Is CCR the right route for me?

[J-Vo]

Just to make sure it clear to @nedrud , to dive a rebreather you need all your OC gear and the rebreather. You are not traveling lighter when diving CC.

 

[broncobowsher]

Getting a CCR might be what it takes to start diving even more.
CCR divers do not travel light. When I got home from my last flight I weighed everything as I brought it into the house. And this was after leaving stuff behind. I gifted the boat a couple power tool batteries so they could use there scooter. Several other things that were a one way trip. And didn't bring anything new home. I had exactly my body weight in luggage, 180 pounds. And I had a minimal camera rig, just a GoPro with a pair of lights.

 

[Wibble]

CCR diving in the UK is very common. There's thousands of wrecks to explore and other locations too ("scenic" dives!). When the sea is closed due to weather, there's inland sites where you can practice your skills.

Only you will know when you're ready for solo diving. It's way more than just a few skills, it's a lot of experience and the right attitude. The point is it's your choice, your life.

Talking of attitude, rebreathers are a very needy psychotic girlfriend. They like having money lavished on them and most definitely throw hissy fits without notice. Maybe our drysuits really are gimp suits! We measure experience on rebreathers in terms of hours underwater and ascents. You start off doing "recreational" diving levels, practising skills on every dive. You need to spend time preparing the box the night before; there's no shortcuts lest it will stab you underwater -- it's got a lot of ways to show its mood and there's an order of magnitude more kit than with open circuit.

But the good news is you can dive for as long as you like (within reason), to any depth (within reason) and with moderate marginal costs -- a week's diving shallow is pretty much the same cost as a week's diving deep with 2h to 3h runtimes, or more. Obviously the capital costs are much greater than OC; you'll keep all your twinsets for oxygen/helium/air banks, plus your cylinders breed like bunnies.

Do recommend diving in the UK though. Means you don't need to fly everywhere and you get to see some pretty countryside. You will need a drysuit.

Here's some wrecks just in a 30-ish mile stretch of the south coast...

 

[Tracy]

How often are you diving? Typically holiday divers and rebreathers aren't a great combination. You stated you wanted to dive 2 hours dives in the 40M range. Those depths and duration are cheaper and easier on OC.

 

[Wibble]

.... You stated you wanted to dive 2 hours dives in the 40M range. Those depths and duration are cheaper and easier on OC.

A couple of hours runtime at 40m/130ft would be around 65mins of bottom time plus 55mins of deco (details, details, check the planners!). Below about 35m/115ft it's always a little nicer to have a bit of helium in the diluent, just for the clear head and because you can (and should).

On OC, you'd really need to look at a rich deco gases, probably 50% and 80%, which would have a reasonable amount of consumption, so you'd need the other deco gas in reserve/redundancy/contingency. You'd consume a third of an ali80 and would need it topped off for the "next" day. The back-gas would probably be a light nitrox mix as even 10% helium would be expensive (2x12 litre twinset = 5000 litres, 10% is 500 litres of helium at 10c/litre would be $50). The deco gas topoff would be 5c/litre or more.

Just had to run that through MultiDeco -- 'cos I've not dived blowing any bubbles for years!
Actually it'll be 65mins on the bottom with 55mins decoing out on 50% and 80%. The twinset would be pretty empty (enough in reserve, but not enough for another dive); the 50% would be 250 litres down and the 80% 800 litres of the 2200 litres down requiring 600 litres of O2 at 5c = $30, plus the twinset fill around the same. So plenty of gas costs -- around $60+ -- not including any helium at another $50.

Now the comparison with closed circuit for the same dive... The marginal costs would be a change of (one Revo) scrubber or half used for a big unit -- about $15 (UK sorb prices rock!), plus the use of about 120 litres of oxygen (being generous), and about the same in diluent (YMMV), leaving plenty left for at least one or even two dives in the 3 litre cylinders. I'd use a helium mix, say, 18/35, i.e. 35% of 120 = 40 litres of helium at 10c = $4. Oxygen about half that. Total = $15 + $4 + $2 (plus $2 for a catheter and $2 for 2x16g CO2 cartridge for the bag) = $25, and breathing a decent helium mix.

Boat cost would be circa £80/$100 plus a pack of sarnies for a lovely day out.

Personally, I find diving on a rebreather to be so much more pleasant. No bubbles. No noise. No purculation of crap from overheads (wrecks and mines collapse because of the exhaled OC bubbles!). It's far more stable. Fauna is everywhere and not scared off by the bubbles. There's no gas anxiety (memories of years of OC tech diving and the constant need to be aware of your gas consumption. Warm breathing gas too -- especially important in early season dives in Scotland last weekend.

 

[Nosmosis]

Hi all new to the forum, signed up to try get some advice on what route to take in my “recreational” diving career.

Based in UK and been diving since about 2022. Got padi OW, advanced, deep, rescue, sidemount, wreck, first aid, nitrox. Only dive recreationally when on holiday.

Pretty much did them all one right after the other, did not find it that challenging, so recently did tdi IIT/AN/DP. Primarily only found the hands on side of things slightly challenging but not too bad. Things like maintaining breathing pattern whilst changing to deco gas and mask swaps but have it fairly dialled in now since finishing DP a few days ago. Classroom side of things - no issues for me.

Again finding myself a bit bored and not sure on what route to take next. I did a 1 day 2 dive intro on the titan rebreather and found it pretty fun/interesting. So contemplating going down the ccr route. I suppose other than ccr its the trimix/helitrox route? Mixed gas route puts me off because im limited to needing to find a dive shop that does tech, and adhering to their timetables when im on holiday etc. where as if i have a ccr abroad with me i can just go for a 2 hour semi shallow/40m swim for fun.

My main goal is primarily to be able to have my own kit i can easily transport around the world, if i have to rely on a dive center for things like filling deco gas thats fine, but i want this to be as minimal as possible. I travel the world a lot, and basically want to be able to dive on my own at any time, anywhere, without having to rely on others / dive shops as much as possible. Depth wise; i dont care about crazy depths of 100m+. I would be super interested in learning the skills to do depths of 100m or so, but primarily i just want to be able to go anywhere in the world with my own kit and do 1-2hr dives. Mostly upto 50/60m would be fine.

I read a lot on this forum that ccr users go solo a lot so its an appealing aspect. I have been doing about 20-40 dives a year and think i have around 100+ dives so far including all aforementioned training dives. I mostly enjoy just learning new skills, including practising simulations of things going wrong on a dive, learning to use new equipment, as opposed to looking at fish etc.

Not interested in cave diving at all, unless its something really interesting like things ive heard of in mexico. Wrecks are ok.

Financially wise not looking for a route that will break the bank, but happy to invest in a ccr obviously. Used or new? Heard mixed reviews on both on this forum?

Maintenance wise, i have a background in mechanical electrical engineering. So definitely want something i can mostly fully maintain myself and not have to ship off once a year for a service. I know most or all rebreathers need new o2 sensors once a year. Is this a strictly once a year rule, or can it be say every 50 dives etc?

Obviously i have a lot of questions. Just trying to figure out what direction i should head in now. From my research so far im strongly considering a light weight or side mount ccr. So Any advice and opinions appreciated !

I think the thing that stands out to me is the "holiday diver" self-description. CCR is more cost intensive, maintenance intensive and logistics intensive versus standard open circuit recreational diving. Travel is harder in some way (unless you have a rebreather that is super small and lightweight), but also you need to source sofnolime where you are going, and OC bailout gear too. Quite simply, if you just want to do some diving on vacation, OC is just way simpler (and for someone that won't put on that many hours, probably safer).

 

[rjack321]

Personally, I find diving on a rebreather to be so much more pleasant. No bubbles. No noise. No purculation of crap from overheads (wrecks and mines collapse because of the exhaled OC bubbles!). It's far more stable. Fauna is everywhere and not scared off by the bubbles. There's no gas anxiety (memories of years of OC tech diving and the constant need to be aware of your gas consumption. Warm breathing gas too -- especially important in early season dives in Scotland last weekend.

I do too.

But the real reason the OP should get a CCR is because they are easily bored with diving. Someone has to keep buying new units and dump them into the used market for the rest of us.

 

[Chris-Wood]

I do too.

But the real reason the OP should get a CCR is because they are easily bored with diving. Someone has to keep buying new units and dump them into the used market for the rest of us.

By that logic, OP needs an rEvo with NERD, 3 sets of cylinders, spares kit...

 

[Tracy]

$25, and breathing a decent helium mix.

And $15,000 for a unit and training.
Some use mix at those depths, some don't.
You are also assuming he meant two hours AT 130'. That is rare. I would guess he meant a 2 hour dive hitting 40M while on it. I could be wrong, but it is still cheaper and easier on OC for those depths.
Take a very active tech diver doing 100 tech dives per year, average length of time someone is doing tech dives of 6 years. That adds an additional $25 per dive if the unit never needs serviced or parts.
That is a very active tech diver, not a holiday diver doing 20 dives per year.
I sell, service, and teach on rebreathers. I want people to buy them. But if you aren't routinely doing dives well into trimix depths, financially it doesn't work. There are lots of other reasons to dive one, but just finances don't cut it diving to 40M.

 

[Wibble]

And $15,000 for a unit and training.

At least! I’d add another $10k to that.

There are lots of other reasons to dive one, but just finances don't cut it diving to 40M.

Agreed.

For my use case, I found diving UK wrecks to be logistically difficult to dive on open circuit, especially in the 40m/132ft to 60m/200ft range.

Memories of a trip where most were doing three days on their rebreathers; I could only do two days as I brought along two fully gassed 12 litre twinsets and 5 stage bottles (bottom stage and 4 deco stages) — it nearly killed me moving that lot off the boat on two marina trolleys just for the cylinders.

I’ve a forthcoming week of diving in Scotland on a 70m/230ft week. Of course that’s at the deeper end of diving, but there’s practically no logistical difference between 70m and 40m on CCR. For that I’ll need my Revo, the two (cave) filled bailout cylinders and the dil & oxygen cylinders, plus a small 5.5kg tub of ‘sorb (1.3kg per fill x 4). The dive place banks trimix and my gas bill will be well under $100.

Or next weekend’s 40m dives over three days. Leave the box & bailouts on the boat overnight and some cleaning & maintenance during the steam back from the dive site and switching the O2 & dil tins when necessary (or refilling at home).


However, logistics for flying with a rebreather is more challenging. Need a much larger baggage allowance for all that kit and still need to rent cylinders and gas at the destination. Have a Canary Islands trip in a couple of weeks; literally can’t be bothered to bring the Revo due to the logistics when I get there. Might blow bubbles though. I hope it won’t be some DiveMaster hell dive where they rush everyone around and never give anyone a chance to just enjoy the dive (my ‘normal’ friendly and leave me alone dive centre’s now closed )