By Eric Herbert
AquaCorps – The Journal For Technical Diving is the bible for hardcore divers who are into cave exploration, salvage diving, and record breaking. The journal is full of technical information (hence the word "journal," as opposed to "magazine") about cutting-edge equipment such as highly accurate dive computers and microprocessor-driven gas-mix controllers.
A recent issue covered closed-circuit (aka C2 or rebreather) diving systems, in which, unlike traditional scuba gear, expired air is re-processed to remove carbon dioxide and reuse oxygen.
A regular section titled "Incident Reports" contains highly detailed accounts and analyses of international technical diving fatalities and near-fatalities. The descriptions of the incidents read like underwater physics experiments gone awry. For example: "A diver mistakenly switched his 'labeled and color-coded' oxygen regulator instead of EAN 36 at his 90 fsw (28 msw) decompression stop following a 25-minute exposure to 210 fsw (64 msw) conducted on trimx 17/50. The diver 'seized' approximately four minutes later at his 70 fsw (21 msw) stop during the mix training dive and spit his regulator out of his mouth." (He survived, but can't remember much of what happened during his dive.)
Because computers are essential tools for technical divers – both for planning and conducting dives -
computers and their diving applications, such as computer video-image digitization for mapping shipwrecks and software that generates custom decompression tables. Net access helps aquaCorps keep in touch with its readers and the research community, and it helps to organize the tek.conference – aquaCorps's annual technical diving forum. In addition to a new wave of rebreathing systems, new products seen at the tek.conference include a VR cave-diving system and "hard suits" that provide the diver with a constant-pressure environment, yielding extended bottom times of 8 to 24 hours. For vacation divers like me, aquaCorps is part wish list, part chemistry book, and part looking glass. But for technical and hardcore sports divers who live to dive and dive to live, aquaCorps is as essential as oxygen. aquaCorps: US$49 for four issues. (800) 365 2655, fax +1 (305) 293 0729, e-mail 73204.542@compuserve.com.
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