It has been slow recently, but it’s a creative work and I can’t haste it. Primary and probably the only reasonable application of this torch will be for UW films and photos.

Video is a bit psychedelic, but I was more in to getting altogether working well than taking a clip of my life while risking it :)

• Ice cold sensation on my shoulder could mean that my back zip is not tight and dry suit is becoming a wet one :)
• Light in no visibility conditions still provides very useful psychological support as being under ice, in no visibility, with leaking dry suit is much more comfortable when you have that horny orange ambient illumination.

As for no visibility, check it out yourself:

It was shortest and probably richest in experience single dive. Those several minutes were worth whole day effort as I learned a lot. :)

The only “civil” diving organization then was DOSAAF (Voluntary Society of Assistance to the Army, the Air Force and the Navy). As I’m noticeably younger than this clip I can only assume that it was under strict supervision of KGB. Pretty much just like everything back then. :)

Enjoy.

Test itself is quite obvious from the picture: you make a hole in ice, and descend your gear to the bottom (in that place we had ~ 49 meters) and while you wait: do the barbecue stuff. While we were doing that one fellow came to check if everything is ok. You got to admit – fire in a middle of the lake in the evening – not quite typical activity even in our savage latitudes. Keeping in mind that it was middle of the working week and parking lot is about 1 km away.

Next hydraulic challenge for my V2 was 59 meters with me accompanying but that’s a different story :)

That was the beginning. Method was reliable and easy to use, yet, very expensive, long lasting and limited as luckily we don’t have ice all year round. I’ll share with you what I do now.

I’m very grateful for the ones who already trusted me and purchased one of my V3’s. if you are thinking about getting one too you had to ask yourself: how can he be so sure that it’s watertight and it won’t malfunction during 2 year period? I made a short clip how it its checked for water and pressure tightness.

P.S. There is a disclaimer in a video and I’ll repeat once more: hydraulics and pneumatics is not a toy. Hardly noticeable details (damaged bolt, wrong type of hose, readily preset to HP gas regulator and many other) may yield very sad outcomes up to coffin. Please look after yourself and don’t play with it: I know the fact how 8 bar pressure killed a man, trust me, 20 – 100 bar is even more effective in that.

Shortly about anodizing itself: except the obvious – aesthetic value, anodized aluminum poses another, I would say vital, property – mechanical and chemical resistance. Anodized surface is nothing more than thin layer of corundum which is noble stone under other common names like sapphire or ruby regarding additives in chemical structure.

To summarize: owning a V3 doesn’t mean you got yourself only a die hard underwater light, it also means you got yourself a light covered in gems. Fancy isn’t it? :)

Tomas was like frantic in water. Needless to say that he was doing that without fins at all. In the beginning it looked a bit odd, however later on I realized that it’s much more comfortable when you need minor trim and position adjustments in no time as girls underwater have some limited time and you need to work fast. Hope you’ll enjoy it.

As for camera performance: decide for yourself.
That day we had numerous activities: Vytis and Aidas were training for Voronya – Kruber cave, Tomas had one more UW photo session and I was testing camera and doing a little bit of everything.