Aqua-Tech-Diving-Grenada

"Newly born" Rebreather diver

2011-01-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

An exciting 2010 ended with lots of great CCR dives .

Andrew came down from cold Boston, "sold his house" and got himself a new beautiful rebreather for Christmas. Now he's certified and enjoys to play with his new toy in our nice warm waters. Congratulations.

Rebreather news from DEMA 10

2010-12-15T05:44:00.000-08:00

Here are some more good news from DEMA.
The CCR industry is getting together to set standards, great!More info @ Padi tec rec blog

Sylvia Earle: How to protect the oceans (TED Prize winner!)

2010-12-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

Sylvia Earle why and how to protect our Oceans.

DEMA 2010

2010-12-12T13:33:00.000-08:00

Finally get around to post something about the show. It was overall a great event,
could meet and catch up with some of my old friends. As usual there have been a number of new equipments and gadgets around, but one thing long overdue has been finally made, the "Nautilus Lifeline"
This is a handheld VHF radio and GPS receiver at an affordable rate(300$)and simple to use. Waterproof to 130m/ 400ft (I'll try that!). Something every diver in an open water environment will use hopefully soon. We ordered right away for our store.
I had my near misses over the years, no more now. Will enjoy this extra safety especcially when diving on CCR.
click here for more information.

Mission Bianca Ccr

2010-12-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

It's been busy days between diving, boosting, filling, blending, taking photos.
So far it's going well. Had to abandon the full face mask due to fogging problems on long deep dives. Otherwise it's going well and Ethan is getting great images done.
Probably the best totals of Bianca C ever done. Ethan confirms, that the Helium is really helping keeping the head clear while working the camera and equipment.
Today Gerlinde joined in as model, I took a picture of them at "work".
You'll have to wait for better stuff until Ethan will release his pictures.

Mission Bianca Ccr

2010-12-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

The "Bianca C" in Grenada, also known as the 'Titanic of the Caribbean' is so far an unsolved challenge for underwater photographers. So far nobody (and a lot of pros have tried) had made the perfect bow shot of that giant. Our good old friend
Ethan Gordon is here now on assignment for Scuba Diving magazine to get it done.
The ship has been hunting him like captain Ahabs white whale over the years.
The conditions are tough, bottom at 170 ft/ 50m, always current, little natural light and lots of particals in the water. This time we want to beat her with technology
We'll be using Evolution rebreather, OTS full face mask with Buddy phone.
Ethan is shoting with his Nikon D300 with Sea&Sea housing and high powered LED lights. Wish us luck!

OTS full face mask

2010-12-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

Did our first "shake out dive" with the OTS full face mask this afternoon.
It fits very nice and seals perfect. The field of vision is very good.
Having warm air blown in your face while diving feels weird.
I'm having a little trouble with the equalizing mechanism, but I'm also at the tailend of a cold. The communication gear works great, even though it contradicts
the quietness of the rebreather.

2010-12-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

I was about to write a report of new gadgets of DEMA - one very interesting and life saving one for rebreather divers - but did not get around to it yet. Will do later. Now I am busy trying out a new full face mask for Evolutions, just connected it and went to the pool. Full report to follow

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2010-11-30T12:26:00.001-08:00

An interesting article on CCR diving Bianca C by Stuart Philpott. See it here
Published in the TechDiver section of Sport Diver Magazine in the UK.

Rebreather Weeks in August

2010-10-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

A full three weeks we had visiting rebreather divers in August. Some great dives again, but also enjoyed some topside fun like the Grenada Carneval.
This time our main focus was deep diving around the wreck of "Bianca C" and exploring some newly opened up spaces. The old lady is crumbling - well her 50th anniversary of sinking comes up next year! Diving the deck gets deeper and deeper, soon it will not be for recreational divers anymore. But with CCR normoxic or trimix you can enjoy the gigantic wreck, take your time to explore and still have a clear head. And while you hang in deco, eagle rays, schools of pelagics and maybe turtles show up to keep you company. Here are some pictures of our weeks:

June Rebreather Week

2010-07-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

This time Stuart Philpott - underwater photo journalist from the UK and Lillian and Mike from Canada joined us for a weeks diving Grenada's wrecks and reefs on rebreather. Even so the water just turned green a week before due to heavy rain and an algae bloom, we did have some phantastic dives and photo opportunities.
Stuart comments on facebook:
grenada is going green! rebreathers are definitely the way to go. i spent around 18hrs underwater, some dives were more than 3hrs long. the inspiration worked perfectly without a single fault all week. aquanauts are a top rate dive centre and the owners, peter and gerlinde, know the wrecks inside out. dive times at 40 metres on a rebreather were around 1 hour with 20 mins deco, not bad eh?
Lillian and Mike are still diving with us, water is back to blue again, but we kind of enjoyed the green, it brought a lot of marine life too. The ocean was just steaming.

Here are some of Stuart's Pictures:
Bianca C PortsideKing Mitch
Rebreather Room
Bianca C Bow inside

Aquanauts Adventures- CCR diving in Rangiroa

2010-06-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

Researching for another Rebreather trip, I more accidentally found Patrick Plantard's
website. I had heard about the Tiputa pass before, never thought much about going to French Polynesia, but his pictures and some youtube videos got my attention. So I contacted him and he offered all a CCR diver can dream off: Full Rebreather support and private diving.

Found good airfare and luggage allowance on Air Tahitiand booked the "Maitai" in Rangiroa. Fly from Los Angelas LAX either in the afternoon or take the redeye. If taking the afternoon flight, you'll have to stay overnight in Tahiti, while the redeye connects the same morning with Air Tahiti.
So we packed our two Evolutions into boxes and off we went. First with American Airlines to LA and then Air Tahti Nui to Papeete/Tahiti. The regional Air Tahiti has lower weight allowance, but divers can take extra with certification. On all flights not any problems with the Rebreathers (no tanks, no sofnolime).
The Maitai is a nice little resort with Polynesian style bungalows on the lagoon side near the airport. There are couple of good restaurants and a "supermarket"in walking distance. Rangiroa is by far not as pricy as Tahiti or Bora Bora.
Patrick met us after arrival and we discussed our dive plan for the next couple of days. Next morning he picked us up and we went to his house on the beach, right next to the "6 passengers" dive shop.
They work very well together.
Patrick has some tables on his terrace for setting up the gear and a place for washing outside. He's got one Evolution and two Megalodon rebreathers for training and rental, a booster, sofnolime, Oxygen, Helium and a number of 2,3 ltr and bailout tanks. All well organized
After setup and check, we'll walk over to the dive shop where boat and driver are waiting for us. The 6 passengers is a nice setup, very friendly with 3 inflatable boats, that do the job for the kind of diving. The boat ride is only 5 minutes.
The main dive site is the Tiputa pass. The dive plan depends, if the current is running into or out of the lagoon. The pass has an estimated population of about 500 Grey Reef sharks. The best place to watch the show is right at the edge on the entrance to the channel. The bottom drops from about 200ft to the deep.

The dive always starts there. You just sit around 170ft (50m) and watch the show(and your computer of course). A gigantic school of Jacks is swimming in the current
and countless Sharks and Tunas change from swimming with them to charging them in a combined attack every couple of minutes. In between you'll see big Napolean wrasses,
Manta and Eagle rays, Turtles, Dolphins and all kinds of other Pelagics passing by.
This can compare easy to "Darwins Arch" in Galapagos, but clear and warm water.
Once you accumulated enough TTS start your way up, depending on current. If inbound, take the ride through the pass. With outbound current dive along the outer reef.
Wherever you go, the show will continue. The "icing on the cake" are usually the resident Dolphins and Mantas that like to pay divers visit while ascending.
We also did one dive at the Avatoru pass that is shallower and has a small population of Silver Tip sharks and a lot of beautiful coral. Gives you a nice break.
Did not do any deeper diving this time, but we'll be back for that.
We're planning a group trip some time next year.
Rangiroa is a great place for divers, the second largest lagoon in the world,
but the "main island" only 6 miles long and 900 ft wide.
About 2000 people live there, very friendly and safe.

pictures courtesy Patrick Plantard.
Videos at our YouTube channel.

Rebreather Week over Easter Holidays in Grenada

2010-04-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

This Rebreather week were all evolution and inspiration divers - where are the others? Weather and sea conditions played along; nice calm seas allowed us to dive all the Atlantic wrecks. We started off with a 3 hour warm up dive along the Grenada Marine Park Wall. Stopping for Photo Ops at the Car Pile and Bucaneer wreck. The next day it was down to the stern of Bianca C - yes the reef shark passed by again - followed by dives at wrecks, wrecks wrecks - Hema 1, King Mitch, San Juan, Bianca C bow and mid ship, Shakem and a dive at Lighthouse Reef.
Our next rebreather weeks are set for mid June, 3 weeks in August, mid October and mid November. Hope to see you here for one of these days!

Diving King Mitch on Rebreather

2010-04-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

Long time waiting - finally weather and sea allow for Gerlinde to dive King Mitch - the famous Atlantic wreck on Rebreather! I am looking forward to it in anticipation; how will the family of eagle rays react on these "yellow back turtles"? What will the resident hawksbill think of these strange looking creatures? Sure they don't make bubbles and are not noisy as these other humans visiting, but they are not to mate with or?
The sea is still choppy but we can cope and within a few minutes Bugsy gets us to the side. A few open circuit divers go first, we follow. The current is probably two knots, I am holding on to the descent line and hope it eases a bit on the ground. Well it does not, but what a show! We just sit inside the deck looking out like an U-boot commander on the tower and enjoying the show - hundreds of barracudas cruising, eagle rays just playing in the current, nurse sharks piling up on the ground to rest and the resident turtles - 3 - are just annoyed by these yellow creatures! Once the open circuit divers are on their back up, the wild life comes closer and you see how they use the wreck as a playground if no diver disturbs the peace.
The current eases a bit, so we try to get closer to that pile of nurse sharks. Unfortunately they are nervous and start swimming in circles around the wreck. After our computer shows us 15 minutes deco, we decide it is time for us too to get back to the surface. We shoot up our marker buoy - about 10 large barracudas shooting with it trying to catch it - we should have filmed it!
On our ascent an eagle ray shortly checks us out, than we hang at the safety stop contemplating this great dive.

Bianca C

2009-11-23T10:33:00.001-08:00

Every time we go back to Bianca C we discover new sites of it and have incredible encounters. Last week we had our good friend and photographer Claus with us. He took some great shots of rebreather diving the huge wreck of Bianca C. Enjoy!

Another new deeper reef

2009-11-23T10:22:00.000-08:00

During our Trimix user course we started to look for deeper reefs on Grenada's west coast. BY accident we stumbled upon a great spot to the west of Bianca C. We knew this ridge exists, but had only dived it twice so far and not extensively due to its depth of 35 to 70 m. Now we took a bit more time and went along the ridge. We found an incredible spot of black corals and large colonies of tiny shrimp. We will continue to investigate this spot more, as it was our first invasion of the deep we call it Heartbreak Ridge. We have to go back and shoot more photos, only one for now.

New Deep Dive site at Grenada's Marine Park

2009-08-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

At our last dive on CCR at Grenada's Marine Park, we took it a bit further and went deeper.
It is astonishing the amount of marine life you find at that depth - totally undisturbed as nobody ever dives there. Complete Forests of deepsea gogonias and black corals, all kinds of bottomdwellers and schooling jacks and other pelagics.

we also sadly found a hawksbill turtle whose one flipper was entangled with a fishing net and already had deeply cut into the flesh. we could however cut off most of the netting, so she would not dangerously cought by it and drown.

2009-07-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

Our longest Dive yet on CCR - James and I did dive for 2 hours and 26 minutes Grenada's Marine Park from Flamingo Bay to Molinere. We encountered lots of fish, schooling barracudas, all types of Angel fish - French, Queen and Grey - and discovered the beautiful black coral garden at a depth of a 100 feet just before we reached Dragon Bay. See our pictures below, videos to follow soon.