When did YOU jump?

PhilSiswick

I'm at 210 dives (over 9 years), with a reasonable smattering of long, deep (50m max) deco dives on Nitrox over the last 4 years. I've made the decision to jump, as I want to use Trimix for 35-55m stuff and didn't want to pay for the training twice or the cost of the gas on OC (plus, I didn't like the inflexibility that OC Trimix implies). I don't get that many opportunities to dive at the moment, what with 2 kids, a job and a house that is falling down, so I want to make the most of the opportunities I do get.

The decision to go Rebreather dates back about 5 years, to a conversation with Dave Thompson on a Nitrox course. To summarise, I hope fairly, his guidance was - do it early in your career, so that you don't have to go back too far in your diving, which would then put pressure on you to move ahead with the RB faster than you should. At the time, a lot of the fatalities and serious incidents seemed to be related to people with a lot of deep OC experience forging ahead before they had really got used to their RBs, so it made a lot of sense. Both my wife and I have had a 'lull' in our diving activity over the last 4 years or so, as we've doubled the size of the family, but now we're working back up to where we were, so this seemed like a good time to make the move.

My course is in 9 weeks time today, so can't say yet how easy the transition is. I'll try to remember to post something in due course.

Good luck making your decision!

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Phil (WSKD 0001)

I have always felt that the dive I am on is not nearly important as the dives I plan to be on the rest of my life. Tom Rose, 2007

The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure thing boat never gets far from shore. Charles A. Lindbergh

www.hugsac.org.uk

EBT

For me it was after being full mix with a couple of thousand dives under my belt. My motivator was gas logistics for french caving trips and to some degree gas costs for trimix.

If I were only doing twinset/single stage stuff, with gas readily available, I'd probably not have bothered, since OC is so much easier.

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Eagles May Soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines!

Rebreather World Terms of service

teal

Thanks guys.

I see myself doing an OW cert class again, I am fairly intelligent so I should learn even more. I have the AOW card and to be honest I felt it was lacking - we did:
Night dive -- fairly boring -- I held a light in my hand and swam after dark.

Compass course -- buncha zig-zagging across the bottom.

Recovery -- used a pair of lift bags to raise a 12ft john boat - good team work.

Wreck dive -- went to 35 feet and swam around a 45 ft cabin cruiser with a 70 degree list to the port side. Then "penetrated" the "wreck" by swimming from the aft end, thru the salon and out a hatch in the berth compartment. Required removal of OC gear, pass it out the hatch and then replacement of gear.

Deep dive -- relative to you guys not real deep - 125 feet in viz that was at BEST 2-3 feet. Was interesting. Last dive of the set and one of the other students who did fine on all the others, freaked out. He had been cert in the Carrib and couldn't deal with the low viz. I was decending and at 40 feet I saw him shoot past me for the bottom and a ton of bubbles, me and instructor increased our rate of decent to find out WTF and then at about 75 feet he shot past us clawing for the surface (apparently he found his BC inflator). Was my first intro to a panicked diver. Rest of dive was normal.

From there I intend to take the Nitrox and advanced Nitrox courses. Then go into Deco Proceedures. At that point I will re-examine my goals, desires and level of ability and see if the Rebreather makes sense. It does so far -- seems to be an excellent way to go deeper, stay longer and spend less $$ than doing OC on trimix all the time. Gas costs ect.

Please if I am wrong let me know.

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Andrew

Dutchy

You should do fine as you are fairly intelligent. good luck

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teal

I only said that - haven't proven it

Please if it turns out to be true - don't tell anyone -- I don't need to be thinking for others!

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Andrew

fr0sty8

I made my jump after 30 or so dives (crazy ..... like a fox perhaps). I knew right away I was headed the tech route and wanted to avoid doubles like the plague. I figure I diverted funds and advanced OC training towards what I really wanted. Now I am just working on perfecting my Evo skills. I plan to eventually take both mod 2 (decompression) and mod 3 (trimix) courses when I have accumulated enough hours as well as perfected my skill sets. Some may feel I may have rushed into making this decision to soon but I love my Evolution ccr, completely despise oc, and never plan on turning back. Naturally I completed AOW, nitrox, and Adv Nitrox in the process .....I may take some others along the way that aren't CCR specific but are helpful none the less in other areas.

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Yes I do have some mechanical sympathy........right up to the point where I bounce the f**ker off the wall as it cross threads yet again!!

teal

Fr0sty -- am I correct to assume you took the AOW, Nitrox and Adv Nitrox befor Mod1 on the Evo?

I am not sure how training works for CCR -

Mod1 - being intro to CCR diving, the machine etc
Mod2 - Deco (on said machine)
Mod3 - Mix

So a guy doesn't necessarily need the OC mix and deco courses to start flying CCR? Assume I would obviously dive within my training.

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Andrew

fr0sty8

Correct. On all accounts.

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Yes I do have some mechanical sympathy........right up to the point where I bounce the f**ker off the wall as it cross threads yet again!!

rogeringebo

I went trough the PADI system up to Master scuba dive trainer and had 1000+ dives.I was working for a divschool that teached both rec and tech..with rebreathers as a speciality....
When the day came to see what was below 40m (with the proper gear) I did a few techcourses on OC and thought that would be the way I would dive from that day.The dream was always there to get a breather but not the funds....
After a while I managed to save up some cash and I was reading a forum looking for a Vr3......but it turned out tha ad was for a Classic KISS with a Vr3....and I thought,what the hell....bought it and have not looked back since....diving another breather now but doubth I will dive OC again when not teaching. Back in march this year I was "In between rebreathers" and just passed down diving until I had a machine again.
The best advice I can give to someone new to rebreathers is....you are back to square one.....you have to get to terms with that.....when you do you will
take small steps and have a great time doing it...
I spent my first year diving my breather in shallow waters 0-30m to get in to it and did not push it all that much.That first year helps me alot now when I am more in to deeper trimix diving.... I find it easier to dive deeper....boyancy is more stable and so on.....so train alot in the shallows....thats much harder and you gain alot from it,I think

/Rodge

Dutchy

On a serious note if you really understood your OC training rather than learning everything by heart then MOD1 theory may not be that hard as the OTU/CNS and Gas consumption calculations are part of the Nitrox training. The hardest part I think is trim and practical skills in general such as manually maintaining setpoint despite changes in depth level. With only some 15 hours or so under my belt I'm still sweating especially during the last 10 meters of free ascent as that's when my taskload is the highest... But it's worth it !!! And having made the transition from 15l to Rebreather without buying doubles saved me the effort of

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