H2O Audio Attachment Ideas

[amphipod06]

I have it inside a pocket that I can attach to my 70 ft bottle. I would never do a long deco w/o tunes or TV again...

Congrats on your new toy and Merry (early) Christmas!

Dive safe,

Celia

[skip]

Twigs and Shells! Twigs and Shells! TV on Deco!? Say it ain't so.

-skip

[amphipod06]

Twigs and Shells! Twigs and Shells! TV on Deco!? Say it ain't so.

-skip

It's all good Skip, you can play with twigs and shells if that is what you like... really, it's all good...

No one is going to make you watch TV... or listen to your favorite music... I promise.

Dive safe,

Celia

[Me]

Ken and I dived with a guy a few years ago......he zipped it up in the front of his wetsuit. Would work, provided you dive wet. I would keep mine in a drysuit pocket.

[FW]

Twigs and Shells! Twigs and Shells! TV on Deco!? Say it ain't so.

-skip

just 'cuz you never have any long deco...

[traveler]

For the older style of H2OAudio designed for an iRiver, the dive gear section of Home Depot sells transport tubes for them (some assembly required).

about 15" length of 3" PVC or ABS pipe
1 3" end cap
1 3" cleanout fitting
1 3" cleanout plug
2 hose clamps
2 bolt snaps
heavy cord

Assembly is fairly obvious. Cord, bolt snaps, and clamps are for rigging it like a stage bottle. Drill a hole in the center of the cleanout plug, and run a length of cord through that hole from the upper hose clamp and tie a stopper knot -- that just helps avoid losing the plug. Cut a notch (about 5/8" wide and 1 1/2" long) in the cleanout fitting, so when the plug is in place you can still pass the headphone cables through. Add several holes (about 3/8") to the pipe to let it drain or fill with water easily.

That's about it. Slap your name on it and go diving. Carry it like a stage, leave it with your deco bottles. It offers enough protection that you're very likely to actually find your MP3 player working when you get back to it (which isn't always the case with soft-sided carry methods).

I haven't seen anyone build a way to transport the new style that holds an iPod Touch, but I've had enough friends break their unprotected cases that I'm convinced it's a pretty good idea to build something along the lines of what I describe above.

[DA Aquamaster]

I have one of the older ones designed for the iRiver MP3 players and have always just carried it in a pocket on my drysuit(spare mask and deco tables in with it, spools etc in the other pocket).

The cord is long enough to to be used with it still inside the pocket, you just need to be careful to route it under the long hose, etc if you plan on using it during the dive.

In that case I also think it works better to set it up before you submerge and in particular pre s-drill just to make sure you are not creating a potential problem. I also route the cord under the shoulder strap to prevent any slack and keep it out of the way.

I removed the little mask strap hanger brackets and just tuck the speakers under my hood behind my ears and rely on bone conduction (very effective with this unit) as it is a lot more comfortable that way on long dives.

I used to use one of the partial aviator looking hoods and kept getting crap about it, so I went way over the top with the same style hood in bright green with shrek ears. People must figure it is just an intentional anti-DIR statement because they leave me alone now.

But the stage bottle'esque idea above sounds interesting, especially for use just on the deco stops. How do you access the buttons with it in the tube?

[billyf]

I have the IRiver version, I keep it in a Dive Rite Mask pouch, that way I can put it on my rig when listening to it or put it in my suit pocket or in my deco bag on the stage.

[traveler]

How do you access the buttons with it in the tube?

I don't. For my purposes, I only wanted to have this for long deco. During the dive I want to stay as observant as possible, and also from an enjoyability standpoint I just like being there in the moment and not letting my mind wander. So, no music for me during the dive, but I've been known to hum on occasion.

Anyway, the tube just protects the case and simplifies transport. When it's time to use I slip it out of the tube, turn it on and press play, tuck the headphones under my mask strap, and then slip the case back in the tube and clip it on.

Trying to attach a few images... they show a single-boltsnap variation, but the more stage-like version I described above transports a little better.

p.s. I don't want to imply I came up with this approach -- several guys on the team have used it, and I'm honestly not sure who got the ball rolling.

[caverkevin]

I have a Dive-Rite strap on leg pocket attached to my deco bottle. The iDive300 and head phones fit in that well. I just hide my bottle well if I use it at Ginnie. For the head phones I made a head band out of the 1" flat elastic strap. Simple and easy to just slip over the hood.