Pterodactyl Progress

Hello everyone...Gary here. This entry is sort of a conglomeration of various pieces of "stuff" that have been going-on with Critical Aspect Inc. and myself personally. To begin with, I have been enrolled in two excellent dive courses...Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures. My instructor, Tom Huff of Northeast Scuba (Chelmsford, MA) has been terrific. I plan on recommending Tom whenever the subject comes-up. You don't get certified by Tom unless you really know your stuff...and he has no problem chewing-out a diver who screws-up. Like me! During a check-out dive in a lake recently, I had a fin fall-off due to an over-stretched spring heal strap. This caused me to accidentally swim into a horizontal line we were following during an out-of-air drill, get entangled (badly) and kick-up the silty lake bottom. It really pissed me off! Everything was going so well...my buddy and I were on our way back to the starting point at the other end of the line...we were "destined for greatness"! After I got un-tangled, I gave the ascend hand signal and we surfaced...only to get yelled-at by Tom. We weren't supposed to surface. I argued that I couldn't swim with only one fin, we were only in 20 feet and had no decompression obligation. We still got yelled-at. It's my fault. I knew the strap was lose. Live and learn...I have since replaced the spring heal straps. Our class is planning a trip this September to the Oriskany and we have recruited Tom as our Dive Master. I am chomping at the bit for this one! During the class I was psyched to learn that a Pterodactyl customer was a fellow student...Colin Clark of Boston. Two Pterodactyls on the same boat...a Critical Aspect first? In only a couple of weeks the next batch of new Pterodactyls will be completed. These will have the previously-mentioned improvements (an additional crotch strap slot that will be two inches wide plus the lower tank band bolt holes will be cut as ovals to allow for misalignment). I will also do a better job of deburring edges. I will be appearing as an exhibitor at the DEMA dive show October 31st through November 3, 2007 in Orlando. This will be an excellent experience because it will put me right in front of countless dive shop owners. And that's really the next hurdle to leap over for this venture. Many sales have been lost simply because the customer couldn't look at the product in person before buying. Online sales is great but it does have it's limitations. Finally, you may have noticed the new ad in Wreck Diving Magazine. This is a half-page size with more pictures than the previous ad. The ad came-out really good...I put so much time into designing it. And WDM did a great job placing the ad. My only objection is the fact that the right-hand part of the ad with all the pictures appears somewhat "dim". This will be corrected for the Summer issue. Well...that's a wrap! Dive safely, dive conveniently, dive Pterodactyl!