| Re: When did YOU jump?
I made my switch to Rebreather when I had about 2200 dives. Been doing proper deco diving since 1996 and trimix since 1997. I used to make my living in the diving industry, working both as a recreational and technical instructor.
It just happens that when DiveTech Grand Cayman, opened for business I started diving and training with them. Later on ended up working as a instructor there. In that time, I started seeing all sorts of rebreathers in action. DiveTech where fast becomming popular with the Rebreather divers that wanted to do a bit of traveling.
So I looked at alle the pro and cons, but it was not until 2002 that I made the desicion, and only in 2003 that I made the purchase.
In hindsight, that cost me 1½ seasons of good diving. The breather was a serious pain in the ass, trim was awfull. It only took a slight current to blow me out of course when working in exposed areas. I've had build quality frustrations with the unit. Beeing a motormechanic, I knew what to expect from some british made cars. But I thought that things had changed a bit.
Well I got a good education from pratical use of the unit. When something breaks or is downright stupidly made, it's time to modify the breather.
Now in the last 1½ years I'm starting to approach the capabilities that I had on OC. In the last 6 months I'm starting to push further than my OC setup would have allowed me to do in terms of bottom time. Only I got interupted by a 2 month electronics repair, so I have to borrow stuff from my mate.
So if you got loads of OC experience, be prepaired to having some very frustrating moments when you can't do what you used not having to think twice about doing.
Occationally your temper will enter the "must-kill-the-fu*****-manufacturer-of-this-equipment" mode...
But when you get past this...the breather will allow you some very cool experiences. |