SCRs? what is a girl to do?!

decoweenie

Is there anything worthwhile past the TX border ?

Divechick

Hi Sharon,
I can't add a lot to all the information that everyone has given, but I can say that in my (limited) experience of a CCR, it certainly wouldn't be wasted at depths up to 40m. With an SCR, you get the deco advantage of nitrox, but also the disadvantage, in that your PP02 is optimised for your target depth, but not for any other point in the dive.

With a CCR like the Sport Kiss, that a lot of people seem to be recommending, your PP02 will be optimised for whatever depth you happen to be at. That makes a major difference in terms of increasing your no decompression limits and reducing deco. What I have really noticed on the Meg, while trying to cram as many dives in as possible to get used to the unit, is that the sweet spot, where you really notice the difference in terms of deco benefits is in the shallow recreational depths. On a 30 to 35 metre dive, you really notice the marked difference in deco obligation, and you can benefit from a generous bottom time without racking up too much time on the line. We did a 30-35 metre dive with an hour overall run time, minimal deco, and on a 20-24 metre dive last Saturday, as far as I can recall I still had about 60 mins no deco when we decided to go up (shame the viz was crap, really!). My point is that a CCR really wouldn't be wasted - it gives you a lot more flexibility to dive not only without worrying about watching your gas, but also with a bit more leeway on the deco limits at the depths you will be looking at.

Sarah

caveseeker7

Not for a Texan.

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Cheers
Stefan



"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority,
and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media,
which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.!"

ROB DAVIE

Quote: (Originally Posted by caveseeker7)

You gotta broaden your horizon past the Texas state line and US borders, especially when the request for information comes from abroad.

Okay, I stand corrected. Let's see, it's available in Europe which, according to the French consists of Paris, and a few outer provinces.

I am told it is available in Germany. That's that place that we and the Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and a few others managed to pry loose from the grasp they had on France a few years ago isn't it?

(Required Politically Correct Warning: OKAY folks! Before anyone gets wound up, the above is meant in mild jest. I've said before that I like the French and the Germans, and enjoy visiting both countries!)

Cheers!

Rob Davie

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[SIZE=2]"CC Rebreathers will become a viable part of tech diving [U]WHEN PIGS FLY[/U]!!"--GI3[/SIZE]

FathomsDown

Isn't that the world ends? Cross the border and you'll fall of the edge of the world!

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Dive deep, stay long, deco for friggin' ages.

schford

*groans* Rob

OK I suppose they did tease you about Texas!

Stuart

nl_carey

As I own a Sport KISS, I'm biased, but as I've stated on other boards now that it is out I would never, ever recommend someone getting an SCR. I did my Dolphin course, and dived the unit a bit, but was really dissapointed by what is can do in practice, or at least how much phaffing around you have to do, particularly on multi-day trips with different sites in different depths, any one of which could be blown out requiring you to change jets and mixes (Dolphin, other Rebreather's would be flow rates and mixes). Diving in twins was about the same weight, less hassle, pretty much the same deco (don't beleive the hype - you get the same benefit just diving the same Nitrox mix you 'approximate' in your calculations on an SCR) and less worry that everything is working.
However, CCR gives you good deco, no bubbles, less weight (overall - for individual short shallow dives single tank divers laugh at you - but you can go a whole day without touching your breather, and you have less problems with deco and available gas on 25m+ dives). Oh, and while all breathers aren't great at less than ~6m, the Sport KISS has to be one of the better ones I've used, certainly much much much better than an SCR, and less worry about low O2 (as long as you track it) than an SCR when shallow after a deep dive (customising O2 levels for the bottom on an SCR means you're compromising O2 levels shallow, which is something to be wary of, but simply a non-issue on CCR).
The Sport KISS is lighter, and easier to maintain than any of the SCR's I've personally dealt with, about the same price, and training is equivalent. The flexibility you get is more than worth the minor difference in price. In fact, a lot of times when you add in the cost of putting O2 monitoring on an SCR (I consider it a requirement, others don't) then the Sport KISS, depending on local variations, can be cheaper! And, when you consider you will likely save on gas mixing in the long term (you'll use about the same sorb) things get better. After you've seen other divers have to call dives on more complicated breathers because they can't identify the problem (this is a controversial point, but I've seen it enough that I consider the easy problem diagnosis of the SK VERY important), things get even more in the favour of the Sporty.
Alternatively, there seem to be more and more good deals on Insiprations around, but I consider them a bit of overkill for dives less than 40m (too much clutter on them means more drag, which makes diving less fun for me).
Go CCR - really. The Sport KISS is pretty much designed to remove the attractiveness of SCR options - and those of us diving them love them!

ROB DAVIE

NL_CAREY,

That was an outstanding write-up! Points well-made, and with the authority of an Rebreather pilot who has used the two units a lot. Well done. Thank you! That's the kind of information sharing that is making this site the best there is!

Rob Davie

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[SIZE=2]"CC Rebreathers will become a viable part of tech diving [U]WHEN PIGS FLY[/U]!!"--GI3[/SIZE]

ROB DAVIE

Not only that, but I did put in the required PC warning as well!


Rob

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[SIZE=2]"CC Rebreathers will become a viable part of tech diving [U]WHEN PIGS FLY[/U]!!"--GI3[/SIZE]

ROB DAVIE

Quote: (Originally Posted by FathomsDown)

Isn't that where the world ends? Cross the border and you'll fall of the edge of the world!

That's true, FD, to believe anything else is to believe that the world is NOT flat, and we know that to be HERESY!

Rob

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[SIZE=2]"CC Rebreathers will become a viable part of tech diving [U]WHEN PIGS FLY[/U]!!"--GI3[/SIZE]