I got home yesterday from a week of diving in Key Largo, training on my rEvo with Georgia Hausserman. It was my first ever rebreather training. I came in already having open circuit TDI Trimix certification. With this training, I earned 2 IANTD certs: rEvo CCR Diver, and Advanced Recreational Trimix. The result of the combination is being certified on the rEvo to dive to a max of 170’, with up to 15 minutes of deco, and however much helium I want.
Short version:
Georgia is AWESOME! She was a great instructor and a wonderful, nice, fun person to be with and learn from. I had the pleasure of meeting her husband and her father, too, and they were both also very nice and just a pleasure to hang out with. I learned a lot in the class, both in the classroom and in the water. By the time I left, I had done 12 dives and logged approximately 10.5 hours on the loop.
Longer version:
Training started on Sat, Dec 29th. The first day was all classroom, ending with building my rEvo to be ready to dive the next day. We did other classroom sessions throughout the week, as well.
On Sun, we got in the water for the first time. “Confined” water at Jules Undersea Lodge. We did 2 dives and a bunch of skills. Max depth was 17’. I thought it was great that we were able to be in salt water for those dives, so that I could be sure my weighting was correct before we went out in the open ocean. As it turned out, in a 5/4 mm wetsuit, Deep6 Eddy fins, and 3l steel cylinders on my rEvo (a rEvo III Mini stainless steel unit, with a Dive Rite Nomad XT wing in place of the factory wing), I needed no additional weight at all. It even trimmed out perfectly. Love that!
After those first 2 dives, I went back to where I was staying thinking that it was pretty cool, but it was harder to breathe than I expected. If I was hovering or swimming very slowly, it was okay. But, if I started a steady swim (not even very fast), it seemed like it didn’t take long before I felt like I was somewhat struggling to catch my breath. I was already made well aware of the issues of having optimum loop volume and I knew that I didn’t have an over-full loop. Sometimes I knew I had too little gas in the loop because I could feel it when I had to pull against the ADV. But, even when I wasn’t pulling against the ADV it felt a bit hard to breathe. I worried that, my unit being purchased used, there might be something wrong with it that made it harder to breathe than it should be. I also worried that it was working correctly and that it would always be that hard to breathe….
The next day was the first day for open water diving. We were scheduled for 2 dives on Molasses Reef, which would have a max depth of around 40’. We went out there and the surface conditions were 5’ seas. Fine with me, but some people on the boat were definitely getting sick. We splashed and that is where it really sucked. The surge on the bottom was ugly. It was me, Georgia, and a buddy of mine that came with me. He recently got his rEvo cert, but he came along to be my buddy during my rEvo class and then to also get the ART cert with me. We did skills and I completed them all successfully, but it really sucked. It was hard to breathe and the surge just made it seem worse. I switched to BO several times during the dive just to catch my breath.
We got out after a 51 minute first dive. Once back on the boat, my buddy said “that sucked. I already have my rEvo cert, so I don’t have to get back in for the next dive – and I’m not going to.” Georgia asked me and I said I didn’t really want to get back in in those conditions. She agreed that it sucked and so we stayed on the boat while the rec folks did a second dip.
At that point, I was seriously thinking that maybe I am just not destined to be a CCR diver. The constant feeling of just trying to catch my breath really sucked!
The next day, we were supposed to dive the Benwood and then French Reef. But, conditions were still bad, so the boat took us back to Molasses for another double dip. This time, seas were only 3-4’ and the bottom surge was probably half of what it was the day before. The first dive, things finally started to click. I learned several important things during that dive, but the most importantest (LOL) was that the rEvo does not breathe very well when I am in flat trim. But, when I went a little head up, just to where my head was about level with my fins, then it breathed just fine! OMG! What a revelation! I had been diving in trim that was too flat! I also learned what it feels like to try and breathe when the loop is basically full. Georgia was making a point of leading us around where we were doing a lot of ups and downs over bits of the reef, which was very educational. I actually found that it was the easiest to breathe while swimming if I porpoised just a little bit as I went along. A little head up on the inhale and down to flat on the exhale. The second dive was more of the same. Day 2 of open water was a total revelation and I finished the day knowing that my fears were over and CCR is what I want to be diving.
The next day ended up being 2 drift dives on Molasses. But, with the drift, we were at around 80’ or so of depth. We had minor excitement on both of those dives. My buddy started to feel like something was “not right” about 40 minutes into the first dive. He went on BO and we surfaced with a 46 minute run. But, there was nothing really wrong. After discussion, we determined that he had simply gotten his loop too full, making it hard to breathe, and he didn’t recognize that that was the issue. He just felt like it was hard to breathe and his solution was to inject more gas into the loop. He had not previously experienced the feeling of a too-full loop, so he did not recognize what it was and handle it correctly.
We did a short SI and proceeded on to dive #2. During the second dive, we got about 35 minutes in and I turned to look behind me to check on my buddy. Just when I looked, he went on BO and started ascending in what looked like a somewhat slow but uncontrolled way. He was just a bit too far away for me to get to him before he was too far up. I hollered in my loop and got Georgia’s attention and pointed up at my buddy. Long story short, she went after him and got to him at just about the same time that he arrested his descent. I think he must have gotten up to about 50’ before he stopped. She brought him back down. He seemed to be alert. He went back on the loop and appeared to be adjusting his loop mix correctly, etc. Georgia signaled to ask if he wanted to go back on BO and end the dive. He said no. Meanwhile, I had gotten my SMB out and ready to deploy. Georgia was carrying a reel that she was using to tow a buoy with a dive flag. By the time my buddy had settled down and was ready to continue, we noticed that her buoy was gone and her line was slack. I shot my bag. We continued the dive. But, I was watching my buddy and saw right away that he was starting to sink after Georgia moved away from him. I went and grabbed him and he latched onto my left arm. Georgia had signaled us to try to fin back towards the reef as the current was carrying us just a little bit away from it.
I was expecting my buddy to sort out his buoyancy and then we would all fin towards the reef as we continued to drift. Instead, he just hung there with me supporting him and finning. He was not correcting his buoyancy and I noticed he was not even finning. So, I got Georgia’s attention again and thumbed the dive. I wasn’t sure what had happened with his ascent or what was going on now, but it wasn’t “right”, so dive over. Georgia came over and took control of my buddy and I managed my reel and the SMB as we ascended. We ended with a total runtime of 41 minutes.
My opinion after our debrief and looking at the profile my buddy downloaded from his Shearwater is that this is what happened: He was swimming a setpoint of 1.0 and manually flying his rEvo to maintain a 1.3. He overdid it just a little bit on O2 injection and when he looked at his pO2, he saw 1.6 across the board. His log showed a short spike to a peak of 1.7. He freaked out a little bit and went to BO. Being on OC, he lost control of his buoyancy just a little, which started his ascent. I think he also did not turn off his O2, as I was trained to do in a hyperoxic event, so his CMF caused his loop to fill up with O2 once he went on BO, thus increasing his buoyancy even more. After that, I think he was just narked, plain and simple. We were using air for dil, and we weren’t that deep. Nevertheless, that is my theory and Georgia agreed with me.
(continued)
Short version:
Georgia is AWESOME! She was a great instructor and a wonderful, nice, fun person to be with and learn from. I had the pleasure of meeting her husband and her father, too, and they were both also very nice and just a pleasure to hang out with. I learned a lot in the class, both in the classroom and in the water. By the time I left, I had done 12 dives and logged approximately 10.5 hours on the loop.
Longer version:
Training started on Sat, Dec 29th. The first day was all classroom, ending with building my rEvo to be ready to dive the next day. We did other classroom sessions throughout the week, as well.
On Sun, we got in the water for the first time. “Confined” water at Jules Undersea Lodge. We did 2 dives and a bunch of skills. Max depth was 17’. I thought it was great that we were able to be in salt water for those dives, so that I could be sure my weighting was correct before we went out in the open ocean. As it turned out, in a 5/4 mm wetsuit, Deep6 Eddy fins, and 3l steel cylinders on my rEvo (a rEvo III Mini stainless steel unit, with a Dive Rite Nomad XT wing in place of the factory wing), I needed no additional weight at all. It even trimmed out perfectly. Love that!
After those first 2 dives, I went back to where I was staying thinking that it was pretty cool, but it was harder to breathe than I expected. If I was hovering or swimming very slowly, it was okay. But, if I started a steady swim (not even very fast), it seemed like it didn’t take long before I felt like I was somewhat struggling to catch my breath. I was already made well aware of the issues of having optimum loop volume and I knew that I didn’t have an over-full loop. Sometimes I knew I had too little gas in the loop because I could feel it when I had to pull against the ADV. But, even when I wasn’t pulling against the ADV it felt a bit hard to breathe. I worried that, my unit being purchased used, there might be something wrong with it that made it harder to breathe than it should be. I also worried that it was working correctly and that it would always be that hard to breathe….
The next day was the first day for open water diving. We were scheduled for 2 dives on Molasses Reef, which would have a max depth of around 40’. We went out there and the surface conditions were 5’ seas. Fine with me, but some people on the boat were definitely getting sick. We splashed and that is where it really sucked. The surge on the bottom was ugly. It was me, Georgia, and a buddy of mine that came with me. He recently got his rEvo cert, but he came along to be my buddy during my rEvo class and then to also get the ART cert with me. We did skills and I completed them all successfully, but it really sucked. It was hard to breathe and the surge just made it seem worse. I switched to BO several times during the dive just to catch my breath.
We got out after a 51 minute first dive. Once back on the boat, my buddy said “that sucked. I already have my rEvo cert, so I don’t have to get back in for the next dive – and I’m not going to.” Georgia asked me and I said I didn’t really want to get back in in those conditions. She agreed that it sucked and so we stayed on the boat while the rec folks did a second dip.
At that point, I was seriously thinking that maybe I am just not destined to be a CCR diver. The constant feeling of just trying to catch my breath really sucked!
The next day, we were supposed to dive the Benwood and then French Reef. But, conditions were still bad, so the boat took us back to Molasses for another double dip. This time, seas were only 3-4’ and the bottom surge was probably half of what it was the day before. The first dive, things finally started to click. I learned several important things during that dive, but the most importantest (LOL) was that the rEvo does not breathe very well when I am in flat trim. But, when I went a little head up, just to where my head was about level with my fins, then it breathed just fine! OMG! What a revelation! I had been diving in trim that was too flat! I also learned what it feels like to try and breathe when the loop is basically full. Georgia was making a point of leading us around where we were doing a lot of ups and downs over bits of the reef, which was very educational. I actually found that it was the easiest to breathe while swimming if I porpoised just a little bit as I went along. A little head up on the inhale and down to flat on the exhale. The second dive was more of the same. Day 2 of open water was a total revelation and I finished the day knowing that my fears were over and CCR is what I want to be diving.
The next day ended up being 2 drift dives on Molasses. But, with the drift, we were at around 80’ or so of depth. We had minor excitement on both of those dives. My buddy started to feel like something was “not right” about 40 minutes into the first dive. He went on BO and we surfaced with a 46 minute run. But, there was nothing really wrong. After discussion, we determined that he had simply gotten his loop too full, making it hard to breathe, and he didn’t recognize that that was the issue. He just felt like it was hard to breathe and his solution was to inject more gas into the loop. He had not previously experienced the feeling of a too-full loop, so he did not recognize what it was and handle it correctly.
We did a short SI and proceeded on to dive #2. During the second dive, we got about 35 minutes in and I turned to look behind me to check on my buddy. Just when I looked, he went on BO and started ascending in what looked like a somewhat slow but uncontrolled way. He was just a bit too far away for me to get to him before he was too far up. I hollered in my loop and got Georgia’s attention and pointed up at my buddy. Long story short, she went after him and got to him at just about the same time that he arrested his descent. I think he must have gotten up to about 50’ before he stopped. She brought him back down. He seemed to be alert. He went back on the loop and appeared to be adjusting his loop mix correctly, etc. Georgia signaled to ask if he wanted to go back on BO and end the dive. He said no. Meanwhile, I had gotten my SMB out and ready to deploy. Georgia was carrying a reel that she was using to tow a buoy with a dive flag. By the time my buddy had settled down and was ready to continue, we noticed that her buoy was gone and her line was slack. I shot my bag. We continued the dive. But, I was watching my buddy and saw right away that he was starting to sink after Georgia moved away from him. I went and grabbed him and he latched onto my left arm. Georgia had signaled us to try to fin back towards the reef as the current was carrying us just a little bit away from it.
I was expecting my buddy to sort out his buoyancy and then we would all fin towards the reef as we continued to drift. Instead, he just hung there with me supporting him and finning. He was not correcting his buoyancy and I noticed he was not even finning. So, I got Georgia’s attention again and thumbed the dive. I wasn’t sure what had happened with his ascent or what was going on now, but it wasn’t “right”, so dive over. Georgia came over and took control of my buddy and I managed my reel and the SMB as we ascended. We ended with a total runtime of 41 minutes.
My opinion after our debrief and looking at the profile my buddy downloaded from his Shearwater is that this is what happened: He was swimming a setpoint of 1.0 and manually flying his rEvo to maintain a 1.3. He overdid it just a little bit on O2 injection and when he looked at his pO2, he saw 1.6 across the board. His log showed a short spike to a peak of 1.7. He freaked out a little bit and went to BO. Being on OC, he lost control of his buoyancy just a little, which started his ascent. I think he also did not turn off his O2, as I was trained to do in a hyperoxic event, so his CMF caused his loop to fill up with O2 once he went on BO, thus increasing his buoyancy even more. After that, I think he was just narked, plain and simple. We were using air for dil, and we weren’t that deep. Nevertheless, that is my theory and Georgia agreed with me.
(continued)
