For those of you who use a rebreather, Why?

[Darian Dunn]

For those of you who use a rebreather, Why?

I understand the military use, but I can not think of a civilian reason to have one of these.

Thanks

 

[Scubaroo]

I don't use one, but I understand they are popular with tech divers doing _long_ dives, photographers who don't want to disturb marine life with exhaust bubbles, and people who want to be mistaken for sea lions by sharks

 

[trymixdiver]

Lets face it tech divings biggest drawback ( besides cost) is the number of cylinders one must carry. Rebreathers allow you to tech dive and carry less overall weight. This less weight does come at a substantial cost in equipment and training.

I dont dive one yet but thats my .02 worth

Andy

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by bengiddins
photographers who don't want to disturb marine life with exhaust bubbles

I've seen some incredible video footage done by folks with rebreathers. Without the bubbles and the noise, fish start to think your one of them and don't even pay any attention to you.

 

[pescador775]

Diving with a rebreather is the real "tech" diving and therein lies the mystique. The other, diving an aqualung with nitrox, etc doesn't appear very technical by comparison.

Rebreather diving is also authentic frontier stuff, like where the aqualung diver was 50 years ago. That is reason enough to be attracted and find justification for the cost, training and maintenance.

I would if I could.

 

[DrySuitDave]

Try significantly longer bottom times with fully closed circuit systems. Another advantage is less deco times if you are into that.

Another advantage, especially if you dive with a wetsuit is the air you breath is quite warm and moist.

But most importantly, it's trick!

 

[Spectre]

Originally posted by DrySuitDave
Try significantly longer bottom times with fully closed circuit systems.

*nod* I forgot the reference, but when I was looking into prices for my earlier post, I saw a reference that stated "300 minutes @ 100 fsw". I'll try to find the reference again...

 

[Walter]

"Rebreather diving is also authentic frontier stuff, like where the aqualung diver was 50 years ago."

Nope. The rebreather predates SCUBA.

 

[skifanatic]

Early history of diving:

Henry A Fleuss recieved a patent on a pure oxygen rebreather in 1878...
The first rebreather diver was Alexander Lambert, who in 1880 travelled 1000 feet (yes, horizontally) into a flooded tunnel under the Severn River to close some valves. He was using Fleuss's rebreather. Talk about having balls!

In 1912, Dragerwerk (manufacturer of Drager Dolphin and DragerRay) built a O2 rebreather with a 2 hour O2 supply.

(From the TDI Semi-closed circuit rebreather instructor manual)

Joey

-Diving a DragerRay and loving it.

 

[padiscubapro]

I dive a CCR wouldn't waste my time with an SCR, The ONLY time I dove oc is when I have ow students.. Once you get hooked on a CCR its the only way to dive.. ON a ccr you are ALWYS breathing the best gas.. think of it this way from a physiological standpoint, if you wanted to always have the best mix on a dive you could do it with OC but youd need 1 tank for every depth you plan to dive, if you chose 100ft youd need 100 tanks, thats the wonders of a CCR it mixes gases on the fly always maintaining the best mix. LOng and quite dives are another benefit... when I'm in an area where I can do a multilevel dive, here is 1 common prfile that I do...
60 minutes at 130
30 minutes at 100
90 minutes at 50-60 ft

Try that on OC... at the end of the 90 minutes at 50 I have NO DECOMPRESSION required, If I had to ascend after the first 60 minutes at 130, I would have about the same deco as a diver on Nitrox using the proper gas, but as I ascend my time starts comming down since the o2 in the loop keeps rising.

I do alot of photography and I can routinely get pictures of marine life that an OC diver only wishes for or gets when they are lucky.

Dave that 300 minutes is from an ANDI power point presentation on the INSPIRATION, its not 300@100 its a 300 minute (I'd have to check if it was actually 300, the slide show was adapterd from another CCR presentation that had a rated 5 hour scrubber, officially the inspiration is rated for 180 minutes @1.6 lpm co2 generation, at 1.0 lpm which is more realistic its about 240 minutes in cold water... ) The dive that starts either at 100 or 130 ( I think 130, I'll have to look at the presentation) and steadily progresses upward doing a fairly long stint around 50 feet...
Hows you training with Rusty going??