My first dive with a rebreather

[DiveNav]

Full simulator coming soon

 

[scubanimal]

Was that a virtual dive or real? If real where was the dive? And if its your first dive on an RB how about sharing your experience, for me it dramacally changed my future diving, and I knew it immediately upon reaching the reef after decending.

 

[DiveNav]

Was that a virtual dive or real?

Virtual on the USCGC Duane.

I will do my first REAL dive on a rebreather this Saturday (in a pool)

AM

 

[scubanimal]

[/QUOTE]I will do my first REAL dive on a rebreather this Saturday (in a pool)
AM[/QUOTE]

After you get over the initial heavy task loading and the OMG what am I doing, you'll find these are really very simple machines and a joy to dive. Hope you take to heart all the checks and protocols. RBs are awesome, but are very unforgiving of lazy attention. Have a wonderful time, and I hope you'll share your initial experiences.

 

[DiveNav]

...... RBs are awesome, but are very unforgiving of lazy attention. ........

Yes, I have realized that already .... using our simulator I died several times of CNS hits because I was descending a bit too fast with an O2 rich counterlung ....

But I am still around to tell the story

AM

 

[DiveNav]

Hi,
today I went to Laguna for a test dive (in the pool) of a KISS rebreather.

Alan (from Kiss) was there for the dry part of the training and Se.... (forgot the Irish name ... but he is the guy next to me in the image above) did the in-water demo.

I have to say that since I did play quite a bit with our simulator, I was well prepared for the theory portion, but the in-water part still managed to "surprise" me .....

First surprise was the "OMG I can't breath" sensation as soon as I switched the BOV from OC to CC in 2ft of water
I came up immediately to the surface and I told "S" that the machine was broken ....
He, very politely, explained to me that "I have to suck it hard at the beginning" ... to fill the loop. Oppps
Forgot that the Kiss does not have a "diluent manual addition" control (we have it in our simulator).

Once past this minor incident, everything went fine and I really enjoied listening to the various underwater noises (the hissing of the oxygen, the pump of the pool, the cars passing by on PCH) other than my own bubble.

One thing that make me "uneasy" was that I was not able to control my buoyancy with my lungs and it took some time playing with the inflator/deflator of the BCD before I could manage a decent buoyancy (at the extreme depth of 12ft ).

By the way ... both instructors told me to use my nose to control the volume in the loop .....

 

[drbill]

Oh, Oh... Alberto has truly drifted to the dark side! Hope you enjoy the experience. I've certainly considered them from the standpoint of being able to closely approach critters without freaking them out, longer dives = more bottom time = more footage captured, and deeper diving. The only two things that prevent me from trying are a concern that I'm already focused on my camera work and might not pay enough attention to the rebreather, and the cost.

 

[scubanimal]

Alberto, sounds like you're having fun. A couple things to add to your knowledge base. Extreme Scuba has a RB club allowing certified RB divers a way to not get the full cost of a RB up front. You might give Richard a call and look into it. Another thing that I considered when chosing which unit was the fact I'm get really focused on my camera work, and hence went with an electronic unit. While there is endless debate on mCCR vs eCCR its worked out well for me.

After you've tried several different units and found what is best for you, Jeff Bozanic lives in that area and I strongly recommend him as a RB instructor.

Keep posting your experieces, I've found the RB world to be amazing, and love hearing the initial experiences