Posts by Rick:
Why you should Rock a Rubber Suit!
March 17th, 2010Trelleborg AB is a multinational industrial company based in the town of Trelleborg, Sweden. Historically they produced a variety of rubber products; including tires, boats and assorted leisure goods. However, these products are now available far cheaper from Asia and so Trelleborg, instead, focuses on advanced products such as protective suits, high-pressure vaults, and specialised tubes for submarines and airplanes. From their own History page:
Trelleborg products are found in a wide variety of contexts worldwide. They seal, damp and protect, both in everyday settings and under extreme conditions.
A Viking wearing a Viking: Robert Hedin, Commercial Diver
If, like my friend Rob, you are a commercial diver (or indeed a hazmat, military, fire & rescue or law-enforcement diver), then you will likely be intimately familiar with at least a couple of Trelleborg’s range of Viking Drysuits, as these are now the industry’s standard. They are impermeable, durable suits that can be used in a wide range of environmental conditions where there exist set standards for safety—they are extremely abrasion-resistant, will protect a diver from any contaminants in the water and can be easily washed down and decontaminated afterward.
If, on the other hand, you are simply diving for pleasure and not intending on exposing yourself to any toxic waste, you should still be aware of the existence of vulcanized rubber suits*, particularly those with the Swedish Viking brand and specifically their old Sport and new ProVSN drysuits. The EPDM rubber of these suits is amazing stuff. If you cut one of the suits across its seam, you will see that there is actually no seam: the manufacturing process bonds the two separate layers so that they become one, which for you and I means… no leaks!
Viking Sport Drysuits
During the 1980’s Trelleborg introduced their Viking Sport drysuit, aimed at light technical and recreational divers. Although similar in appearance to their red and black commercial siblings, they are made from a lighter-weight rubber. These are no longer in production but can be purchased reasonably cheaply secondhand and, unlike crushed neoprene suits from the same era, will require little repair beyond new neck and wrist seals, if any, to get them back in action. Any repairs that you do need to make are as simple as patching the hole in the inner tube of your bike tire and can even be done hastily and temporarily in the field.
Viking ProVSN Drysuits
Towards the back end of 2009 Trelleborg released their new Viking ProVSN drysuit. I can’t say enough good things about these suits. The armatex nylon layers that sandwich the rubber central layer are stretchy and create a great-looking, comfortable suit that is available in front and back entry versions, with a variety of customisable features. Perhaps the only drawback of the suit is that the outer layer is permeable and so it is “problematic to decontaminate”—for most though, that is unlikely to be a problem.
What’s this about The Vulcans?
Vulcanization is a process best explained by someone else! So here is a link to a Google search: What the hell is vulcanized rubber?! The process makes rubber more durable and as far as a drysuits go this is great news; not only are vulcanized rubber suits incompressible (and so do not become less buoyant with depth) but they are also extremely hard wearing.
Who doesn’t like to see fellow human beings wearing rubber (or is that just me?)
Popularity: 11% [?]
Drysuit or BC for Buoyancy? BC of course!
December 13th, 2009
When using a drysuit divers will need to add air to their suit on descent to avoid the accompanying, potentially painful, squeeze that is explained by Boyle’s law and the associated increase in pressure. Since drysuits themselves provide little or no thermal protection, insulating underwear is required to prevent hypothermia. This underwear needs a certain amount of loft to be effective. So, as well as adding air to avoid squeeze, divers must also add air on descent to maintain loft and remain warm.
All the air added should be there solely to equalize the compression that occurs with increased depth – the diver is equalizing the airspace inside the suit in order to remain comfortable and warm.
Additional adjustments may be required for buoyancy control and these should be made by adding air to or subtracting air from… the Buoyancy Control Device (whether that is a traditional BCD or a bladder/wing).
Drysuits should not be used for buoyancy control – they are suits that keep you dry whilst Buoyancy Control Devices, well, they are just that.
Popularity: 5% [?]
What’s the difference between SSI and PADI? Part 1
October 29th, 2009Since PADI is “The way the world learns to dive” and a ‘PADI course’ has become synonymous with what is actually an entry-level Scuba certification, being an SSI instructor, I have necessarily developed a concise stock answer to this article’s title-question.
In this short series of articles I will be exploring in detail what the differences are; to dive operators and dive leaders as well as (potential) students and divers in general. In this first article we will take a look at the beginnings of the agency. Knowledge of the early days is essential in understanding SSI’s current policies and will even shed some light on the birth of the dive training industry as a whole.
When Scuba Schools International came into fruition in 1970, its founding members had all previously belonged to the National Association of Scuba Diving Schools (NASDS), a retailers’ association.
PADI at this point did not issue certifications and, as its acronym suggests, was an association of instructors, not retailers. The only other viable certifying agencies in existence were NAUI and YMCA, both of which had very similar anti-sales philosophies, in line with their not-for-profit status; they viewed themselves as purely educational bodies that actively discouraged instructors from selling equipment in the classroom context. They taught people to dive, period.
SSI developed with a view that teaching and equipment were not separate entities. While training is most important, SSI’s view is that divers can’t be truly successful unless provided with both the training and the tools to go diving — dive stores are seen as the perfect environment to provide this equipment, along with the air fills, trips and dive experiences that divers need. Furthermore, there is noone better suited to control the quality of training than those with the most to lose — the dive facilities. SSI was and always will be a dealer organisation.
The aim is to have a network of SSI Dealers that provide professional Scuba Schools with an internal system of checks and balances.
The owner/manager is a director of training who customises SSI training courses to fit the needs of the local market and monitors staff to provide the highest quality training possible. To the dive instructor this means that one must be affiliated with a dive store and conduct training through that store in return for access to pools, training materials and facilities, travel opportunities, and employee training in equipment sales and service. To the Dealer this means trained, sales-oriented employees and the ability to maintain a desired level of service.
What does this mean to the average diver or student? Honestly? Not much. There are good and bad dive shops all over the world; operators with integrity and straight-up fly-by-night cowboys; great instructors and total dickheads, regardless of agency.
You will read in many places and hear from a variety of sources that it is the instructor that matters, not the agency. Although this is often true and I agree with the sentiment to a certain degree, there are some marked differences in the training you might receive — what you learn and the way it is taught.
How SSI differs in this respect will be the focus of my next article.
Popularity: 3% [?]
