This weekend I hit up Jackson Blue and got two, hour long SM dives in on Saturday. I made it all the way back to the first T on the gold line on the second dive, all on 6th's. I started the dive with only 2000 psi in each HP 119. This was my first chance to try out my new Nomad JT and new HOG regs. I wanted to torture test the HOG regs, so I purposely dragged them through the sand in the basin a bunch, while I was tweaking the JT and tanks. The regs weren't anywhere near as good as my old Scubapro MK25/S600, but they didn't once stick on me or free-flow. They did the job great, especially for the price point they are at. The JT had perfect trim right off the bat, I added some Armadillo style bungees instead of the crappy Dive Rite ring bungees/tank chokers that came with it. The flow was almost non-existent and a bunch of idiot GUE guys were in the cave doing whatever they do. On deco with no flow was nice, I didn't have to wedge myself in a corner or hang onto a rock for dear life on my 20 ft O2 stop for 15 minutes.
The NACD Rebreather Summit on Sunday was a blast, except the part where I drove from Marianna the night before and slept in my car at a rest area. Most of it was based on the new(ish) recreational rebreather market, not as much on rebreather cave diving. I did get to ask a lot of good questions to the training agencies and manufacturers which was nice. I got to get my hands on the Prism 2, KISS GEM, and the Pathfinder. The Pathfinder looks leaps and bounds better than any other unit on the market now, I am excited to try one soon.
After talking to the guys from KISS and ISC, I have decided on making my HammerHead into a mCCR with dual O2. I am basing it off Brett Hemphill's KISS.
