I set my goal at visiting a specific wreck in the North Sea a while ago. Having been narced badly at elphinstone at 30 meters allready I've been reluctant to go deeper than that for a long time. I hated having to go to 42 meters on air for my Advanced EANx level. The botom line is that now that I have a Rebreather and I am capable of taking some of the END off, I'll have to have a very good reason to get deeper than lets say 35m.
Why still a Rebreather?
The weight is an issue. Climbing up a ladder with a twin twelve, lead and other gear isn't exactly my idea of fun espicially with a moving boat and swell.
The bubbles. My idea of diving is the aquarium experience. I did dives walking out of the beach and lying motionless on the bottom for an hour. Bubbles are known to spoil a lot of good encounters. I know I repeat myself here but I've seen more sharks snurkling than diving although my dive count is considerably higher.
The following were not my main arguments to go for one but are sometimes used to support such a decision:
-Savings on expensive gases. He is far more expensive in Europe that USA so that may or may not apply to you.
-Warm, moist air, hence you are less likely to dehydrate and stay warmer.
-The ability to reduce your logistical problems when going somewhere remote. A 15l of oxygen and a fill whip may get you sufficient fills even without a booster. But this argument isn't always valid. If you get bring sorb or ogygen but have to get it at the divesite that may be a bigger problem.
-Reduced deco obligation. As long as all goes well and you don't bail out your deco obligation is shorter. By keeping pPO2 at the same level while ascending you gas off faster than with your bottom mix. Provided you have a decent bail-out strategy you can use up the advantage by staying down longer.
-The savy tech look
. I can't say my fascination for technique and system design didn't help in opting for a Rebreather. Of all the reasons this is probably the worst one I can think of.
Most of these advantages can be enjoyed starting from mod1 allready. And yes I know mod1 allows only NDL dives, but it nice to know that if you have to stay longer or go deeper the penalty for it is less.
There are plenty other considerations I guess but it requires ploughing through the RBW site. In addition there's some literature around. I found Jeffrey Boznic's book Mastering rebreathers a very informative source. It might give you a better understanding about what you're about to do. No disrespect intended but the posts here are mostly without drawing the context and by nature very brief. With a solid background they are going to make more sense. But then again it only my 2c (euro cent that is)
Rene
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0941332969/102-2071101-5878520?v=glance&n=283155