Hi all
Have been lurking around the site for a few months now reading lots of info you guys have put up there, which has been very interesting and to some extent a bit off putting. Never the less following lots of conversations with John Thornton (cheers for the advice if your reading) up in Scapa, have finaly gone for an inspiration with vision electronics, which arrived last week. Smile on my face was as wide as the mersey tunnel and has only just started to wear off, though the same can't be said about my wife, who took the phone call from APD, who were confirming delivery address etc and who also told her that the unit would be ready in 7 days!!!!!! My better half was expecting the unit to arrive summer 2007, mainly because I'd told her this would be the case, but amazingly one became available even sooner, (ooops), guess I must just be lucky. At present she's not chopped off any parts of my anatomy, but I still sleep with one eye open.
This is probably proving to be a bit of a long hello, which I will put down to the fact that its Saturday morning and I'm stuck in work till 4pm, so a bit more waffle is called for.
I read with interest a recent thread which was basically a write up about the first 12 months of making the switch to rebreathers. So with this in mind I thought I'd write a few sentances on why I'm making the switch.
I first really got close enough to have a good look at and poke about an Inspiration on a trip to Scapa in 2002. While I had read a bit about these new fangled divin thingies there was still a bit of a mystery to the remainder of us on the boat surrounding these yellow boxes. However Tony Jones (owner of the unit) told us all about them and showed us how to strip down unit etc & put it back together again. Following on from the trip I then had a go on an Inspo in the pool, which then led to many plans being hatched over the next 3 months as to how I was going to afford one. Needless to say I stayed on OC.
A few years passed and I then had a go on a rebreather try dive at Capes, which was the first time I'd had a proper go on CC. While the dive was enjoyable but strange, I could n't get the thought out of my head of "Was I getting £5k's worth of enjoyment out of the dive." Thought about this in the car on the way home and came to the conclusion of "No I was n't," then thought "Do I still want one,,,,,,? Yes." That logic sounds very similar to my 5 year old daughters.
At this point I then had to think long and hard as to why I wanted to change to CC and what sort of diving I planned on doing over the next 10 years or so. Advantages I saw were gas consumption not really an issue, extended NST and reduced time hanging around on deco stops, reduced narcosis levels and option to use helium between 40 -55m (when trained) more economically worth while. All these factors I considered to be both benficial in terms of enjoying a dive and adding to safety margins. Downside - CO2, hypoxia, hyperoxia, cost - all quite serious stuff and probably several more to add as well. But to my logic, - can monitor the O2 and hopefully deal with any problems when training completed and practiced/practiced/practiced and I assume deal with CO2 by not pushing scrubber to far and following good practices etc. Cost - well I suppose you can never justify the cost, other than its a toy you want. Friend of mine has just spent same value as 2 1/2 Inspos on a Harley Davidson (you may be picked up the vibe that me & my mates are all going through a mid life crisis) yet he has 2 cars - can you justify this by anything other than he wants one. Overall I feel that the benfits gained by diving CC outweight the burdens.
Anyhow given the above I still have doubts about whether I have made the right decision. I mentioned at the start that some of the threads I had read were off putting, which given the technical detail that some contain really make me wonder if CC is for me. Never the less I've decided to give it a try and if in 12 months time CC is not for me I can always I chage back to OC. Most people I've spoken to suggest that you need a good 50 hours on CC to start to feel comfortable with it which is what I'm prepared for and looking forward to, so looks like I'm gonna be busy over the winter.
So apologies now for all the silly questions I'll probably ask while I'm building up the hours and for those who've managed to stick with my waffle this far hope to see you out there over the winter
cheers & safe divin
Grahjam
and I'm quite threads fter