| First hours on the RB80
After a year of deep thinking and reading about Rebreather diving I finally made the step and bought a second hand PASCR which fitted best with my type of (cave) diving. Here a brief report on my first experiences:
This was the third dive on the unit and we did some OAG drills and I did some line and reel work. Tying in on a line, primary reel entry etc.. It will take still a while before I can repeat the full cave curriculum comfortably and up to standards on the rebreather. Buoyancy is under control as long as I do all movements slow and deliberately, ascends same story. Even more precise work in restrictive areas worked out well without any floor or ceiling contact. However responding to unforeseen issues like rapid turn around, level change to start an air share is a mess. Buoyancy once lost is difficult to restore aggressively without over reacting. As soon as I get off the loop to the OC mouth piece to start an air share every time I get pulled more vertical due to the increasing buoyancy of the loop above my head, as I start to pivot towards a more vertical attitude the counter lung on my back goes down and gets compressed, which kicks in the gas injectors and up we go! Will have to practice that until air donations do not induce undesired level changes or uncontrolled ascends which could be killing in OW or large caves. Same story goes for switching back to the loop, all off a sudden the excess gas is dumped from the counter lung when I start to breath from it and down we go negative. Still all of this takes place within five to six feet up and down but way out of line what is acceptable.
The feeling of neutral buoyancy when swimming on the rebreather is incredible. It is much more a sensation of being in space or a being space ship or flying than when on OC when hanging completely neutral. The fact that breathing does not affect the position in the water column is actually very relaxing. I am totally hooked on the machine. Still I need to make adjustments to unit. For example I can not reach the valves comfortably and cant at all reach the manifold. The design of the fixed frame places the unit plus tanks just two inches too far behind my back. I will have to see if I can find alternative frames or make one myself as I need to be able to handle my own valves without having to loosen all belts and stuff to push the tanks over. That would certainly result in a total loss of control on position and buoyancy.
Now the challenge of gradually building experience starts and convincing the buddies to also move onto PASCR otherwise l ll be still going to the same places as with OC... Also some decent training might be a good idea. Are there any suggestions for PASCR cave instruction other then going to the US for GUE training?
JJK |