I just spent the morning demoing Inspiration and Evolution rebreathers in the URI pool. Very cool experience!
I've long since finished graduate school at URI, but even though I am no longer a student, I've kept active with the URI research diving program because I enjoy it. URI's underwater archeology program is interested in exploring deeper wrecks so they are considering their options in terms of for deco diving and specifically whether to go with conventional scuba or rebreathers.
Well, it turns out that the dive safety office over at UConn, Jeff Godfrey is already doing this stuff in his dive program and he was nice enough to bring over 3 rebreathers (two Evolutions and one Inspiration), not to mention a conventional double 120 with stage bottle rig so divers could test out the "alternative". He gave us a 4 hour workshop introducing us to the theory of rebreathers, demoed putting one together and preparing it, and then we got to actually dive them in the pool. Clearly this isn't the full rebreather training, it is more like the "discover scuba" version of rebreather diving, but it was an awesome experience.
I was able to try both models. The thing that immediately feels a bit strange if you are accustomed to scuba is that when you inhale on a regulator you get that Darth Vader sounding shot of pressurized air. With a rebreather it is just normal inhaling and exhaling.
Buoyancy in a rebreather is a bit weird as well. Since you inhale and exhale into and out of the counterlung, your air volume stays constant while you breath (ie in scuba if you exhale you lose buoyancy as your lung volume drops, but not with a rebreather). The other interesting thing is that as you ascend the volume of air in the counterlung increases just like any other airspace so you need to get rid of the excess. The easiest way to do it is to just exhale from your nose instead of exhaling back into the loop through your mouth. As a scuba diver it is kind of a foreign idea but you get the hang of it all really quickly.
Huge thanks to Jeff for putting it all together for us.
I've long since finished graduate school at URI, but even though I am no longer a student, I've kept active with the URI research diving program because I enjoy it. URI's underwater archeology program is interested in exploring deeper wrecks so they are considering their options in terms of for deco diving and specifically whether to go with conventional scuba or rebreathers.
Well, it turns out that the dive safety office over at UConn, Jeff Godfrey is already doing this stuff in his dive program and he was nice enough to bring over 3 rebreathers (two Evolutions and one Inspiration), not to mention a conventional double 120 with stage bottle rig so divers could test out the "alternative". He gave us a 4 hour workshop introducing us to the theory of rebreathers, demoed putting one together and preparing it, and then we got to actually dive them in the pool. Clearly this isn't the full rebreather training, it is more like the "discover scuba" version of rebreather diving, but it was an awesome experience.
I was able to try both models. The thing that immediately feels a bit strange if you are accustomed to scuba is that when you inhale on a regulator you get that Darth Vader sounding shot of pressurized air. With a rebreather it is just normal inhaling and exhaling.
Buoyancy in a rebreather is a bit weird as well. Since you inhale and exhale into and out of the counterlung, your air volume stays constant while you breath (ie in scuba if you exhale you lose buoyancy as your lung volume drops, but not with a rebreather). The other interesting thing is that as you ascend the volume of air in the counterlung increases just like any other airspace so you need to get rid of the excess. The easiest way to do it is to just exhale from your nose instead of exhaling back into the loop through your mouth. As a scuba diver it is kind of a foreign idea but you get the hang of it all really quickly.
Huge thanks to Jeff for putting it all together for us.
I'm a tad excited.
