Duane Johnson - Technical Diving Instructor
I am rebreather illiterate. That is, I really don’t know much about them. This prevents me from writing about them. Since I am far from an expert on the subject, I don’t feel I could write anything of quality. It would mostly be restating what I’ve already read about rebreathers. Which isn’t much.
“Your DIR ways are blinding you from rebreathers.” I get statements like this a lot. This is really absurd. I have done one of those rebreather “demo” classes. I even did a couple “trust me” dives on one unit. There are no hard and fast rules that say CCRs are not DIR. However, when we start to apply the mindset of DIR and look at our current level of diving, a rebreather may not be the safest tool for us to use. Here’s my rationale for not looking into rebreathers very much.
Let’s look at my diving. I do more recreational level dives than technical in a given year. The technical dives I do each year are, on average, in the 130-200 foot range. The cold waters of the Great Lakes limit how long I wish to stay in the water. So my technical dives will normally have a bottom time around 20-25 minutes and run times around an hour or two. A rebreather doesn’t buy me much for these types of dives. Certainly, it only adds to the complexity of my recreational diving and it wouldn’t get me out of the water any faster for the deco dives.
In my opinion, a rebreather would be a tool worth considering if I was routinely pushing the limits of open circuit, in terms of depth and duration. When looking at my diving, I am certainly NOT reaching this limit. There are many people who think they are at the limits of open circuit, but fail to properly weight the risks versus benefit when looking at applying a rebreather to their typical diving. Heck, I know people who have never taken a technical diving class and have never dove doubles that made the switch to a rebreather. This tells me that those people have not taken an honest look at the type of diving they are doing to justify the switch to a CCR.
Anyway, that is my reasoning for not writing about rebreathers and why I’m not currently looking at switching to one any time soon. Of course I’ll never say I’ll never switch. But only when the technology gets a bit more stable and the CCR training becomes more thorough.
Care to share your thoughts?
Dive Safe,
Duane Johnson
Precision Diving
Technorati Tags: rebreather, DIR, CCR, Great Lakes, bottom time, deco dives, technical diving class
About Duane Johnson
Good comments Duane regarding CCR. You may go for a PASCR which is DIRish in approach and configuration
Surprisingly, I agree with your comments on CCR with one caveat- the technology is more stable than you think.
I have many friends who use CCR and do some amazing work with them. I have a underwater curse with electronics and im not about to spend the 8,000 on something that I wont use often enough and that WILL break down on me….because of my luck
I agree with your most of your thoughts. Many of my “old” DIR friends are now diving CCR. It it fairly safe to say you will never see me in a CCR, I won’t flex on my DIR roots. My friends can call me stubborn all they want. While I am not an authority on rebreathers I know enough about the main models in use today. OC suits my technical profiles and dive frequencys. Lets face it I love to waste helium whenever possible.
I believe that some CCRs are better then others and that they are improving with time. However I think I can disagree with your statement that “There are no hard and fast rules that say CCRs are not DIR.” A DIR diver has procedures for carrying gasses past their MODs and procedures to prevent breathing those gases. Many CCR fatalities are a result of breathing high PO2s. Still Halcyon makes a CCR wing and they make weight pockets!!!
I guess they have to eat like everyone else.
I do have immense respect for the CCR divers that are pulling off the big dives