saturated once bubbled...
I think all rebreathers should come in a box that says "brain not included". Diving solo is risky, diving solo with no way of knowing your ppo2 is just plain dumb. You my friend have been lucky. There are too many new Breather guys reading this board to advocate being reckless. Why not at least have an oxygauge?
Case in point, what if you are at 100', you have an emergency and need to ascend quickly. (Your left foot was just bitten and is bleeding). In all the confusion you forget that you have breathed your po2 down to .7. You begin your ascent. Now your po2 is dropping rapidly. You have no audible alarms, or gauges, so you dont know your po2. The emergency has gotten your brain focused on getting out of the water. At 50 ft your po2 is below life sustaining. As you hit the surface you are unconsious. The dive boat is 500' away picking up other divers. You may die on the surface from either drowning or hypoxia if the mouthpeice stays intact. Of course had you had a simple oxygauge and had the habit of watching it, you would have seen the problem as it progressed and probably lived to tell about it.
Sorry to get like this, but what we believe to be a similiar incident happened to a friend of mine in 86. We all have the "It wont happen to me syndrome", and that is exactly what kills people. If you dive blind, it is my personal belief and experience that at some point it will catch up to you.
For the sake of those who care about you, get a gauge and a buddy.
