Brand Buying Guide: Airbuddy – Everything You Need to Know


woman in the boat wearing a scuba diving gear

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For years, diving has not typically been like other outdoor sports; you can’t just pack up the gear and go. You can take your tents and camping gear and go camping; you can take your bike out of the shed and go bike riding around the neighborhood; you can even grab your waterboard and hit the waves, Alas, can you just pick up your scuba gear and go scuba diving? Absolutely not.

In order to be able to scuba dive, you do a lot of preparation, get the right gear, and make sure you know how to use it. The scuba tank must be loaded with air at approximately “210 bar pressure,” which is about one hundred times higher than the pressure in your car tires. To even fill up scuba tanks usually entails huge and costly compressor units and needs to be done by a qualified engineer.  

The Dive Center

Many scuba divers will rely on dive centers to supply the equipment and expertise they need before a dive. Using a dive center also means doing some research and sweat work. You have to call around and find out which dive center is the closest to you or where you will be diving and you need to book an appointment and time for picking up and returning your tank rentals. Paying for each of these is an expense, and it can also easily turn into a 30 minute drive up the coast into a costly, all-day affair.  

Fun Fact

Were you aware that most corals can be found growing in mostly shallow water, typically where the sunlight warms the water? In this shallow area is also where you can find a great number of marine species that rely on the coral as not only a source of food, but also for safety. The hard exterior of the corals serve as walls of protection.

So why is this important? How much you get to experience doesn’t only depend on how deep you are planning to dive, but, just as important, how often you scuba dive. Research shows that some scuba divers best sightings have occurred in water depths of less than twelve meters. This dive depth has been designed in a new diving technology called the AirBuddy.

What Is the AirBuddy?

Dive with the Same Ease As Snorkeling

The AirBuddy is the tiniest and moderate diving gear on the planet. The Airbuddy is designed especially for independent shallow water scuba expeditions, it affords more leisure to scuba diving as there are no air refills, you are not obligated to search and find tank rentals, and there are no complicated engineering aspects or heavy gear to carry around.

The AirBuddy’s tankless design model, scuba divers can now choose their preferred locations and dive anytime and anywhere. Airbuddy’s versatility allows you to travel with ease.  The Airbuddy allows divers to get more close to underwater marine life than while snorkeling, all while being able to experience the weightless sensation without bearing huge air-filled scuba tanks on your back.

Diving & Being Spontaneous?

The Airbuddy is the answer if you are a spontaneous scuba diver or just diving for fun. Easily store and pack the AirBuddy for a family outing at the beach, to take the wife boating, or to cruise up the coast in your Motorhome. You can even just use it for all other diving activities in shallow water like underwater picture-taking, lobster diving, coral aquaculture, hull cleaning to remove biological roughness or fouling, general pool maintenance, and more.

Regardless if you go to the beach to work out daily, fly on vacation to Italy, set the yacht to cruise, collect seashells, or want to clean out your boat hull, the AirBuddy is the perfect choice for shallow water diving. It eliminates all the time, research, hassle, and costs mentioned previously.  

The AirBuddy is designed to provide an ideal snorkeling alternative; a mix between snorkeling and scuba diving. The beauty of the Airbuddy, as mentioned, is that it doesn’t require air tank and still offers 45 minutes of scuba diving time up to a depth of 12 meters. The Airbuddy weighs in at a compact 9.5kg (which is 75% less heavy than standard scuba diving equipment), with small dimensions, and is the planet’s smallest and lightest diving solution.

All scuba divers need to do is recharge the batteries before going out into the water, arrive at the beach, easily unpack, attach the hoses and enjoy a great dive!

“I want to do a lot of different things and dive into different worlds.” – Lil Peep

The Airbuddy is the answer if you are a spontaneous scuba diver or just diving for fun. Easily store and pack the AirBuddy for a family outing at the beach, to take the wife boating, or to cruise up the coast in your Motorhome. You can even just use it for all other diving activities in shallow water like underwater picture-taking, lobster diving, coral aquaculture, hull cleaning to remove biological roughness or fouling, general pool maintenance, and more.

Regardless if you go to the beach to work out daily, fly on vacation to Italy, set the yacht to cruise, collect seashells, or want to clean out your boat hull, the AirBuddy is the perfect choice for shallow water diving. It eliminates all the time, research, hassle, and costs mentioned previously.  

The AirBuddy is designed to provide an ideal snorkeling alternative; a mix between snorkeling and scuba diving. The beauty of the Airbuddy, as mentioned, is that it doesn’t require air tank and still offers 45 minutes of scuba diving time up to a depth of 12 meters. The Airbuddy weighs in at a compact 9.5kg (which is 75% less heavy than standard scuba diving equipment), with small dimensions, and is the planet’s smallest and lightest diving solution.

All scuba divers need to do is recharge the batteries before going out into the water, arrive at the beach, easily unpack, attach the hoses and enjoy a great dive!

How It Works

Airbuddy Simplicity

The Airbuddy batteries are rechargeable. A 12 volt battery is used to power up the air compressor that pushes the air on the surface. It then dispatches this surface air to the scuba diver through a “receiver and a supply hose” with a standard mouthpiece. This means scuba divers don’t have to worry about storing and carrying the compressed air on their backs under water. With the Airbuddy, scuba divers are breathing fresh air from the surface instead.  

Increased Safety When Diving

The safety of scuba divers is one of Airbuddy’s unique features. With AirBuddy, scuba divers and marine water explorers can safely dive low enough to explore the virtue of oceanic life, but not low enough to run a critical risk of decompression sickness, or DCS.

Divers who plan on diving over three times in a row can do so with the no-decompression limit, and do not have to stop on their way to the surface, nor do they run the risk of DCS; though they will have to do a battery change. This is one of the benefits of shallow water diving – you are mere moments away from the surface and can easily swim up if needed.

This flexibility allows scuba divers to experience a less inhibited diving adventure with greater safety.  Some of the most common benefits of the Airbuddy are:

  • There is no bulky diving gear on your back
  • There is no need to adjust your weightlessness throughout the dive; it’s automatic with the Airbuddy
  • No binary-coded decimal (consisting of surplus air) allows divers to wear fewer weights
  • Smaller fins to propel yourself
  • Natural Frog kick in the water, vs. the “flutter kick”
  • Easily and effortless walk to your favorite dive spots with difficult road access
  • Pack up and set up in under 2 minutes

Key Features

Integrated Air Reservoir

Airbuddy’s integrated air reservoir is a glowing red flotation device that holds the AirBuddy mechanical device in place. It feeds pressurized air from the reservoir and under the air hose to provide scuba divers with fresh oxygen from the surface. It has a 15 Liter air capacity that is consistently re-filled with controlled air that gives the Airbuddy continuous weightlessness so it can easily trail behind the scuba diver.

Divers can also use this reservoir to help balance the breathing patterns and provide emergency air should the battery run out.

Detachable Magnetic Switch

Safety is important for diving, and the AirBuddy strives to keep divers safe. One of the most impressive safety features is the detachable magnetic switch, and when a diver detaches the switch, the AirBuddy will switch on to provide a constant, pressurized airflow.

Divers can wear the switch as a waterproof wristband, preventing unexpected switch-off throughout a dive. To turn off the AirBuddy, simply replace the magnetic switch back on the device.

12V Water-Cooled Compressor

The Airbuddy air compressor provides the diver with pressurized air from the surface. They design it for supreme performance at a limited weight of 17.2 pounds.

The AirBuddy compressor operates by using the air from the surface and decreasing it so that the diver under the water can inhale it safely. The AirBuddy is water chilled to prevent adiabatic warming, a marvel that occurs when the air warms up due to meteorological pressure fluctuations. They also designed the mechanical device with a low center of gravity, which helps the AirBuddy not to capsize during a dive.

High Capacity LiFePO4 Battery

The High capacity LiFePO4 Batter is a light, high-capacity battery that allows scuba divers to enjoy up to 45 minutes of continuous diving. These batteries can easily be charged using a regular power outlet in under 4 hours, so scuba divers will be allowed to go out more than just once a day.

The Airbuddy also has a low battery warning  that will alert divers when the battery life is about to expire, so they are aware they should come back to the surface.

Conclusion

girl in an orange swimsuit under the sea

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Diving is a great hobby that is not accessible to many people, not only because of location, but also due to the time and money demands that are mandatory to get the right scuba diving gear. The AirBuddy is unprecedented in the way it’s connecting the gap connecting snorkeling and scuba diving. While scuba diving equipment is still literally unreplaceable during extreme or deep dives, the AirBuddy is ideal for a hassle-free, shallow water experience for even the most novice of marine life explorers.

Featured Image by Olga Ozik from Pixabay

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