Second Thoughts About Rebreather Class

[martincohn]

There used to be a dive facility there (15-20 years ago) and they did almost all their diving on air

Disclaimer, haven't dived Bikini or Chuuk: YET. But the people that I've talked to that have done the deeper wrecks on air, then later mix, all say the same thing.

Damn I didn't realize what I was missing or forgot about when I dived mix vs air.

 

[bakodiver391]

For some reason I was under the impression that the Truk Master was the only game in town now, probably because the instructor I talked to books with them. I honestly like the idea of diving a ship with its own chamber in that remote of an area. Given that, I would probably look to book through the Indies Surveyor for a trip to Bikini. Does the Indies Surveyor still maintain enough He to support open circuit trimix divers, and are you planning on continuing to do so? Thanks for contributing.

Quite frankly, we mostly do scientific or film work these days. The owner only takes whole vessel charters, not individual bookings. If you can get 9 like-minded friends together, then the Surveyor is an option. What has been popular in the past is to order your own bottle of helium for open circuit, then use it as you please. There is a several month lead time for ordering helium. Small consolation, we don't charge for oxygen or beer.

 

[martincohn]

Does the Indies Surveyor still maintain enough He to support open circuit trimix divers

Does anyone want to OC and pay for He like this? 6x $$$ for OC vs CCR. And then there's the issue of remembering dives after going half way around the world.

The last gas bill I had in that part of the world, the OC diver was 6X that of the CC diver.

So i was CC on my trip - i was using about 6 Cuft of He and 6 cuft ofO2 for a 2 hour dive. At that time He was 6$, and O2 was $2 - about $50/dive. For 18 dives, the bill was $800, plus 250 for sorb and 500 for the marine park fee and i was at 1500/trip.
The OC guys were not using He. Air was free. They were using 30cuft of 50% at $1./cuft and 20cuft of O2 at $2 about $70 per dive - Most of them skipped a dive or two, and since no sorb for them - there total was about the same $1500/trip.

now their dives were typically about 90 minutes -and who knows how much they remember about the dives - but it is definitely doable.

​

 

[rjack321]

Quite frankly, we mostly do scientific or film work these days. The owner only takes whole vessel charters, not individual bookings. If you can get 9 like-minded friends together, then the Surveyor is an option. What has been popular in the past is to order your own bottle of helium for open circuit, then use it as you please. There is a several month lead time for ordering helium. Small consolation, we don't charge for oxygen or beer.

Just one?
I don't seen any practical way a 24m long boat can ever carry enough helium supply bottles to fill 12 OC divers x 18 dives at ~45m even if you used a light mix like 21/30. Nevermind the $$$ which is going to be crazy.

Maybe if you had 10 CCR divers and 1 or 2 OC divers you could carry enough helium for that.

 

[bakodiver391]

It's normally a mix of rb and open circuit divers, we haven't had a full oc trip for years. rjack, you're overthinking this. Deep mix for the morning (deep) dive, air top up for the afternoon shallower dive on Sara or whatever. Our years of experience tells us this works. Is it ideal? No. Is it better than not coming? Yes. I maintain that a comfortable doubles diver is a better solution than a new or non-current rebreather diver. That was the OP's concern, maintaining currency, if I can remember that far back. We have had shaky rb divers come to Bikini who have spent most of the trip trying to dial in buoyancy and trim. It's a waste of an expensive, difficult trip.

 

[Gareth J]

Just one?
I don't seen any practical way a 24m long boat can ever carry enough helium supply bottles to fill 12 OC divers x 18 dives at ~45m even if you used a light mix like 21/30. Nevermind the $$$ which is going to be crazy.

Maybe if you had 10 CCR divers and 1 or 2 OC divers you could carry enough helium for that.

When I did an OC Trimix instructors course, we had to come in twice for extra Helium. A few weeks before, they had run an CCR Instructors Trimix course, with half the gas we original took out.
We also needed to service the Booster pump mid way through the course. Filling all those twinsets and stages seemed to take up all the time we had when we weren't actually in the water.
Mind you, I did enjoy the last dive of the course, swimming under the stern of the Murree. Starting stops deeper than my previous dives on the same wreck.

That was at the point I was switching to CCR. Since then I don't think I have done any OC Trimix, its just too expensive.

 

[rjack321]

It's normally a mix of rb and open circuit divers, we haven't had a full oc trip for years. rjack, you're overthinking this. Deep mix for the morning (deep) dive, air top up for the afternoon shallower dive on Sara or whatever. Our years of experience tells us this works. Is it ideal? No. Is it better than not coming? Yes. I maintain that a comfortable doubles diver is a better solution than a new or non-current rebreather diver. That was the OP's concern, maintaining currency, if I can remember that far back. We have had shaky rb divers come to Bikini who have spent most of the trip trying to dial in buoyancy and trim. It's a waste of an expensive, difficult trip.

Like I said, sure a couple of OC divers you could support. But not a whole boat of them. A 300cf bottle of helium would roughly support maybe 1 OC diver using something like 21/20.

More salient, what's your current helium price per L?

 

[Preach]

Like I said, sure a couple of OC divers you could support. But not a whole boat of them. A 300cf bottle of helium would roughly support maybe 1 OC diver using something like 21/20.

More salient, what's your current helium price per L?

Last week i heard an operator from truk/bikini saying that they don't have enough helium for oc divers. And helium costed around 20 cents a liter (so 1 set of doubles with 21/35 will cost around 360 bucks on helium alone).
No thanks, i pass

 

[abnfrog]

I did bikini in 2006 I believe it was the second last trip on the island dive center , yes it was all deep air , I didn't like that but I did it any way , they didn't have deco bottles so we decoed on a bar , I didn't like that either , but the wrecks were great , so there was that

 

[bakodiver391]

I did bikini in 2006 I believe it was the second last trip on the island dive center , yes it was all deep air , I didn't like that but I did it any way , they didn't have deco bottles so we decoed on a bar , I didn't like that either , but the wrecks were great , so there was that

I was welding up the piping for the new tank farm on Bikini in late 2006, caught one of the last flights out before the local airline went belly up. Did we run into each other? I used to eat dinner with the divers.