Inserting a mouthpiece underwater and drawing air from it under stressful situations without inhaling water must be an intuitive and mechanically simple process. To get an understanding of where a mouthpiece should be kept, I prototyped a modular support system by modifying upper Shoulder & Spine supports to as a foundation for the system.

These supports would serve both as varied anchor points for a potential mouthpiece location as well as talking points for where other parts of the system might be kept, and how the whole product may be worn through a series of dynamic watersports.

I chose to 3D Print a domed series of friction-fit joints for 5mm dowel, and a mouthpiece frame to connect to the other end.  The various mounting locations, lengths of dowel and angled joints when combined provide the test subject with a lego-like experience of creating their own ideal mouthpiece location, learning in the process by testing & iterating their idea.

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I began user testing by going back to Tynemouth Surf to talk to Tom.

His process was really interesting as he immediately picked up the Clavical Support, thinking it would be his easiest choice but realised after putting on the Shoulder Support that this made it much easier to bring the mouthpiece close when putting his hand to his head – his common wipeout position.

Tom began by putting on the Clavical support, saying that it would feel more balanced when paddling in the surf. He implied that the shoulder support would add too much weight to one arm and affect him in the water.

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Tom immediately noted that he would like to see a prototype with a centrally positioned mouthpiece, to compare to the side-mounted versions.

Interestingly, we quickly realised that if Tom needed to access the mouthpiece anywhere on this harness, his mobility was so hindered that he was required to use his hands to move it to his mouth. This is an immediate red flag for my design process – inserting a mouthpiece underwater must feel natural, so we moved on to the shoulder support to compare the results.

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The shoulder support showed a massive difference in mobility of the mouthpiece, whilst maintaining a tucked-away position when not required. Positioning the mouthpiece on the upper shoulder allowed Tom to rapidly bring the mouthpiece close when needed. He was confident that this was a much better solution which would not affect his paddling too much, as long as it was kept on the upper shoulder and not lower on the arm.

Tom agreed that to keep other volumes stored on the harness, the clavical support offered the most stable area (directly on the spine) as opposed to the shoulder support, which offered a less stable foundation.

After speaking with Tom I went to meet Kevin Anderson, to get his insights in relation especially to Coasteering – a target market for my product concept. His experience in other various watersports is what drove some key insights, building on the progress made in the session with Tom.

 

Kev tried the harnesses in  the opposite order, and agreed that the shoulder harness offered more mobility of the mouthpiece, making it much easier to access in an emergency.

Kev agreed that to keep such things as an inflatable structure and air supply on the harness, the clavical support offered the most stable area (directly on the spine) as opposed to the shoulder support, which offered a less stable foundation.

Some interesting insights included the need to have the mouthpiece removable once accessed. Without this ability, a user is immobilised whilst accessing the air supply. To provide a user with full mobility whilst accessing the air supply is vital.

Key insights from those sessions:

• Mouthpiece could be kept on upper shoulder to enable better access
• Clavical Harness offers better support for product volumes.
• Mouthpiece must be detatchable once accessed

Source: http://divemagazine.co.uk/kit/7709-compressed-air-snorkelling-deathtraps 

This article provides interesting insights and criticisms from experienced Divers of the Scorkl and Minidive, two compact pony cylinder & regulator combinations.

 

Some key design criticisms include:

“a pressure gauge mounted on the mouthpiece which can only be read by removing the device from your mouth”

“The Mini-dive’s harness will at least help to prevent its loss, but the Scorkl has no security straps. If it falls out of your mouth, your air supply is gone”

“The Mini-dive’s user manual, for example, states that you should ‘NEVER stop your respiration during your descent or ascent.’  But not until page six.”

“Experienced scuba divers would have no problem using these devices safely, but that is not necessarily the market at which these devices are being targeted.”

They are all promoted as a ‘safe’ alternative to ‘expensive’ scuba diving, with no training required

Since neither product comes with a depth gauge, there is no way for users to accurately judge their depth or ascent rate.

Pre-exisiting medical conditions may have an effect. The consequences of an exercise-induced asthma attack at 10m while using compressed air are potentially severe. Scuba diving medicals used prior to training are mostly self-assessments, but they do go a long way to preventing complications underwater

Whilst all of these critcisms are on the basis of the products being a direct attempt at minituarising and simplifying SCUBA equipment, they highlight what especially to avoid during my design process.

Design Insight: The relationship of an air supply with a bouyancy aid whilst in operating use could potentially render the solution useless as a SCUBA product. If a buoyancy aid must be triggered before air is supplied, the user cannot submerse themselves and so put themselves in danger.

These insights highlight how important it is (when designing a product in this area) to consider the dangers of marketing & designing such a product as a SCUBA alternative. Prolonged submersion in water requires training and experience which no product manual can make up for, and lives are at stake. Nevertheless, the need for compact emergency air supplies in lifesupports is evident across several watersports. Whatever air supply may be involved in a product solution, it must consider these highlighted flaws and design around them, rendering such disastrous safety hazards impossible whilst providing a key short-term air supply when needed most.

Therefore: the user is someone seeking a compact, effective, reliable and innovative life-supporting product for use in a wide variety of watersports. 

The user is not, and cannot be someone who wishes to experience SCUBA without proper training.

The hazards this product area poses to a user are too great, and directly contradict the original motive of the project: A Lifesaving device for waterports.

The article also highlights some key air consumption data relating to compact scuba systems: “A  half litre tank pressurised to 200bar means you have around 75litres of air to breathe before you hit 50bar. Air consumption is difficult to measure but the average tidal volume (the bit we breathe in an out during a normal breath cycle) of the human lung is 0.5l, and the average breathing rate of an adult is 12-20 cycles per minute, and so in theory, it would be possible to breathe from these devices for 12.5 minutes.

But those figures only apply to healthy adults at rest. The added exertion of swimming alone could easily reduce that figure by half. Taking breaths of 1.5 litres, 20 times per minute, would mean red-lining in 2.5 minutes – at the surface. At 10m, this translates to 1 minute and 15 seconds of air before reaching 50 bar – or 1minute 40 seconds before emptying the tank dry. At the ‘maximum’ depths of 50m or 20m, the air supply is reduced to mere seconds.”

This process lends itself to rapid inflatable prototyping using simple equipment.

It would be an understatement to say that Kev Anderson is a waterman.

When he’s not busy running his Adventure Sports company (offering multiple activities including Coasteering and Kitesurfing) he can be found racing and surfing his SUP all over the UK. His son has just returned from a 3 month surf trip to Indonesia, watersports are a key part of his personal and work life.

“Yeah, I’ve felt short of breath in the water on many occasions”

“I’ve been held down by waves countless times. The worst was when I was in Portugal recently. I was with a bunch of surfers over a reef break, but I was Paddle-Boarding (SUP) and the waves were too big for me so I decided to paddle to the side. Then a massive set came in, I made it all the way through but the last one took me. ”

“The wave was so violent that my Pelvis moved about 3 inches from where it should be. The first wave knocked me off and kept me under for a while, but then the next ones came in right on my head. Eventually I managed to climb onto my board and paddle in using only my arms, as I couldn’t use my legs. After that it was a week in hospital there and week in hospital back home!”

“I had another incident where I was paddleboarding once, and I trapped my leash on the bottom of the river and I was pinned with my head underwater for quite a long time. I’d have to push against the ground, get maybe one breath of air and then go under the water again. That went on for about five minutes, until someone could help me. I was with a group of people, and one person came and helped me. That’s the reason I don’t use a leash on rivers anymore, ever. Sometimes I’ll use a quick release belt, like the ones they use for diving, worn at the waist. Same goes for surfing reefs. If you get pinned under the water its really, really bad.”

“Both this and my pelvis accident happened within the same twelve months, by the way!”

I asked Kev if he’d had ay experience with emergency inflatables for watersports:

“I actually own a ‘Lifebelt’, and know someone else who does as well. Funnily enough I wore mine a couple of days ago for an SUP-racing event, and the organisers allowed me to wear that instead of a lifejacket when I was competing”

“I didn’t want to wear a life jacket, I don’t normally wear a lifejacket but it was the club rules of where I am that I have to have a lifejacket on. This thing is just like a belt, we do a lot of SUP race training and it’s really important to keep everything tucked away”

When it comes to emergency equipment for other sports, Kev makes sure he’s got all bases covered. He owns an Avalanche backpack for Off-Piste Skiing, which operate in a similar fashion to his Lifebelt for watersports.

“When I ski and the conditions are good we’ll [the family] go off piste as much as possible. My son is out in the Alps for a season this year, I’m glad that he can wear this whilst he’s doing it and that he’s safe. If you’re skiing off piste in the alps, youre going to need an Avalanche backpack it’s as simple as that. It doesn’t really get in the way but it is a bit heavy.”

I asked Kev if he’d ever considered looking at small compressed air solutions for snorkelling or freediving:

“Do you know… Thats a really funny thing you should ask! Out of my diving equipment, I have a small pony cylinder. So what I did is I took that pony cylinder and used it with a regultor”

Products such as the ‘Scorkl’ offer an identical experience, with the added abilty to refill the cylinder with a hand pump

“Me and my mates were using a wing, and getting towed behind a jetski. It just means that you can stay down, and skim along the reef in the shallow water. What we did was we had a small pony tucked away somewhere and a regulator, so you’ve got no weight on but you’ve got more air with you, so you can stay down longer on the wing. We filled up the [pony] tank at the local diver centre.”

“Another thing that we do a KA Sports is Coasteering. When the weather gets really good in Northumberland in the summer, we do quite a few swim-throughs. This is where we swim through little caves and tunnels that are actually under the rock, and pop up on the other side. We do quite a lot of that, so there’s always the potential for something to get trapped down there.”

Kev co-piloting a racing boat

“Whilst we don’t have compressed breathing supplies for that, I do know that in the Americas Cup a lot of the sailors now are carrying portable air supplies. Andrew Simpson, the Olympic Gold Medalist, got caught in the rigging as the boat capsized. He drowned, that why now I think all the Americas boats are carrying air supplies.”

“I know about another similar situation, much more locally. Two years ago there was a double downing quite locally. It was a father and a daughter, and their boat capsized. The girl’s trapeze harness trapped her in the rigging, and the father tried so sard to save her that he died of a heart attack.”

Kevin will be a great contact whilst I undertake this project. He has infallible experience teaching and partaking in a wide variety of watersports with both adults and children. His ownership of, and familarity with, inflatable life-saving devices for more than one sport will prove essential to my understanding of this research area. I look forward to meeting him next week, for feedback on my project as well as to see his pony tank & regulator setup.

 

 

Emily is an intermediate surfer

“I’m 18 and I’ve been surfing since I was about 5”

“I live 10 minutes from the sea back home in Devon, so I’ll go every weekend if the swell is right and I have a chance”

“I’d say like 5ft (chest-head height) would be a big day for me. Back home it wouldnt get much bigger than that without being blown out”

“I’ve only been held down once actually. I was surfing the West coast of Ireland near Sligo and it was a really big day. We were going to surf Mullaghmore but it was too big.”

“We decided to go somewhere more sheltered. I pop up onto this wave and just completely stack it. These are the biggest waves I’ve ever surfed . I can’t get out of the water, I’m struggling. I remember absolutely panicking, saying to myself ‘I need to get up. I need to get up. I can’t breathe’. After that I just remember relaxing, and accepting that there was nothing I could do.”

“I’ve never opened my eyes underwater, I’ve never been able to, but this time I did”

“I remember this beautful look of whites and greens. It was just such a beautful moment of me and the ocean. Holding my hands up, like ‘fair play, you got me’. It was just so nice. I got to the surface and I felt reborn, like wow.”

“In the winter at my local, the lifeguards won’t be there. So I’d be surfing without one for 6 months of the year”

“I don’t get scared that easily, I’d normally go with my friends or my dad. As long as I’ve got people with me I’ll paddle out”

 

 

 

To refine focus on specific lifejacket and portable flotation device
qualifications and uses, I looked into both US coastguard and international ISO / CE standards.

The criteria and uses for each category allowed me to narrow my focus to developing a Type V / 50N life support dedicated to coasteering, with wider applications in mind.

US Standards – USCG Approved

Type I: Offshore Life Jackets:

• • Best for all waters; open ocean, rough seas, or remote water, where rescue may be slow coming.  Though foam types are bulky, inflatables ones are not.  They have the most buoyancy, reflective tape, a bright color and can turn most unconscious people face up in the water.  Type I foam life jackets can be uncomfortable to wear while sailing.  Foam type I jackets provide 33 pounds (100 Newtons) of flotation, while type I inflatable life jackets provide 33 pounds (150 Newtons) of flotation.  There are currently no USCG approved type I inflatable life jackets.

Type II: Near-shore Vests:

• • Calm inland waters, where a quick rescue is likely, is the intent of these PFDs. They will turn some unconscious wearers to the face-up position but not all of them. Foam Type II’s are ‘bulky’ and not generally comfortable to wear while sailing, but less ‘bulky’ than foam Type I’s.  Foam type II jackets provide 15.5 pounds (70 Newtons) of flotation, while type II inflatable life jackets provide have 33 pounds (150 Newtons) of flotation.  Type II foam life jacket are usually the inexpensive type stowed on board to insure USCG compliance.  Inflatable Type IIs offer higher flotation and comfort and are popular for wearing at all times.

Type III: Flotation Aids:

• • These are suitable for most sailors where there is a chance for a quick rescue. They offer freedom of movement and the most comfort for a conscious person. Foam type III’s are designed so wearers can put themselves in a face-up position, but they may have to tilt their head back to avoid being face down in water.  Inflatable type III’s generally float a person head back.  Foam type III life vests provide 15.5 pounds (70 Newtons) of flotation, while inflatable type III life jackets provide 22 pounds (100 Newtons) of flotation.  Type III foam life jackets are comfortable and popular for those wearing them as all times.  Inflatable type III’s inflatables offer higher flotation and even greater comfort and are popular for wearing at all times.

Type IV: Throwable Devices:

• • Cushions or ring buoys are designed to be thrown to someone in trouble and provide backup to a PFD. They are not for non-swimmers, rough waters or the unconscious. The USCG does not require these for dinghies, canoes, kayaks.  These are not worn like a life jacket, generally just held onto by someone in the water.  Type IV ring buoys provide 16.5 pounds (75 Newtons) of flotation, and throwable boat cushions provide 18 pounds (82 Newtons) of flotation

Type V: Special-use Devices:

• • These are specialized PFDs for specific activities. To be acceptable by the USCG, they must be used for the activity specified on the label. Varieties include sailing, kayaking, water skiing, windsurfing, hybrid vests and deck suits.  For sailing these generally consist of inflatable life jackets with harnesses, or over the head entry foam life jackets for dinghy sailing.  Type V life jackets provide 15.5 – 22 pounds (70 – 100 Newtons) of flotation, while inflatable type V life jackets provide 22 – 34 pounds (100 – 155 Newtons) of flotation.  These vests will usually be labeled either ‘Type V with Type II performance’ or ‘Type V with Type III performance’.  The label will also specify what specific ‘Special use’ the life jacket is designed for.

International Standards – ISO

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies and has established and recognized standards for life jackets. If a jacket is compliant with their standards it will be marked with ‘ISO’ on the vest and the flotation type.  ISO compliant does NOT make the vest USCG approved.

European Standards (EN) – CE

The CE standard is determined by the European Standards (EN) and is recognized by the European Union and by the European Free Trade Association.  CE compliance is recognized by some 34 member European countries.  If the vest is compliant it will be marked with ‘CE’ and the flotation type.  CE compliant does NOT make the vest USCG approved.

ISO & CE Types

Both types are the same in terms of their buoyancy and generally in features too.

50N – Buoyancy Aid:

Designed for competent swimmers in sheltered water were help is close at hand. They only provide support to conscious people who can help themselves, and are an aid to flotation only.  They have 50 Newtons (11 lbs.) of flotation.

100N – Life Jacket:

For swimmers and non-swimmers in inshore waters. They give reasonable assurance of safety from drowning in relatively calm waters. Not guaranteed to self-right an unconscious user, and should not be expected to protect the airway of an unconscious person in rough water.  They have 100 Newtons (22 lbs.) of flotation.

150N – Life Jacket:

For swimmers and non-swimmers for use in all but the most sever conditions. They give reasonable assurance of safety to people not fully capable of helping themselves.  May not immediately self-right an unconscious used wearing heavy waterproof clothing.  Has 150 Newtons (33 lbs.) of flotation.

275N – Life Jacket:

For swimmers and non-swimmers. A high performance device for offshore and severe conditions when maximum flotation is required or where heavy clothing or tools are worn.  They give improved assurance of safely from drowning to people who are not capable of helping themselves while they cannot be guaranteed to self-right an unconscious person wearing heavy clothing or tools, they should in the great majority of cases.  The have 275 Newtons (61 lbs.) of flotation.

A noticeable difference between USCG approved and ISO & CE types are the 50N and 275N types.  These do not exist in the USCG type categories, and provide a broader range of flotation options.  Additionally, the ISO & CE types do not differentiate between foam and inflatable life vests and the amount of flotation they provide.  USCG approved life jackets have different flotation requirements for foam and inflatables for any given type.When sailing internationally on a noncommercial vessel, foreign countries widely accept life jackets that are compliant in your vessels’ flagged country and do not require compliance with their local life jacket requirements.

Commercial Standards – SOLAS

SOLAS (The International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea) is an international maritime treaty which requires signatory flag states (participating countries) to ensure that ships flagged by them (registered in their country) to comply with minimum safety standards in construction, equipment and operation.  SOLAS compliant does NOT make a vest USCG approved, although many manufacture’s life jackets are both SOLAS compliant and USCG approved.  Recreational boats are not required to have SOLAS compliant life jackets.   SOLAS Type I life jackets generally provide up to 35 pounds (155 Newtons) of flotation.  They are required to have a safety whistle, hauling in/up strap for recovering wearers, reflective tape, an attachment line for joining to others in the water, among other features.

To gain greater understanding in storing, handling and delivering
compressed air underwater, I contacted my local dive shop owner
Amir Mousavipor.

Key Insights uncluded:

The functions of air compression, stages of regulation and delivery in standard SCUBA equipment.
Areas of danger when handling compressed air.
Detailed insights into first stage regulation, with a physical demonstration of second stage regulation in use.

“30 seconds, doesn’t sound like much”

Well here’s what one looks like:

“But the bad ones only happen in big waves, right?”

Wrong. Watch this chest-high wave put a surfer through the works: