Question Good first rebreather for non-cave diving?

[stolfyadventures]

Hey all, I'm a Senior Marine science student and diver out of Sydney AUS and have been deeply considering a rebreather at some point this year. However, most rebreather forums tend to focus on cave diving, while my diving is more like 2/3s shore dives to 18-20 meters and the other 1/3 of opportunities is in the 30-50 range. I do plan on getting more into photography/videography beyond my current mask mounted GoPro but that's going to be for the future. Caves are almost certainly a no-go largely due to location, but wrecks are on the table.

From my own research I've gotten an initial preference towards either the rEVO as the hybrid design tickles my techy brain seems like a very nice feature or the choptima/Triton for better travelling ability as I am in the USA (NC) for 1 or 2 months a year usually. I plan to travel to get certified as there is almost no options within Sydney as far as I am aware but prefer to get certified either in AUS or USA. I'd love to hear everyone's personal experiences and preferences, as well as any advice or recommendations!

EDIT: I will be deep diving more once I no longer have to pay tuition and can instead pay for boats

 

[Geo7]

Hey, being in marine science as well, I can sympathize. Yes indeed, exploration diving is different from the work done in research or filmmaking in open water at "recreational depths".

My best advice is to find a good instructor first and foremost. And plan to do ca. 100 CCR dives before doing any work while on CCR. The rest is secondary.

I am sure others will chime in with lots of helpful points on availability, reliability, practicability etc. One point that is often overlooked is buoyancy of the unit. Some really nice CCRs I would like to have are just impossible for me to use while in a wetsuit, as I consider it a no-no to be negatively buoyant at the surface without weights and with the BC empty. I doubt I could dive the JJ without a drysuit, nor probably a steel rEvo (but titanium perhaps). CHoptima should be good in this respect, perhaps Prism2 as well, but again, good instruction is the key to doing this safely.

Another point folks outside of occupational diving often miss is that we are required to provide documentation of annual maintenance for our life support gear, which means sending the entire unit to a qualified technician. That will probably favour local support.

 

[Marie13]

Kiss Spirit can be used in just a wetsuit. That’s how I’m diving it in my avatar. The entire unit with steel backplate/frame and filled scrubbers (there are two) is about 43ish lbs.

 

[mr_v]

Any good used mass-produced (read available for purchase commercially) unit, preferably backmount, will do. Don't treat it as your first and only unit. Treat it as a unit you'll use for learning. If you spend a lot of time in North Carolina, check out Scuba John's in Lexington, South Carolina. It is a great tech shop that teachers several CCRs.

 

[inquis]

If suggest settling mCCR or eCCR to narrow the choices. If I were eventually looking at photography or anything else distracting, I'd pick eCCR. You might also do a try dive on the Choptima before committing (or at least wear one in the water) to evaluate the chest clutter with a camera rig in your hands. (I have no experience with a Choptima, but that was one of my concerns at the time.)

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

If you plan to use a CCR for research or in an "at work" situation, you might get stuck with a specific type that is approved or common in academia - which is for better or worse AP Inspiration, definitely not a travel-friendly unit.

I would look at units that are supported in your region:

• Multiple active instructors who dive the unit in their spare time too (not just sell and train on the unit); multiple is the keyword as people leave the industry all the time.
• In-country service centre, otherwise you might be exporting/importing the unit through customs every service interval.
• In-country spares distributor.
• Active user base of other divers who can help and mentor you - you should see the unit on boats, used by other people, in your local conditions.

Triton is a sweet unit but it's manufactured in France. If the unit breaks (cells, pinched cable, smashed HUD, flooded electronics), can you get spares in Australia easily or do you need to cancel a month of diving?

Also be careful about internet CCRs. There are units that are invisible on the internet but boats are full of them (e.g. AP, JJ, X-CCR, rEvo in Europe) and units that are all over the internet but outside of instructors and influencers, nobody dives them (I'm yet to see Liberty on a UK boat dived by someone who is not also selling it).

If you are diving in the ocean and might be doing large descents or ascents, eCCR might be more pleasant and efficient than mCCR (especially with a camera).

 

[Pressurehead]

Hey all, I'm a Senior Marine science student and diver out of Sydney AUS

Are you 'cashed up', do you have the means to pay for this as a student?
The cost of training alone is scary.
As an example : Closed Circuit Rebreather Technical Course

CCR MOD 1 This is the entry level user certification.

 

[inquis]

If you are diving in the ocean and might be doing large descents or ascents, eCCR might be more pleasant and efficient than mCCR (especially with a camera)

Can you elaborate on this if you have the time? I thought most eCCR divers lower the setpoint on ascent so they dictate the timing of O2 additions. On the flip side, the solenoid wouldn't typically need to fire on big descents, especially fast ones. (I dive an mCCR, but always looking to understand both.)

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

Can you elaborate on this if you have the time? I thought most eCCR divers lower the setpoint on ascent so they dictate the timing of O2 additions. On the flip side, the solenoid wouldn't typically need to fire on big descents, especially fast ones. (I dive an mCCR, but always looking to understand both.)

Probably should've left descents out

. I had gas consumption and task loading in mind.

I keep my unit on a higher setpoint on ascent, autoswitch to lower setpoint after getting above 4 meters - I found out that as long as I keep minimum loop volume, JJ is pretty predictable and efficient in adding O2, compared to me running it manually. This might be different on an mCCR with a needle valve where you don't need to add as often.

Descents depend on descent speed and diluent, I've been taught to switch to higher setpoint around 2/3 of maximum depth on descent.

 

[Heat Miser]

I'm a Senior Marine science student and diver out of Sydney AUS

You will be well supported with a rEvo on the east coast of Australia.

The Asia pacific service center is All About Scuba, near the airport in Melbourne. Rubens Monaco at Deep Blue Ventures can train you up to MOD 3, he is based in the Portsea region. In addition you have instructors in North Stradbroke Island (Qld) and Brad Turner - Tassie (see the post here about the hand fish) Out West (where I am) is Dive Addiction which runs mean Nullabor trips (I'm told, yet to experience) if you graduate to cave later.