Is Rebreather diving inherently more dangerous than OC?

Depth-junkie

Spot on that man

I dont see CCR anymore dangerous than OC, it's just a different set of equipment with different rules. Obey the rules and you will be OK, scimp or fail to obey the rules and pay the price.

As Lee said, i am sure if we could 100% know there was no risk involved on every dive we did, most of us would give up.

Lets be honest that's why we go diving to 50m,60m,70m...100m+ we like the buzz, Yes there are good wrecks we like to see whilst we are there. Yes we limit the risk as best we can with good skills, practise, gas choice, equipment prep etc but if we new 100% every dive was risk free, i am sure most of us would be doing another hobby by now.

ATB
Gareth

Dutchy

funny you say that. All I do is recreational rebreather diving I have the impression that a fraction of the danger is in the dive itself rather than the equipment itself. Most dives I can ascent and hope for the best. Once you approach limits equipment failure and bailout become more important.

Diving an mCCR keeps me on my toes so less risk?

I don't doubt that. I guess I'm just guilty of wishfull thinking My answer is "No" anyhow

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shell-back

I can see a bit of everyone from a different angle when they respond to this poll , and a bit of me in everyone of the responses. Today I sit with a tremendous weight of a possible malignant tumor in my right femur spinning my mind , yea it takes you down and makes you think and talk differently.
So with that said here is my spin, yes it is more dangerous for many folks,
perhaps the belief that it is not is what is the determining factor.

I have been in many situations that without the profound respect of impending doom, I may have not survived as I was unable to control all the variables as they played out.

becoming intimate with the Rebreather of choice is the only way to control the variables and it takes great amount of experience to get to that place. I am positive that each of you have had a moment in your diving that made (forced) you to take step back and analyze your skill level be it from early OC days or when earning your tech wings. "it didn't kill ya but it made you stronger"
Read my tag line!!!!!

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Gilles

"Inherently more dangerous than OC"

Key adjective here in "inherently". These have inherited technical complexity, but this will hopefully only be temporary.

Perhaps Rebreather is suffering from technology and existing design. Existing designs/technology make it prone to failure, errors, and brain-fart. I believe the interest is sufficiently strong that the risk of RB will improve with time.

Is aircraft flight inherently more dangerous to automobile travel?

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Gilles
http://www.dirrebreather.com

Andy Del

A-ha! Have some green, as this is the point for me. Aircraft have way more inherent risk - as you can't just stop it and get out, run away and be safer, like you can in a car. BUT, it is statistically safer then driving on the roads, especially Sydney's gladatorial rush hours (6 per day, officially).

so it's not if there is more to go wrong, or less, but on how you use the tool, which is diving. My rebreather dives tend to bo more controlled than an 'easy' OC shore dive, where there are more uncontrollable variables, like waves, rocks, pleasure water craft, other OC divers, etc. etc.

I can control my unit, look after it and cross fingers I followed my check list and it works, just like on OC. But what I can't control is what will get me. A single tank, blue water and pretty corals 'n' fish scares me!

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silent running

I used to think that the more I rode my motorcycle, the better rider I would be. True as it reguards my skill level, not true once we throw a drunk diver into the mix who decides to make an oncoming left hand turn while talking to his passenger. I was putting 1000 miles a week on my bike when this happened to me.

I can't control a drunk guy's impulses, but I can test and replace current limited cells, I can make sure I have a good BO strategy, I can keep track of my scrubber use... Practice does count in CCR diving and the variables are far more in your control than not. That's why I don't distinguish btw my shallow and tmix dives, both require my full attention during prep and execution. And the better I know my gear and the behavior of it's components and the consumables, the better prepared I am for each dive I make.

Shallow dives, I get to stay down longer and have better wildlife interaction, deep I get see wrecks and/or more wildlife, so it's always worth it to me.

wizbang

This is how I feel but it does have the disadvantage of when i turn to OC I have to knock off the rust.

If you are diving alot then i can also see the merit in diving the correct tool for the job. (as per Harry's comments)

silent running

I hear you Wiz. I dive a lot for short periods-2 week trip to Indo, dive about 50 hrs, all CCR. I haven't dived OC since last year, 1 dive with the newly OW certified girlfriend, no need of CCR then. But it was easy, apart from the horrible, wet breathing rental reg. I doubt I would find CCR diving as easy if the situation was reversed and I did 150 hrs of OC diving for every 1 hr CCR dive...

I try to avoid OC as once I'm in the habit of preping my unit, it's pretty fast (45 minutes of prep for 6+hrs of dive time) and I also hardly ever dive with OC divers. If I did, I might use OC. But since I plan my trips carefully to avoid OC divers, it doesn't happen.

But yes, I can imagine a situation where faced with the choice btw a quick, impromtu OC dive vs. packing the scrubber or no dive at all, I'd grab the tank.

robvdmr13

Not exactely. I believe you are at less risk than an eCCR, but still more than with OC. You still have cells, scrubber, batteries and other stuff that can fail. It`s not only the electronics that make eCCR more risky than OC.

Agreed, statistically aircraft are safer, but like you said they are inherently more risky. Key word being inherently. At this point however, Rebreather`s are statistically less safe. Will that stay that way? I hope not.

Now image one of these OC divers getting on a Rebreather. You know a lot of them are. Probalby just for being on a RB.

Safety is in the hands of the diver!!

So come on:

Robert

Dutchy

I expect these things to fail. Just not all at the same time. The point of mCCR was not about it being safer than eCCR it was about the way you dive it. Conciously diving it and expecting things to go wrong. That and having the means to bail out makes my diving safer than in the just plunge in OC time with a single tank...

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