Rebreather mentality/in tune with body and environment.

Martin Burnard

A quote I took from Bletso

"Early on, most of the fatalities seemed to involve very experienced OC divers (most doing very advanced dives). It appeared to me that these divers had not developed a 'rebreather mentality' before setting off to do their very deep or extended profiles with their new toys.

One of the hardest things to impress upon rebreather students is the need to start from the begining when switching over to rebreathers. Unlike OC, one has to be much more in tune with your body, the environment, and the equipment. "

Started me thinking....

what is a rebreather mentality?

In what way do you have to be much more in tune with your body and the the environment (the equipment bit seems more obvious) ?

Apologies if this has been done before... just point me in the right direction.


Thanks

Martin

nigelh

A resonable level of paranoia helps.

With OC, trust it or don't trust it, a fault is hard to miss.
With a CCR the world just fades away.

__________________
nigelh

Ben Field

Know your PPO2 at all times.

Before you check it you should know what it will be.
Check it regularly.
Think/Know what will happen to it if you descend, ascend, press O2 or Dil add, purge your mask etc.

Many much more wiser people than me will probably chip in but IMO if you can know and visualize your PPO2 then you should avoid alot of surprises.

Oh and don't be a cheap ar*e- throw your slime away when its spent, change your sensors and o-rings and spread the lube around plenty.

Just my opinion

__________________

Beware Fridge Suck

lizardland

On OC if you can keep breathing then generally you can keep breathing. Unless you are using the wrong gas at the wrong depth then you have a reasonable chance of surviving a dive if you keep a reg in your gob. As one noted UK technical instructor once said to me in a drunken discussion on diving accidents: "breathe in, breathe out... how hard is it to keep doing that?".

That doesn't happen on a rebreather. It's entirely possible to be breathing a gas which is killing you with no symptoms, no warning and no physical indicators. The only thing between you and a pair of wings is your own awareness. There is an awful lot of info not just to take in but, what I think a lot of people forget about, to process and make into a meaningful decision as well.

Now that's only half the story because, as the accident figures show, there are plenty of things that will still get you even if you are aware. But if you are staying on top of what you are doing then you can be reasonably confident that the odds are tipped in your favour, confident enough that 1000's of divers don't think twice about doing 1000's of dives every year.

I guess it's like the difference between a bike and a car. Get it wrong in a car and you get a big insurance premium. You only need to get it wrong once on a bike to suffer very serious outcomes. Does that make bikes dangerous? Or does that just mean that you need to be that bit sharper on one.

Cheers,

Stuart

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Azerbaijani Association of Technical Divers Publicity Officer and Goat Wrangler

caveseeker7

Am not sure where we stand today, now that we can forget all about CO2 sensors ...

The two most important rules used to be
"Always know your pO2!" and "Complacency kills!"

The "rebreather state of mind" starts and ends there, I believe.
Sure ended there for some poor sods not heeding those words.

In between there are other diffrences in the state of mind, depending on whom you trained with and to what level.
The venerable "If in doubt, bail out" (usually referring to OC bailout) for example is something often considered
an OC state of mind, versus "stay on the loop as long as possible".

But for most part, the different state of mind really centers around dilligence, disciplin, awareness, attention.
To your gear, to yourself, to your buddy if you've got one. Before, during and after the dive.

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Cheers
Stefan



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Su amigo Roberto!"

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Martin Burnard

I can see this could be a can of worms!

Ben Field

Whys that Martin? I think you've had some pretty constructive answers so far

__________________

Beware Fridge Suck

Martin Burnard

Exactly Ben, the answers are very useful. BUT I hadn't even considered the fact that clearing your mask is going to have ab effect on a rebreather!

I thought initially uhh?, then oh bouyancy change is one, then..... ahhh chain of events occurs, less volume in loop etc.

Sooo much to more to it then I had considered.

lizardland

Yep, that's true but a lot of it ends up on an instinctive level. Do you think about controlling your buoyancy on OC? I don't, I just do it. Somehow, my brain takes in the info, processes it into a command and my hand is on the wing inflator. I don't even notice it.

Things like mask clearing end up in that same sort of passive thought process. Even to some extent checking your ppO2, quick glance, is it right? The amount of active thought is minimal. I guess "rebreather mentality" is akin to "instinct". Another step of "rebreather mentality" is going from your brain saying "I need to adjust my buoyancy" to "I need to adjust my buoyancy, why is that?". A lot of it is learning what is normal so that as soon as anything not normal happens you notice straight away.

Cheers,

Stuart

__________________
Can you imagine drifting along in the sea with your mouth open and a load of f***ing plankton going in? You'd like it, would you?

www.westons-cider.co.uk

Azerbaijani Association of Technical Divers Publicity Officer and Goat Wrangler

Bobnob

i must be missing something ,

i find diving ccr simple, not much to think about ( is my set point good )