Mark Vlahos

Greetings,

I wish to introduce myself, and set out some of my long term goals.

I currently dive open circuit, and have training and experience to 150 feet using NITROX. I have training in the use of Oxygen for decompression. I am also Full Cave.

I travel full time on business and fortunately I am able to take SCUBA gear with me. Currently I have room for my dry suit, double 130's, an AL40 for Oxygen, and regulators etc.. I travel all over the US and have been recently been diving on the west coast, and cave country in Florida.

I have spoken with many people and often hear that if you think you might eventually go to a rebreather you might as well do it before you buy too many sets of doubles, a compressor, a mixing station, etc... Well I am slowly reaching the point where if I stay on open circuit I will start to spend some serious cash.

My long term goals, and by long term I mean from 2 to 5 years from now, are fairly straight forward.

1) I want to obtain training in the use of Helium

2) I want to obtain training, and be able to safely dive to depths around the 200 to perhaps 250 foot range. I do not seek to go deeper simply to set personal records, but rather, there are some dives that I want to do that are in this range.

3) I want to be able to use Helium in a cave to depths between 150 and 200 feet.

4) I don't want to be stupid about it and spend a fortune on duplicated gear. While money is a factor, I would rather try not to make too many mistakes along the way.

5) I have considered a rebreather as a possible means to the above stated ends that makes sense.

I welcome your comments, but please take note that at this time I am NOT fishing for suggestions on one particular rebreather. Rather I seek comments along the lines of the overall direction I am heading and some of the pitfalls I should consider. My time line is long, I am not in a hurry.

Mark Vlahos