Where to get air in Madison?

[FreediveWI]

When I did my instructor training, in L.A., we visited a local dive shop that did it's own hydro's. They had some pretty intensive equipment that included a pipe driven into the ground and re-enforced in cement. They had a special machine to hook up the tank, fill it full of water, and then drop it down the water filled pipe to pump it up to pressure- while the pipe was capped off in case of explosion. Pretty neat stuff, but way out of reach for most dive shops. I don't know of a single shop in the state that can do it's own hydros on site.

Most shops send them out to the same place you get your fire extinguishers hydro'd. They aren't always the cleanest when they come back and that may be part of the vis process. Aluminums should be eddy tested anyhow- which takes time and costs money for the machine, and steel tanks can pass hydro, but still have steel flaking off the inside.

Fills are usually taxed because it is a product that the store sells. Classes should not be taxed, but books for classes should.

As far as prices go it depends upon where you are. Pirarte's Cove offers free VIP's once a year for all of it's club memebers. Prices for fills are all over the board- as has been demonstrated in other posts. The bigger the city, or the more volume the store does, the cheaper they are.

Usually, the bigger the market, the better the service. This is why Milwaukee can is so far ahead of Madison, and the Twin Cities are ahead of Milwaukee- more people better products and prices.

All of this is just one more reason to freedive in my book. Actually, my best freediving buddy, Ted, told me that once he finished up his openwater class he added up the cost of gear, fills, hydro's, vip's, annual regualtor service, and decided it was just easier to hold his breath- of course it helps that he has a 6 minute breath hold.

Jon