HUD

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Since day one of my RB training as a student, as a diver and a RB instructor I have always used a HUD and felt like it was an integral part of a CCR. Now days not everyone feels like a HUD is essential and is an optional accessory on a CCR.

How many here feel like a HUD is an essential/mandatory piece of gear?

 

[_Ralph]

I put optional, but I would recommend them ..... if finances and activities would be better off (ie photography/videography, 'physical' work underwater, etc), where stopping to look at a handset would be disruptive to the activities being conducted.

I've dove a few different CCR with HUDs, all on the right eye.... I can't see any of them in my right eye underwater...

If I ever upgrade and put in a HUD, it will be in my left eye, so I can actually see it.

_R

 

[rsingler]

Interesting question, but given today's technology, many will immediately ask themselves, "Does he mean, 'Is a HUD more important than a NERD? Or does he mean, Would I dive with just a wrist-mounted output of my PO2 and no secondary alert?' "

I think you'll get two different sets of answers depending upon how folks interpret your question.

Since I consider a NERD as just another type of HUD, yeah it's mandatory. We're only human. A self- regulated industry will stay independent only as long as its practitioners stay alive. Why did the early auto industry stop having certain safety components as optional? They were forced to.

 

[rddvet]

I put it as optional, though I personally would never dive without one. So my real answer is it should be, but I don't think it realistically ever will be. I think on a e-ccr it's a litlte less critical since you have the parachute to save you from some issues, but on an mccr I think it's mandatory. EIther way I wish it was mandatory. Even on an e-ccr I would have one.
I believe the recent death at Ginnie is a clear example as to why a hud should be mandatory. It's probably going to be very controversial, but I think KISS should start making them a stock item on their rebreathers or a couple more deaths on the sidewinder will lead to a big lawsuit.

 

[rjack321]

Yes with the caveat that a nerd is just a fancy type of HUD

 

[rjack321]

I believe the recent death at Ginnie is a clear example as to why a hud should be mandatory. It's probably going to be very controversial, but I think KISS should start making them a stock item on their rebreathers or a couple more deaths on the sidewinder will lead to a big lawsuit.

Instructors adding a flow stop to the sidewinder O2 feed is a huge problem, then combined with no HUD is a recipe for disaster.

 

[rddvet]

Instructors adding a flow stop to the sidewinder O2 feed is a huge problem, then combined with no HUD is a recipe for disaster.

fully agree. I think unfortunately the o2 shutoff is approved by kiss. Both bad ideas.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I consider a NERD to be a HUD with additional features.

 

[bobmaggi]

I put down the HUD as optional but I never dive without my NERD.

 

[Superlyte27]

I bought a popular rebreather on the market a couple of years ago after talking extensively to the creator of that rebreather. I was told that there simply wasn’t a good way to have a handset and a hud because of room on the head. And you really didn’t need a HUD because the CMF was bullet proof. I followed the creator’s advice and went with just the handset, always being diligent to look at it often and never letting the PPO2 drop.

Then I was in Ginnie, way past rock on rock, in a really similar spot to where the last person died in Ginnie. I was in some gnarly tight crap, with vis gone, covered in mud, and when I got out of it, I finally remembered to look at my handset. I was shocked to see a .38PPO2. I sold that rebreather and bought an identical one with a NERD the next day.

I’ll never dive without a display at eye level ever again. I got lucky.