You won’t find any color LED display here, or air integration, or four-gas switching. So what do you get with the Leonardo? As it turns out, exactly what it promises: a simple design aimed at new divers “or those who just want to dive.†The nearly 2-inch-wide screen has an uncluttered display that’s easy to read, with large characters and no head-scratching abbreviations. The dive screen displays current depth, NDL, max depth, dive time, battery level and temperature, while the alternate shows gas mix, PO2 setting and conservatism factor. There are audible and screen warnings for deep and safety stops (although no safety-stop timer) and for approaching deco. An ascent-rate indicator uses an ascending stack of arrows to get the point across, and there’s an oxygen-toxicity bar graph and alarm. The one-button menu navigation is simple — press to toggle or advance; hold to enter menus or select. Since it moves in only one direction, you sometimes have to do a fair bit of pressing, but even the newest diver won’t get lost in the menu. You can program nitrox up to 50 percent, PO2 from 1.2 to 1.6, altitude, and three levels of conservatism (in our chamber dives, the Leonardo was among the most conservative in this batch). The Leonardo might be too basic for some divers, and we wish it had a safety-stop timer and a stronger backlight. But it delivers what it promises at a modest price for new divers or those who want simplicity. The Cressi Leonardo is our Best Buy in this category
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It’s the bane of all divers. We want to go down, but the inherent buoyancy in our wetsuits, our BCs, our lungs and our fat cells are all conspiring to keep that from happening.
To overcome the force of buoyancy you have to counterbalance it with ballast weight. The question is, how much? While the answer is different for every diver, the goal is the same: carry enough weight to enable you to function efficiently and safely at all depths, and not an ounce more.
Divers are generally taught to define this as being neutrally buoyant at 15 feet deep while wearing an empty BC and carrying a nearly empty tank. But how do you get there? There’s the basic ballpark method--carry 10 percent of your body weight in lead. Or there’s the surface float method—in full scuba gear, load enough weight to enable you to float with the water at eye level (some would say at the hairline).
But rather than just blindly piling on the lead, why not break it down to find out why you need to carry the weight you do, and what specifically you are counterbalancing. By deconstructing your buoyancy status, you know exactly where your counterweight needs are greatest, and that might reveal ways to reduce the amount of weight you ultimately have to carry.
Click Continue Reading to read how:
from Undercurrent magazine
I’VE BEEN CAPTIVATED BY THE OCEAN SINCE EARLY ADOLESCENT YEARS.
I can still remember sitting in our family den glued to the TV watching ex-Navy frogman Mike Nelson surfacing to the Argonaut after tangling with dangerous villains underwater. “Sea Hunt†was both inspirational and entertaining. Nelson’s underwater adventures were nothing short of “otherworldly.†Five or so years later my new weekly television highlight became “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.†Never missing an episode, I dreamed of someday meeting Jacques Cousteau and going on the Calypso. The former I did; the latter, alas, I did not.
Click Continue Reading on migrating from Diving to Serving
In 2014, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added a whopping 221 new plant and animal species to our family tree, enriching our understanding of Earth's complex web of life and strengthening our ability to make informed conservation decisions. The new species include 110 ants, 16 beetles, three spiders, 28 fishes, 24 sea slugs, two marine worms, 9 barnacles, two octocorals, 25 plants, one waterbear, and one tiny mammal. More than a dozen Academy scientists--along with several dozen international collaborators--described the discoveries.
Proving that there are still plenty of places to explore and things to discover on Earth, the scientists made their finds over five continents and two oceans, ventured into remote caves and descended to the bottom of the sea, looked in their owns backyards (California) and on the other side of the world (Africa). Their results, published in 64 different scientific papers, help advance the Academy's research into two of the most important scientific questions of our time: "How did life evolve?" and "How will it persist?"
"Biodiversity scientists estimate that we have discovered less than 10% of species on the planet," says Dr. Meg Lowman, the Academy's Chief of Science and Sustainability. "Academy scientists tirelessly explore the unexplored regions of Earth--not only to discover new species, but also to uncover the importance of these species to the health of our natural systems. Our findings help to sustain the future of life for our children and grandchildren. Even in our own backyards," she adds, "new discoveries abound!"
Click Continue Reading for the new species found in 2014
Christmas Tree Schooner by Charles Vickery. (Courtesy of the Clipper Ship Gallery, La Grange, IL)
On a drizzly, overcast day in late October 1971, Milwaukee scuba diver Gordon Kent Bellrichard was surveying with sonar the bottom of Lake Michigan's west coastal waters off of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Bellrichard was searching for the Vernon, a 177-foot, 700-ton steamer that had sunk with only one survivor in a storm in October 1887.
Local fishermen described an area to Bellrichard where their nets had snagged on previous occasions as a potential site to search. His sonar made a promising contact, and he descended to what appeared to be a well-preserved shipwreck resting in an upright position on the lake bed in 172 feet of water.
Upon reaching the wreck, his jury-rigged dive light promptly malfunctioned, leaving him blanketed in murky darkness. Without light, he surveyed the wreckage by feeling along its hull. Bellrichard quickly realized that he had not discovered the larger, propeller-drive Vernon, but the wreck of the elusive Rouse Simmons, a 205-ton, three-masted schooner that had disappeared beneath the waves in a winter gale in November 1912.
When Bellrichard surfaced, he lay in his boat and yelled for joy. His discovery ended a mystery that surrounded the fate of one of the most legendary ships, and its much-loved captain, to sail Lake Michigan's waters. For Bellrichard had discovered the grave of one of the most famous "Christmas tree ships" and its skipper, "Captain Santa."
