The First Annual Kalipso Dive Shop Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest.

Well here it is October already and the pumpkins are popping up everywhere, even underwater these days.

My dive shop, and notice I call them MY dive shop, and not the local Dive Shop. A local dive shop is someplace you go on occasion to browse dive equipment. My dive shop is where I go to get great gear from close friends that know what you need and like, and give ya a good ribbing while you’re there too. But to be fair, I do deserve it I am a ball buster and love a good joke (My wife is still laughing at Tim’s Prank). So no harm no foul I guess, right?

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Just Another Day at the Beach

Well here is another dive day. This Saturday we figured we would head down to a little place called King’s Beach in Newport RI. We figured we would head here for some Spearfishing action since this is the spot where the U.S. Championship Freediving Spearfishing Tournament is going to be held. I mean how could you lose at a spot where the Championships are held right?

Well here is how. First what you need to do is wait until the perfect hurricane forms off the Florida coast, then wait till it kicks up a notch or 2, then head down to your favorite spot and watch visibility drop from 0 feet to a negative number. I know it seems impossible, but trust me, been in New England all my life, good visibility here is a myth. Yea yea, we sometimes get 10 – 15 feet and once in 2 years now I seen visibility hit 20 – 30 feet. Was the best dive I ever had too, but on average, you’re lucky if visibility hits 5 – 10 feet on good days. Some dive spots are notorious around here for poor visibility in the summer months, like Fort Wetherill, King’s beach, our coastline in general.

You see, a lot of people don’t realize a few things about Rhode Island (not an Island, it’s just its Name) for instance that here, we get the Gulf Stream just about touching our shore line. This means that yes we have warmer water then the two states next door on average, but it also means we have less visibility. You see, when a hurricane or tropical storm forms on the Atlantic Ocean, the gulfstream is always in its wake. This kicks up debris in the water and that fast moving, warm current, Gulf Stream pushes all the debris right into our shoreline. So if we even hear of a storm of any type “forming” in the ocean, we know we’re in for a tough time.

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Poseidon announces manufacturer’s error

There seems to be a manufacturing error on the inner bladder that is mounted in Poseidon W50 wings, that causes the seam that holds the two inner bladder halves together, to break, making the wing unfit as a floating device.

It seems to be inner bladders marked with batch number 5445 (see picture above) that is effected by the manufacturing error.

These inner bladders have been mounted in W50 wings sold during the period: 2007-09-16 – 2008-06-10.

To check if you have an inner bladder effected by this manufacturing error, do the following:

Between the two ´legs´ of the W50 wing, there is a zipper. Open this zipper.
 
You should now see the inner bladder. Between the two ´ legs´of the inner bladder, there is a tab with the article number, batch number and manufacturing year.
 
If the batch number on this tab reads 5445, the inner bladder might be defect.

If there is an other batch number, then the bladder is not effected by this information.

If you have an inner bladder from batch no 5445, Poseidon recommends that you DO NOT dive with the wing, until the inner bladder has been replaced!

Poseidon Diving Systems AB will replace all W50 inner bladders from manufacturing batch no 5445.  Anyone who has an inner bladder from manufacturing batch 5445, to contact the dive store where you bought your W50 wing as soon as possible, so that your W50 bladder can be replaced.

Unfortunately, the manufacturing error was not detectable at the quality control that each inner bladder is put through prior to delivery.

Poseidon Diving Systems apologizes for the inconvenience this is causing and hope to replace the blades as soon as possible.