First hours on the RB80

JJK

Hi folks,

After a year of thinking about Rebreather diving and reading books and many web sites I made the step of buying a second hand RB80. My cave diving was getting close to the edge of OC diving and the gas logistics were getting complicated. The simplicity and safety of an all mecanical system and its natural fit with my DIR / Hogarthian diving configuration made me incline for a PASCR. Alternatives in my evaluation were the RON, Tourill, AH etc.
After the first few hours on the unit I can say that this is what I was looking for. Now the challenge is to gradually build up experience, find proper training on the unit and convince the rest of the dive buddies to move on to Rebreather diving too, otherwise I will be still going to the same places as in OC....

JJK

After a year of deep thinking and reading about Rebreather diving I finally made the step and bought a second hand PASCR which fitted best with my type of (cave) diving. Here a brief report on my first experiences:

This was the third dive on the unit and we did some OAG drills and I did some line and reel work. Tying in on a line, primary reel entry etc.. It will take still a while before I can repeat the full cave curriculum comfortably and up to standards on the rebreather. Buoyancy is under control as long as I do all movements slow and deliberately, ascends same story. Even more precise work in restrictive areas worked out well without any floor or ceiling contact. However responding to unforeseen issues like rapid turn around, level change to start an air share is a mess. Buoyancy once lost is difficult to restore aggressively without over reacting. As soon as I get off the loop to the OC mouth piece to start an air share every time I get pulled more vertical due to the increasing buoyancy of the loop above my head, as I start to pivot towards a more vertical attitude the counter lung on my back goes down and gets compressed, which kicks in the gas injectors and up we go! Will have to practice that until air donations do not induce undesired level changes or uncontrolled ascends which could be killing in OW or large caves. Same story goes for switching back to the loop, all off a sudden the excess gas is dumped from the counter lung when I start to breath from it and down we go negative. Still all of this takes place within five to six feet up and down but way out of line what is acceptable.
The feeling of neutral buoyancy when swimming on the rebreather is incredible. It is much more a sensation of being in space or a being space ship or flying than when on OC when hanging completely neutral. The fact that breathing does not affect the position in the water column is actually very relaxing. I am totally hooked on the machine. Still I need to make adjustments to unit. For example I can not reach the valves comfortably and cant at all reach the manifold. The design of the fixed frame places the unit plus tanks just two inches too far behind my back. I will have to see if I can find alternative frames or make one myself as I need to be able to handle my own valves without having to loosen all belts and stuff to push the tanks over. That would certainly result in a total loss of control on position and buoyancy.

Now the challenge of gradually building experience starts and convincing the buddies to also move onto PASCR otherwise l ll be still going to the same places as with OC... Also some decent training might be a good idea. Are there any suggestions for PASCR cave instruction other then going to the US for GUE training?

JJK

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caveseeker7

How did you evaluate them?
What made you choose one over another?

I highky recommend getting properly trained first, then build up experience.
If it's a Halcyon and you're DIR it should be easy enough to get trained well.

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bjornaow

Hi JJK

If it’s a RB80 that you have! I think you have to go to Gue for good training. But you need to go fundamentals and tech1 and tech2 before they will let you go any RB80 training.

I have heard that IANTD have some that can have courses on the RB80 But I don’t know or think that it’s truth.

There is also a place in mexico that I have seen having courses on The RB80 but I think it’s with a Gue instructor witch mean's that you need to do the courses above.

Will tell you that I’m not 100% sure on this but the best you can do is to email David Rhea or Jarrod Jablonski According to Gue homepage they are the only instructors for the RB80 in Gue

Best Regards

Björn Q

JJK

That s the point, I have no objection to following the route of the GUE courses, I have actually started with DIR F last July, but retraining takes time, and long travel. Before going through T1 and T2 a good year can go by and before having the opportunity to go to the US for an RB80 course a year or two can go by. I can´t have the unit sit in the garage that time and not dive it...

Need training on the unit now, somewhere in the following months and in Europe as I believe that is the safest before undertaking more advanced dives. The motive I bought the unit is to go beyond the limitations of my actual OC dives in caves.

JJK

eCCR is a bit too risky IMHO so I wanted something within the PASCR range I basically made two considerations; what is proven technology; and availability. From the PASCR range available the RB80 seemed very reliable, EKPP and WKPP do all of their advanced cave diving on the units. I suppose that the similar PASCR could do the work as well but I seeing is believing. Then I happened to bump into a unit with a good price tag on it... then all of a sudden my wallet went open and I found my self some weeks later in the cave practising.. LOL

Regarding training I need something in the short term, meaning in the next couple of months and in Europe, so I can drag all of my own gear along in my dive van. Before being ready to do formal GUE RB80 training maybe a year or even two can go by as I will need to do T1 and T2 first. At best I can do one course per year (time constraints). I dont think my unit can wait that long in the garage. Somehow it needs to be dived every oher week.

JJK

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caver95

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EBT

Sounds reasonable when you put it that way. Out of interest what sort of depth/runtimes are you doing and how many stages?

Official training on the RB80 is limited to GUE, or EKPP if you are actually part of their project, but as you say its going to be a while before you meet their pre-requisites. I know some folks who'd run you a 'workshop' on the unit, but this wouldnt give you any sort of ticket.

Another option of course is to train on a similar unit like the RON or the EDO04.

Personally, I'd be thinking very carefully about why Im on that unit.... have you really exhausted OC?

Good luck


/Zak

(PS Dont forget all rebreather makes have their own little traits, training on one unit may not necessarily give you all of these for your unit)

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JJK

Hope to see you around sometime soon! I will try not to kill myself meanwhile.

JJK

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JJK

On the bigger dives we use three to six stages, three to five hours in the water depending on the dives, either far or deep. Of course buying several additional stages is still cheaper then a rebreather but still adds only a marginal additional range and with a small team this means several setup dives, weeks before the actual dive. Some of the places we dive have a lot of roof percolation so diving it spoils the cave until the next weekend...

I believe that the Rebreather will add gas redundancy on these dives, produce less roof percolation and basically give us more options and time in case shit hits the fan like scooter failures, loss of gas, line problems, etc. This is applicable when doing the same dives as know in OC. For diving beyond the current range / depth / time I need my buddies to follow the RB route and be on the same page.

Thanks for the advice on the other models. Workshops could be fine but what I am actually looking for is complete training so I can move on with my dive projects in Spain.

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