Minimising Rebreather Deaths / Fatalities

sven

All,

No reason to get personal here. Rebreather World is a great platform for people to exchange views and information, and learn from each other. In order to make this work, there is Rule number one: Respect each others opinion.

In my opinion, the "horses for courses" argument definitely holds. But we may have different opinions about what that means: RBs only for deep and/or overhead dives vs. RBs to extend your NDL on shallower dives. Stuart's article attempts to help all of us to make our diving safer: deep, overhead, long, shallow, ...

If you would like to discuss the risks of RBs vs. OC, can I suggest you start another thread and keep this one to discuss the article itself, as requested by Stuart earlier. In fact, I'll go and create another thread & poll: Do you think Rebreather diving is inherently more dangerous than OC?

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Regards,
Sven

[SIZE=1]The Sydney Project website: [URL]http://www.sydneyproject.com[/URL]
My Blog: [URL]http://sven.rebreatherworld.com[/URL]

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." Mark Twain[/SIZE]

robvdmr13

I agree. The need for CCR should be evaluated for each dive.
10-15 meter dives in a quarry do not warrant the use for a CCR. Having said that, I must say that I usually do make these dives with a CCR. Mostly because my quarry dives are to test new configurations or something like that and I wouldn`t like to find not being able (fast enough) to get to something on a 80m dive.

Even though I prefer to use CCR while wreck diving, there are times when it is a bad choice. When trying to retrieve the enige of a torpedo from inside a sub at 35m, I used double 15`s with nitrox instead of CCR. In a case such as this, you know you won`t monitor the CCR as close as you should and hence, leave it behind and go OC. At least then you have the reassurance that as long as you have something to breath, you`re doing allright. The CCR could break down giving you some deadly mix and you won`t know it. Hence, use OC and not CCR.

Robert

jptaylor9

many of us have sold our OC gear, I have. So it's a choice of dive CCR or don't dive.

kevin stone

It's GREAT to have Mike back
things were getting pretty quiet around here

PacketSniffer

I believe that the interval of your dives plays a large factor in safety as well. Doing a few wreck or cave trips a year could be putting you at risk in the skills department. Dive often even if it means hitting the 15m quarry.

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Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.

Skeletor

I agree absoluteley . . . . but I trust no one minds if I keep doing it anyway. I prefer it to OC, I undertstand and accept the risks, and I do not believe that I, or anyone else, needs any further justification.

. . . . besides, It looks cool and all the PADI O/W students think I'm ard

As for running an eCCR as an mCCR . . agree that it is an essential skill, but I'm with DrMike on this . . . . whats the point in buying a dog and then barking yourself ?!

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Un-shallow Seating Receptacle

onetime

What I've learned from this thread:

1. Stuart wrote a valuable article highlighting the basics that should be discussed in all Rebreather training.

2. Making the use of RBs safer should be a goal for all of us.

3. I'm nuts because I use an Rebreather for shallow dives where I don't "have" to. Apparently logistics does not have a place in this rebreather discussion. Oh well, thankfully there are no RB police seizing my boat when I choose to dive my KISS in my local lake. Personally, I like the flexibility of grabbing my RB and knowing that I've got hours of bottom time at the ready rather than lugging doubles or several singles to attain the same dive lengths. Of course, I also still like blowing bubbles on OC occassionally in the same lake.

Gilles

In order to develop the habits that are necessary for survival, and exploit the superiority of a SP controller/solenoid/HUD combo over a CF orifice.

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Gilles
http://www.dirrebreather.com

dive2dive2000

Dr Mike,

On an open water dive (no over head)at what depth do you plan on CCR vs OC. When taking my CCR class I was taught that if at all possible forget about OC diving and get your hrs in. For me that meant giving up on deep dives and cave dives for a season or two. Your thoughts would be appreciated. I am taking strictly about newbies. I personally believe the right tool for the right job, but if you are a new ccr diver only dive ccr and only dive dives 130 or less.

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Safe Diving,
Martin

"but what's the fun of getting what you need, instead of what you want?"

Sutty

Hmmmm - this may or may not be the case, I suspect it depends on too many factors to be universally the case, its up to the individual of course to make that call.

However it may also be the case that using a CCR on shallow dives (that don't really need a CCR) may reduce the risk on future deeper dives where CCR is more beneficial by keeping a diver familiar and in-practise. To some extent it all depends where you draw your line on the balance sheet of risk/benefit.

If you do enough diving to stay current on both systems, and do enough deeper/penetration/etc dives to feel no benefit from using CCR on shallower/easier dives to keep "current", then you are a lucky man

Its also perfectly acceptable to my mind to say that the risk may be higher but an individual accepts this because they find CCR a more enjoyable experience, as long as they do assess the risks and benefits to them.

Neil

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Never forget that life is a finite resource.