Rebreather Beach Diving?

[wadedeeper]

Hey all,

I finally took the plunge and got a rebreather...and I guess the first questions I have are:

1. how bad is beach diving with a rebreather? I realize it depends heavily on the unit weight and configuration...and I got the KISS Sport which is slightly smaller and lighter than even the Classic or some of the larger units like the Inspiration or Evolution. My main reason for asking is I was curious if most of you give up beach dives to do more boat dives now...or if you still enjoy the sand and surf entries?

2. "To Buddy or not To Buddy" - I found that since I mainly love shooting video, I have run out of buddies really willing to hang while I get some cool shots of a Nudi or follow the "flight" path of a bat ray for a few minutes while their air runs out. I am an instructor and have chosen to solo a few times to avoid the "keep moving" pressure from my buddy...and now that I will be a RB diver...I have no friends that own one themselves so I may be stuck solo'ing. From your experiences, do you find it more beneficial to have a buddy or not while you dive? I know some are very much against Solo diving and others prefer it over buddy diving as their buddy can get them killed...but I am just looking for feedback to determine whether I should strap on my steel tank when I want to solo, or not.

3. do you prefer to bring your RB on trips and if so...how? Don't you have to empty and refill the cylinders at the destinations? how well are they received on Dive boats abroad...(i.e. do most frown on you using a RB because you could be down soooo long?).

I am just reading through the booklet for the classes which I'll be taking in a couple weeks but thought I'd ask this of the group first. Hope you all are doing well.

 

[Cave Diver]

Some of this stuff will be addressed in your class (as I read it you haven't taken it yet)

Hey all,

I finally took the plunge and got a rebreather...and I guess the first questions I have are:

1. how bad is beach diving with a rebreather? I realize it depends heavily on the unit weight and configuration...and I got the KISS Sport which is slightly smaller and lighter than even the Classic or some of the larger units like the Inspiration or Evolution. My main reason for asking is I was curious if most of you give up beach dives to do more boat dives now...or if you still enjoy the sand and surf entries?

I've done quite a few shore entries, but not quite what I'd call "beach." I have a Meg, which to me feels slightly heavier than an AL80, but lighter than doubles. I usually take my bailout bottle down to entry point and drop it before gearing up. I'll carry mask and fins with me. I personally prefer not diving from boats, because then I'm not on someone else's time schedule, especially with CCR.

Absolutely recommend that you do your pre-breathe of the loop before you enter the water. The last thing you want to happen is to have a problem with the loop and pass out and drown in 2' of water.

2. "To Buddy or not To Buddy" - I found that since I mainly love shooting video, I have run out of buddies really willing to hang while I get some cool shots of a Nudi or follow the "flight" path of a bat ray for a few minutes while their air runs out. I am an instructor and have chosen to solo a few times to avoid the "keep moving" pressure from my buddy...and now that I will be a RB diver...I have no friends that own one themselves so I may be stuck solo'ing. From your experiences, do you find it more beneficial to have a buddy or not while you dive? I know some are very much against Solo diving and others prefer it over buddy diving as their buddy can get them killed...but I am just looking for feedback to determine whether I should strap on my steel tank when I want to solo, or not.

I absolutely DO NOT condone solo diving on CCR. Period. I think this is a dangerous practice, but it's a decision each person has to make for themselves.

3. do you prefer to bring your RB on trips and if so...how? Don't you have to empty and refill the cylinders at the destinations? how well are they received on Dive boats abroad...(i.e. do most frown on you using a RB because you could be down soooo long?).

I am just reading through the booklet for the classes which I'll be taking in a couple weeks but thought I'd ask this of the group first. Hope you all are doing well.

I've taken my CCR on some trips and some I take OC. Depends on who my buddies are and what dives I'll be able to do on the trips. Many dive destinations have cylinders appropriate for CCR that you can rent on location. I know DiveTech on Grand Cayman caters to the CCR crowd. This is also one reason why I chose the Meg. It's modular design allows me to put any cylinder I have available on it, including AL80's if that's the only thing I can find. Best bet is to research your destination ahead of time and find out what you'll need and what they can provide.

 

[Gill Envy]

Congrats on taking the plunge!

1. Beach/shore diving with a rebreather is great. A lot of folks don't do so much shore diving since they got a rebreather to tec dive and often then dive in open water with crap loads of gear which makes shore diving less appealing but for the avid recreational diver, a rebreather opens up a whole lot of possibilities from shore as well.

2. As far as Solo diving... well that is a can of worms. I take it on face value that rebreather diving involves a higher degree of risk than OC, like on an order of mangintude of 10 to 1, but i'm conflicted about just how much safer having a buddy makes it, IMHO, it requires an alpinist's attitude either way. The few stats we can get our hands on suggest from a pure outcomes point of view that it does appear that more fatalities are associated with solo CCR diving in particular. It could be that more folks are solo CCR diving than anyone wants to admit for lack of a buddy or other reasons and that's why so many of the fatalities occur while solo, who knows, I wish we had more to go on. I do my best though to take it on face falue, that Solo stats are grim and that you should take extra precautions when solo diving, and then apply those precautions even when you are diving with a buddy, because when it really comes down to it, an "ounce of prevention" truly "is worth a pound of cure" when it comes to maintaining a breathable loop. if the sh!t really hits the fan, there is sadly little anyone can do for you.

Ultimately it's a very personal decision. I focus my energy on doing whatever I can to foster good habits. If you choose to solo dive CCR, I'd recommend getting extra anal about a few things you should already be anal about... use a pre-dive checklist, pre-breathe your unit, take lots of BO and configure your unit to have true electronic redundancy (at least two truly separate po2 monitors... the KISS usually has 3, which is good)... and KNOW YOUR PO2, ALL THE FREAKN' TIME! I am a firm believer that manual injection CCR's are the way to go for forcing good habits on the diver but if you are very self motivated and have the healthy degree of perpetual paranoia then eCCR's can be dove safely.

A HUD, like the shearwater is good, but that will involve sharing cells or getting a 4th cell... any way you can, develop a Continuious po2 monitoring habit! It's like juggling, your first 3 balls are the po2 monitors, once you master good maintenance technique, then you can add more balls, like photography.

3. I take my rebreather everywhere, and have pretty much swarn off OC altogether.

be safe and have fun!

george

 

[Mr.X]

Depending on where you dive - cleaning out fine particles from lungs, multiple O ring fittings/joints can be a pain. When I've done shore diving I try to make sure I don't have to wade in from shore where sediment in water can get into all sorts of things!

X

 

[Rainer]

I'd really imagine it comes down to what "shore diving" means to you. In Seattle, with their super flat and easy entries, might not be a problem. Here in SoCal, with our *surf* shore entries, you might be looking at a lot of sand in some hard to reach places, with some potentially very serious consequences if you got tumbled.

 

[sea2summit]

Shore/beach diving is fine. I've walked out into moderate surf and except for the BO bottle it's fine. If the surf is really bad just carry you're bailout until you're at a suitable location to clip it on. For no deco stuff just do a 40 and it makes it that much easier.

Buddy thing is a can of worms. I've been away from my buddy but never dove solo and wouldn't recommend it, O2 tox is my primary reason but CO2 hits are also right up there.

I don't do many "trips" but when I do the breather is pretty much central to the trip goals so I needn't say more.

Best of luck with you're training.

 

[Mr.X]

I was looking at the video part of your question. I teach CCR and shoot a lot of video.

Shooting video involves some degree of myopia to concentrate on getting that special shot. This means being distracted at times...which could translate into degrees of complacency in monitoring po2. When I know I am shooting important video on CCR I have a video 'safety' watching me.

If it's casual video I make sure that I build into my monitoring regimen a break from viewing the camera steadily every 1.5 - two minutes. It's very easy to task load on CCR when you are working hard. Also, a CCR with a HUD is a bonus because it's a CCR videographers best friend.

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