Advice Requested - Open Circuit Tech Diving or Rebreather Diving?

[billgraham]

I've been diving the rebreather for six years, and I still dive open circuit sidemount frequently too. My take is that the CCR can make difficult dives simpler, and simple dives more difficult.

 

[wedivebc]

The problem with asking this question is anyone answering in favour of OC is likely not a CCR diver (with one notable exception on this thread) and anyone who is diving CCR is unlikely to ever want to look back

My feeling is if your path is taking you toward rebreather to get where you want to go (deep trimix) then then go directly to rebreather. If your goal is to expand your knowledge and experience in general diving then as mentioned above get some good OC training and you will soon see if your interest favours one direction or the other.

 

[lobbolt]

Thanks for all the very helpful advice!

The diving I am looking to do in the future will be deeper, far beyond "recreational" limits (40 meters / 120 feet), as my diving is aimed at exploration, scientific purposes.

The increased depth capability opens unexplored areas.

I believe for now, a reasonable conclusion is that training in both OC tech diving and rebreather diving will be beneficial, as they compliment each other (bail-out on rebreather diving being OC, etc.)

May your diving be safe and fun!

 

[boulderjohn]

Thanks for all the very helpful advice!

The diving I am looking to do in the future will be deeper, far beyond "recreational" limits (40 meters / 120 feet), as my diving is aimed at exploration, scientific purposes.

The increased depth capability opens unexplored areas.

I believe for now, a reasonable conclusion is that training in both OC tech diving and rebreather diving will be beneficial, as they compliment each other (bail-out on rebreather diving being OC, etc.)

May your diving be safe and fun!

If you are looking at scientific diving, then I really do think you want to get into rebreathers before too long. I think you will find this video interesting, if you have not seen it already.

 

[Sat Diver]

What are you actually looking for? Do you want to improve basic diving skills, or are there specific dives you want to do that you require more training to execute? If the latter, I'd say where you go depends on what those dives ARE, and the people with whom you are considering doing them. Do remember that rebreather bailout is to open circuit, so having some experience with open circuit technical diving, deco planning and gas switching may be useful even for the rebreather diver.

The obvious advantage of a rebreather for technical diving is that your helium use is much diminished, making the per-dive cost less. The initial outlay is higher, both for equipment and training, and a rebreather has additional complexity to avoid hyper- or hypoxia, or hypercarbia -- all of which are risks on OC as well, but in some cases to a much lesser degree.

A good reply to a fairly vague question.

 

[Bombay High]

The problem with asking this question is anyone answering in favour of OC is likely not a CCR diver (with one notable exception on this thread) and anyone who is diving CCR is unlikely to ever want to look back

My feeling is if your path is taking you toward rebreather to get where you want to go (deep trimix) then then go directly to rebreather. If your goal is to expand your knowledge and experience in general diving then as mentioned above get some good OC training and you will soon see if your interest favours one direction or the other.

Not to hijack this thread, but to what depth do you feel CCR scrubbers are effective (density) ? I know that this is an area that is moving forward rapidly, with greater CCR depths being achieved.

 

[billgraham]

The problem with asking this question is anyone answering in favour of OC is likely not a CCR diver (with one notable exception on this thread) and anyone who is diving CCR is unlikely to ever want to look back

I don't think of it as going backwards. Here's an example of what I mean: I did a cave dive last year where my friend and I were on the sidemount CCR's, and the two other divers in the team were OC sidemount. As it turned out, the cave had a ton of ups and downs (40 feet plus, five or six of them). The line was in **** condition as hardly anyone had been in there in a long time, and my drysuit inflator decided to stick in "inflate" mode after about 20 minutes. So, everytime I wanted to descend, I had to plug the drysuit inflator back in, give it a squirt, unplug it, add dil to the counterlungs, my wing, etc. all of which slowed me down and got me pissed off. I also was toting an extra aluminum 80 for bailout, as we had no idea where we were going. I would have been MUCH happier on that dive with my sidemount 121's and an o-2 bottle back in the entrance. It's not that I don't love the CCR, sometimes there are just easier ways to skin the cat. I specifically work at keeping my OC skills sharp and I think it makes a lot of sense to spend some time developing them if you want to be a well-rounded diver. Good luck!

 

[Spazzy]

Rebreather.

 

[PfcAJ]

Open circuit.

 

[down4fun]

Hello ScubaBoad,


Currently, I am PADI Rescue Diver certified and am a proficient, competent diver with extensive experience and wish to take my dive training and diving experience far beyond "vacation" diving (the movie Open Water).


I am at a crossroads between pursuing further instruction for my diving: whether to pursue further training in open circuit technical diving (doubles, backplate & wing… etc.) or to pursue training in rebreather diving (closed or semi-closed).


The basic concepts I am familiar with of both technical open circuit and rebreather diving.


From your experience what are the in-depth pros and cons of open circuit versus rebreather diving? What would your recommendation be? Should I pursue training in both rebreather and open circuit tech diving?


Thanks a lot for your advice!!

You will get lots of opinions, some quite passionately endorsing o/c or ccr. I don't know that there is any one right answer for everyone. First off I would say that at less than 100 dives the first thing you need is more experience. I am not trying to slam you but 100 dives is drop in the bucket when you move into the technical world and the experience you gain just at the recreational level will carry forward with you.

From there I would suggest a AN/DP (advance nitrox/deco procedures) class. This is traditionally done in doubles with a single gas for decompression. It will teach you many of the skills that you will need in the technical world, both o/c and ccr. There are IMHO several advantages to this. One...it's a much cheaper investment to find out if technical diving is really for you. I have seen divers set up doubles, take the first class and on their first dive to 150 feet decide it wasn't for them. The regulators you acquire will transfer to bailout regs when you go to ccr. The deco bottles will become bailout bottles and the doubles you can either break up and use for bailouts (if they are aluminum) or sold to help fund the ccr. The gas switching skills, decompressions skills, stop holding skills, etc is all stuff you will need for ccr anyway.

After that, if you still feel you have the desire, the hunger to pursue a rebreather go for it. It is a commitment! It is not the single tank lifestyle where you can throw your gear in the closet for months at a time and just pull it out and go diving. Rebreather diving requires that your head be in the game at all times. It requires frequent diving and practicing of skills, however mundane they may seem. It requires more time in maintenance of gear, and more time in set up for each dive. It is expensive. The dollars you save in gas is quickly out weighed by the other equipment, computers, bailouts, etc you seem to always need.

All of that said, the rebreather is a wonderful piece of equipment particularly well suited for deeper dives or longer penetration runs. I have been on a rebreather for several years now. I did what i described above and think it was the best route for me and think it is a a reasonable approach for most divers who wish to go ccr. I had hundreds of o/c doves and then took AN/DP/helitrox. This got me to wrecks in the 150ft range with a single gas for decompression. It only required a set of aluminum 80's and a 40 for deco. Pretty cheap investment. I learned with tables. And after a short time in that level I knew I wanted to go full trimix and rebreather. There was no point, in my opinion, is doing that o/c. I made the move to a rebreather and pursued full mix and full cave on the ccr. The skill i learned in AN/DP were completely usable in ccr and layer the groundwork for an easy transition to ccr and bailout procedures.

Enjoy the journey.