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The Avelo System lets you focus more on your photography and not your buoyancy, while your Shearwater dive computer carefully monitors your Avelo dive
 

Innovation in diving tends to happen in small steps. Cameras become better, strobes recycle faster, dive computers become more intuitive, and our dive gear becomes more of a fashion statement. But every now and then, something comes along that asks a much bigger question. What if we changed the way we dive altogether?

That was what was on our minds when we traveled to Solitude Acacia Resort in Anilao, Philippines to complete our Avelo Essentials course.
 

Rethinking Buoyancy with the Avelo System

For decades, scuba diving has relied on essentially the same concept: a buoyancy compensator device (BCD), a tank, and lead weights. The Avelo System takes a very different approach by replacing your BCD and its inflatable bladder with an incompressible Jetpack harness and a lighter-weight Hydrotank. Instead of using an inflatable bladder to adjust your buoyancy, you add or remove water from the Hydrotank and use the weight of water to adjust your buoyancy.
 

The Avelo System: The Hydrotank (left) replaces the conventional tank, BCD, and weight system. The Jetpack (right) powers the Hydrotank and serves as the backplate and harness. Images supplied by Avelo Labs
 

The concept borrows from the same principle used by submarines. Rather than adding or releasing air from a BCD, you push a button to add to or release water from the Hydrotank. By changing the amount of water inside the tank, the system alters your overall buoyancy while your breathing gas remains compressed in a rubber bladder within the Hydrotank. An electric pump is used to add the water, while a simple release valve allows you to remove water. The Jetpack is streamlined, with the pump and the battery that runs it positioned either side of the system, which produces significantly less drag in the water.

By eliminating your BCD’s inflatable bladder, you avoid the continual buoyancy changes that occur as gas compresses in the bladder during descent and expands in the bladder during ascent. This reduces the buoyancy adjustments you need to make throughout your dive. Because the Hydrotank and Jetpack are incompressible, your buoyancy does not change at varying depths. This means you stay neutrally buoyant and can move freely without having to make any adjustments to your buoyancy. Now we have your attention!
 

Anita Verde sets up the Avelo System before her first Avelo dive with her camera

The Solitude Way

Over the past few years, Solitude Resorts and Liveaboards have quietly built a reputation for approaching innovation as something broader than simply updating their resort facilities. While many dive operations understandably stick with tried-and-tested systems, Solitude has built a reputation for looking forward.

As the first adopter of the Avelo System in the Philippines, Solitude offers guests the opportunity to learn and experience a way to dive that represents one of the most significant departures from conventional scuba diving in decades. That commitment doesn’t stop at their resort either, with Solitude progressively introducing Avelo across its resorts and liveaboard fleet, giving divers and photographers the option to use the system in some of the world’s most celebrated underwater destinations.

For a resort group known for delivering high-quality dive experiences, this feels like a natural progression—investing not just in where people dive, but how they dive.
 

Diving with the Avelo System for wide-angle photography helped both photographer and model stay in position
 

Neutral buoyancy on the Avelo System made it easier to get lower to the subject and gave us the ability to create a more impactful image of this black hairy frogfish
 

With improved control in the water with the Avelo System, you can focus more on creating images rather than just taking photos

Our Avelo Experience

When we arrived at Solitude Acacia Resort to undertake our Avelo certification, it would be fair to say we were unsure about the merits of the system. Like many divers who have spent years refining their buoyancy skills with a traditional BCD, we were sceptical about a system that proposed doing away with it altogether. It sounded like a radical departure from what we had become familiar with, and we wondered whether it was solving a problem that didn’t really exist.

The Avelo training at Solitude Acacia Resort provided a solid understanding of how the system works, and, more importantly, why it works. Once we were underwater, the concepts quickly started to make sense. Over the course of 14 dives, our confidence grew with each dive. What initially felt unfamiliar soon became more intuitive, and by the end of the week, we were no longer thinking about how the system worked but appreciating the benefits it offered.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a learning curve. After years diving with a traditional BCD, diving Avelo required a shift in our mindset. However, after diving the system in a variety of conditions, we came away convinced that it was more than just a clever idea.

We experienced a number of benefits. Because breathing gas was no longer required for buoyancy control and we could maintain neutral buoyancy throughout the dive, we were able to move about more freely, reduce our gas consumption, and extend our dive time. The result for us was more stability, improved trim, and a diving experience that felt remarkably streamlined—not to mention it is at least 10 kilograms (22 pounds) lighter than a conventional setup. Without thinking about inflating or venting our BCDs, maneuverability became far more intuitive, allowing us to concentrate on the environment around us.
 

The author displays perfect trim diving the Avelo System

How Avelo Changed Our Underwater Photography

As photographers, we spend thousands of dollars on cameras, strobes and lenses to create better images, yet diving Avelo confirmed that one of the biggest factors in creating better images is something much simpler—our buoyancy. Having stable buoyancy without the need to inflate or vent our BCDs allowed us to maneuver effortlessly and stay locked into position with minimal effort.

Whether hovering over volcanic sand in Anilao searching for tiny critters, drifting in current while composing wide-angle scenes, or hanging motionless during blackwater dives, our positioning in the water was more stable and controlled. In current, the system felt more streamlined and we were able to push into stronger currents with less effort, which proved to be an advantage by reducing our air consumption.

The reefs and sandy dive sites surrounding Solitude Acacia Resort offered us a variety of macro life, providing ample opportunities to apply Avelo’s precise buoyancy control to photograph some of the Philippines’ most iconic critters.
 

On Avelo, you can explore more, conserve energy and shoot beautiful wide-angle scenes for longer
 

The Avelo System performed particularly well during blackwater dives where monitoring your depth becomes even more important
 

When shooting tiny subjects, like this crinoid squat lobster, the neutral buoyancy possible with Avelo offers a clear advantage to conventional scuba equipment

Integrating Modern Dive Technology: Avelo and Shearwater

A new diving system is only as useful as the information that supports it, which is where modern dive computers become increasingly important. Throughout our certification, we relied on our Shearwater Research Peregrine TX dive computers, whose clear displays and intuitive interface made monitoring depth, ascent rates and decompression information effortless.

In the dedicated Avelo Mode, the display presents all the familiar dive information, including depth, time, decompression status, and ascent rate, while also showing Avelo-specific data. In addition to displaying air pressure in bar or psi, the computer reports the remaining breathing gas as a percentage of the Hydrotank’s available capacity. We found this to be an intuitive way of monitoring our gas reserves, making it easy to gauge how much air remained at a quick glance.

Left image: The new Shearwater Jetpack for Avelo diving shown from the back. Simply depress a button below the battery (right) to add water (weight) to the Hydrotank to descend, and purge water from the system using the valve located below the pump (left) to remove water (weight) either for fine adjustments during the dive if needed and at the end of the dive to assist positive buoyancy at the surface. When the system is properly weighted, depending on the diver’s body weight and exposure suit, divers stay neutrally buoyant throughout the dive and may only need to start the pump to add additional water (weight) towards the middle to end of their dive. Right image: Side profile of the Shearwater Jetpack showing the harness system and battery which also integrates the onboard Shearwater Swift GPS Transmitter for real-time monitoring of your gas consumption on your Shearwater dive computer. Images supplied by Shearwater Research
 

When it comes to Avelo, Shearwater is not just providing support through its dive computers; the company is fully invested in its future with the development of its own Shearwater Jetpack. While we undertook our certification using the Avelo Jetpack, the Shearwater Jetpack has a few key features for comfort and integration. There’s extra padding on the backplate for comfort, while two different size options (S/M and L/XL) and adjustable straps ensure you get the perfect fit.

One of the Shearwater Jetpack’s standout features is its intelligent rechargeable battery module, which incorporates an integrated Swift GPS Transmitter for wireless gas monitoring. Rather than needing a separate first-stage transmitter, the system communicates directly with your Shearwater dive computer, displaying remaining breathing gas as a percentage of the available Hydrotank capacity. The battery also powers the pump while providing real-time status information to your Shearwater computer, creating a seamless connection between the Avelo System, gas supply, and dive data. By integrating these functions into a single module, the Shearwater Jetpack keeps the overall configuration simple and reduces the amount of additional equipment required.
 

Diving Avelo provided better maneuverability to photograph this seahorse on the move
 

A dreamy shallow depth of field image of a pretty painted frogfish shot while diving the Avelo System

One Great Diving System, Many Great Photographic Opportunities

Introducing a completely new diving platform requires more than simply purchasing equipment. It demands investment in instructor training, maintenance, logistics, and the confidence to support divers as they adapt to a different way of thinking underwater. By embracing Avelo across multiple operations, Solitude has demonstrated a willingness to invest in both its staff and its guests’ experience rather than waiting for widespread industry adoption.

For traveling divers, this also brings a level of continuity that is often missing when trying new equipment. While the Avelo System is currently only available at Solitude Acacia Resort and on the Solitude One liveaboard, Solitude aims to introduce the Avelo System at all of their resorts and aboard all of their vessels. Thus, guests who complete their Avelo certification at one of Solitude’s destinations will be able to continue diving the system as they explore Solitude’s other resorts or join one of the group’s liveaboard trips.

From a photographic perspective, this opens up some exciting possibilities. Solitude’s destinations span everything from colorful coral reefs and dramatic walls to muck diving, blackwater, and pelagic encounters, providing an opportunity to evaluate the Avelo System across a broad range of photographic disciplines. While our own experience was limited to the conditions we encountered during our stay at their resort in Anilao, it’s easy to see how divers will benefit from being able to develop their Avelo skills as they travel throughout the Solitude network.
 

Solitude Acacia Resort in Anilao, the first Solitude destination where you can complete your Avelo Diver certification

Looking Forward

Whether Avelo becomes the future of recreational diving remains to be seen, but by making the technology accessible across both its resorts and liveaboards, Solitude is giving divers the opportunity to experience that future for themselves. For us, as underwater photographers, anything that allows us to spend less time thinking about equipment and more time observing marine life, refining compositions, and waiting patiently for that decisive moment behind the lens is a worthwhile innovation.

After completing our Avelo certification and 14 dives on the system, there’s no doubt we found ourselves thinking less about the technology itself and more about how naturally it had become part of the dive. That’s a hallmark of good design. It didn’t take long for the equipment to disappear into the background, allowing our photography to take center stage.

So, will the Avelo System redefine the future of diving? Only time will tell. But with plans for the development of specialist tech diving systems, including double tanks, sidemount, and rebreather, Avelo is certainly not sitting still.

After spending time with the system, we can understand why its community is growing rapidly. As one Avelo diver said to us after hearing about our certification, “Welcome to the club.” We’re looking forward to learning the secret Avelo handshake!
 

A tiny soft coral crab shot while diving the Avelo System
 

Having perfectly neutral buoyancy made it easy to get low and eye level to this characterful coconut octopus
 

To book your resort or liveaboard adventure with Solitude Liveaboards and Resorts, visit solitude.world, and to find out more about the Avelo System and Shearwater, check out www.diveavelo.com and www.shearwater.com.
 

About the Authors: Based in Melbourne, Australia, Anita Verde and Peter Marshall have a passion for the planet’s wild places, and through their images and narratives hope to inspire better appreciation and protection of the natural world. When not underwater, you’ll find them on a mountain somewhere. To see more of their work, please check out their Instagram page or visit their website, www.summitstoseasphotography.com.