Gill Envy

Tim, great post! You've done some good homework so far, IMHO. I can't compare the Apecs to the Copis but I can compare general eCCR experience with a Shearwater Copis. I got quite a few hours on an eCCR before asking the questions you ask, then I started taking a hard look at stats, then I asked a whole lot of questions about the effect of diving style on safety and listened to a variety of perspectives on rig design and it's effects on habits and ultimately safety, etc, etc. There is a debate as to weather the near zero fatality rate associated with mCCR's is reflective of them being "safer" or fewer in number or due to them being self selecting in terms of a more anal user group being attracted to them and using them less aggressively.

So, here's how it boiled down for me. I was very happy with my Evo, loved the vision, had nothing but good things to say...until my wifes solenoid failed on two major trips in a row. I don't believe this was reflective of poor quality on AP's part, very bad luck for sure, but more reflective of one of the many failure points on an eCCR in general and the dependency that all that technology encourages. It took alarms to bring it to my wife's attention, which was telling to me. Her ultimate reaction was to balk and demand that we try a new brand. Not being able to fix this problem in the field was devastating...both at the beginning of two ten day trips in remote locations.

Having given the mCCR vs eCCR debate a great deal of thinking by then I finally said "what the heck maybe we should give it a try...maybe cooler, fancier and more complex isn’t always better?" The only experience I had had on an mCCR was on a KISS CL and Sport in a swimming pool, and at that time I had been wooed so much by the latest and greatest technology in eCCR's and I was just not impressed with the build quality of the KISS. By the time we got a 100 hours of eCCR experience under our belt and started thinking about switching brands, the Copis, the Pelagian and the rEVO came out. The build quality of the meg with the simplicity and field serviciability of an mCCR all wrapped up in one won me over...and the options for wiring in ones choice of several third party set of electronics was impressive, standard threading and multiple ports in the copis head make it very versitile. If I wanted to change electronics down the line, even upgrade to apex 3 all the options were there. After getting first hand experience with a solenoide coil failing and then working again and then failing many months later at the worst possible time, modularity in electronics got bumped up high on the priority list...give me something I can swap out in the field, without having to spend an extra 6K on a spare head. I don't want to work on the motherboard or anything that technical, just make it relatively easy to unplug and replace the offending widget and i'm happy. The electronics in mCCR's are much simpler, less integrated and much easier to replace…I would not say cheaper, with the redundancy I chose it’s come out about even. My number one priority is to keep diving on a trip, and to keep doing it safely. I began to realize that safety and convenience were actually aligning quite nicely in a variety of ways.

There also seemed to be creedence in the argument that the habits mCCR's engrained and the philosophy that it reinforced required/encouraged the diver to be more in tune with PO2, and thus "safer"...how injection rate changes throughout the dive profile, and ultimately the fact that there is no "safety net" forces you to stay on your toes, continuously! It made sense to me. The only argument I’ve heard for the necesity of an electronic controller that was hard to argue is for folks who do penetration dives and put themselves at risk of getting trapped and unable to get their hands to the injection button…a position you’re probably more likely to get yourself into if you have a “safety net” though.

The financial investement required to purchase two rebreathers required a lot of consideration for us, being faced with having to do that all over again was dually nerve racking. So after fixating on this debate for a while and boring a whole lot of people on this forum with incesent posts to this effect, we took the plunge to see what first hand experience would reveal. Sure, I could have decided to always run my eCCR manually, but not having a constant flow assist makes that a bit of a pain in the butt…I think Decoweenie said it best, if you are going to go eCCR, "No need to dive eCCR manually with SP as parachute, just monitor the PO2 as if you are diving an mCCR!" The question I pose is weather that is truly possible. It did seem like an odd philosophy to go for the fancy electronics, to not use them because you don't trust them and then ironically rely on them as a “safety net”. I think you’d be more likely to rely on them at just the wrong time. Paradoxically, the fact that you have a safety net may turn out to be one of the major deciding factors that fatally influences habit. Diving as if you’re life is at stake may just be the key, and it may take actually having your life at stake at all times to be adequately motivated. If you can adequately motivate yourself in that way on an eCCR then great, fore me there was one way to find out...purchase an mCCR and compare them.

I have been reluctant to post much on my experience until I got a bunch of hours on my shearwater copis, after all, my thinking on this matter took a humbling 180 degree turn in the previous 12 months, who knows where I’ll be a year from now. I’m not going to say I’ve made my ultimate conclusion, but so far I have found that all the talk about the difference in habit and how much more in tune an mCCR diver has to be with ones rig and ultimately with one's po2 to be absolutely true, at least for me. Yes, it does seem to turn out to be all about habit, but habit seems very guided by design. I was very in touch while diving eCCR but now on mCCR it's gotten to the point where it's continuous, and deeply engrained to the point where if I get anxious, and perception narrows, my habits of injection rate and system monitoring do not seem to waver at all, instead I become even more engaged if things get dodgy. The rhythm of little to no injection of o2 on decent, barely any injection when at a constant depth and frequent injection while ascending is etched into my habits, not reflexively but even better, it’s an active, conscious process. I’ve learned nuances to it that I never really had to notice diving on cruise control. (Perhaps all rebreathers should force one to start out learning in manual mode, and cruise control could be unlocked in Mod 2…just an idea.)

I decided before even purchasing the Copis that I wanted real-time po2 on all three cells in a fully independent monitoring system as provided by the Shearwater HUD, I wanted true redundancy. The HUD has become my primary since it's right in front of my eyes all the time and shows me the differences between cell reading instantly, po2 is my primary focus without the clutter of anything else. My main focus is on the one thing that counts the most. the handset has become my secondary, with po2 monitor combined with in line deco (the Apex doesn’t have that yet). While I occasionally check deco I also compare and contrast the cell readings with the handset, since they are not integrated I expect them to be a bit different…and the fact that they will always be a little different gives my mind something changing and interesting to compare. I got so bored monitoring my eCCR that I found myself habitually looking at the screen without thinking about what I was seeing.

For you, I’d ask if you really want the convenience of an eCCR, that's what its about, convenenience, at least with the vision, it's the closest thing to plug and play that i've seen. If so, then go for it, the fact that you are thinking about it so much just may be the key. I have many more hours to put on my mCCR before I’m going to make ultimate conclusions.

For what it’s worth, I hope that helps.

George

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Gill Envy

...Because I wasn't born with gills!
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