technical diving Archives

The Backplate: Foundation of Technical Rigs

The metal backplate has become the standard for many technical divers over the past few decades. Even though many new divers are told that diving with a metal backplate is the only way to dive by their instructors and friends, many are unaware of the history surrounding this piece of...

Trip Report: Plura Cave, Norway

In early March 2020, Lamar and I joined a group of friends from Dive Rite Mexico to dive Plura Cave in Norway. Plura landed on my dive site bucket-list when I saw the premiere of Diving Into the Unknown at Eurotek 2016. Though the film surrounded a tragic accident, I was intrigued by the pristine...

Gradient Factors

By Matti Anttila, Ph.D. Remember your first diving classes and the lesson about bubbling soda bottle and too rapid ascents? No matter how deeply you study the decompression theory, this soda bubble analogy is still valid. However, it’s time to introduce some more fundamentals of the issue. But let’s start from the history: HISTORY Decompression theory...