Visited the Union Express recently with the Sea Dog Diver out of Pompano Dive Center. It is a good operation and nice dive. I was scooter free diving as usual, this time in almost nil current and viz. around 100 ft. vertically. Happy days!
I was trying out the Zeagle Ascent Free Diving BC for the first time. If you have a power failure below a certain depth you need to abandon the scooter and start your ascent to assure you arrive there in one piece. I reasoned the Ascent BC might allow me to return myself AND the scooter in lieu of abandoning it. It is an interesting system. I actually introduced a bit of air on ascent near the bottom to slightly increase the speed and ease of ascent. You still need to stop at around 15 ft. to listen for boat traffic if there is much around. Also, some like to pause at shallow depth and ascend more slowly to try to avoid DCS issues. I'm still evaluating the Ascent system but is sure seems to be a useful aid to have on board for scooter free diving.
On to the video ...
Video shot with two GoPro WIDE cameras
