Executive Summary: Does anybody know of a cheaper place than Oceanic Safety Systems/Terry to get the cylinders for the FRV Mk II? Looking for 38 grams of CO2, 1/2" threads and manufactured to be punctured (weaker top)
Full Story: Hi, I use the Freedivers Recovery Vest (FRV) mark II when snorkeling and doing recreational freediving alone. (I know it is not optimal with regards to safety but it is a lot better than without!) I use the surface minder mode, that is I have to press the button on the remote 15-30 seconds after surfacing from a dive. Works fine, but the thing is I typically forget this about every time I go diving.
This means I spend a lot of cylinders. Since I normally dive shallow (less than 10 m) and I'm mainly concerned with black out at the surface I have even cut back on the cylinders, against the advice in the manual, and normally only use one cylinder (and one old to prevent flooding) when diving. Even so it cost me about 11 USD every time I forget. The price of a cylinder is about 9 USD from Terry/Oceanic safety systems, but with shipping to Sweden and VAT and customs and what not, I get to at least 11.
I tried to set my dive watch to beep 15 seconds after surfacing, that saves me sometimes but most often I don't hear it. The times when I forget it, I am normally distracted by something, so my focus in elsewhere. Sometimes it inflates because I make a really small dip just to look under some rock or something shallow, and I don't feel I really made a dive. Once or twice it has inflated because I didn't press the button hard enough, it needs a good push, and there is no tactile feedback from when it is pushed with gloves. Of course I should check the green light feedback, but sometimes I have me eyes on something else... I did try REALLY REALLY trying to remember, and this works for 40 dives sometimes, but then...
So, where can they be bought cheaper? Preferably in Europe, but US is OK but means more shipping, VAT and customs. Or does anybody have a smarter way to remember pressing the button? =)
Full Story: Hi, I use the Freedivers Recovery Vest (FRV) mark II when snorkeling and doing recreational freediving alone. (I know it is not optimal with regards to safety but it is a lot better than without!) I use the surface minder mode, that is I have to press the button on the remote 15-30 seconds after surfacing from a dive. Works fine, but the thing is I typically forget this about every time I go diving.
This means I spend a lot of cylinders. Since I normally dive shallow (less than 10 m) and I'm mainly concerned with black out at the surface I have even cut back on the cylinders, against the advice in the manual, and normally only use one cylinder (and one old to prevent flooding) when diving. Even so it cost me about 11 USD every time I forget. The price of a cylinder is about 9 USD from Terry/Oceanic safety systems, but with shipping to Sweden and VAT and customs and what not, I get to at least 11.
I tried to set my dive watch to beep 15 seconds after surfacing, that saves me sometimes but most often I don't hear it. The times when I forget it, I am normally distracted by something, so my focus in elsewhere. Sometimes it inflates because I make a really small dip just to look under some rock or something shallow, and I don't feel I really made a dive. Once or twice it has inflated because I didn't press the button hard enough, it needs a good push, and there is no tactile feedback from when it is pushed with gloves. Of course I should check the green light feedback, but sometimes I have me eyes on something else... I did try REALLY REALLY trying to remember, and this works for 40 dives sometimes, but then...
So, where can they be bought cheaper? Preferably in Europe, but US is OK but means more shipping, VAT and customs. Or does anybody have a smarter way to remember pressing the button? =)
