Rebreather Dive Vacation Packages Offered Year Round on Cayman Brac

[JohnnyC]

That statement is for the non-tech divers, they've always had that sentence in the notes for their dive packages, and they do provide computers at no charge for guests that don't have a dive computer. It is a nice perk for newer divers that may not have much equipment yet and for individuals that prefer to rent their gear. It's also nice if your gear is delayed - because luggage delays do occasionally happen when flying the small Twin Otter planes to the Cayman Sister Islands. We borrowed their free computers once just to try them out.

Sure, for an OC rec diver without their own or whose luggage is delayed it's great. I doubt they're going to loan out a constant PO2 CCR capable standalone dive computer to someone who is bringing their own rebreather.

Point being, the description of the packages makes me think they don't know what they're really talking about when they're offering these CCR packages.

 

[caydiver]

To be fair I think it is pretty much what every small op can offer. If you do a private charter your bottom time is not limited but otherwise you are limited by the weakest diver in the group whether it be a junior, handicapped, newbie, whatever whether you are rebreather or not. In ads they are only trying to show what they can offer but if it is too wordy, no one will read it. I think of the ad as a starting point but sometimes it can backfire when people start dissecting it. It’s a shame because when some people read the negative commentary it can cause some people to stay away from them when they are doing exactly what other similar ops do, perhaps even better!

 

[JohnnyC]

To be fair I think it is pretty much what every small op can offer. If you do a private charter your bottom time is not limited but otherwise you are limited by the weakest diver in the group whether it be a junior, handicapped, newbie, whatever whether you are rebreather or not. In ads they are only trying to show what they can offer but if it is too wordy, no one will read it. I think of the ad as a starting point but sometimes it can backfire when people start dissecting it. It’s a shame because when some people read the negative commentary it can cause some people to stay away from them when they are doing exactly what other similar ops do, perhaps even better!

I think you hit the nail on the head when you're talking about vacation recreational diving.

CCR diving is a whole 'nother ball o'wax. Advertising CCR packages in the same way as a recreational dive package just isn't the same thing. You're talking about people with (we'll generalize) a $10,000 investment in gear and training in order to take advantage of the benefits that a CCR provides. The point made earlier about why bring a CCR if you're only allowed to do an AL80 dive is pretty spot on. Telling a CCR diver they are only allowed to make an "AL80 dive" is not going to drive CCR divers to that operation. They're not actually offering anything that makes a CCR diver want to choose them over a competitor. Conversely, they are demonstrating that they don't understand the nature of CCR diving, nor are they demonstrating that they would be preferable to an operation that DOES understand the nature of CCR diving (eg; Divetech).

The package is basically, "we will charge you a $500 premium per package to do the same dives as everyone else, except you have to deal with all of the cost and hassle of diving a rebreather on top."

I think that's less "dipping their toe in" and more "we're demonstrating the lack of a market by making the market artificially unfeasible for the target demographic."

Will they get some customers? Maybe a couple. But any serious CCR diver is either going to go to Divetech and get real rebreather support and dives, or they're going to leave it at home and dive AL80 dives and either save the $500 premium and not contribute it to the local economy, or they will spend it on other stuff, potentially outside of CBBR.

 

[muzikbiz22]

Saw this a month or 2 ago. I have no problem with diving a Rec CCR profile, for an hour, etc. Do it all the time here in SoCal. And I buddy with OC divers frequently. They get a quick familiarity chat of "here's my bailout, here's how my BOV works, you have a yellow thingy called an Octopus, I have a similar thingy on my slung tank at my side, and don't ever grab my DSV/BOV out of my mouth, rescue procedures to the surface are the same". I'm scratching my head about the "and have a buddy who is also using rebreather equipment". CC and OC dive together all the time.

 

[Vicko]

I don't really have experience with trips on your side of the ocean but how would you rate that package price?

 

[KathyV]

...any serious CCR diver is either going to go to Divetech and get real rebreather support and dives, or they're going to leave it at home and dive AL80 dives and either save the $500 premium and not contribute it to the local economy, or they will spend it on other stuff, potentially outside of CBBR.

Of course, but DiveTech and InDepth are located on Grand Cayman and this new offering may be of interest to individuals that would like to try rebreather diving off Cayman Brac. It sounds to me as though Brac Reef Divers are just trying to find out if there is likely to be much interest, before deciding whether or not to take it much further.

A couple of years ago @kensuf and a group of rebreather divers wanted to deep dive Brac but they had to make special arrangements with InDepth on GC to ship the gas mixtures, etc. to Scuba Shack on CB. It didn't sound easy or inexpensive but they had some great dives. Now if a group of rebreather divers were interested in diving Brac it might be a bit easier to arrange, so this may information may be of interest to some folks but not to others.

 

[Superlyte27]

My shop runs 3 large trips per year to Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. I've never been to a single one. Last month I was asked again if I would come. I told them the exact same thing I say every year... "If they'll let me do the dives that I want". Our store was actually going to put together a trip to Grand instead so our CCR divers could enjoy their units. Then last week the owner of the store called me and said Brac would accommodate my CCR. I chuckled when I found out that I was still stuck at hour long dives.

There's good places to dive that support CCR. If they want some of that money, they're going to have to change their way of doing things.

 

[kensuf]

Baby steps. The dive operations manager understands CCR and technical diving (his brother is a technical course director in Atlanta and he used to work for Divetech and In-depth on Grand), it's the owners that are being cautious.

 

[KathyV]

Baby steps. The dive operations manager understands CCR and technical diving (his brother is a technical course director in Atlanta and he used to work for Divetech and In-depth on Grand), it's the owners that are being cautious.

Very interesting! No way am I a tech diver, but this caught my attention because we stayed and dived at CBBR in November 2018 - and we had a great trip - but one day a Reef Divers divemaster joined our morning dives and he was diving rebreather equipment.

During the briefings the other divers were told to "just ignore him!" but I saw him stay with us for awhile and then disappear and later reappear during our dives and it made me curious, and it reminded me of your report about rebreather divers enjoying deep-dives on Brac's walls, but that it required a lot of special advance work to make it happen.

Maybe if the CBBR dive shop starts getting inquiries from divers interested in the rebreather package but unwilling to be hemmed in by the open circuit diver restrictions, then perhaps they will be willing to take some bigger steps in this area.

 

[caydiver]

Sadly the downside of people who have no understanding of a specific skill set don’t understand The negativity of passing along short sighted info. Tech divers will contact ops in places they are interested in diving. The ops will totally try to make a day or a week work for them. It is what we do. What you read on a website and what can happen in real time are totally irrelevant to each other. Hopefully every savvy diver out there knows this. Misinformation hurts ops and their potential customers. What you see on websites is totally general. I truly hope anyone looking to do rebreather on The Brac will not be put off by this silly post.