Am i approaching this right
- Thread starter formernuke
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OP
Revo is now on the list
My instructor doesn’t work that way. You will go down to 150’ for the deepest dives and there’s real deco.
MoBro
New
Hey, I don't really have much extra to offer that hasn't already been said but I agree that getting a unit that you will have lots of local support for is definitely worth factoring into your decision. As one poster said, it isn't about being a sheep but it is about getting help and guidance, spares etc easily and quickly.
OP
Some instructors don’t make their students actually do deco for deco procedures. They fake it or don’t do it at all. I’ve heard instructors tell of prospective students not wanting to do real deco in class.
For my OC class last year, we planned with the deco planner in the OC tech mode on our Perdixes. First dives were about 115ft. Stayed down long enough to get 3-4 min of deco. Don’t remember exactly how long bottom time was. There was no tweaking the GF.
broncobowsher
Contributor
Real deco, surface gradiant over 200%. If you do come straight up you WILL get bent.
Going super conservative for training is a good teaching aid. Adds a great deal of buffer to the student. To the point the student may not actually need deco, but they show the steps correctly and do things as if they truely had to do deco.
Yes, I enjoy nice recreational dives in the rebreather. Couple years back did the U352 with some recreational friends. I was wanting a few more hours on the rebreather so I brought it. I could be the first down, stay until the end, and was trying to get back before sucking the bottle dry. Some of the most relaxing dives I have ever done. And a little entertainment watching the show of all the other divers scrambling to do there safety stop all crowded together.
Going super conservative for training is a good teaching aid. Adds a great deal of buffer to the student. To the point the student may not actually need deco, but they show the steps correctly and do things as if they truely had to do deco.
Yes, I enjoy nice recreational dives in the rebreather. Couple years back did the U352 with some recreational friends. I was wanting a few more hours on the rebreather so I brought it. I could be the first down, stay until the end, and was trying to get back before sucking the bottle dry. Some of the most relaxing dives I have ever done. And a little entertainment watching the show of all the other divers scrambling to do there safety stop all crowded together.
Some advice that I would tell myself (yeah, time travel's not possible) from my experience when moving from open circuit to a rebreather...
Ask around and talk to people you see diving with a rebreather. Assess the kind of diver they are -- i.e. would you trust them to give you advice! Ask them things such as what they like about the unit; why they selected that unit; what makes diving so easy with that unit; what they don't like about it; what they would change on it. Also need to know approximately how many hours they've been diving on rebreathers and what kind of diving they do. Obviously a highly experienced CCR cave diver's got a lot of highly specialised requirements than for someone wreck diving in open water.
Make your LongList. Firstly, which ones do you like. It's a feeling thing, but some are more obvious as decent units, some have engineering features, some are built really well, some are cheapo plastic things.
Try to rank that list, but whittle it down by looking at rejecting the lower ranked ones. Bear in mind that you'll be ranking with your gut feel; you don't have sufficient experience to really understand what is good or not.
For a first rebreather it should be one that you will be diving your backside off with for a good couple of years to get that experience. This means you should select a common, well regarded rebreather which has plenty of divers using them locally and world-wide.
My shortlist was really between only two rebreathers in the end. The JJ (in standard config!) was the easy choice. Exceedingly well regarded, dived all over the world, great reputation, well made.
But my heart said I wanted the Revo. Same qualities: well regarded, etc. However, my "engineering gland" was dribbling at the thought of two scrubbers in series; two fully separated computers with a nerd; five cells (three on one computer, two on the other); a contained wing (can't be broken when in a wreck, dropped, etc.); two hoses only (no T-pieces, flappy lungs, etc. -- had seen other's lungs break); the scrubber monitoring system (which is great); being able to clean the lungs out using a cloth; a neat looking unit with three cylinders and a suit heater battery; room for expansion; a hybrid -- both the leaky valve CMF orifice and a solenoid. Best of all it uses half the scrubber than all other single-scrubber units (get over 3 hours on one scrubber -- the unit tells me that due to the monitoring system).
I knew about the flood-intolerance of the Revo.
I bought the Revo. Have not regretted it for one moment, although the flood intolerance bit me on the backside recently -- I bailed out; I lived; I learned. A lot. Have around 160 hours on the unit now and very happy with it.
Have modified the unit to suit me. Hated the stock harness so swapped it for a one-piece (H!) harness and added lower chest D-rings, a harness loop (not a break) and sidemounting bungees for the bailouts. Have recently installed the Revo bailout valve mouthpiece following my bailout experience as my dives are deeper now and the simple switch is fast to change from CC to OC. Am currently adding an ADV (Automatic Diluent Valve -- a kind of demand valve for diluent) cut-off valve (will write about this soon).
You absolutely don't need those modifications.
I intend to keep this unit as it's just as good as any other rebreather. However, it's not light (see the dry-weight thread) -- 44kg/96.8lbs all up ready-to-dive weight with everything attached. Am interested in looking at lightweight options for travelling -- such as the Triton -- but this is a longer-term "thought".
You could do with a JJ person saying all the nice things they like about their box.
Biggest piece of advice. It doesn't really matter which one you get within reason, but you must stick at it. Rebreathers demand your time. You must treat them with respect because they will try to kill you if you're not listening to it (see my bailout!). You must fettle it the night before. Don't be a Muppet -- it's serious. You MUST get the hours in. You MUST get the ascents in. Your buoyancy will eventually come back. There are no shortcuts.
I could never go back to OC. Certainly not for the kind of diving I do nowadays. I love the silence, swimming with the fishes, the lack of gas anxiety, the flexibility, diving with helium on every dive. I even like the fettling and attention it requires. Bit like my wife really.
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