Best global locations for rebreather diving

[Rich1280]

Scapa Flow. Pretty much all of the boats will rent you 3l cylinders, lead, stages and sell lime. Great wrecks, and stuff out of the flow around the islands available too. We tend to dive off the Clasina and Bob will help with lazy shot or trapeze etc as needed for bigger diving.
Also got to consider Malin Head well set up for ccrs there.

 

[LFMarm]

Here is the synthesis of all the locations posted for ease of reading. Great if the admins can make this a sticky post (I will keep updating it from time to time).

• South America
  
  • Brazil
    • Natal and Recife in Brazil. Sea, O2, Sorb, Trimix, various profiles, tech guides, and, in Recife, wrecks.
    • Mina da passagem, in Mariana, total facilities, a flodded 18th century gold mine with various profiles. The dive center owner recently released it's own designed front mount CCR called Smart rebreather, with IANTD training
    • Subaquatica in Sorocaba Brazil, wich i am associated through Inspiration Brasil, who, although not in a touristice destination, can arrange pretty anything needed for CCR trips
• Asia
  • Chuuk or Bikini with Dirty Dozen and Master Liveaboards checks off everything on the list including the DPV.
  • Rangiroa: CCR rangiroa is a great shop in a remote AF location. O2 fills, sorb, tech guides, endless sharks and visibility.
  • Egypt
    
    • Sharm el Sheikh with Emperor Divers as basis for all local, Ras Mohammed and Tiran diving
    • Dahab for the blue hole
• Central America
  
  • Mexico
    • Socorro. I also had a great time diving with Nautilus at Socorro. Easy to get fills. They gave me a keg of sorb which easily lasted the trip. Got much closer to the mantas and had better profiles than the divers on nitrox.
• Europe
  • Malta
  • Croatia
    • Vis island. Every dive center in Komiža has sorb and helium, along with standard bailouts rental and 3l tanks.
      Most of the let you do you own thing for tec dives, but there is always a guide in the water.
      Dive positions go from 0m reefs to 130m deep wrekcs, and everything in between.
  • UK
    • Scapa Flow. Pretty much all of the boats will rent you 3l cylinders, lead, stages and sell lime. Great wrecks, and stuff out of the flow around the islands available too. We tend to dive off the Clasina and Bob will help with lazy shot or trapeze etc as needed for bigger diving. Also got to consider Malin Head well set up for ccrs there.

 

[evandroairton]

Here is the synthesis of all the locations posted for ease of reading. Great if the admins can make this a sticky post (I will keep updating it from time to time).

• South America
  
  • Brazil
    • Natal and Recife in Brazil. Sea, O2, Sorb, Trimix, various profiles, tech guides, and, in Recife, wrecks.
    • Mina da passagem, in Mariana, total facilities, a flodded 18th century gold mine with various profiles. The dive center owner recently released it's own designed front mount CCR called Smart rebreather, with IANTD training
• Asia
  • Chuuk or Bikini with Dirty Dozen and Master Liveaboards checks off everything on the list including the DPV.
  • Rangiroa: CCR rangiroa is a great shop in a remote AF location. O2 fills, sorb, tech guides, endless sharks and visibility.
• Central America
  
  • Mexico.
    • Socorro. I also had a great time diving with Nautilus at Socorro. Easy to get fills. They gave me a keg of sorb which easily lasted the trip. Got much closer to the mantas and had better profiles than the divers on nitrox.
• Europe
  • Malta
  • UK
    • Scapa Flow. Pretty much all of the boats will rent you 3l cylinders, lead, stages and sell lime. Great wrecks, and stuff out of the flow around the islands available too. We tend to dive off the Clasina and Bob will help with lazy shot or trapeze etc as needed for bigger diving. Also got to consider Malin Head well set up for ccrs there.

i Would also include Subaquatica in Sorocaba Brazil, wich i am associated through Inspiration Brasil, who, although not in a touristice destination, can arrange pretty anything needed for CCR trips

 

[Wibble]

UK, sorry I mean the British Isles...

Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland, is great diving where a lot of dive boats operate. It's relatively shallow with a max of 45m/150ft and is sheltered so you won't loose too many days if the weather's bad. It isn't easy to get to as it's at the back of beyond and three days past that on a yak. The diving and the history of the diving is great though. Generally considered to be a should do dive.

Malin Head in north west Ireland is utterly amazing diving, probably the best around the British Isles. There's big wrecks at 70m/230ft MOD2+ depths and deeper at MOD3 depths which are simply sublime. There's a couple of boats which go out of Malin both are well set up and supply gas. You will need to arrange for rentals which can be done through people who organise trips up there (Kieran Hatton divingindepth.co.uk who took these photos). I've been a couple of times and it's easily the best technical diving I've done. Weather's an issue though. We managed five of the six days but made a trip up to the Giant's Causeway for the off day (highly recommended).

Submarine at 70m/230ft:

The "Dutch Titanic", the Justicia:

Laurentic at 40m/130ft:

Look closely at the Sherman tanks on the Empire Heritage:

 

[GF99/99]

Here is the synthesis of all the locations posted for ease of reading. Great if the admins can make this a sticky post (I will keep updating it from time to time).

• South America
  
  • Brazil
    • Natal and Recife in Brazil. Sea, O2, Sorb, Trimix, various profiles, tech guides, and, in Recife, wrecks.
    • Mina da passagem, in Mariana, total facilities, a flodded 18th century gold mine with various profiles. The dive center owner recently released it's own designed front mount CCR called Smart rebreather, with IANTD training
    • Subaquatica in Sorocaba Brazil, wich i am associated through Inspiration Brasil, who, although not in a touristice destination, can arrange pretty anything needed for CCR trips
• Asia
  • Chuuk or Bikini with Dirty Dozen and Master Liveaboards checks off everything on the list including the DPV.
  • Rangiroa: CCR rangiroa is a great shop in a remote AF location. O2 fills, sorb, tech guides, endless sharks and visibility.
  • Egypt
    
    • Sharm el Sheikh with Emperor Divers as basis for all local, Ras Mohammed and Tiran diving
    • Dahab for the blue hole
• Central America
  
  • Mexico
    • Socorro. I also had a great time diving with Nautilus at Socorro. Easy to get fills. They gave me a keg of sorb which easily lasted the trip. Got much closer to the mantas and had better profiles than the divers on nitrox.
• Europe
  • Malta
  • Croatia
    • Vis island. Every dive center in Komiža has sorb and helium, along with standard bailouts rental and 3l tanks.
      Most of the let you do you own thing for tec dives, but there is always a guide in the water.
      Dive positions go from 0m reefs to 130m deep wrekcs, and everything in between.
  • UK
    • Scapa Flow. Pretty much all of the boats will rent you 3l cylinders, lead, stages and sell lime. Great wrecks, and stuff out of the flow around the islands available too. We tend to dive off the Clasina and Bob will help with lazy shot or trapeze etc as needed for bigger diving. Also got to consider Malin Head well set up for ccrs there.

I would add Indonesia, Thailand, China, Philippines, to your Asia list.

Some amazing diving to be had and lots of rebreather friendly centers that can set you up.

Indonesia:
Bali Dive Trek - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Tekdeep - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Dark Horizon Diving - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
Trawangan Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Manta Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Blue Marlin Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
Sulawesi Dive Trek - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks (limited but if you give him a head up he can organize more from his partner)

Thailand:
Blue Label - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Koh Tao Tec Divers - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks

China:
Blue Flag International - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
Guangzhou Hailang Watersports Ltd. Co - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Legend Diving Center - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's

Philippines:
Oceanplayer - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Blue Lagoon - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Dauin Tech - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's

There are also a small handful of freelance guides that do cave expeditions that have local connections to get O2, He, boosters, sorb, tanks. At the moment the only one that comes to mind is Por Parasu but if your really interested I can ask around for more contacts.

And of course for Mexico you forgot the huge plethora of centers in Tulum. Personally I like Cave CCR dive center (little bit more lower key and not as much of a "Mexico dive factory") - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's

And I see you listed Dahab already but my go to dive center there is Lagona Divers (Formally Team Blue Immersion) - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's (they can organize them)

 

[SavageSeaCow]

I would add Indonesia, Thailand, China, Philippines, to your Asia list.

Some amazing diving to be had and lots of rebreather friendly centers that can set you up.

Indonesia:
Bali Dive Trek - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Tekdeep - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Dark Horizon Diving - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
Trawangan Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Manta Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Blue Marlin Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
Sulawesi Dive Trek - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks (limited but if you give him a head up he can organize more from his partner)

Thailand:
Blue Label - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Koh Tao Tec Divers - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks

China:
Blue Flag International - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
Guangzhou Hailang Watersports Ltd. Co - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Legend Diving Center - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's

Philippines:
Oceanplayer - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Blue Lagoon - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
Dauin Tech - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's

There are also a small handful of freelance guides that do cave expeditions that have local connections to get O2, He, boosters, sorb, tanks. At the moment the only one that comes to mind is Por Parasu but if your really interested I can ask around for more contacts.

And of course for Mexico you forgot the huge plethora of centers in Tulum. Personally I like Cave CCR dive center (little bit more lower key and not as much of a "Mexico dive factory") - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's

And I see you listed Dahab already but my go to dive center there is Lagona Divers (Formally Team Blue Immersion) - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's (they can organize them)

Would love to know if you’ve been able to find a dive center in indo for Raja and Komodo. Inknow wakatobi is super rebreather friendly, though I haven’t made it there yet. Would love to do Raja on reb.

 

[LFMarm]

• South America
  
  • Brazil
    • Natal and Recife in Brazil. Sea, O2, Sorb, Trimix, various profiles, tech guides, and, in Recife, wrecks.
    • Mina da passagem, in Mariana, total facilities, a flodded 18th century gold mine with various profiles.
    • Subaquatica in Sorocaba, wich i am associated through Inspiration Brasil, who, although not in a touristice destination, can arrange pretty anything needed for CCR trips
• Central America
  • Mexico
    • Socorro. I also had a great time diving with Nautilus at Socorro. Easy to get fills. They gave me a keg of sorb which easily lasted the trip. Got much closer to the mantas and had better profiles than the divers on nitrox.
    • Tulum. Personally I like Cave CCR dive center (little bit more lower key and not as much of a "Mexico dive factory") - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
  • Bonaire. TDS offers sorb, He and DPVs
• Europe
  • Malta
  • Croatia
    • Vis island. Every dive center in Komiža has sorb and helium, along with standard bailouts rental and 3l tanks. Most of the let you do you own thing for tec dives, but there is always a guide in the water. Dive positions go from 0m reefs to 130m deep wrekcs, and everything in between.
  • UK
    • Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland. Pretty much all of the boats will rent you 3l cylinders, lead, stages and sell lime. Great wrecks, and stuff out of the flow around the islands available too. We tend to dive off the Clasina and Bob will help with lazy shot or trapeze etc as needed for bigger diving. Also got to consider Malin Head well set up for ccrs there. It is great diving where a lot of dive boats operate. It's relatively shallow with a max of 45m/150ft and is sheltered so you won't loose too many days if the weather's bad. It isn't easy to get to as it's at the back of beyond and three days past that on a yak. The diving and the history of the diving is great though. Generally considered to be a should do dive.
    • Malin Head in north west Ireland is utterly amazing diving, probably the best around the British Isles. There's big wrecks at 70m/230ft MOD2+ depths and deeper at MOD3 depths which are simply sublime. There's a couple of boats which go out of Malin both are well set up and supply gas. You will need to arrange for rentals which can be done through people who organise trips up there (Kieran Hatton divingindepth.co.uk who took these photos). I've been a couple of times and it's easily the best technical diving I've done. Weather's an issue though. We managed five of the six days but made a trip up to the Giant's Causeway for the off day (highly recommended).
• Asia
  • Chuuk or Bikini with Dirty Dozen and Master Liveaboards checks off everything on the list including the DPV.
  • Rangiroa: CCR rangiroa is a great shop in a remote AF location. O2 fills, sorb, tech guides, endless sharks and visibility.
  • Egypt
    • Sharm el Sheikh with Emperor Divers as basis for all local, Ras Mohammed and Tiran diving
    • Dahab for the blue hole Lagona Divers (Formally Team Blue Immersion) - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's (they can organize them)
  • Indonesia
    • Bali Dive Trek - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
    • Tekdeep - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
    • Dark Horizon Diving - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
    • Trawangan Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
    • Manta Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
    • Blue Marlin Dive - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
    • Sulawesi Dive Trek - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks (limited but if you give him a head up he can organize more from his partner)
  • Thailand
    • Blue Label - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
    • Koh Tao Tec Divers - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
  • China
    • Blue Flag International - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks
    • Guangzhou Hailang Watersports Ltd. Co - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
    • Legend Diving Center - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
  • Philippines. There are also a small handful of freelance guides that do cave expeditions that have local connections to get O2, He, boosters, sorb, tanks. At the moment the only one that comes to mind is Por Parasu but if your really interested I can ask around for more contacts.
    • Oceanplayer - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
    • Blue Lagoon - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's
    • Dauin Tech - 200B O2 fills, Helium , Sorb, air fills, guides, CCR tanks, DPV's

 

[GF99/99]

Would love to know if you’ve been able to find a dive center in indo for Raja and Komodo. Inknow wakatobi is super rebreather friendly, though I haven’t made it there yet. Would love to do Raja on reb.

Unfortunately its not. I have some friends that did a small CCR trip to Raja only diving air dil and during Corona myself and some friends were working on organizing a trip due to the amazingly cheep prices to book out a boat but ultimately the trip fell through, couple people backed out and we did not have enough to make it worth while.

For Komodo it might be a little easier I don't know them personally but there are a couple JJ's in Labuan Bajo that some of the expat instructor that live there dive in their free time.

Also I would not say Wakatobi is that rebreather friendly either. Funny you mention Wakatobi because I was actually asked to participate in another exploration research trip this November with Karang, Hoga, Tomia, Binongko, Ndaa, Koromaha, and Kaledupa on the hit list. Logistically it was basically bring everything the only things we did not have to supply was S80's, compressor, and the boat. Most of the diving is sub 100m and all BO's needed to be made from scratch so you can image the logistics. He, O2, and sofonlime had to be shipped in from Surabaya and Denpasar. Rebreathers, CCR tanks, inline valves, booster, all dive gear in check luggage.

But that being said if you have enough people to pitch in then its actually not has hard to organize a CCR trip to Raja if you have the right connections in Indonesia. Its more of just a logistical organization puzzle. Earlier when I was looking into it I had a reliable shipping company that some friends have used many times for shipping diving gear and we were just going to put all our gear; rebreathers, boosters, tanks, sofnolime, dive gear etc. on 2 pallets and ship it to Sorong from Bali. Helium and O2 we were just going to get direct shipped from the supplier in Surabaya. Also Ari the SP dealer can organize shipping of Sofnolime direct to Sorong if you don't want to do it yourself.

Really all you need is a big enough group of CCR divers that can book out a boat. Cost wise if your diving Air dil its actually not that much more than regular recreational diving. If you book an entire boat you get a much better rate, O2 is dirt cheep in Indo (He is crazy expensive last I check its about 12mil for a G now) Sofnolime is hit or miss, good deal is about 4mil for a tub.

 

[LFMarm]

Here are some locations on my bucket list that I have not dived at yet and don’t know if they are suitable for CC. It would be great to get your experience on these locations:

Pacific Islands​

• Palau/Micronesia (wreck/reef)
• Galapagos
• Kiribati
• Fakarava, French Polinesia
• Isla del Rosario, Colombia
• San andres, Colombia
• Vancouver Island

Caribbeans​

• Florida, Key West
• US Virgin Islands
• British Virgin Islands
• Grand Cayman
• Key largo, FL
• Bahamas
• St Croix, US Virgin Island
• Curaçao
• Utila

LatAm​

• Socorro island, MX
• Cabo, MX
• Isla Mujeres, MX
• Cocos Island, Costa Rica
• Malpelo Island, Colombia

Africa​

• Sudan
• Madagascar

South Asia​

• Tubbataha, Philippines
• Lembeh (macro), Indonesia
• Malapascua Island, Philippines

Europe​

• Iceland - Silfra

 

[LFMarm]

UK, sorry I mean the British Isles...

Scapa Flow in Orkney, Scotland, is great diving where a lot of dive boats operate. It's relatively shallow with a max of 45m/150ft and is sheltered so you won't loose too many days if the weather's bad. It isn't easy to get to as it's at the back of beyond and three days past that on a yak. The diving and the history of the diving is great though. Generally considered to be a should do dive.

Malin Head in north west Ireland is utterly amazing diving, probably the best around the British Isles. There's big wrecks at 70m/230ft MOD2+ depths and deeper at MOD3 depths which are simply sublime. There's a couple of boats which go out of Malin both are well set up and supply gas. You will need to arrange for rentals which can be done through people who organise trips up there (Kieran Hatton divingindepth.co.uk who took these photos). I've been a couple of times and it's easily the best technical diving I've done. Weather's an issue though. We managed five of the six days but made a trip up to the Giant's Causeway for the off day (highly recommended).

Submarine at 70m/230ft:
View attachment 795689
View attachment 795692
The "Dutch Titanic", the Justicia:
View attachment 795690
Laurentic at 40m/130ft:
View attachment 795691
Look closely at the Sherman tanks on the Empire Heritage:
View attachment 795693

Great pictures!