[Mark Powell]

I saw the new Suunto D9 last week. It's the first one in the country and I saw it just after it's very first UK dive.

It's a watch style computer, simillar in size to the Stinger, with a titanium case but only comes with a rubber strap.

It can do 3 gas mixes and has an electronic compass built in. The compass can only store one waypoint so you cannot store a course with multiple points. You can only put in a single waypoint then steer a course towards it then set the reciprocal and steer back.

The deco algorithm is an upgrade the the so called Suunto-RGBM. It now includes deep stops although these are Pyle stops as it is still not a full RGBM implementation. You can turn the deep stops on or off as required. If deep stops are turned on then the additional 3 min safety stop is turned off. If deep stops are turned off then the 3 min safety stop comes back in. You can set whether deep stops are 1 min or 2 min.

Suunto said the D9 would be available in the UK in Nov although I believe that there will only be a limited number available until the new year.