Minimum training standard to start with a rebreather

[danvolker]

So your solution to RB is to skip breath?
Holding your breath might work if you are swimming into a scene and trying to capture an image but not if you are trying to immerse yourself to capture natural behavior. I collected over 1 hour of video on my salmon dive, almost all of which was in current. I'm just not going to hold my breath for an hour on and off UW as a strategy. As it was, I didn't get any really good close ups of them swimming in the lake. If I were doing this for a living that might be important to me.

I suspect groupers are not spooked regardless. Fish are different. I can creep up on a ling cod quite close but salmon, or trout for example, react very differently.

Goliaths are spooked if you swim in fast, or if they think you have bad intentions.....(there is a certain body language fish read....they know a novice spearfisherman wants to shoot them, by the body language....they know a large predator is eying them, deciding on whether or how to attack)

So my choice....be close to my video target fish that require silent operation, and use skip breathing of up to a minute, or a rebreather......Now what is more likely to kill me? I am going to go with the skip breathing being safer, particularly as I would be lying down on the bottom, or drifting without swimming at a set depth for this.

 

[DaleC]

Says the guy with no rebreather experience...

What? You mean compared to all the naysayers who also have no experience with them.

What I know is the environment I dive in and the goals I have within it. Considering my perspective of using RB's in a rec setting to better be able to interact with wildlife, I think I've got a handle on the pros and cons. Issues exist with both systems.
And yes, I do look at the fact that RB's were around far before OC and that somehow people learned to dive them.

Everyone has their own POV and argues from it. Am I suggesting someone with no experience use one to do deep, mixed gas diving... no. But I also think not everyone wants to use RB's in that way. It's a tool. The proof will be in the pudding I suppose as we see whether rec RB's become commonplace in the future. Somehow I doubt all those divers will have extensive trimix tech training.

But to adjust my opinion; I'll say a person should be able to dive to the depth region they aim for on OC before tackling RB. For rec that's not too high a bar.

 

[hroark2112]

After a week on Bonaire diving my RB, I stand by my original opinion. I was able to do 2 1/2 hour dives any time I wanted, it was nice & quiet the whole time, and I got out of the water less than 4 hours before my flight. My carry-on bag (with my RB and Irikonji shorts) left a puddle in the waiting area.

I enjoyed the trip way more on CC than I would have on OC.

 

[geoffdee]

I thought RAID had proposed or is doing RB training for OW level.

 

[HungoverDiver]

and I got out of the water less than 4 hours before my flight.

Don't you have the off-gas the same way on CC as OC? Assuming using the same gases as OC (let's say air as diluent), you are still loading the same amount of N2 on every breath at depth.

(I've done 0 CC training, so this is simply my application of the science from OC training)

 

[pensacolaracer]

Don't you have the off-gas the same way on CC as OC? Assuming using the same gases as OC (let's say air as diluent), you are still loading the same amount of N2 on every breath at depth.

(I've done 0 CC training, so this is simply my application of the science from OC training)

You are correct. To go to altitude in an airplane 4 hours after completing a dive.... Unless it is at 20 feet or shallower, on pure oxygen, and think that is a safe practice, IMO, shows a fundamental misunderstanding about the physics of CCR diving.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hroark2112]

No, that is incorrect.

Do the math. It's a fundamental of CCR diving.

Provided you maintain your PO2 at the proper level, you can prevent on-gassing nitrogen up to 39'.

Don't just take my word for it. Check out the book Mastering Rebreathers, by Jeff Bozanic.

 

[PfcAJ]

Prevent on gassing, eh?

Please, elaborate.

 

[hroark2112]

Perhaps prevent on-gassing is confusing.

If you keep your nitrogen partial pressure lower than it is where you're sitting now (assuming you're not reading this on the wreck of the Andrea Doria ) you won't on-gas any more nitrogen than you do sitting in your living room.

If I don't put nitrogen bubbles in my blood, there's nothing to come out if I hop on a plane.

 

[pensacolaracer]

Got it. Almost double the depth to 39 feet, run a 1.4 ppp2 and enjoy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk