Lucy Palusova and her team at AirBuddy were passionate about diving but frustrated with its limitations. Shallow water dives needed to be planned, involving the logistics of renting equipment, lugging the gear back and forth, and tank refills. When looking at their requirements for the ideal solution they wanted a system that could be portable, rechargeable, and ready to use at anytime. Their solution was AirBuddy, a tankless diving system that lets a user dive at depths up to 12 meters for up to 45 minutes.
AirBuddy is running a Kickstarter campaign closing in on a $169,000 (Australian dollars) goal. An air compressor running from a 12 Volt battery pressurizes surface air that is pumped through a supply hose to the diver. The diver breathes through a mouthpiece, effectively receiving fresh air from the surface during their dive.
The unit itself weighs 9.5 kilograms when dressed with hose, battery, harness and regulator. The system is 407 x 540 x 315 millimeters and the battery takes 3.5 hours to recharge for 45 minutes of use. The company estimates that the break even point is 21 dives, saving money from situations where a user owns their own gear or when a user hires out gear for every dive.
Safety was a key factor when developing the AirBuddy and several safety concerns are built into the system. A 15 Liter emergency reservoir allows the user to get back to the surface if all air is used, a low battery alarm will sound if the battery drops below 11 Volts, and a magnetic wristband to give on/off control to the diver are the main safety features. Additionally, a visible float and diver down flag mark a diver's position, the air hose was specified to find a polyurethane resistant to abrasion and kink, and the raft was designed to give capsize protection up to 110 degrees tilt.
AirBuddy has gone through several design iterations, and a previous unfunded Kickstarter. This campaign page is well polished showing several pictures of the system in use, prototype builds, and user testimonials. Conditions look much better this round to meet the funding goal by June 1, 2017. If successful first units are expected to ship in June, 2018.