Belemnite Diver Blog

Why the SF2?

My rebreather experience started basically at the same time my ‘technical’ (other than nitrox if you count that) diving did. As I was starting to look more at twinsets and accelerated decompression I got to do a BSAC ‘Try Rebreather’ day at Vobster (an inland dive site) with some friends of mine.

First off I tried an AP Inspiration. I will say the lovely BSAC instructors ignored me telling them I needed X amount of weight even with a big steel twinset, so I was underweighted when I went in. This resulted in me sucking the loop empty every breath to try to control buoyancy, having the ADV fire and a horrible feeling of being near death. I essentially hated every minute of the dive.

I am a menace with my 3D printer. I really wanted some loop end caps to seal my loop when I’m not using it. This comes after the last time it had been sat on my work bench for a while, I set everything up, did a pressure test and started coughing. Understanding that either my just filled scrubber had not been sealed (it was) or the counter lung was dusty (it wasn’t) then the only remaining thing was my loop. As always I’d sterilised the hell out of it and let it dry after it was last dived, but maybe dust or something else had gotten in. I washed it down again with Chemgene and all was well on the dive the next day. Hence trying to find endcaps, as no one else seemed to have done this, and I couldnt get other branded rebreather ones to fit (what mutant size is the JJ!?) I made and designed my own. Get yours at Here

Every single UK based diver, skipper and dive boat owner/deckhand and dog I’ve spoken to, says the same thing. UK diving is dying off. Having just come from a days diving a sports diver level wreck on the south coast that was only dived by what you would probably class as ‘technical’ divers, I’m finding it hard to disagree for reasons below;

Problem 1.

The weather. Honestly does this need elaborating on? The weather in the UK has cost me so many dives, lots of hours at home or going to the local quarry rather than diving a tasty wreck because the wind/rain is too much. Even when I’ve made it out - I’ve seen people puking, sunburned and soaked to the skin. Basically good days diving on calm seas in mild temperatures is a UK rarity.

Why blog? Mostly because I’m totally sick and tired of social media and wasting time on it. If I can spunk my thoughts onto the internet it moves me away from Meta controlled BS apps and makes me write something. Getting people to actually read it on the other hand is a totally different proposition. The algorithm now dictates peoples life to such a degree that its hard to find small subgroups of people with shared interests… none the less…here I am blogging about SF2 CCR and probably some general dive stuff, 3d printing and random stuff.