What’s New

MARES XR SIDEMOUNT

Mares has various options for those looking to venture into the world of sidemount. The Sidemount Pure Light Bladder in the XR range is ten litres in capacity, and is made from 1200D ‘bulletproof’ ballistic nylon and 600D polyester exterior, with a black polyurethane inner air cell.

The Sidemount Heavy Pure Bladder is 16 litre capacity, and made from the same durable materials. Both have a fully modular trim - cave, open water, and wreck - amd there are no bungees to compress the body. There is no camel or cake effect with the pre-shaped internal bladders, allowing perfect flat trim. They have a reversible low-profile dump valve and two-speed K-style inflator, and knobless puller. Both of the bladders can be combined with a harness and either stainless steel or aluminium plates to create the Heavy Pure Sidemount Set or the Pure Light Sidemount Set. www.mares.com

This anodised aluminium torch, which comes complete in a hard case containing the torch itself, lantern-style handle, batteries and charging station, is depthrated to 150m and pumps out an impressive 3,500 lumens. It has a 14 degree beam, from four XML2 U2 LEDs and one VG65 (red correction) LED, and at 100 percent power has a burn time of 120 minutes. What’s the ‘red correction’ about? Well, according to Best Divers, white LEDs are very efficient, and the light has very good properties and good penetration, but it gives very poor reproduction of red colours – that is where the Aldebaran comes in, with the red LED lighting them back up again. www.bestdivers.it

FOURTH ELEMENT HYDRO-T RASH GUARDS

Fourth Element have always been at the forefront when it comes to utilising recycled waste in their products, and the Hydro-T rash guards use 27 percent recycled polyester which is derived from plastic bottles – in fact, approximately four recycled plastic bottles go into each Hydro-T! Designed for use in or out of the water, these loose-fit rash guards give you room to breathe, while the lightweight fabric wicks away moisture. They have a UV Protection UPF of 50+, and are ultra-quick drying. Comes in Ice Blue in long and short sleeve variants, and then Baltic Blue for long sleeve, and Azure Blue for short sleeve. The short sleeve have small logos front and back, the long sleeve has a huge Fourth Element logo emblazoned across the back. www.fourthelement.com

Girls That Scuba have spent the last year working on something huge behind the scenes and have launched the very first scuba-diving discount platform that offers money off hundreds of dive centres, liveaboards and brands worldwide – exclusively for GTS members. With over 140 dive centres across the globe each offering ten per cent off your diving bill, 250 liveaboards offering five percent off trips, and tons of brands discounting everything from wetsuits to jewellery offering up to 20 percent, there’s no reason to pay full price again! The Girls That Scuba Membership card is available to members for a one-off fee and entitles the holder access to a private online platform - forever - where the user can find discount codes unavailable anywhere else that can be used an unlimited amount of times. Members will also be the first to hear about GTS trips and have the opportunity to book before they are released to the general public - another great benefit when their latest group trips have been sold out in just over 24 hours. Membership costs a one-off £54.99, which if you’re saving five percent off a US$2,500 liveaboard means you’ve immediately made your money back. Girls That Scuba have done the math and reckon that an average diver could save up to US$600 a year if doing their purchasing, holiday booking and dive wear buying through the platform. www.girlsthatscuba.store/pages/membership

FANTASEA HOUSINGS

71 Fantasea have been producing well priced but durable camera housings for years, and now they have released a flurry of new products. The FG7x II was specially created for the Canon Powershot G7 X Mark II digital camera, and the FG7x III was designed for the Canon G7 Mark III digital camera. Both are made from polycarbonate and depth-rated to 60m, and the FG7x III can be fitted with an optional vacuum safety system which contains both a pre-dive vacuum check and an on-dive leak detector. Then there is the FRX100 housing, which is designed for the Sony Cybershot RX100 III, RX100 IV, RX100 V and RX100 VA. Again, it is depth-rated to 60m, and it can be fitted with the optional vacuum safety system. www.fantasea.com

* = check pricing with local suppliers/centres in your area

Test Extra

AQUA LUNG LEG3ND

Mark Evans: Aqua Lung’s Legend series has been around for many years, first appearing in the line-up back in 2002, with a Mark II version in 2012. Each time new technologies were introduced into the regulators, which always scored highly in our challenging group tests.

Now the Legend – sorry, it is now the Leg3nd – is back, but the line-up has been cut back to just three regulators. The Leg3nd (available with matching octopus), the Leg3nd MBS (available with octopus), and the top-of-the-line Leg3nd Elite (available with an octopus, pressure gauge and bag).

Designed and built in France, all three have the same ‘family’ resemblance – well, they all have the exact same first stage – and as you move up the price range, you get extra features and addi-tional detailing on the balanced second stage, but I have to say, all three are good-looking units.

The chromed overbalanced diaphragm first stage offers total environmental protection, giving it phenomenal coldwater performance, and the new heat exchanger, which has a bigger surface area and a co-moulded end cap, gives it excellent resistance to freezing. It has two high-pressure ports and four low-pressure ports, which are positioned to give optimum hose-routing. It is equipped with Aqua Lung’s ACD (Auto Closure Device), which keeps corrosive water out of the first stage inlet by automatically closing as the reg is removed from the cylinder valve.

On all three second stages, the soft co-moulded purge button is effective and easy to locate and operate even with thick neoprene gloves, the Comfo-Bite mouthpiece is still one of the best on the market in my opinion, and the co-moulded exhaust tee efficiently vents exhaled bubbles ei-ther side of your face. All three come with the over-sized lipshield, which helps keep your lips warm (it is removeable if not to your liking). It is not just all looks, though – there is a method to the design. The cover of the second stage features side openings, and these help reduce the inhale pressure peak by 20 percent.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE REVIEW!

The Leg3nd is equipped with a co-moulded venturi control lever, which is big enough to find and move when you are wearing thick gloves, though one of our testers did have to take it out of his mouth to look at where the lever was before operating it. This helps to prevent freeflow at the surface, or when the reg is out of the diver’s mouth.

The Leg3nd MBS has, as the name suggests, Aqua Lung’s Master Breathing System, which allows the user to fine-tune the breathe through one control knob. This one control does two functions at one time – it controls the direction of air, which alters the venturi effect, as well as changing the cracking resistance effort. This fell to hand very easily, even with thick neoprene gloves or drygloves on, and was simple to operate. The Leg3nd Ultra has a venturi lever and a cracking resistance control knob, for complete inde-pendent control over the ease of the breathe. Again, regardless of thickness of exposure protec-tion on the hands, the controls were easy to use, especially the cracking resistance control knob. In use, all three of the Leg3nd regulators breathed exceptionally smoothly, and it required min-imal effort to start inhaling, especially with the MBS and the Ultra when you fiddled with the MBS knob or cracking resistance control. We put the three units through our usual rigorous testing procedures – breathing them in all positions, purging them extensively – and excessively – underwater and on the surface, and regardless of what we subjected them to, we could not get any of them to freeflow or be even-remotely troubled in single-digit conditions. www.aqualung.com

AN APEKS MTX-RC STAGE 3 REGULATOR WORTH $1,500AUD

Scuba Diver Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans recently reviewed the brand new Apeks MTX-RC –and now we have one to give away to one lucky fan! To be in with a chance of winning this fabulous regulator, simply log on to www.scubadivermag.com/mtx-rc-competition/ and follow the instructions.

You can read Mark’s full review on www.scubadivermag.com or in the December issue of Scuba Diver, but here is an excerpt:

“The MTX-R breathed fantastically well, but Apeks were swift to realise that not everybody needed a regulator that was tuned to perfection to deal with extremely cold water use – and thus the MTX-RC was born. Effectively, the MTX-RC is an MTX-R (without the militarystyle laser-etching on the front) but with the addition of a venturi lever and a cracking resistance control, which allows the user to finetune the performance to the conditions they are diving in, or for their own personal preference.

“As well as the aforementioned venturi lever and cracking resistance control, the MTX-RC is instantly recognisable from its stablemate thanks to its subtlebut-effective grey-and-satin-finish colour scheme. “In use, the MTX-RC provides a sublime breathe. With the cracking resistance dialled fully open and the venturi set to ‘dive’, inhalation is effortless and silky smooth, regardless of orientation, but in situations where you need to temper this performance – in extreme cold water, for instance, or if you were using a powerful scooter, you can increase the cracking resistance, which in its highest setting is more akin to the original MTX-R.”

YOUR DIVE DATA’S NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD.

NEW GALILEO ® HUD ™ HANDS-FREE COMPUTER

Introducing the revolutionary mask-mounted, hands-free dive computer with a virtual, fl oating heads-up display, giving you more freedom to experience your dive.

scubapro.com

Test Extra

APEKS WTX-D30

Mark Evans: Apeks are world-renowned for their regulators, but they also have a wide range of harnesses, buoyancy cells and accessories in the WTX and WTX-D series. The modular nature of these ranges mean that each component can be configured into a highly technical rig, or scaled down for a more-travel-friendly set-up.

Backplate-and-wings were once seen as being very technical pieces of kit, but that mindset is slowly starting to change, and now you see more and more recreational divers wearing them. I love a back-inflate wing, as it leaves the front of you nice and uncluttered, and if you can add a set of integrated weight pouches, you have a clean, compact and streamlined BCD perfect for use in cold waters or as a lightweight travel rig for when you head off to warmer climates.

The set-up I had to test from Apeks comprised the onepiece webbing harness, stainless-steel backplate, D30 air cell, twin GripLock tank cambands, and SureLock II integrated weight pockets and attachment accessory pack.

Let’s talk about the D30 wing first. Singlecylinder wings, often referred to as ‘donuts’, are oval-shaped air cells, which bolt on to the backplate/harness of your choice. Apeks’ singlecylinder wings have a neat design which allows your cylinder to nestle deep inside them, so in use the cell sits tight up along either side of the cylinder, there is no loose material flapping about. This is very streamlined when you are in a horizontal ‘trim’ position, and it also provides a very stable platform when you are diving, with minimal roll, as the air can continuously move

THIS YEAR ESCAPE THE ORDINARY.

Test Extra

APEKS WTX-D30

around within the cell. The D30 has 30lb of lift – hence the name! – and that is more than enough for most recreational divers. The wing is not too big for use in a travel environment, but still good for UK use. If you really want to go compact, there is also a dinky 18lb-lift air cell too. It is made from 1000D Armourshield Cordura, so is very durable and hard-wearing, which is what you want if you are going to be ferreting around in wrecks, etc. It has a flat dump valve positioned on the lower left side, facing your back, so it is a doddle to drop your hand down and back behind your waist and you can find the toggle with no issues, even wearing thick neoprene gloves.

This D30 was paired with a stainless-steel backplate, that was threaded with the one-piece webbing harness, which features neoprene shoulder protectors over the 5cm webbing, a heavy-duty stainless-steel buckle, six stainlesssteel serrated retainers, a 5cm-wide crotch-strap, and six 5cm D-rings. I personally prefer harnesses with ‘breaks’ on the shoulders, as with normal BCDs, so you can just slacken or tighten accordingly. I find one-piece harnesses a pain in the backside to wriggle in and out of. However, there is no getting away from the fact that once you have got the Apeks harness properly adjusted, it is extremely comfortable in use. It holds the backplate tightly in position, and there is minimal movement both topside and underwater.

This set-up was completed with Aqua Lung’s tried-andtested SureLock II integrated weight system, which can take 4.5kg of lead per side. That’s more than enough for travelling divers, and should be enough for many coldwater divers, depending on what drysuit and undersuit they are using. It was attached to the backplate via the SureLock attachment system, which bolts the pockets securely in place. There were useful stainless-steel D-rings on the outside of each pocket, as well as grommets for attaching any of the Aqua Lung knife range. I like the SureLock II system – you get a welcoming ‘click’ when the weight pouches are slotted into position properly, and they only release when you get hold of the handles and give them a good, hard tug. www.apeksdiving.com

KUBI DRY GLOVES ICELANDIC WOOL THERMAL INNER GLOVE

Mark Evans: Diving in cold water is not for everyone, but there are a hardy bunch of British divers who continue to dive even when the temperatures plummet. You can combat the cold with a decent undersuit and drysuit combo, and a thick hood, but one of the biggest gamechangers in recent years has been the development of drygloves. Now drygloves have been around for quite a while, but past versions were, to be frank, a pain to use. They were bulky in the shallows, and even at depth dexterity was compromised, but now it is a different matter, with user-friendly and efficient efforts from the likes of Santi, etc.

KUBI are past masters when it comes to drygloves, and the KUBI DryGlove System has become immensely popular with both recreational divers and technical divers for its ease of use, and the ability to alter the amount of thermal protection. KUBIs have a rubber dry outer glove that is tough and durable, but very thin, and so any thermal protection comes from the inner glove.

KUBI offer a wide range, from their standard thermal gloves, through the mid-weight Sub Zero Factor 2 glove, to

the Merino wool and alpaca gloves, which are both supersoft and extremely warm – perfect for very cold conditions. These latter two have now been joined by high-quality knitted 100 percent Icelandic wool gloves, which are unbelievably warm.

I have got factory-fitted KUBI versions on my Otter drysuits, and a set retro-fitted to my Fourth Element Argonaut, and over the years I have tried virtually all of their glove offerings. I have to say, the Icelandic wool versions are the warmest I have sampled yet, even surpassing the alpaca and Merino wool. They have a nice, dense feeling when donned, and I think this helps keep the warm concentrated on your hands. My fingertips are always the first thing to go, and in the past, at the end of an hour or so in low single-digit conditions, they are starting to go numb, but with the Icelandic gloves, my hands were still toasty warm.

They are also excellent as day-to-day gloves, keeping my hands nice and warm while walking the dog on frosty winter mornings! www.kubistore.com