Argonaut Deep Dive 11 August 2014

[Ron]

Sunday, 11 August, divers from the 2014 Legends of Diving including Jbrians, me, Greg B, John, and others made a deep dive to the bottom of Gilboa Quarry. I used a kraken and a hydroglove. I think that I have finally used my hydroglove to the limits of its design. The bottom temperature was 41 degrees. Our target depth was 140 feet for 20 minutes (with some staged deco), but I only managed to make it to 121 feet before the hydroglove would no longer take air vented from my mask. My suit runs pretty trim, so I would imagine that the pressure in the suit must have been too high for me to vent air into any more, because it literally began to squeeze me like a vise at 100 feet or so. By 121 feet, I was in enough of a suit squeeze that I felt like I was being forced into the fetal position, which in 41 degree water at that depth is an odd feeling. It also became incredibly difficult to breathe from the immense amount of squeeze. I signaled for an ascent, the rest of the team continued the briefed profile, and my friend John paired up with me and monitored my ascent. The entire time, despite the massive suit squeeze at depth, the kraken was giving me that comfortable and large woosh of air, even that deep. Once we ascended to about 75 feet, and the squeeze was off, we continued our dive at shallower depths for a total run time of 62 minutes in Gilboa.

Interestingly, the squeeze at depth popped both of my drygloves loose off of their mounts. It also bruised my shoulder and one of my feet. Having said that, the hydroglove is an amazing vintage drysuit. Any failure to vent air into it was a technique issue on my part, and I highly recommend one. William, the owner of hydroglove, is also quite a patient guy, and he worked with me extensively to get the suit's neck seal cut correctly to fit me. I may put an oral inflation valve on it, because based upon my limited experience venting air into the hood at deep depths becomes quite difficult. Again, my suit is cut very close to my body, which may make it more difficult as I am sure that my suit was quite full at 121 feet. All in all it was quite a challenging dive. Thanks to Brian, Greg, and John I felt completely safe doing it as I was easily the least experienced diver there and they were very mindful of that. John, in particular, deserves a lot of credit as I know that he wanted to finish his 140 foot profile yet he aborted the deepest portion of his dive to keep me company on the ascent, which was pretty cool of him. If you ever want to dive Gilboa, I highly suggest our Canadian VDH forum members or Greg Barlow as they are exceptionally familiar with the site. Here is an action shot or two:

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[swimjim]

I'm a relative noob with the Hydro glove, but I've had mine down 140 at Fortune pond successfully. My body is more "streamlined" of course which probably makes equalizing the suit easier.

[Ron]

Jim,

I'm pretty sure if I ran a looser suit, like say if I bought an XXL instead of an XL, then I would have been fine. That Gilboa is cold! I am also a Florida diver, so that is probably a strike against me. I only have 36 drysuit dives ever, so running a drysuit is not really my forte.

[Superlite]

Is it possible to install a power inflator on the suit. That might result in installing a exhaust valve also. It's been my experience that venting through the hood isn't always possible. Not sure if it's just that the neck seal prevents air from moving from the hood to body of suit or it's just one of those pressure related things. I've dove dry suits from the Viking suits (with attached neck dam for a helmet) all the way through the Poseidon, O'Neil, White Stag, and Imperial dry suits.
Now days if the water temp is under 70 I usually stay out of the water. Don't like the cold much anymore.

[Ron]

I'm not entirely sure what it was. I have, admittedly, never used a vintage drysuit that deep before this dive. I know it was equalizing fine until about 100 feet, then it started to squeeze me. I wonder if it has to do with the cut. Mine is cut really snug, so as the suit gets deeper, and the pressure of the air has to get higher in order to equalize the suit, maybe it just gets harder to do it with exhaled air. I've seen Jim's hyrdoglove before, and I thought it was cut a little looser than mine. Perhaps the trick is in running a looser suit. I would hate to put a power inflator on it if I can avoid it. An oral inflator would be cool, but if it has an inflation and exhaust valve, then I might as well just dive a regular drysuit. I was also debating rigging up a hydroglove shell over a Whites fusion drysuit, so it would look vintage but still function enough for my deepest dives. Maybe Swimjim has some insight. He dives the Great Lakes, and dives cold/deep water far more often than I do.

[sitkadiver]

Man, That is one awesome looking wall. I love dropping off things like that.

Back to the topic of drysuits: Was your mask strap outside the hood? Do you think it would matter? Our public safety team uses a latex hood with an AGA and every once in a while I get a weird squeeze on my ears, I can usually exhale out the top of the mask and massage and air bubble to wear I need it. I don't have a lot of time in those hoods, but I only had it happen when the mask is outside the hood.

We had a DUI rep tell us[at a dive shop] about 14 years ago that it takes 50 or so dives to get proficient with a drysuit. So far, his advice has held true. I've lost track of the number of drysuit dives I've done, but I'm still learning new things and having to tweak my trim as I swap gear styles. I'd say keep trying it and you may be surprised with what you learn.

In the meantime, could you run a pneumo line from the Argo first stage and just use a lift bag inflator in an emergency? You could shove it into one of the wrist cuffs and pump in some air if you had a really bad squeeze. Just a thought, but it would keep you from having to add a power inflator to your super sweet Hydroglove.

[Ron]

That's definitely an idea Sitka. I might see if I can offer to have William@hydroglove professionally install an oral inflator off of a Mae West vest. Jbrians gave me one up at Portage. That might be worth a shot as well. Plus, since my suit is a neck seal suit, I could just remove the latex hood and run a wetsuit hood instead. I'm always careful with my ears with those latex hoods, like you are as well.

[swimjim]

I've done hundreds of dry suit dives in "modern" suits. I'll be diving my CF200 in a few hours as a matter of fact. The Hydroglove however, I'm not yet proficient in it. I haven't had issues with squeeze though. I get in a heads down position and the air burps right past the neck seal. The bad news for me is I get wet on a regular basis. The good news is I still remain fairly warm with it. Rob seems to have the hydroglove nailed though. He'd be my go to guy for advise.

Jim

[Ron]

I like how you get wet and equalize, while I stay dry and get crushed. Don't worry folks, we've got this lol!

[Ron]

I modified the drysuit with help from my vintage diving buddies. It equalizes like a champ now!


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