decoweenie

My little Rebreather journey started when I was still "drinking Kool-Aid", worshipping GI3 and Internet-bashing all those who were not diving Hogarthian (which became DIR, which became DIR(TM), which became official-DIR-only-from-GUE...)

So the natural thing for any self-respecting "DIR-diver" to do was owning The Fridge (Halcyon PVR-BASC) with the optional Expedition-size scrubber if even only to do skill exercises in shallow quarries.

Back then, you aint a "real" Rebreather diver unless you own either a Cis MK-5P or at the very least was a lowly MK-15. So came the BMR-500 which was the MK-15-copy-wannabe with Juergensen-Smithers ver.1 digital electronic controller.

While getting trained in Hawaii for the BMR-500, I was introduced to the LAR-V so bought one.

I quickly realized why Dick King went out of business building BMR-500. So I chose to "DIR" and forked over my kid college saving fund to Kevin J., waited 6 months for the delivery of the newly refurbished MK-15 with Juergensen-Smithers digital electronic.

In the meantime, I was being unfaithful and messed around with a Dolphin. Soon I realized what a POS it was, I converted it into a Dolphin-mCCR using wing inflator and Oxyguage. This was before the KISS valve became a twinkle in Gordon's eyes.

One time while the MK-15 was being repaired, I complained to Gordon S. about the highway-robbery price of a MK-15 CL replacement (i.e. US$700 for a round piece of rubber). He told me the Classic-KISS uses off-the-shelf drinking bags for CL that could be bought in any sport shop. So I bought a Classic-KISS.

Missing the electronic controller diving the CK deep, I asked Kevin J. to prototype the original J-S digital electronic controller for the KISS. That was the SMA-1, then later on replaced by the KISS-HH. I also used the original Shearwater-CK controller for the CK as well.

A few years passed, then Reinhard repackaged the PVR-BASC into the Rebreather-80. And clones quickly became available, so I bought an EDO-04. The natural thing to do next was to convert it into a mCCR, thus the XCR was born.

I finally met Dave Thompson, and he lured me to the Classic-YBOD. So I bought a second-hand unit while in Sharm, and placed an order in for an Evolution since the waiting list was around 11-month then.

In the meantime, Gordon finished what was originally dubbed as the "Travel-KISS" but the name was changed to Sport-KISS for marketing reason. So I bought a couple of those too to try building a double-Sport-KISS.

While testing the double-Sport-KISS, I got side-track and wanted to work on a side-mount bail-out CCR. So I bought the TR-300 scrubber section to try to convert it into a mCCR, but it was too big/long to my liking. So I asked EDO to custom-build a YBOD/EDO-04 which is merging the YBOD with the accordian CL on the bottom of the scrubber, I have yet to test it in the water but hopefully soon.

Pawel was looking for someone to test his trimix-mCCR conversion Castoro Abyss, so naturally I volunteered. Once the test dives were completed, I was very impressed with the unit, I bought it.

Recently, I bought a second-hand Meg. And should have the Shearwater-YBOD in the water soon after DEMA.

So I still have a few more units to try yet... ;)

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"...after a while you get bored offering advice to a bull that like to keep butting the fence with its head rather than walking through the open gate..."

- Rebreather World PM