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DUI's Weight & trim System by Barb Roy For over 40 years Diving Unlimited International (DUI) has introduced their line of dive products to the diving industry, often taking the lead in innovative concepts and ideas. Their Weight & Trim system is one such idea, which allows consumers to control the weight issue for recreational and commercial scuba diving in a simple and logical manner.  Traditional weight belts consist of hard or soft lead weights in pouches on a mesh or neoprene belt or laced together by a nylon belt, then connected around a diver's waist with a metal 'quick-release' buckle. When a diver moves about, traditional belts tend to slide around, especially if the diver's dry or wet suit has compressed with depth. There's nothing more frustrating than finding out your quick-release weight belt buckle has moved to the middle of your back. Lower back stress can also occur when a diver is at the surface with their BCD fully inflated while wearing a heavy weight belt. The body is actually being pulled apart as the BCD pulls upward and the belt pulls downward. To overcome these weight problems, DUI's Weight & Trim System allows a diver to easily trim the weight they need to wear by placing the lead (shot or hard weights) into pockets around their waist, which is attached to an adjustable fabric harness. The harness is adjustable up or down and the pockets can be adjusted back or forward to comfortably fit around the divers waist and evenly distribute the weight. The BCD is then worn over the harness. As for safety, the harness's patented weight release system lets a diver release one pocket at a time by pulling on large yellow handles, clearly visible by another diver or easily felt by the wearer. Pulling one side only helps prevent a diver unintentionally surfacing. There are two models available, the Classic and the WT2 (up & down adjustable only). The Weight & Trim will hold up to 40 pounds/18kg and will work with most BCD's. As an option, two D-rings can also be installed on the Classic model. Sizes include small, medium and large for the Classic and six sizes for the WT2. For more information check out DUI's web site at www.dui-online.com or call their San Diego factory at 619-236-1203 to find the dealer nearest you. Diving with a $4,000 timepiece - TAG Heuer 2000 Aquagraph By Stephen Weir Climbing on board the Key Largo dive boat I noticed that the captain's eyes were fixated on my wrist. He could care less what I looked like, how much gear I had or if I needed help . . . he just wanted to get a closer look at the TAG Heuer 2000 Aquagraph that was weighing down my wrist. Since the charter boat was docked at the super private Ocean Reef Club, it was surprising that any watch would raise eyebrows. Surely Michael Jordan (he has a place there) would go diving better adorned? "No man, you're wearing a diver's dive watch!" explained the captain after I asked him why he was staring at my silver watch. "Rich people who aren't "serious divers" get watches that have built-in computers, tell the time in three different zones and are studded with diamonds. Those are toys. No, your TAG Heuer, it is the real deal." I set up my gear as the private charter heads out to the nearby reef system. It was a warm June afternoon and the coral reef was teeming with life. Captain and crew were kept busy helping people in and out of the water, handing out warm towels and serving the only 4-star box lunch I have ever had on a dive boat (pass the ice chilled Evian please). 
On the way back to the shore the young captain took off his own 10 year old TAG Heuer and asked if he could try out the 2000 Aquagraph for size. "Sure" I answered and handed over the watch that had been loaned to me by the president of TAG Heuer's New York operation two months before. Back then he asked me to give it hell! The Florida captain put it on his wrist and held it up to show his two-crew members. " Heavy. But that is what I want in a dive watch. I want to know it is there," said the captain as he undid the expandable double-safety clasp steel bracelet and passed it on to his first mate who snapped it on her wrist next. Before I got it back the second mate took a look at it, as did three snorkelers at the back of the boat. Why all the attention over a watch? Well, TAG Heuer has developed a watch specifically for the US Navy Seals. Never mind the $4,000 price tag, this is a timepiece that has been built to be punished. When every other piece of dive gear has failed, TAG Heuer guarantees that the 2000 Aquagraph will keep running. Most sport divers never go deeper than 30 metres. But, for the military, professionals and technical diving adventurists this is a watch that can be worn right to the bottom . . . any bottom at any depth! Rated to 200 metres, the 2000 Aquagraph is actually guaranteed to a depth of 500 metres. The watch comes with a built-in helium valve that bleeds off gas from inside the watch face when a diver is inside a recompression chamberwithout it, most watch faces explode (from trapped gas expanding inside the watch face) when a diver is taken to depth and brought back again! I shouldn't have been surprised at the reception my watch got in Florida. Three weeks earlier, while test diving the watch in Antigua my dive guide had a revealing slip of the tongue. We had been diving in rough water just yards from a perpendicular sandstone bluff known as the Pillars of Hercules. The tide was changing and we had to get back into the boat before we lost our anchorage. "Quick" he shouted at me. "Give me your watcherr handand I will pull you into the boat!" We had been hanging 15 ft underwater doing a 5-minute safety stop and my dive buddy had spent those 300 seconds admiring the TAG Heuer. You could tell, as I let the watch count down my safety stop, that the TAG had found another customer. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why the Tag Heuer leaves such a strong impression on experienced divers. As watches go, it is strictly bare bones, there are no bells, whistles, digital readouts, lights or audio beeps included with this watchit is an analog clock and nothing more. However, it is a timepiece that looks as though it could survive just about anything underwater and after three months of torture tests, it passed with flying colours. In light of the fact that all serious divers now carry at least one dive computer when they are underwater it is not surprising that TTAG Heuer has decided to forgo any fancy extra features. It realizes that for most divers a watch is a back-up piece of gear that is only needed when their primary electronic gear has packed it in. All that matters is the watch has to work no matter the conditions a diver finds himself in! One of the biggest pluses of the watch is the fact that it is self-winding. This is a watch that won't stop working as long as it is on your arm. Because there are no batteries to change, the watch never has to be opened up. That eliminates the need to have O-rings (the weakest link in all sorts of underwater gear including cameras, regulators and scuba tanks). There is a downside to being self-winding. Without a battery there isn't enough energy generated by arm movement alone to power a watch light, or fire up an audio alert. The need for a light has been reduced in the Swiss made watch by the use of powerful luminescent materials. In the half-light of a dusk dive, the watch hands are hard to see without a flashlight, but in full darkness the hands and minute markers positively shine. According to TAG Heuer, the watch's luminosity lasts for up to eight hours in total darkness before it becomes unreadable. On a night dive, though, just briefly shining a light through its scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, keeps everything glowing. Battery driven dive watches often include audio alerts to mark time and signal the end of a deco-stop. Hanging onto a line at 15 feet in current with a mitt full of camera gear, I appreciate a watch that will beep when my safety stop is over. Not all divers agree, when I posted a question on Rec-Scuba, a popular Internet dive chat service about audio beeps, several younger divers said that they would never use an "old fashioned" dive watch that made noise. Maybe it is a question of age. The TAG Heuer is certainly aimed at experienced young male divers. The Autograph is too heavy and large to be worn by most women. And, the size of the minute markers on the watch face can only be read on the surface, by young eyes or with glasses. Underwater, thanks to the magnification of the dive mask, the watch is easy to read. There are four hands on the centre dial of the watch the minute and hour hands and two chronograph hands for minutes being timed. When moving through the different decompression levels, the diver sets the chronograph and, thanks to the pushbuttons that are functional to depths of 500 meters, can view at a glance the number of minutes elapsed. Be warned though that because the four hands are on the same stem, there can be momentary confusion when the safety stop hand disappears underneath the elongated real-time hand. Another remarkable innovative feature of the 2000 Aquagraph is an ultra-secure unidirectional turning bezel to mark dive times. TAG Heuer has developed a unique autolock turning bezel system that avoids any risk of the diver turning it accidentally in one or the other direction. Thus, even if his arm hits a rock, the reference points cannot be thrown out. It takes some practice to master the bezel's autolock underwater (forget it if you are using drysuit gloves) however, once you know the trick it is a very impressive feature. The watch performed flawlessly in warm water boating, diving and snorkeling trials. For Canadian waters the watchband can be expanded to accommodate bulky dry suits. The biggest drawback of the watch when used in the Great White North? I was with a well-heeled newspaper publisher, a successful trial lawyer and a TV host at the bar of the ultra expensive Morton's Steak House in downtown Toronto. When our table came ready, the bartender who had been admiring the watch came over and looked me in the eye. "That's the nicest dive watch I've seen in weeks," he gushed as he handed me the bill! New suit line in Canada Pinnacle will be formally introducing its full line of wetsuits, drysuits, boots, gloves, hoods, bags, and belts at this year's DEMA Show, in Florida. The company began selling its line in North America in September.
At DEMA, Pinnacle will be displaying its full line of products, but expects most interest in its patented Merino lining system. Merino adds warmth and comfort to a wetsuit without adding thickness or buoyancy. Independent scientific testing shows a 35% increase in effective insulation over standard wetsuit linings. This makes a 7mm suit as warm as a 9.5mm suit, without the increased cost, buoyancy, and restriction of movement associated with a thicker suit. For more information about Pinnacle and Merino go to www.PinnacleAquatics.com or by calling 925-606-8300. In Canada Cross Country Parts Distributors Ltd, of Calgary is distributing the line. They have vast experience in marketing diving gear in Canada and are distributors of other international brand name products. For more information contact them at 403 235-5454. New warehouse and offices Cross Country Parts Distributors has recently moved to new premises. The move will enable the crew at the facility to better serve the needs of the diving industry and community. Their new address is 2235 27th Ave NE, Calgary, Alberta, T2E 7M4. Phone 403 235-5454. |
Pinnacle has been designing, manufacturing, and selling products in one form or another since the late 1960s. The company began as a local manufacturer in New Zealand and since has developed dozens of products for OEM manufacturers and claimed over a dozen international patents. For the past few years, the company has been making its own products and selling them in key markets in the Southern Hemisphere. Now, re-christened Pinnacle Aquatics, the company is entering the industry's larger market.