Freedivers safety vest in development

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Spearos,

I though you might be interested in alink for more info onthe freedive vest. Terry send this to me and I offered to post it. I have seen this vest andhow it works and want to be one of the first customers when it comes out. It is a great product in the developent of making our sport safer.

Aloha, Daryl


Please follow this link for a
new study of shallow water blackout and information on how the vest works.
Note that while I am an enthusiastic supporter of the freediver's vest
concept, I have no economic interest in the company, nor do I plan to in
the future. http://www.freedive.net/swb.htm

Terry Maas

 

[jimdoe2you]

Daryl,

Will you have one of these vest with you when arrive to scout with Sheri in April? (Presuming it is being produced by then)

Jim

 

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Jim,

It would be nice to have one to use in April, but the Freedive vest is still in the design and testing stage. It is being tweaked here and there and the Applied Ocean Specialties team of Jason and Chip are working as hard as they can on it. This project is a labor of love and one they feel will benefit everyone in our sport. There will be hours of field testing to do and Terry and the team will keep us informed as the project moces toward the final product.

Aloha, Daryl

 

[Jon]

Daryl,

Any idea of a 'Ball Park' figure on how much this is going to cost? Is it going to be a $500 item or a $1000 one?

I firmly plan on getting one either way- I just want to know how much I need to set aside.

Jon

 

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha John,

I don't know how much it will be once the vest is ready for the market. I do know that Jason and Chip are not in it for the money. It will probably be priced to be competitive with similar vests such as the sospenders type inflatable harness's. I have six on my boat. They are great in that they are small and can be worn as standard boat wear when fishing.
The vest is still in the testing stages and it will be a while before it hits the market. Its great to see that there are so many who can see the benefits of this freedive vest.

Aloha, Daryl

 

[yugyug]

after reading the article by terry maas I had some thoughts. I posted them on spearboard but as yet no one has approached. Perhaps they are a bit silly, or I don't understand the mechanisms well enough, (i am not a highly experienced freediver) but can anyone here comment on the following:

+ what about accidental inflation or inflation in a dangerous location i.e a cave. Not being able to descend again even temporarily could be a problem because of cave overhangs. I suppose that not many divers are going to be still in a cave at the vests auto-inflate time, but if you were, can you quick release it/deactivate the inflation?

+ is 10 feet enough depth to avoid an oncoming boat? If you surface and have to quickly dive again becasue of a boat, Mass' article states the vest will allow you to dive to 10 feet before triggering (as part of its surface blackout function). So what if its a big boat, or you misjudge your depth, you've misjudged the time to dive slightly because who are bit freaked out by the oncoming boat, and the vest triggers while you are underneath the propellers? I understand this would be a rare situation, but still....?

generally though I think this is a neat idea and look forward to it in use.

 

[mattymatt]

If accidental inflation were to occur, you could just stick the vest with your knife. Just a thought.

 

[yugyug]

you're right. not elegant, but thats what knives a for.

 

[Erik]

Regarding caves and boats, common sense balanced with bravado (or stupidity) need to be adhered to. You want to freedive deep into caves? Go ahead. If you were deep in a cave (more than 10 metres in :head ) and this vest inflated by accident, you would easily be able to walk your way along the ceiling with your hands-- there's just not that much lift, especially at depth.
If you're diving around lanes that are used by boats that have a 10' draft ( :head ), you should have a float and have some situational awareness, ie: "Look around and notice if there are huge boats headed in my direction before my maximum 2 minute dive".
Both of those scenarios are rare and the chance of that vest inflating accidently at that point ...well, I'm no mathematician.

Scubadivers use complex equipment that has many failure points, with a tiny percentage of injuries/death occuring due to equipment failure. 3 reasons come to mind- first, scubagear is put together very well for the most part- second, we train and practice on how to deal with an equipment failure-third, we dive within our limitations and training.

I'll take my chances that if this ever did accidently inflate I'd be brought to the surface and at most pissed off that I missed a fish rofl
Peace,
Erik Y.

 

[Fondueset]

pull string dump valve

 

[Jon]

If you read through the whole article it states that it should not be used in any overhead enviroment.

Still waiting to see if I need to take out a second mortage on my house to buy one. If they really are as cheap as a fancy life jacket I just might have to buy two.

Jon

 

[jimdoe2you]

That's very kind of you Jon, .............I'll give you my mailing address! :t

 

[efattah]

Suppose you black out and the vest brings you up, and you're either alone or your buddy is out of range or away. What are the chances that you will actually wake up on the surface? I have witnessed many bad blackouts in competitions where artificial respiration was required in order to revive the diver. In particular, air flowing over the nose is an important factor to waking up. With the vest, you are still wearing your mask upon surfacing. I would think there is a serious chance that you will simply never wake up, and you would just die from brain damage anyway.

If your buddy is around of course he could come and revive you (take off your mask, breathe on your nose or do artificial respiration). But if you don't have a buddy you may be out of luck in the case of a bad blackout (probably okay for a minor blackout).

 

[Fondueset]

Biggest danger is putting too much confidence in it for sure. Have to come with a pretty extensive disclaimer for sure.

 

[Hypersquid1]

what is swb?

 

[Bill McIntyre]

what is swb?

Shallow water blackout. If you haven't heard of it, you are in great danger as a freediver. Read either of the books by Terry Mass.

 

[yugyug]

Regarding caves and boats, common sense balanced with bravado (or stupidity) need to be adhered to. You want to freedive deep into caves? Go ahead. If you were deep in a cave (more than 10 metres in :head ) and this vest inflated by accident, you would easily be able to walk your way along the ceiling with your hands-- there's just not that much lift, especially at depth.
If you're diving around lanes that are used by boats that have a 10' draft ( :head ), you should have a float and have some situational awareness, ie: "Look around and notice if there are huge boats headed in my direction before my maximum 2 minute dive".
Both of those scenarios are rare and the chance of that vest inflating accidently at that point ...well, I'm no mathematician.

Scubadivers use complex equipment that has many failure points, with a tiny percentage of injuries/death occuring due to equipment failure. 3 reasons come to mind- first, scubagear is put together very well for the most part- second, we train and practice on how to deal with an equipment failure-third, we dive within our limitations and training.

I'll take my chances that if this ever did accidently inflate I'd be brought to the surface and at most pissed off that I missed a fish rofl
Peace,
Erik Y.

nice answer - I figured the chances of those situations I described being pretty low, but thanks for thinking them through.

 

[David Biron]

Two years ago after the death of Gene Higa at US Nationals 2004 in Hawaii... alot of spearo's started rethinking safety issues. Many idea's were discussed at which time I thought ... why don't we just combine a Suunto D3 with a Co2 life vest ? I drew up plans and did a patent search ($500 ) only to find out just how expensive product development / marketing would be. I'm very happy there were others on the same sheet of music with the financial means to get through the product development stage. I wish them the best of luck with their commercial venture... the product is long overdue. Would'nt be surprised if it quickly became a required item for competition spearfishing.

 

[Stodelle]

Suppose you black out and the vest brings you up, and you're either alone or your buddy is out of range or away. What are the chances that you will actually wake up on the surface? ....I would think there is a serious chance that you will simply never wake up, and you would just die from brain damage anyway.

Not to be a smart-ass, but I definitely think the chances are much better of you waking up on the surface rather than underwater. Of course there will always be the 'what if' factor, but then again, what if you don't make it to the surface? At least it is one additional plus in your favor. I know the chances of revival are much better with mask off, direct air, etc, but just getting the BO'd diver up and on the surface is a big chance at survival.

*edited: typos

 

[efattah]

Of course you have a much better chance of waking up on the surface than underwater, but the problem is that people start to rely on the vest, thinking that they can 'push' for that fish a little longer because it won't matter if they black out.... the vest will take care of them.... then they reach the surface with mask on, and never wake up. Same thing with the spare air idea.... when you know there is something to bail you out, you go further, deeper, longer, until you die.