looking for info

scubapolly

Hi,
I've been diving for about 8 years, and I am wanting to make the jump to rebreathers. I heard from a friend this is a good place to get information, as far as the pros and cons of the various brands on the market.

Hoping to be bubbless soon!

Polly

bubblefree

Polly

Welcome to rebreatherworld. What were your specific questions?

scubapolly

I am still in such the begining stages of this, that I don't have any specific questions yet. Just gathering info so that I can make wise decisions.


Polly

bubblefree

Lurk away. You will find that generally we are a friendly bunch. Word of advice, do not ask any "which is the best rebreather questions" unless you want to start a firestorm. For some reason (which I still don't understand) there are strong feelings about which is the best rebreather and that all others are cr**!

Ken

A large majority of this list is quite wise when it comes to answering neophyte rebreather questions. I think it's actually uncommon to see someone on this forum making blanket statements as to "what best". When researching Rebreather's check out the articles, as well as books and multimedia sections which are listed in the forums section.

Scuba_Vixen

I have to agree.

When some one here says "The Ajax Dodgy Diver is the best Rebreather", they usually qualify it with specific areas in which it excells. As in; The Ajax Dodgy Diver is the best RB there is, ... at keeping you proficient in your bailout skills.

I think everyone's agreed that there is no "always best for all uses" Rebreather.

What you need to determine, and you can get great advice here, is which Rebreather is best, for you.


Welcome to Rebreather World,



Darlene

schford

Welcome aboard! As the guys say ask away.

Why not let us know a few things about your diving eg type of diving, length of dives and depth, how much travel you do, what you usually dive now - have you any aspiraitons of doing 300 foot plus dives with horus of deco etc that way we can steer the advice for you!

All the RBs on the market have plus points its just a question of matching them to what YOU want to do!

Darlene that was funny - best at bailout skills - te heheheh

Stuart

scubapolly

I do a wide variety of diving, and yes I do travel a lot to dive, typically by airplane.

Currently for divies in the 100-150 foot range I use doubles typically 85s but 121s on occasion. Often with deco. I like to dive wrecks.

There are several wrecks I have my eye on in the 200-300 foot range so I have been looking to do trimix. I have been advised by several that a rebreather will pay for itself in the helium savings. Also I have been told that if I do trimix training, and then move to a rebreather I will then have to do rebreather trimix training, and therefore I am better off to do rebreathers first.

Thanks for any advice.

Polly

Scuba_Vixen

Depending on the dives and the cost of the trimix fills, it'll take close to 500 dives to pay for the Rebreather. That's assuming you get an RB that's rated to 300' or more, but not one of the really expensive ones (like Boris), which would take a lot more dives to recoup.

There have been several good threads on the pros and cons of learning mix with a CCR, without having dived it OC first. The more OC deco diving experience you have, especially in longer dives with extensive gas management planning and multiple stage handling, the easier it will be to skip OC mix and learn it CCR. If you're still fairly new to technical diving with significant deco obligations, then doing OC mix first is probably better. When you have to bail at 300', you better be spot on with your contingency plans and able to remain cool and focussed...... That comes with experience at depth. You need to gain that slowly and incrementally.


If you expect to skip OC mix classes, be prepared to spend a lot more $ for the Rebreather mix cert, as it's going to take a lot more class and dive time, than if you'd been mix cert'd already. You probably won't really end up saving that much $$.


You'll probably get several different opinions here, but from what you've posted so far, I'd suggest doing normoxic mix and see how you feel at 200' first. If you feel good with that and want to go farther, then would be the time to decide between hypoxic OC mix or going to CCR for mix.


I'm just getting the feeling that you need a lot more experience before contemplating mixed gas and it's depths.


Safe dives,


Darlene


Since you mention doubles and deco for your 150' dives, I'm assuming you're adv. nitrox / deco proceedures cert'd ?

schford

I shall take a stab at some Rebreather reccomondations then.

As you want to do techie stuff that rules out the Sport Kiss IMHO.

That leaves you with most of the others - how do you feel about Electronics? Also any thoughts about whether over the shoulder lungs would be ok or would make you feel cluttered?

Best bet is to try and get some try dives on a few rebreathers and see what you like - I would suggest trying out a Classic Kiss, Evolution, Meg and a Prism.

They are all fairly good to travel with and well thought of.

Stuart

PS I like Darlenes reccomendation on doing Normoxic on OC first but just as a FYI - Sarah went straight from OC Adv Nitrox / Deco to CCR Trimix. It can be done but its harder.