Blackcrusader
Contributor
In this video I back away a bit you can hear my breathing but you can also hear the fish chirping as well.
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What is a recommended set of skills needed for "non-technical" rebreather diving (<40 feet)? Basically for photography in shallow reefs, since wildlife gets spooked by bubbles.
If you are staying that shallow, you may want to look at SCR's which are a lot less risky. They aren't completely bubble-less, but mostly are. Mares Horizon is really the only one on the market right now.
If you can stay above 20ft, then an O2 rebreather is also a lot less risky, but you have a 20ft depth limit and they are not terribly common.
As the gas is continuously flushed, so there is no risk of hypoxy...Can you explain why you say SCRs are safer in shallow water?
Can you exlain why you say SCRs are safer in shallow water?
No risk of hypoxia? Doubtful. My only near miss with hypoxia in almost 2000 hrs on RBs was many moons ago on a Draeger Dolphin, 32% gas with correct flow orfice swimming really hard at the surface against current to get to the front of the boat. It was only when I stopped swimming to rest before descending that I heard my oxygauge screaming at me. My PO2 was climbing back up and was at 0.16 when I looked. It came back fast but if I had kept swimming, who knows. I have always felt SCR are no safer than CCR.As the gas is continuously flushed, so there is no risk of hypoxy...
I worked on the Caimano IV SCR for military applications, with the purpose of minimising the noise emitted, but it was impossible to bring it at the same level of noise of a CC rebreather. In fact the Caimano IV SCR can also be switched to a pure oxygen CC ARO unit, when the military diver must be entirely silent. See it here:
SIEL Advanced Sea System
Now, all of that said. MOST underwater photographers are not on rebreathers. Some do, others use double hose regulators like the Argonaut Kraken to get bubbles behind your head, but the majority use normal regulators. The key is having bang up dive skills. Assuming you are already a skilled surface photographer, which you need to be before you even think about taking a camera underwater, then you truly need top notch buoyancy and propulsion skills to successfully photograph underwater. I would highly recommend getting into a GUE Fundamentals course as soon as possible which will go infinitely farther to improving your photography than trying to get rid of the bubbles