Drowned Rebreather diver hadn't turned equipment on

[Mr.X]

A closed circuit rebreather is a lot like a twin engine turbo prop. Great machine. You can do a lot with it, but if you don't pay attention, it will fly you into the ground at a high rate of speed. With the additional capability comes more responsibility. On the other hand, although there are more ways to get into trouble with CCR, there are also more ways to get out of trouble as long as you recognize that you are in trouble.

Given the complexities of both RB/OC diving it makes sense that standard protocols need to be ingrained into a diver's brain prior to splashing in.

From day one ( training ) I examine attitude and try to develop permanent procedural habits in the diver's brain. Attitude is everything here. A rebreather diver doing a pool check without scrubber indicates a diver who may have shown a degree of complacency because they were not in an opewater environment? It also shows a failure to follow a hard set of protocols. You don't forget scrubber if you follow the protocol. At some point in that diver's training a learning gap existed, and was not addressed by the user, and possibly the instructor. Trust me, as a CCR instructor you have to stay on top of your new divers and use whatever methods are available to get them to internalize self-regulatory diving methods.

If one were to scaffold, or place the learning pieces in a hierarchy the average viewer would be amazed at the complexity and levels of steps needed to just get into the water.

X

 

[Charlie99]

hubby was doing a try dive on the optima a couple of weeks ago and im sure the trainer said to him that he has to breath from the unit for a solid minute before he got into the water

Is that really long enough? Was he looking at a ppO2 gauge to see if it fell? Perhaps someone knowledgeable about various rebreathers could comment on the typical time it takes for a resting diver to go hypoxic and pass out with no makeup gas going into the loop.

I did a try dive several years ago on a Dophin SCR, and since it had no ppO2 gauge I had no way to really know if the mass flow orifice was delivering sufficient makeup nitrox into the loop. I enjoyed the dive other than having a tendency to suck in a bunch of air to rise over a rock and then swim right into it , but the lack of feedback was disturbing.

Charlie Allen

 

[almitywife]

........ I enjoyed the dive other than having a tendency to suck in a bunch of air to rise over a rock and then swim right into it ....

exact thing happened to hubby on his 1st trydive with the inspo plus as he was ascending the loop tried to pull clear from his mouth

hubby says the diverite instructor said 3mins... i thought 1min... either way i did notice it was part of the briefing that i was kinda listening to