broncobowsher
Contributor
OK, I'll throw in my shopping story...
Got a taste of what a rebreather when Poseidon was doing a tour with there mark VI and a local shop offered a slot. I could see the potential, didn't like some of the propitiatory engineering. Later a Hollis. These were quick pool try dives. Neither was what I wanted, but I could see that was the direction to go.
Did the typical online research. Read up on details on a bunch of models. I was pretty much sold on a Liberty. Got in with a local dive shop and that got me into DEMA. They had everything lined up in the rebreather section. Stopped and looked at everything, talked to a lot of people. Looked at a lot of stuff. Some claimed everything built in house was a feature. I saw that as a downfall as you are locked into a single source for anything. Lots of over complexity. While I am sure they dive just fine, the pre and post dive work involved was not thought out. I was trying to eliminate chest clutter, some were trying to make it worse. Very overwhelmed.
In the end I was pretty much sold on either a KISS (forgot which model) for the pure simplicity or a rEvo. The rEvo had a lot going for it. Dual scrubbers (great for when doing a bunch of smaller dives and always having fresh scrubber), super easy to clean counterlung. Travel friendly, it will (and I have done) fit as a carry on in the overhead bin. Guess that is the spoiler, I got the rEvo. Found an instructor that taught both KISS and rEvo (and others I don't remember). After some phone calls and I liked the instructor I made a drive (few hundred miles) to meet him in person and do a quick pool try dive. Some more discusssion I went that route.
The modification list has been rather small. Just added a stand. That appears to be working out. Dumped the gauges and added transmitters. Came with the NERD option for the heads up. Didn't do the RMS because at the time it was a very high failure rate, didn't know until later that they finally got it to be robust about the time I got mine. Knowing that now, probably would have got the RMS. A second set of tanks was a must, got those pretty much the same time I got the rebreather. Recently picked up a 3rd set to make long weekends better (and not have to need to find a shop for fills).
Got a taste of what a rebreather when Poseidon was doing a tour with there mark VI and a local shop offered a slot. I could see the potential, didn't like some of the propitiatory engineering. Later a Hollis. These were quick pool try dives. Neither was what I wanted, but I could see that was the direction to go.
Did the typical online research. Read up on details on a bunch of models. I was pretty much sold on a Liberty. Got in with a local dive shop and that got me into DEMA. They had everything lined up in the rebreather section. Stopped and looked at everything, talked to a lot of people. Looked at a lot of stuff. Some claimed everything built in house was a feature. I saw that as a downfall as you are locked into a single source for anything. Lots of over complexity. While I am sure they dive just fine, the pre and post dive work involved was not thought out. I was trying to eliminate chest clutter, some were trying to make it worse. Very overwhelmed.
In the end I was pretty much sold on either a KISS (forgot which model) for the pure simplicity or a rEvo. The rEvo had a lot going for it. Dual scrubbers (great for when doing a bunch of smaller dives and always having fresh scrubber), super easy to clean counterlung. Travel friendly, it will (and I have done) fit as a carry on in the overhead bin. Guess that is the spoiler, I got the rEvo. Found an instructor that taught both KISS and rEvo (and others I don't remember). After some phone calls and I liked the instructor I made a drive (few hundred miles) to meet him in person and do a quick pool try dive. Some more discusssion I went that route.
The modification list has been rather small. Just added a stand. That appears to be working out. Dumped the gauges and added transmitters. Came with the NERD option for the heads up. Didn't do the RMS because at the time it was a very high failure rate, didn't know until later that they finally got it to be robust about the time I got mine. Knowing that now, probably would have got the RMS. A second set of tanks was a must, got those pretty much the same time I got the rebreather. Recently picked up a 3rd set to make long weekends better (and not have to need to find a shop for fills).
