JonnyB:
One thing tha confuses me is the lack of pictures and the pictures that do exist differ from each other quite a lot
That's because they are all prototypes. AFAIK DiveRite (or whoever builds them) build ten of them, some of which went to handfull of people for testing and feedback. Most I gather were IANTD instructors, which is why IANTD already has a bunch of instructors for the rigs while they are still prototypes.
The red winged rig has a different frame from the one shown at DEMA, but it still has the old Hammerhead handsets. The production units will have the new metal handsets.
i think it looks really ugly and i would never want to have the scrubber where it is
Well, it's a testing protoype, so I won't judge the looks quite yet.
But I certainly wouldn't want
that scrubber there.
then the fact the the dive rite rebreather is not connected to the dive rite page, but to another.
I find that odd, too.
But the diverite express who is trying to sell the unit does not have any pictures of it, other that that of a case, which is too small to see anything.
Probably because the scrubber is a prototype, too. The description on the page said it will be dark red.
How do they expect to sell?
My guess, by the reputation of Juergensen's Hammerhead and the people who test dive it. Tom Mount, Joe Dituri et al have a pretty good reputation, so when they promote the rig people listen.
That's how the Meg got it's start, too. "Tom Mount dives his Meg almost exclusively when caving." "Tom Mount and Mark Meadows dove their Megs to 500 something feet." That was topped when several of the Cis-Lunar divers added Megs to their dive lockers or, like Tom Mount, replaced them entirely.
Problem is, the Meg is a much more versatile CCR. Different sized tanks, scrubber, choice of electronics, all beautifully build. And very solid.
The O2ptima (even the name sucks) has the HH going for it, and maybe the DiveRite BCD choices, but that's about it. Whatever the HH adds, the Micropore scrubber subtracts, at least in my opinion. Depth limit 50 meters? On a $7,500 rebreather with trimix deco computer? Tested at 1 ata? It weights in like a MK15.5! Has big tanks. Try to travel with those jugs.
No matter how much they praise that unit, I doubt they'll be trading in their Megs and Cis-Lunars for it. But the sad thing is, it might just work.