Quote: (Originally Posted by Genesis)
First, I don't think the "coming paradigm shift" is going to happen any time soon....
Let me be clear here - while you can say "but OC has the same sort of requirements" you're being dishonest if you do - at least in the US. I can buy OC gear from Leisurepro or any one of a number of other online merchants, including a compressor, get in my boat, and go diving - with exactly zero formal qualification. I can also take a "basic" ow class for a couple hundred bucks and then do whatever I'd like. Everyone says "oh that's so horribly dangerous!" and yet the statistics say otherwise - about 100 people cack themselves diving every year. That's simply not that many.
So long as both the hardware and the required class (not "recommended", "required" - and enforced by simply refusing to sell if you don't have it) are 5x that of open circuit with infinitely long leadtimes (compared to "buy it, take it home") this is and will remain a tiny niche market.
Nobody - not even DiveRite - is seriously interested in tackling this issue. DiveRite looked like they might be originally, but as it turns out that was fluff rather than substance.
The paradigm shift is in process. It is slow, but it is there.
Most of us do not say that OC has much the same requirements because we have been at this for quite some time now, and are fully aware of the differences.
Diving this equipment is more involved, and requires more training. No one in his or her right mind is going to hand out one of these machines, even for mass quantities of wonga, to people who don't get the training (ESPECIALLY not in litigation crazy Estados Unidos)!!
If that means the market remains smaller over-all, so be it.