Tech diving courses, dives and support in Malta, Gozo and beyond. This channel showcases Dark Horizon's diving, teaching and the underwater world we love so much. It's a mix of marine life, diving skills, cave diving and other related content. Plus a lot of wreck diving footage from Truk Lagoon - quite simply awesome -and a few cave diving videos.
We also share information about our journey with the O'Dive decompression tool, the first Doppler sensor that divers can use right after their dives to analyse and optimise their dive profiles.
Looks like great fun guys half your luck I'm jealous. It's amazing just how low stages actually hang with BM, compared to SM divers though. Cheers guys :)
Yes, it's really noticeable in the video as well. Personally, if I know I need to keep the stages for the entire dive, I try to mount them a little tighter. Does take more time if you're dropping them, though. Decisions, decisions...
This is off Gozo? No way, I never knew! I lived in Marsalforn for 6 months but then I never went diving. Beautiful clear seas as seen in the video. Used to love swimming at Marsalforn.
@@darkhorizondiving Their are three main reasons for the choice. Easy to travel, front mount allows me to use my backplate and wing and the available cartridge which improves work of breathing and no fuss with sorb.
Hi, I don't know. This video was taken in January 2024. I'm just a bit behind on editing. It's called 'Return to Cenote Nariz' because I posted a video of a DPV dive there a few weeks earlier. Sorry for the confusion!
Hi Robert, thanks for asking. There are plenty of different ways of backing up your bungee. Paracord around the neck of the cylinder and a double ender or bolt snap would work, for example. This is simply one way to deal with this problem, assuming you have a prepared spare bungee with you.
Well, compared to other areas, the Mediterranean is not exactly known for having a lot of fish. There's potentially been too much fishing, but then it's had to argue with people whose livelihood depends on it.
@@darkhorizondiving yeah I get it sometimes we all have to like when on holidays. Never by choice IMHO though heay ;) Cheers guys and keep up the great content!
The irony of wreck dive: we're diver enjoying and grateful so much for the existence of wrecks over the unfortunate loss of life and properties of other people.
Well, in this case, there were no lives lost. The wreck was scuttled deliberately to create a place for training and an artificial 'reef' for divers to explore. Here's a link to more of the Karwela's history: maltadives.com/sites/mvkarwela-xattlahmar/en. But you're right, of course, many shipwrecks tell very sad stories.
Hiya I have a silly question about the frontmount RB diver @0:12 - is that isolator valve missing its knob, and assuming its OPEN, what scenario is this dive that you would take ~5,000lt of a single bailout gas pls? Cheers and loving the images its a holiday at my desk!
Hey, not a silly question at all, and I guess I need to give some more context here. First of all, this is a private fun dive between friends rather than training or anything else. The diver had recently completed his Triton course and wanted to try the rebreather with different types of bailout configurations. So ... the isolator valve is closed because there is air in one cylinder and a deco gas in the other. The handwheel has been removed to avoid accidental opening/mixing. Both cylinders and regulators are labeled to avoid using the wrong gas at the wrong depth. Why not take out the manifold completely then? Because this was a trial to see how hose routing and other things would work before going to the (somewhat larger) effort of dismantling the twinset. Now for the 5,000 lt question - maybe you've seen some of my Kiss Sidewinder videos? Taking the Sidewinder into long but not necessarily deep caves would warrant that volume of a single bailout gas, for example, because you may not be deep and have a deco obligation that requires a higher O2 concentration, but you may be far from the exit and need to cover that time.
@@darkhorizondiving Awesome, that make total sense. Love youre work and thank you very much. I'm starting down the sidewinder path but a long way to go yet. Only recently gave my bands away and now clipping my steels to my new Stealth 2.0 - never going back I'm loving it. Cheers!
@@asecret900 Geat, glad it makes sense. There are many different ways to handle bailout. Anyway, I'm actually getting ready for a Sidewinder dive this morning. Shout if I can help with your 'Sidewindering' at all.
I did last year. The first time was certainly more entertaining than effective, but as people have said below 👇 after some practice and probably changing the technique (I wasn't in cold water long enough to really work on perfecting it) to a degree, it's possible.
@@darthknowl9222 I'm tempted to say 'where's your sense of adventure?' But you're right, most things need a re-think when you head from warmer to colder waters.
In my opinion and others. Complete deployment of the long hose during a S drill is unnecessary and could probably lead to other issues. It's very time consuming especially with steel tanks and thick gloves. A better choice would be a partial deployment with a visual buddy check to ensure correct routing.
You know what - I agree. At the start of an actual dive, with thick gloves, and perhaps even stage tanks, it would be a time-consuming exercise. In fact, you would maybe choose to unclip the cylinder and bring it forward. Now, during a course, I teach the entire skill because it increases opportunities to practice. I also now teach stowing in a team vs on your own. At the beginning of dives, I use the partial deployment method. So, where does that leave us? The video was filmed in Bali, no gloves, warm water, aluminium tanks only - all making it easier to perform this drill. Over the past few years (note the video was posted 4 years ago), my diving and teaching has developed, both with different environments and influences from other divers and instructors.
@@darkhorizondiving Funny you should say that. I practice complete long hose deployment and restow with steel tanks quite often but on an actual dive I never do it, even with aluminum tanks in warm water I only do a partial deploy with a team inspection. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6l1vioRpSCM.htmlsi=ltYmkXyux63dtVEQ
Hi Roslina, I guess that depends on your diving experience, training and what you're comfortable with. The diver shooting the video is a cave diver and has spent hours underwater working out what space is acceptable and when things become too small. Even when you're in a group of divers and considering going in a space like this (this was filmed coming out), you can always say no and continue the dive on the reef outside instead. 😃
Glad you like it. In this video, I am using a cam band with triglide and boltsnap. Now, I am mostly using metal clips (jubilee clips) and a boltsnap. Favourite boltsnaps are those made by XDeep, easy to use with and without gloves. Does this help?
@@darkhorizondiving definitely! Any advice from you is always helpful and really appreciate it v much.. But apologies for my incomplete question.. I was asking about what you use after you tidy up your long hose and shift the right post to your rear D ring. Do you use an extra bolt snap and from which part of the tank valve do you clip it from?
Ah, toward the end of the video! In this case, there is a boltsnapprepared around the neck of the tank on a thick bungee. If you feel the boltsnap would get in the way during the dive, you could always prepare a cord / bungee around the neck and bring a spare double ender
Looks a very nice dive! Just out of interest, how deep is the wreck and what sort of size is it... similar to say the Markgraf, or more like Dresden or Karlsruhe in Scapa?
It is a very nice dive indeed. As for Scapa comparisons, it's been more than a decade since I dived there, so I'd rather give you Fumitzuki facts than real comparisons. At 38 m to the seabed, the Fumitzuki is a little shallower than the large Scapa wrecks. You'd spend most of your time between 30 and 33 m. The whole wreck is just around 100 m long but nowhere near as large as the merchant ships. That's good and bad - if you find the merchant ships overwhelming, this is a little easier to grasp and spend time on details. On the other hand, you could say there is less of a 'wow' factor, but that's really subjective!
Sure. The reason behind blowing bubbles is to avoid lung overexpansion. That can only happen when you're ascending without breathing continuously (or blowing bubbles when there is no regulator in your mouth). If you are stationary in the water column, blowing bubbles would decrease your buoyancy and you would sink. So, why teach new divers to always blow bubbles? Because we expect new divers to absorb a lot of information within a few days, in most cases. Trying to understand the finer points of buoyancy may be a little much for some. But when you are looking to finetune your diving skills, then it's time to think about why you're blowing bubbles and when. So, to summarize, if you are neutrally buoyant in the water column - not going up, not going down - then there is no reason to blow bubbles. That doesn't make it wrong to stick to the habit - it just means that you will need to correct your buoyancy once again.
You could definitely tidy up the hose. Clipping the cylinder to the back d-ring would also work, BUT it would sit at a different angle. How different and what angle would depend on the gas and the type of steel cylinder you're using. Sorry for the vague answer!
@darkhorizondiving it's ok lol I understand, that's technically a full answer, all things considered 😅. I'll be diving 12Lx232bar, Air. So I'll assume they will have a heavy bottom and sink. It might actually be better in some cases.
@@TheAMGReviewers I'm afraid the answer is still 'it depends.' Here's an example: I have a set of 12 l 232 bar steel tanks with a concave bottom. They're super convenient because they stand by themselves, but they're heavy in the water, and they remain heavy throughout the dive. I also have a set of 12 l 232 bar steel tanks with round bottoms. Those are about 0.7 kg lighter than the concave-bottom tanks, and they act a lot more like aluminium tanks in the way their buoyancy characteristics change throughout the dive.
Another great video Yvonne. Not sure if it's just the viseo not picking it up, but I couldn't make out if there was a line you were following? Was there?
Never ever do you want to find yourself in a cave without a continuous guideline back to the surface, whether it's a line you lay yourself as you're exploring or a line that others have laid in an already explored cave. So, in this video, you can see the shadow cast by the line in the bottom left quadrant right at the beginning. After about 10 seconds, you can see the shadow of the line in the bottom right quadrant. Once you see it, it becomes easier to find, I think. It's actually one of the toughest things about taking video during a cave dive to watch the line, avoid missing markers, while staying on top of a rebreather - oh, yes, and also trying to shoot a decent frame! 😅
Good video! I'm a new diver and just bought the avatar as my first drysuit. Loved the drysuit, fits perfectly! But finding difficult to set the Santi dry glove system on it - after having it all set, the glove does not seem very fixed in the suit (too easy to disconnect and having leaks). Any recommendations?
Hi Isabela, glad to see you liked the video! Now, I use the smart seals with dry gloves, and I found that adjusting the position of the external riing on the sleeve makes a difference for me. Even moving it by a millimetre or two made the gloves go on easier, and they stayed on, too. Other systems might have a safer connection, but that often means they are harder to put on.
unnecessary workload with dsmb...that's why you shouldn't dive doubles in a neoprene wetsuit in the first place. not to speak of decompression dives. utter stupidity.
Hi Andrew, thanks for your comment. The first thing I want to say is that I don't think it's necessary to use that sort of language to get a point across. Aside from that, have you done much technical diving in tropical destinations? In places where outside temperatures are around or above 30 C and sea temperatures even at depth can hover around 28-30 C, many technical divers opt for wetsuits over drysuits to avoid overheating. (Yes, there are other ways to mitigate those risks, but using a wetsuit is one of them.) Which then leaves you with options including a dual bladder (this adds potential additional failure points as well as backing up your buoyancy control device) or a liftbag / DSMB. Of course, you could deploy the DSMB all the way to the surface and just hang from it. Personally, I don't like the strain on my shoulders and elbows over a long period. All of those add to the diver's mental and/or physical workload.
Apologies for the late reply, this one must have slipped the net. So, I'm not sure what made you put this comment on this particular video, but I feel the need to address helium below 40m. As a community, technical divers today understand the higher risks associated with diving dense gases. Density increases as we go deeper, and there is plenty of evidence that dives start failing when divers breathe gases exceeding a density of 6 grams per litre (that's air in the high 30 m range).
Well, they're not intended for cave diving, given the material is extremely thin and light. With that said, I've dived them in the caves of South Sulawesi and Mexico, and the suit did well there, including restrictions. So, if your goal is to have one cave diving holiday, then the Avatar should do that. If, however, you're looking for a suit that will do day in, day out cave diving and instructing, plus gnarly entries, I would look for something more sturdy. Hope this helps.
@@darkhorizondiving Honestly, it’s for light caving once or twice a year with no serious restrictions, tourist caving really. I can’t deal with big bulky suits and this seamed to fix the mix!
@@jonahmarsden it sounds like it could work well for you, then. Make sure to keep it away from the sun as much as possible to protect the material. Also, in case you're planning long dives, I successfully had a pee valve installed on mine.
Have you tried different V weights? The only reason we didn't on this occasion was that we wanted to be able to adjust without dismantling too much. Especially because the diver normally dives a heavier type of steel cylinders and thicker undergarments, so some adjustments were needed.
@@darkhorizondiving Hey guys thnx for the reply. Yep I got there in the end, but here in AU we have to either a) pour our own, or b) import from EU... otherwise we can only buy weights for wide-bands. Cheers!
To be fair, he looks pretty horizontal to me, slightly head up on helicopter & back finning , ok the stage could do with streamlining but to say his trim is being sabotaged is harsh.
Hi Carl, first of all - 'she' - women also tech dive ;-) The stage is mounted with a classic stage rigging kit rather than employing bungees. It's also not full which further changes its trim.
