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"Revival Vest"

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Yes, the CO2 is certainly an improvement - you could never reach the same lift force with compressed air as with the liquid CO2. And all that despite much smaller dimensions of the vest. With the lift force still capable to rescue a diver from 100m, the vest should be perhaps considered also as an option for freediving competitions. When not for the athletes, then at least for the safety divers.
 
Bill McIntyre said:
I've been diving about 60 years. I know I shouldn't dive alone, but I do.
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Ahh, nice to know that I am not the only ”moron” :blackeye diving alone. I am a loner by nature and love it alone out there, but also, I don’t know anybody in my neighborhood that is crazy about going diving every week. So, both issues accomplish each other, so to say.

I have been reading some of that stuff on that website about the new FRV2 since I am thinking of getting one, but when you are alone out there floating on the surface, because the FRV2 brought you up, you will still be alone and there will be no one to help you getting out of the water, or helping you right there and now with what ever problem you might have – so I am thinking, what is it good for then? Also they dropped the technology where the computer should monitor your heartbeat, so, I don’t know. Maybe it is just a kind of false security?!

In stead of picking your dead body up from the bottom of the ocean, they will have a much more easy task of picking you up from the surface. I personally like the idea of being on the bottom of the ocean when I am dead! (not that I will really care once I am gone)

I am always diving with a safety line to a buoy, so regardless; it will be easy for them to find me!


:t
 
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I exaggerated a bit when I said I dive alone. At my age I want someone to pull the anchor, so there are almost always a couple of other guys in the boat. But as is the norm in Southern California, we spread out through the kelp bed while hunting. Our buddy system is "same ocean, same day." After someone shoots a big fish that wraps up in kelp on the bottom, then he may call for someone to come spot him while he cuts it out. But generally, we can't see the guy down there in the kelp and poor vis.



In the situation I just described, maybe one of my buddies will look across the kelp and see me floating there and come inquire.

But even if no one sees me, I'm floating on my back with my face out of water. Its highly likely that when I take that reflexive gasp, I'll get air instead of water into my lungs and wake up. My chances are sure a lot better than if I'm sinking after a blackout.

And if worst case happens, I'd rather be dead on the surface. I had to help look for a dive buddy dead on the bottom at 90 feet. If it had not been for exceptional visibility, we would never have spotted him. I would much rather he had been on the surface. And while calling his wife from Mexico was the most difficult thing I ever did, it was better to say that we had his body than to say that we had lost him.
 
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Tuboludo, you really should take a course or read a book about the theory of freediving. Or have a look at some freediving competitions. You would learn that the most critical moment, with the highest hypoxia is during the final phase of surfacing. In fact the worst it is when you surface and exhale - the O2 level in blood continues to drop for the next 15-20s. So 99% of blackouts and sambas happen on the surface. A heavy samba is sufficient to kill you when you are alone - you will simply sink, black out, and die, because you are unable to control your muscles. So unless you have a buddy or the FRV that keeps you above the surface, you have no chance to survive.

So already the waste majority of possible accidents do not necessarily involve any blackout under water. Simple floatation device will save you from sinking back when you are unconscious or without motor control.

And if you happen to black out under water, you do not die instantly, so the FRV does not bring up a dead body. The waste majority of blacked out freedivers start to breathe within seconds, once their face is on air. Keeping the airways clear will again save the majority of blacked out freedivers even if nobody is close to help.

tuboludo said:
Also they dropped the technology where the computer should monitor your heartbeat, so, I don’t know. Maybe it is just a kind of false security?!
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The FRV never used any HR monitor. You mistake it for the design study that started this thread that has nothing to do with the FRV. Unlike FRV it is just some fantasy project, and I doubt it will be ever built, not even speaking about all the necessary certificates such a product requires. Unlike that design idea, the FRV is a real, functioning product that passed by very strict and long certification tests, and was approved also by the US NAVY SEALs. It provides plenty of redundancy, and must only rely on triggers that will work when needed, but won't fire false alarms. If you ever used a HR monitor (or other physiological sensors like the "smart fabric" watching your breathing mentioned in the design project), you would realize quickly that it is a nonsense using them for controlling a device that should protect your life.
 
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Thanks Trux. That is really what I meant to say, but you did it so much better.
 
Bill McIntyre said:
.....and poor vis.
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Here in Denmark we have poor visibility too L Decades of high end farming and the production of 20 million pigs annually has ruin our waters (pesticides and shit/urine from the little piggies has fertilize underwater plants etc.)

So I guess you are not really diving alone as you mentioned.

I am very sorry to hear about your good friend.

May he rest in peace!
 
They way I am packing myself, wetsuit contra weight belt, I am super buoyant. I have to use speed/force when I dive in to get my big fins under water before I can propel my self down. I could put on more weight, but I like to be able to lie relaxed in the surface in between dives. With my lungs full of air (I have extremely big lung volume because I have been diving while I was growing up) I am not “neutral” in the water before the dept of 12 meters. At the depth of 10 meters I am still buoyant and will rise to the surface like a cork. So should I experience a SWB I would stay buoyant at the surface – of course I might be with my face down in the water J

When I was teenager and member of a local diving club, I always had to wear an orange life jacket and I have again and again been thinking of getting one. Not so much for being buoyant on the surface, but to help me getting up from the deep in case I get stuck down there as I have experienced before. Very much like a manually operated FRV.

But I get your point and as the “moron” solo diver I am (and I have friends and family too who loves me), I am planning on getting the new FRV2 well knowing it will not take away the hazard that is associated with the freedom of solo diving!
 
I have been studying the manual to the new FRV2 and looked at the pictures, but I can’t figure out where on the body the central unit is placed. Is it in the area behind your neck? Does look like there can be a small conflict between the vest’s lower parts and the area where the weight belt is placed?!
 
Yes, the CO2 cartriges and the electronics are on the back, behind the neck. You can see it well here:



And no, the weight belt does not cover the vest. Freedivers never put their belts on the waist, but on the hips.
 
tuboludo said:
... So should I experience a SWB I would stay buoyant at the surface – of course I might be with my face down in the water
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Hm, did not you just write in another thread that you'd exhale on the ascent if you felt in danger, because you consider it gives you some extra oxygen?

When you black out, you release air uncosciously anyway. It is only when some air gets into the throat that the laryngospasm closes the epiglottis, so if you blackout even on surface, it is unsure whether you remain floating. And of course, as you tell, it is more thasn likely that you'll finish with the face in water, which is sufficient to kill you.
 
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When's I have a buddy along for spearing it's pretty much "same day same lake". Most often though I'm the only one around- not even a boater to keep me company once the boat landings freeze up. Hence my interest in the vest.

Looking through the photos I still don't see how you reset time and depth if the main control unit is on your back and there is no built in wrist unit.

When you talk of exhaling on ascent are you just talking about the last 3 meters? There are many instructors who advocate that. Exhaling on the bottom is another story altogether. Either way, taking a class is a great idea.

Jon
 
Jon said:
Looking through the photos I still don't see how you reset time and depth if the main control unit is on your back and there is no built in wrist unit.
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Removing the wrist unit was necessary to reduce the price, and to simplify the use. All programming is now done prior the dive, directly on the back unit, and you do not change it during the dive session.

I just received the draft of the manual for FRV II yesterday from Terry, but I did not read it yet, to tell you the exact details, but if you are interested, I can send it to you too. Terry should receive the first series of the units from the production at the end of January, so they should be available for sale then.

Jon said:
When you talk of exhaling on ascent are you just talking about the last 3 meters?
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Have a look at Tuboludo's ideas and questions about the exhaling, and the answers of others in this thread: http://forums.deeperblue.com/freediving-training-techniques/18518-exhalation-ascend.html#post898826 (more than a decade old thread reopened by Tuboludo recently at post #13)
 
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I just noticed a mistake in an earlier post and edited it, but I want to point out the change. I said that with my face up, if I took a breath I'd get air instead of oxygen. That must have been puzzling.

What I meant to say was that I'd get air instead of water.

And I wrote that at mid day while I was stone sober.
 
trux said:
Removing the wrist unit was necessary to reduce the price, and to simplify the use. All programming is now done prior the dive, directly on the back unit, and you do not change it during the dive session.
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Good point. With the original unit, I did change the trigger time now and then depending on how I was feeling, but I guess that won't be possible with the new unit. I guess I'll have to pick a time before going in the water based on my usual dive profile. If I find that I'm really worse than usual, then I'll have to take the vest off reduce the trigger time.

I would think it would be possible to do that in the water, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.
 
trux said:
Yes, the CO2 cartriges and the electronics are on the back, behind the neck. You can see it well here:



And no, the weight belt does not cover the vest. Freedivers never put their belts on the waist, but on the hips.
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Ahh great, behind the neck and don't worry I have my weight belt on my hips
 

I haven’t been in a dangerous situation for many, many years and you already explained to me in another post, that my idea of getting extra oxygen by exhaling is crazy! And since I take your advice and knowledge very seriously, I will never use this technique again!

I have tested my buoyant in the surface by trying to empty my lungs as much as I can, and I still stay buoyant at the surface!

:thankyou
 
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trux said:
Removing the wrist unit was necessary to reduce the price, and to simplify the use. All programming is now done prior the dive, directly on the back unit, and you do not change it during the dive session.
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I think this is great! The less “fuzzywuzzy” (this is a home made word) hanging around on my body when I go diving, the better! :ban

Simple does it!

I bring enough bullocks with me already when I go diving (excuse my French), so for me I really like the simplicity of the FRV "part 2" (and lets face it, if they wanna sell as many of these vest as possible, the price needs to be right too)
 
Bill McIntyre said:
I guess I'll have to pick a time before going in the water based on my usual dive profile.
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I think four minutes is a good time. Most dives will be within four minutes and I don’t think four minutes will fry your brain. You could set it at three minutes, but that might catch you by surprise on one of your good dives. Ahh, just a thought. I personally will go with four minutes as a default – less “fuzzywuzzy” to think about
:ban
 
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