Papa's Got A Brand New Bag !
Posted By Paul Kotik on 30 August 2004
My blue bag and I have been through a lot together. Neither of us is perfect. The blue bag's era is coming to an end, though, whereas I fully intend to be around for quite some time to come.
I think I'll have my blue bag cast in Lucite.
I won't be needing it anymore. There's a new kid on the block.
World Champion Martin Stepanek is a multi-talented fellow, and a compassionate one. He has listened to my whining, and that of everybody else, and finally got so sick and tired of it he sat down and designed the perfect travel bag for freedivers.
A prototype, fabricated by a hand-picked factory in a certain East Asian country, is in my custody.
Simply put, Martin has corrected every single one of the blue bag's faults. This is the future.
The dimensions are approximately the same as the blue bag's - and so, like the blue bag, it fits nicely in most airline overhead bins.
Ah, but the zipper. The Stepanek bag opens along its entire length, end-to-end. In go the blades, in goes the carefully swaddled neoprene. Internal pockets with Velcro closures secure things like weights and masks, and keep them from having close encounters of the worst kind in transit. The bottom of the bag has a couple of mesh panels, so the interior breathes. Breathes, my friends, which means you won't need a stiff drink before unpacking after a trip. Your stuff won't stink.
Oh, and the carrying straps. Blue bag: short straps, you carry it like a briefcase. Nice if you have three or four hands. Stepanek Sack - adjustable straps. Carry it like a briefcase, or configure it as a backpack.
Materials are an improvement over the blue bag, too, with respect to durability and protecting your gear from the savaging of your seat-mate's overstuffed rolley, the one "sharing" the overhead bin with your gear.
The prototype I've got is a dream come true, but I've learned the design has gone through a round of improvements and the factory has shipped a second-generation version.
Know what ? When this hits the market, later this fall, I may actually learn to like travel again. Needless to say, it will be available to one and to all through Deeper Blue. Nobel Prize buzz has begun already - physics, they say.
Finally !
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