Scuba Diving Article
Latest in High-Tech Scuba Gear
From Dive Computers to Global Positioning, Scuba Diving has gone well beyond your basic mask, fins and aqualung. Here then are some of the latest gizmos and gadgets in a dazzling array of High Tech Scuba Gear and accessories.
Dive computers probably more then any scuba diving innovation of the last few years have revolutionized diving, practically eliminating the need for dive tables. Worn like a traditional dive watch a dive computer senses depth throughout a dive and therefore gives a much more accurate profile of a dive then a dive table, which can only draw conclusions based on the deepest point of your dive, and does not take into account the amount of time spent at that depth. The increased accuracy of the Dive Computer safely increases your bottom time. Over the course of a several day dive trip a dive computer can actually safely add hours to your bottom time.
Not only have high tech devices like Dive Computers been added to the "gear bag" traditional scuba gear itself has received a High-Tech Makeover - like the CompuMask - a dive mask that features a "heads-up" display like that worn by fighter pilots. While not obstructing vision the CompuMask features a LCD in-mask panel that displays critical dive data such as current depth, elapsed time, cylinder pressure and dive time remaining. There is also a whole series of computer software designed just for divers that allow information from dive computers to interface with and be stored on your PC creating digital Dive Logs. Even swim fins have gone high tech with sleek designs and improved materials that increase comfort, speed and mobility with less physical effort by the diver. Buoyancy Compensators, or BC or BCD have also improved dramatically - most specifically with the rear inflation design which allows far more freedom of movement, and still the necessary lift and surface positioning of traditional front inflating BC. There are even BC's that have been designed to specifically conform to the unique elements of the female form.
Improved technology in underwater digital cameras has opened up the world of underwater photography to many more scuba divers. While there were always inexpensive disposable underwater cameras or housings that could be bought for surface cameras - to get really good underwater photos, you needed to pay a lot of money for sophisticated gear best left to the pros. Not any more. Underwater digital cameras that take phenomenal pictures can be had for under 500.00 that have many high-tech features and are rated to 180 feet or more. Probably one of the greatest high tech toys available to the scuba diver is the Dive Vehicle or Underwater Propulsion Device. Scuba diving with an underwater vehicle or Dive Propulsion Vehicle decreases strain and increases dive time, as you cruise along effortlessly beneath the waves. Dive propulsion vehicles can be the familiar "torpedo" type held out in front of the diver, or there are dive scooters that one or two divers can sit and ride upon, and perhaps as an homage to James Bond or maybe even George Jetson, there are DPV's that can be strapped to the tanks on the scuba divers back, or Jet Boots, initially designed to help those with disabilities dive, that propel the diver along in a genuinely fun and Sci-fi fashion.
