Deeper Diving equipment

[Vegan Shark]

Does convenience really outweigh the sharp spike in your death rate, though?

 

[Nwcid]

Does convenience really outweigh the sharp spike in your death rate, though?

Very ignorant statement but if that is what suits your needs feel free to keep it.

 

[diversteve]

But please take whatever I say with a grain of salt because I probably don't know what I'm talking about either.

Me also because I definitely don't know what I'm talking about. All I provided is info on gear that should go to that depth. I never have and never will. If anything listen to the few posters here who actually have. And get extensive training.

 

[Akimbo]

[rant]Just for the record: [/rant]
My personal opinion is 500' surface supplied is nuts and untethered is beyond silly. Not that it can’t be done, just that you don’t have enough bottom time to accomplish anything useful and the probability of serious injury and death is too high to justify not serving a purpose.

If the purpose is some kind of bragging rights, put that in perspective. Saturation divers have been working far deeper than that 24/7 for 40 years. Is boasting that you grabbed a handful of mud at 500' and can still walk and hold your bodily fluids going to improve your life? Your choice.

That depth is the job of saturation divers, ROVs, and one-atmosphere suits. You can’t pack enough gas even with a rebreather to cover reasonable contingencies and not nearly enough is known about bounce dive physiology for decompression tables to be reliable. Compound that with not having a chamber on the surface to treat DCS and you may as well play Russian Roulette.

 

[Vegan Shark]

Very ignorant statement but if that is what suits your needs feel free to keep it.

I've never dove a rebreather, admittedly, but I find them fascinating and researched them a fair bit to see if I would want to get into them eventually. Why do you think it's ignorant to say that using one gives someone a much higher fatality rate? I don't remember the exact statistics, but rebreather fatality rate is something like 10 times that of open-circuit, and the chance of mechanical failure more than 20 times higher than open-circuit. Of course you can say that the majority of these dives were far more extreme and risky than recreational dives to begin with, so that correlation isn't causation, but with a number of highly experienced divers having died on rebreathers despite proper maintenance and care, I personally don't understand using them unless they are an absolute necessity to the dive. If it's just a matter of making things easier, well...

 

[waterpirate]

A rebreather is a tool that is very usefull for some dives. It is a very unforgiving tool. Due to its nature the result of a mind fart is often fatal. The rebreather divers I dive with, talk about the success of a rebreather diver is personality based above all else. I.E. if you are prone to flubs and brain farts, a breather prolly is not for you.
Eric

 

[nitroxdiver36]

Kinda hijacking the thread but the Britannic is 400'+ and I believe that would be a very interesting wreck dive, seen a couple videos of it. There is a site I would like to dive on one day that is @330' but I believe I will stop at that depth. I have been to 161' but that was in my last tec class. Only been to 135' since and just doing dives with decent bottom time. IMO it's all about the bottom time and not about trying to go as deep as you can. I know absolutely nothing about trimix but by running 15/85 through my X1 w/3 deco gases gives you 8 mins bt at 500' w/ 2 hours of deco. Seems a little short but I have no clue what you would mix to breathe to that depth using OC instead of RB so a trimix diver feel free to chime in. Currently, trimix is the moon to me.

 

[Doppler]

I've never dove a rebreather, admittedly, but I find them fascinating and researched them a fair bit to see if I would want to get into them eventually. Why do you think it's ignorant to say that using one gives someone a much higher fatality rate? I don't remember the exact statistics, but rebreather fatality rate is something like 10 times that of open-circuit, and the chance of mechanical failure more than 20 times higher than open-circuit. Of course you can say that the majority of these dives were far more extreme and risky than recreational dives to begin with, so that correlation isn't causation, but with a number of highly experienced divers having died on rebreathers despite proper maintenance and care, I personally don't understand using them unless they are an absolute necessity to the dive. If it's just a matter of making things easier, well...

The stats you may be referencing have been shown to be founded on some dodgy data; however, there is no denying that rebreathers are a two-faced buddy.

What I must take exception to -- having just wrapped up a book on risk management for divers -- is your statement that "a number of highly experienced divers [have] died on rebreathers despite proper maintenance and care..."

Where are those data coming from?

I know of several experienced divers who have died because the system let them down... not the unit, not necessarily their training, not even the unsafe practices they opted to use, not equipment failure, not poor information, not a culture that allows all this **** to happen... but all of it. The whole damn system let them and us down. For example, proper maintenance and care is going to do **** all when someone opts to dive with no bailout gas... where's the blame in that one? The rebreather?

I am also aware of several instances where divers died using oxygen cells known to be faulty and out of date... is that proper maintenance and care, and who's really to blame? The rebreather perhaps?

So, I am curious where you are getting your data from because you seem to have it all figured out.

 

[KD8NPB]

Very ignorant statement but if that is what suits your needs feel free to keep it.

Rebreather complacency kills...

 

[Curtis Dawson]

Am beginning to work with a tec diver instructor on some go/no-go laminated check list cards. If it is not 100% then take the time to make it right before going into the water. If any anything on the list is a no=go then the dive is delayed or canceled until it is fixed.