Quite comfortable on air until ~165ish... then I start wishing I had a little He in the mix. Usually have a healthy supply of 10/50 around so I don't have to. Compromises I used to be willing to make on OC seem unnecessary with a rebreather.
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I used to dive deep on air. But it's a much better experience on Helium. You get to see more, you get to relax more, you get to remember more. There's more detail to every feeling you're taking in visually...
True… and you also get to remember how cold you can get without your heart stopping!
There is a happy medium and the number varies significantly with the individual and near-term exposure. However, I believe a more practical recommended limit is closer to 50 M/165' than the 40 M/130' limit that dominates thinking in the North America.
What's this "cold" you speak of? I'm diving a rebreather in Florida. LOL, nothing cold about that.
Also keep in mind that about 50% of our thermal loss is through reparation.
Yes, on some dives, the air I'm breathing is actually too warm.There's a significant thermal retention effect with a CCR, though, yes?
Not on a rebreather. There's an exothermic reaction of the sorb removing CO2 which provides heat and I'm blowing 98.6F hot air into the rebreather with every breath. Granted, some of that is lost by the thermal conductivity of water against the breathing loop, but I'm still breathing warm, moist dry air...
The diver in the video was probably not even wearing a wet suit.The guys in the video were cold because they were in cold water at 300+ feet deep in wetsuits. What's the thermal protection of a wetsuit that has been crushed by 10+ atmospheres of pressure? Easy: None.
It has very little/nothing to do with the fact that they were on Helium.
I've spent hundreds of hours on Heliox in cold water. I've spent hundreds of hours on Air in cold water. The difference on OC is very slight. The difference on CCR is close to non-existant.