another CCR advantage

Mike · 27th June 2005, 06:34

Just discovered another advantage of rebreathers that I hadn't thought of before - you can swim harder underwater.

Diving on one of our J class subs (J5 / Yellow sub), one of those friendly local sites that you go back to every now and then to say hello. A couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to get an ambient light photo of this sub from more or less head on, so did 1/2 dozen dives on it over a few months - it's about 100m long so I needed 100m vis (ie I was dreaming, but it made a nice excuse to do a fun dive).

Anyway, on Saturday we had decent vis -~20m- so after a lap of the sub I drifted off the bow to have a look to see if it would make a decent photo. No joy, but it is still quite a cool thing to see the sub emerging out of the gloom as you swim towards it, so I drifted out of sight of the sub, then turned and started swimming back.

Now, there was a bit of current on the wreck, not enough to be an issue, but you noticed it as you were swimming into it. So swimming back towards the sub I changed from a gentle frog to a determined flutter - and still took a couple of minutes to get back to the bow. At this point I'd done my 20 minute bottom time, and knew that everyone else would be back at the shot and heading up soon - the shot that was about 80m up current from where I was.

On open circuit I would have just given up and ascended from where I was - shot a bag, and taken the ribbing for getting lost. There is no great requirement that you will come up the shot on these dives, but following the same ocean buddy system it's polite to meet up for deco and get back on the boat together - it makes the instructor conducting the PADI deep course happier as well.

So, it was head down, bum up, and power (ie slow walking pace) through the water back to the shot, panting like a racehorse (albeit one about to be taken out the back and shot) all the while. On OC, I hate to think how much gas I would have blown through, on the Prism all that happened is that the O2 solenoid fired a bit more often. Good rebreather...

Up the shot line, meet my OC buddies at their 10m stop, 6m stop manually at 1.6 for a bit of padding, and get out of the water with the people I got in with - always a good look!

Mike - with the little rebreather that could

27th June 2005, 06:34	#1 (permalink)
Mike Prism 'prentice Current Rebreather/s: Prism Topaz Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Evolution Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Melbourne Posts: 329	another CCR advantage Just discovered another advantage of rebreathers that I hadn't thought of before - you can swim harder underwater. Diving on one of our J class subs (J5 / Yellow sub), one of those friendly local sites that you go back to every now and then to say hello. A couple of years ago I decided that I wanted to get an ambient light photo of this sub from more or less head on, so did 1/2 dozen dives on it over a few months - it's about 100m long so I needed 100m vis (ie I was dreaming, but it made a nice excuse to do a fun dive). Anyway, on Saturday we had decent vis -~20m- so after a lap of the sub I drifted off the bow to have a look to see if it would make a decent photo. No joy, but it is still quite a cool thing to see the sub emerging out of the gloom as you swim towards it, so I drifted out of sight of the sub, then turned and started swimming back. Now, there was a bit of current on the wreck, not enough to be an issue, but you noticed it as you were swimming into it. So swimming back towards the sub I changed from a gentle frog to a determined flutter - and still took a couple of minutes to get back to the bow. At this point I'd done my 20 minute bottom time, and knew that everyone else would be back at the shot and heading up soon - the shot that was about 80m up current from where I was. On open circuit I would have just given up and ascended from where I was - shot a bag, and taken the ribbing for getting lost. There is no great requirement that you will come up the shot on these dives, but following the same ocean buddy system it's polite to meet up for deco and get back on the boat together - it makes the instructor conducting the PADI deep course happier as well. So, it was head down, bum up, and power (ie slow walking pace) through the water back to the shot, panting like a racehorse (albeit one about to be taken out the back and shot) all the while. On OC, I hate to think how much gas I would have blown through, on the Prism all that happened is that the O2 solenoid fired a bit more often. Good rebreather... Up the shot line, meet my OC buddies at their 10m stop, 6m stop manually at 1.6 for a bit of padding, and get out of the water with the people I got in with - always a good look! Mike - with the little rebreather that could
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