First Rebreather Questions

[piranhaman00]

You definitely do not want a necklaced reg and a BOV at the same time. Totally no way. It's one or the other.

The Spirit is not a "water tolerant" CCR and caustics are a very really concern honestly. I have it's sidewinder cousin and it's a big fear of mine. I still use a BOV with a gag strap. It's not hard at all to yank the BOV down and out of your mouth even with the strap.

Thanks, and then the reg you go for is attached near by?

 

[Wibble]

I do want to learn on the BOV + gag strap.

I would suggest against learning with a BOV. In the early days of rebreather diving you need to constantly practice so the right habits are in place for the day that happened to most of us, when the “unit” tried to kill you. Even if it doesn’t, you must be ready for it to try.

Doing things manually means you get the good habits sorted, banked if you like, such that you can withdraw the effort later.

Typical skills are stage handling procedures such as grabbing the regulator, closing the DSV, removing it from your mouth, breathing from the bailout reg, discovering you’ve not turned the stage on, controlling the rising panic as you’ve not got a breath, turning on the valve, breathing from it, switching back to the loop, tidying the stage hose, clipping the stage on, then pondering what happened and learning the real lesson!

Or just learning that the BOV always works and not worrying about the extra hose even though it may be essential later. Say if you’ve connected the BOV to your diluent, or switching to alternate bailouts, or even to shove a working reg into the mouth of an OOG diver.

 

[rjack321]

Thanks, and then the reg you go for is attached near by?

Bungied alongside the tank. I have a 7ft hose on mine so I can donate. This is one reason why I like the BOV. I can have my BO immediately accessible for me and have a donatable 2nd stage for CCR and OC buddies. It's possibly but very inelegant with various breakaway necklaces to neck bungie a 7ft 2nd stage and also have it accessible for emergencies. Or have two 2nd stages one necklaced one stuffed.

Not going to taking off my BO and handing it over, in a cave nor in OW. That's a big nope for me. The BOV + standard long hose sidemounted is how I do my deep BO. Deco gases are on standard stage regs with 40" hoses

 

[211ratsbud]

There are Huds and Nerds. The Nerd is a face computer. A traditional Hud is a few Led lights, and falls into the fish face slapping category you outline just like haptics. Zero difference.

You can fly the unit with the hud LED lights.

It is certainly not something that is practiced but it is certainly possible.

That could not happen with haptic feedback on a P3.

I currently am diving without a HUD as single monitor only on a Petrel 3. I am working on fixing that ASAP. I did have a nerd in the past and even the slightest movement of the nerd on the bayonet connector on any of the mounts including Tony land mount and golem and it was out of focus or totally out of eye relief. By the time I moved it with my hand to be back in focus I could have already looked at the handset.

It was not as simple in my experience to determine PPO2 as I thought it would be due to positioning problems.

On my prism I could easily determine PPO2 with the OEM shearwater Blinky lights. That could easily determine whether or not to look at the handset for further information such as rate of change etc in case of emergency.

 

[Whitrzac]

Fly by hud is taught in all ccr classes.

The only way you get a caustic in a spirit is to go into a head down position, the cls are massive and you should notice a leak long before it gets to that point.

 

[211ratsbud]

Fly by hud is taught in all ccr classes.

The only way you get a caustic in a spirit is to go into a head down position, the cls are massive and you should notice a leak long before it gets to that point.

I mean practiced... By me

 

[cyberdiamond]

You definitely do not want a necklaced reg and a BOV at the same time. Totally no way. It's one or the other.

Hey I'm curious, why?

I have been diving my Sidewinder in this configuration (bov & necklaced reg) since 2016 so 8 years and I guess I might not know what I don't know?
Always happy to keep listening / reading and learning.

I have had a Drager gag strap for over 5 years but have not fitted it yet, having said that I have decided that I just need fit it and start to use it so would be good to hear the reasoning before adding this extra item.

 

[rjack321]

Fly by hud is taught in all ccr classes.

The only way you get a caustic in a spirit is to go into a head down position, the cls are massive and you should notice a leak long before it gets to that point.

Yes and guess what? people go head down sometimes.

Hey I'm curious, why?

I have been diving my Sidewinder in this configuration (bov & necklaced reg) since 2016 so 8 years and I guess I might not know what I don't know?
Always happy to keep listening / reading and learning.

I have had a Drager gag strap for over 5 years but have not fitted it yet, having said that I have decided that I just need fit it and start to use it so would be good to hear the reasoning before adding this extra item.

I have no idea how you pull a BOV down and to pop in a necklace unless your loop hoses are crazy long somehow

Also why?

 

[cyberdiamond]

Ok it came across much more serious than that.

Last time I did an actual bailout from the necklace (pretending the bov was either broken or a caustic) it was from 80m / 260ft and I put the loop up rather than down so I could vent the gas all the way up and it was no issue at all including pulling the loop back down to do the all the oc gas changes on the nerd that is attached to the bov.

I have also tried it with the loop pulled down and it also was no issue at all, but my second stage can be pulled out of (and put back into) the necklace, which also works if I ever have to donate it.

Edit:
Also the why is cause I have always dived with the long hose and a necklaced reg.
I have also found that the necklace never got caught when going through super tight restrictions as I had learned early on that the right hose clipped to the dring can get caught.
So in oc I used to always go onto the long hose before entering any tight restrictions but that doesn't happen in cc as i'm on the loop.
So I clip the right long hose also to the bungee necklace when doing that.

 

[cyberdiamond]

Also I use left and right hand second stages so neither hose crosses eachother, my body or goes around my neck they both just come up each side from each cylinder, so they are not trapped under the loop.