Click here to go

Back to dive reports

Dive Report: 14/01/98

The Breakwall - Gold Coast , Queensland

After spending almost a week at Rods place on the Gold Coast constructing my new breather it was finally ready for the first sea trial. I had previously tried the loop for leaks in the canal at his house but now had electronics and needed clearer water, where I could see the displays. We motored our to the breakwall inside the Island channel as this was the only place suitable to dive due to the rough seas created by the Cyclone further north.

I geared up with much more ease than I was used to due to the Hawaiin sling and entered the water. I stayed just below the surface while Rod checked for leaks and when none were found I descended the anchorline the 8m to the bottom. I spent a few minutes watching how the displays reacted and playing with the O2 add button (numbers go up) and the diluent button (numbers go down). I practiced flush throughs remembering to exhale the newly added diluent into the loop before inhaling and dumping when I did a dil flush through, otherwise you are just exhaling the freshly added gas each time. For O2 flush throughs you just exhale and add, as the gas has to go through the loop before you inhale it anyway.

I swam around for a while to see how much the PO2 would drop and got within inches of a large school of fish including bream and trevally. Due to the poor vis I decided to ascend to re-orient myself and used this to see how the PO2 would drop on the displays. The drop was quite dramatic buit it wasnt too hard to keep the PO2 around 1.00.

I flushed through with O2 on the surface and made contact with the anchor before descending again adding only diluent to the loop and observing the effect on PO2. After a short time on the bottom playing around again I decided to try increasing the PO2 to about 1.3 before ascending and then made a quick ascent to the surface observing the PO2 change. It was easier this time to keep up with the drop in PO2 as it was already higher to begin with.

Although the dive was short I learnt a lot of practical information and tested the basics of the system.

Scott

Ask the Backyard Boys