Todd and I haven't dived together since he moved to Florida. Sad. Something to do with dive gear needing to be inspected, and possibly some gear shrinking in the closet. (It's prone to do that. I've had some old wetsuits that shrunk to the point where I couldn't get in them any more. It's a thing. Don't judge.)
Well, we finally went in together on a Hookah rig. It's surface-supplied air from a compressor, rigged to two long air lines (125' each) on a spool, which goes to a regulator. No BC (buoyancy control device/vest), no tanks. No limit on how long you can stay down, at least not from air supply. (It's still compressed air, so dive safety rules and times still apply.)
This is best for shallower water, and two divers can breathe at the same time. We tested out how to set it up on the boat, how to use it in the water, how much weight we'd need to be neutrally buoyant, etc. It was a fun day of testing.
We played around a little with the setup (where best to set it up in the boat), then moved steadily out to deeper water (well...20' anyway). We dove on a spot that we had fished before. We took our spearguns, just in case. Always good in case something tasty swims past. Or if something that things I am tasty swims past. It's always cool to see the bottom of a spot that we've fished, to get an actual image of what kind of bottom/structure we were fishing on, how the fish act, etc.
Here's a little video from our dive:
I gotta give a shout out to Gator Gill. Steve is local to us, in Spring Hill. He puts together really great rigs, with lots of attention to detail. https://gatorgillllc.com/ is his website where you can see the various setups he has. Incredible customer support...I feel like I've got another dive buddy now after meeting with him and going over all the things needed to operate the hookah and keep it maintained.
Comments