Question Sidemount rebreather as a first rebreather

[broncobowsher]

To compliment what T-bone stated about roller coaster rides and a rebreather...

Any CCR works best at a steady depth. No DIL usage, just burning O2 in your body. You blow through so much gas doing the elevator ride. A local boat I go off of I tend to do a little volunteer work on and that sometimes involves checking or pulling the anchor. In a typical rebreather setup (not sure about doing a Dil-out setup) I blow a lot of gas just to do that elevator ride. Open circuit, you are carrying so much gas it doesn't really matter. But CCR you have so little to start with in comparison, I'll use nearly as much doing that ride as I doing for the regular dive.

I don't do caves. I like rust. Drop down, go through a wreck, back up. Happy times in CCR.

There are a lot of people who only have a backmount CCR, or maybe a couple. Not sure if you will find anyone who only has a sidemount CCR. Maybe that is all they have at the moment, but I am willing to bet there is a backmount somewhere in there past.

A good place for a sidemount CCR is a cave that has tight restrictions that needs sidemount, but also not a roller coaster of ups and downs.

 

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

I can't speak to backmount/side-mount units, but the Triton was/is my first CCR and chest-mount (whether mCCR Triton or eCCR Choptima) may fit your needs in a cave while being in my opinion a great first CCR/potentially only CCR. In the near future I don't anticipate wanting or needing to do any dives beyond Triton's capabilities (of note has CE approval to 100m and unclipping allows to fit in narrow passages). It's beautifully simple to put together/take down and in learning wearing dry gloves it was nice to have everything in front of me. (Other SB posts pretty thoroughly discuss pro's/con's of the Triton and Choptima...)

 

[BrianGB]

Does anyone know the lead times for the Gemini?

 

[BrianGB]

I read a number of threads about sidemount rebreathers and how the general consensus is that its best to start with a back mounted unit. Now, I am not planning to get a rebreather in the near-term future, but I am reading and learning about them so here comes the question:

Often, a SM rebreather is discussed within the context of the SW, so is the recommendation to start with a back mounted unit comes from all the SW-specific quality issues, or is it coming from some inherit problems that all SM rebreathers have? Perhaps a mix of the two? (ex. 80% SW quality issues, 20% SM rebreathers design issues)?

And just to add more context, I am interested in rebreathers for cave diving, not deep diving (the deepest I have been to is 50m and unless Atlantis is found, I don't think I will surpass that depth).

I'm going through the same process

 

[lermontov]

I read a number of threads about sidemount rebreathers and how the general consensus is that its best to start with a back mounted unit. Now, I am not planning to get a rebreather in the near-term future, but I am reading and learning about them so here comes the question:

Often, a SM rebreather is discussed within the context of the SW, so is the recommendation to start with a back mounted unit comes from all the SW-specific quality issues, or is it coming from some inherit problems that all SM rebreathers have? Perhaps a mix of the two? (ex. 80% SW quality issues, 20% SM rebreathers design issues)?

And just to add more context, I am interested in rebreathers for cave diving, not deep diving (the deepest I have been to is 50m and unless Atlantis is found, I don't think I will surpass that depth).

Its hard to really know where your heading sometimes, You will find that a ccr opens up a lot of areas that were not realistically considered on OC, especially the deep ones and once you get comfortable on it doing a 60m dive isnt that problematic. I normally wreck dive - i was SM on OC for a number of years but really wanted a ccr to extend times. I too considered the sidemount ccr but virtually all advice was get a back mount first -which I did because the ccr sidemount was more of a specialised tool and the back mount was a better all round tool.
300 hours down the track ive done some cave dives on my ccr back mount and to be honest it has shown to have its limitations in tight spots. I doubt theres a smaller profile then OC sidemount so it really depends on what your ambitions are. My next cave trip ill be taking ccr and OC sidemount basically because one tool is more suited in certain places than others.

The next logical step is sidemount ccr but its just more time and money and at this stage not sure if im that committed to such a specialised tool

 

[Garth]

I think there is a lot to be said about this subject. I started on backmounted rebreather then moved to sidemount. I think the older sidemount systems is actually having the entire rebreather on one side versus the sidewinder makes sense to start backmount but with sidewinder there isn’t the same situation and it’s easier to get into straight as a first rebreather but work of breathing is way worse. With the new canister design and the Gemini which is still being rolled out it may change my opinion potentially but haven’t dove those units yet.
Getting something like a flex might be more problematic to go straight to sidemount but these new units might make it easier to go straight to sidemount rebreather.

 

[rddvet]

Does anyone know the lead times for the Gemini?

Just email Charlie at fathom. He will get back to you quickly.

 

[kierentec]

Does anyone know the lead times for the Gemini?

Production time is pretty quick, but there is a bottle neck at the instructors. There’s only a few of us, and a lot interest in the unit…so if you’re interested, I’d start talking to instructors to see when they might be able to fit you into a class.

 

[divingx]

Does anyone know the lead times for the Gemini?

I just asked Charlie a few days ago. He said 4-6 weeks.

 

[BrianGB]

I just asked Charlie a few days ago. He said 4-6 weeks.

Thanks for this, I'vestarted looking into it.