposed to encouraging others to stick their necks out, particularly when alone at sea.

Showing both sides of an argument is not exactly coercing people into dangerous situations. There are plenty of sailors circling the globe who have no qualifications at all, people are free to make their own choices and do their own thinking.