[Stavros]

Hallo all
dear land-shark the idea you suggested would work probably as well as a normal counterweight with a slight advantage of speed. The only problem is that you wouldn't e pulling the diver/sled straight up but at an angle. So instead of dragging the diver 180m+ upwards you'd end up dragging them over a much larger distance (+time).

A far simpler solution we've used is to have the dive line going through a pulley with the other side attached to a small boat ready to lift up the whole line+sled+diver. This works well if you combine it with an accurate sonar which can monitor the diver's descent arrival and ascent (so you know if everything is going according to plan). We have been doing some testing this way but the problem is it requires a lot of infrastructure (two boats and a minimum of a 4 person team every time you dive)

Although in theory this doesn't seem like a lot for NLT dives once you start trying to arrange it with a freediver's budget you quickly realise it is not very easy to have such setup every time you dive.

So the solution now seems to be powered counterweight systems...they work - they are expensive - they are heavy - but its an one-off investment.

So thats the new thing...(tested a couple of weeks ago and works nicely)

Later on today we are trying out the new sled...its going to be interesting.

Cheers Stavros