Up next in 10
Deep Sea Book Club: My Kindle's Craziest Journey
1K views
Apr 22, 2025
Lots of people have noticed that I read an Amazon Kindle whilst I'm on my decompression stops. This video explains how I prepare the Kindle for the dive and then how I ensure it is available when I ascend! *Highlights* 00:00 Introduction 01:02 What is required 02:16 Aquapac waterproof bag 08:01 Getting it underwater - Method 1 deployed down the DSMB 09:03 Getting it underwater - Method 2 leave on lazy shot/trapeze 11:03 Other ideas *Links* Aquapac underwater case - https://aquapac.net/products/waterproof-mini-tablet-kindle-case-for-7-8-3-screens *Kit I Use* Note, some of these are affiliate links so help support making my videos: - Gloves are Ansell Alphatec 87-063 - https://amzn.to/4jDHhX4 - Main torch is an Orcatorch D630 - https://amzn.to/4jlT4tA - Backup torch is an Orcatorch D710 - https://amzn.to/4jhddRk - Drysuit is an O-Three Ri200 - https://www.othree.co.uk/drysuit-range/ri-2-100-drysuit/ - CCR is an AP Diving Inspiration (XPD) - https://www.apdiving.com/
View Video Transcript
0:00
hello my name is Dom Robinson and this
0:02
is my deep wreck diver Channel as you
0:05
probably realized for the kind of diving
0:07
I do I spend a lot of time on
0:09
decompression stops and that isn't the
0:11
world's most fun thing to do so people
0:14
have noticed in my videos that I
0:16
actually use a Kindle prepared in an
0:18
underwater bag which uh which allows me
0:20
to read underwater So that obviously
0:23
helps the decompression pass by and a
0:26
few people have asked me what is it uh
0:29
what sort of bag do I use
0:30
how do I get it underwater and all those
0:32
kind of things so uh the purpose of the
0:34
video this afternoon is to explain uh
0:37
what you need to do if you want to do
0:39
exactly the same as me and uh and read
0:41
your Kindle underwater anyway I hope you
0:44
enjoy it and learn something from it if
0:46
you don't or if you do stick something
0:48
in the comments as always I'd appreciate
0:51
a like uh subscribe if you feel that way
0:54
and uh my daughter's asked me to tell
0:55
everyone that they you need to turn on
0:57
notifications so if you want to do that
0:59
as well that would be absolutely
1:00
cracking so what do you need if you're
1:02
going to do the same as me well the
1:04
first thing I think it probably goes
1:05
without saying is you're going to need a
1:07
Kindle now um the key thing with the
1:11
Kindle that you're going to get is that
1:12
it needs to be an old one and the reason
1:15
it needs to be old is because touch
1:18
screens ain't going to work uh
1:20
underwater so therefore you need to be
1:22
able to do things like turn over the
1:23
pages turn over the books and everything
1:26
uh without a touchcreen what that
1:28
basically means is uh this is a Gen 4
1:31
Kindle um there's loads of them around
1:34
you can buy them on eBay for 15 or 20
1:36
pounds in the UK but first of all I'd go
1:39
through and uh and check all the uh the
1:41
bedside cabinets of all your nearest and
1:43
dearest these things sold in the
1:45
millions and they're probably just
1:46
Gathering dust everywhere so uh you're
1:49
going to need a Kindle that doesn't have
1:50
a touchscreen that's the most important
1:52
thing the this model and the one before
1:54
which had a kind of keyboard in this
1:56
area they I've seen both of those you
1:58
work and and and they're really good so
2:00
first thing you need is Kindle second
2:03
thing you're going to need is a a
2:05
waterproof bag now these are the
2:08
waterproof bags that I use um I've uh
2:11
I've used quite a few of these and the
2:13
reason is is although they are
2:15
waterproof they they don't last forever
2:17
so um and it's it's the same with the
2:19
Kindle you've got to accept that there
2:21
is an nutrition rate on these things
2:23
they
2:25
um alter eventually this bag will leak
2:28
or you'll drop some something on the
2:30
Kindle or you'll it'll fall off a boat
2:32
or something like that so I've lost
2:34
count of how many Kindles I've I've gone
2:37
through but it's quite a few and and dit
2:39
with these these bags so this uh this
2:42
this bag here is by a company called
2:44
aquapack um I've I I really like their
2:47
kit um I'm not under any commission or
2:50
anything like that so uh um I don't get
2:53
any benefit from this but these are the
2:54
bags that I use aquapack and the ipx 8 I
2:58
think were rated or what whatever but
3:00
you can see there it's about the right
3:02
size for the Kindle um not too big not
3:05
too little and clearly it's got a fairly
3:08
good sealing mechanism at one end here
3:10
so next thing you need is a bag for your
3:12
Kindle now I guess in really pure terms
3:16
that's the only thing that you need but
3:18
what I also do is I use a a sandwich bag
3:22
and I use this as kind of like an inner
3:25
liner for the Kindle so um I I put my
3:28
Kindle inside this bag and it just gives
3:31
it a bit more protection because these
3:34
bags once they start to leak they don't
3:36
tend to leak catastrophically to start
3:38
with what they tend to do is they weep a
3:41
bit so you start getting a bit of liquid
3:43
inside inside this bag so by having the
3:46
uh the sandwich bag with the Kindle
3:47
inside it it just gives it a bit more
3:49
protection and allows you to spot when
3:51
the when the bag is uh is bag is
3:54
weeping the other thing I like to do is
3:57
I like to put some moisture absorbent in
3:59
inside it and uh and that's just to pick
4:02
up the uh the stuff that's uh that's
4:04
weeping and comes through and so I I
4:06
have two bits of this the first bit I
4:08
put in here in the sandwich bag with the
4:11
Kindle um and I just tend to put it at
4:14
the back there like that and then uh
4:17
obviously once you've done that seal up
4:19
your sandwich bag now this sandwich bag
4:22
isn't going to be perfect it's it's it's
4:25
not going to deal with a full flood or
4:27
anything like that it's it's merely
4:28
there just to keep the worst of of any
4:31
leak or any dripping off it so that's
4:33
that's where the first bit of padding
4:35
goes at the second bit I um put inside
4:39
the uh the the actual the main bag and
4:42
and this is what's going to collect most
4:44
of the uh the moisture that comes
4:46
through I'm probably slightly
4:49
overselling how much moisture comes
4:51
through um it's not it's not a huge
4:53
amount um certainly not to start with so
4:56
um my experience is that you you'll see
4:59
these start to get soggy and that's
5:01
probably the uh the moment when you want
5:03
to start thinking about clearing your uh
5:05
sort of changing your Aqua pack or uh
5:09
yeah something like that so so there you
5:10
go as you can see I've put it all
5:12
together now uh it's all inside the
5:14
other thing I like to do is make sure
5:16
there's quite a lot of air inside here
5:19
and as you can see there I just pinch
5:22
the the bag a bit there so that when I
5:24
close this and then uh lock it down
5:27
tightly like that what I end up with is
5:30
quite a bit of air you can see there's
5:32
quite a bit of air trapped inside there
5:34
and what that means is that when it's
5:35
underwater and the pressure comes on
5:37
this will obviously get squeezed down
5:39
through boils lore Etc but it will still
5:42
be um uh you know it won't be too tight
5:46
basically because um if it gets
5:49
completely crushed in there that's
5:51
obviously going to um you know maybe
5:53
help the the seal or yeah help the seal
5:56
get compromised so I make sure there's a
5:58
bit of air inside there and there you
6:00
can see my uh my Kindle is all packed
6:03
away in its bag um ready to go
6:05
underwater and and that will be good
6:08
there for I would say um I've taken
6:11
these bags down to 30 m now you tend to
6:16
find that the Kindle won't work at that
6:18
depth not least because I think the
6:20
buttons get Pro pressed in by by the
6:22
pressure but certainly um from about 15
6:25
M upwards you will uh you'll be able to
6:28
turn the Kindle on you to read it
6:30
obviously you've got the controller on
6:31
the front here this little top hat so
6:33
you can move around change books change
6:35
the font size and all that kind of stuff
6:37
if you want to so um yeah this will work
6:42
in this configuration from about 15 M uh
6:45
and shallower so the only other thing I
6:47
like to do is I like to uh put my uh my
6:51
Kindle inside a uh inside a bag now this
6:55
isn't anything particularly special it's
6:57
just a uh uh it's just a shopping bag um
7:01
and so the Kindle goes inside
7:04
there inside there and then I secure the
7:08
Kindle to a uh through a double
7:11
ender here so that the um this is
7:16
obviously part of preventing the Kindle
7:18
getting lost or or floating away when I
7:20
take it out and also what you find is
7:22
that if you uh put the double ender down
7:25
like this like that what this does is
7:28
now it it seals you can pull the double
7:30
ender down and it will seal the uh it
7:33
will seal the shopping bag so that the
7:35
Kindle can't float out from this the
7:38
only other thing I'd highlight is that
7:40
there are there are two clips on the bag
7:43
and once again this is all about
7:44
preventing it get Lo getting lost so
7:46
these two Will Go On The Shot line or
7:49
the trape or wherever I decide I want it
7:51
but that now that is all prepared to go
7:55
in in the water and um be ready to read
7:58
when I come up on my decompression STS
8:00
so uh the next question is obviously uh
8:03
how does it get onto the decompression
8:04
stop so it can read it and I've used two
8:08
methods um the first method is the one
8:10
that I don't use anymore it's where I
8:12
have it dropped down from the surface so
8:15
I'll put up a delayed SMB and the
8:17
skipper will know uh when they see my
8:19
SMB that they should attach my Kindle to
8:22
it uh to the line and therefore it would
8:24
it would come down to me now obviously
8:26
if you're going to do that you need to
8:27
wait on the end of the Kindle um
8:30
otherwise it's not going to work it'll
8:31
just float at the top uh and I don't use
8:34
that method anymore really um for two
8:37
reasons the first is it it can be quite
8:39
challenging for a Skipper and
8:41
particularly if the weather's a bit
8:42
lumpy or if there's other smbs in the
8:45
water so getting alongside can be quite
8:47
challenging and the second reason is
8:50
that they do uh there is a on occasion
8:53
they don't get clipped on properly and
8:54
therefore they end up on the seabed and
8:56
clearly uh that's quite frustrating for
8:59
me and CU I've then got to sort out a
9:01
new one so what method do I actually use
9:03
well the method I use is I leave it
9:05
either on the trapeze or I leave it on a
9:08
a shotline now often shot lines uh lazy
9:12
shot lines have got Brakes in them uh at
9:14
12 M um you know with a with a loop a
9:18
weak Loop or whatever and that is a
9:20
really common method I use the other uh
9:22
thing is as I said is to put it on the
9:24
trapeze um either way it's there when
9:27
you get in when you come up uh ready for
9:29
to
9:30
read obviously a few dos and don'ts um
9:33
when you come to collect your Kindle uh
9:35
the biggest don't of course is drop it
9:38
um clearly you do that uh if it's buyant
9:41
it'll be on the surface where it's no
9:42
good if it's uh heavy it'll be on the
9:45
bottom where it's no good so I don't
9:46
drop it what I tend to do and you can
9:48
actually see me doing it in this video
9:50
is I clip it off on myself so that's the
9:52
first thing I do so it's attached to me
9:54
next thing obviously is you got to undo
9:56
the uh undo the bag and get out the
9:58
actual Kindle
9:59
now you see I've got a a double ender um
10:02
that I use and one of the first things I
10:04
do once I've got the uh the Kindle out
10:06
of the bag is I use that double ender to
10:08
clip the Kindle onto myself I'm quite
10:11
handy on my uh rebreather handset on the
10:14
the wrist strap there is a a d-ring and
10:17
that's uh that's where it tends to go
10:19
and you can see me doing that in the
10:20
video now so there's my double ender
10:22
just done doing one end of it from the
10:24
cable and the other end of it is going
10:26
to uh go on my on my wrist on the uh on
10:30
the D there it is and that means that my
10:32
Kindle is always around now because I've
10:34
got it full of air it's going to float
10:37
um but what I can do here is uh is turn
10:39
it on and there you go uh as if by Magic
10:42
you will see the Kindle flash into life
10:44
you can see uh in the bottom right hand
10:46
corner I'm at 12 M on my power lens and
10:49
uh there you go you see how much Deco
10:50
I've got to do and you can see my par my
10:53
K Kindle's working all okay and that
10:54
means I'm great for uh for My Deco stops
10:57
which are just going to fly by now
10:59
obviously uh I'm not the only one who's
11:01
come up with ideas like this and i' just
11:03
like to give a shout out to my mate
11:05
James uh he likes to take a housing for
11:09
for an old iPhone underwater and he sits
11:11
and watches films on those uh obviously
11:14
the old I River the the audio device
11:17
some people like that to use underwater
11:19
um so uh there are other there are other
11:22
Solutions I don't claim to have any
11:24
particular knowledge of those uh but as
11:26
for me I'm just going to stick with my
11:28
uh my good oldfashioned kid
11:30
so um I hope you've enjoyed this video I
11:32
hope you found it interesting and
11:34
informative uh maybe you'll you'll come
11:36
up with something or you've seen people
11:38
do different things in which case please
11:40
let me know in the comments uh as always
11:42
I'll be interested to get your thoughts
11:44
and uh yeah well that's it for uh for
11:47
this video and I look forward to um
11:50
seeing you on the next one
#Diving & Underwater Activities
#E-Books