So Begins My Rebreather Journey

[tstormdiver]

Wow.... First time on my rebreather,.... What a different experience. Totally against everything I've ever been taught about scuba. I was only in the pool & my instructor only had me swim around, get used to it, figure out my buoyancy & trim. The buoyancy is going to take a little more practice to get the hang of it & let it to be more intuitive. The only (small) skill he had me do was to manually get the PO2 up to 1.00 at 10 ft. Took a while, but I got it there & maintained it quite well. I still have lots to learn on it, but 1st night not as bad as I would have thought.

I think I'm in love! :love3: All's I can say,... WOW!

 

[MarineResearch]

Once you get used to it, buoyancy control on a rebreather is amazing.

 

[tstormdiver]

A picture taken of my pool session last night.

 

[p1p]

I just finished my Mod 1 course on my Meg friday. My instructor was very mean and cruel to me in the pool session Boom drills, dil flushed, O2 flushes, loop recovery, bottle swaps. Once I hit Open water, that was only the beginning of the fun

 

[tstormdiver]

I have yet to go through that. Looks like this training is going to be rather drawn out, which is fine by me, I learn better that way.

 

[p1p]

define drawn out, mine was 5 days.

 

[tstormdiver]

Oh,... I'll probably be working on it through the springtime. A little pool here & there & in late spring I'll probably start getting it into OW. I'm staff at the shop (aka- I'm not charged for the class), so I'm at the instructor's schedule as to when we do the class sessions. Basically, pool sessions will be when we already have it for OW classes & since the instructor & myself aren't much into cold water, it will have to get warmer, much warmer before we go to the local quarry for the OW portion. That's good IMO, as it will allow me to become intimately familiar & comfortable with the unit in the pool before the next step.

 

[TSandM]

I've done two rebreather experience events. One allowed us to play with a variety of units, but only in four feet of water; the other was an intensive on the Meg, and in a 14 foot deep pool. I found buoyancy quite challenging, and there is nothing quite like failing to add enough gas to the loop on descent, and "running out of gas". Almost everyone I have seen transition to a rebreather has had a fairly long period of hard work to try to bring their skills back to where they were on OC.

 

[p1p]

I thought going from my GEM, to full CCR would be easy. Not so. Not super difficult, but not as easy as I'd thought. The GEM is abit more forgiving, as you dont have that evil solenoid screwing up your buoyancy. Thx to Laura James though for some private tips she gave me on my Meg.

For all there is to learn on the Meg, I'd be concerned remembering everything if my class was spread out a long time. Going from freshwater pool, to Saltwater, totally different.

 

[tstormdiver]

It will be quite some time before I go to saltwater. Probably June or so, at the earliest. Living in KY, the ocean isn't really readily available (10 hrs away). 85% of my diving is done in a freshwater quarry & eventually (likely very late this year or next year) I'll be taking it to FL to learn to use it for cave diving (also freshwater). The caves are the primary reason I decided to go to a rebreather.

Actually, the buoyancy part wasn't as bad as I would have thought. It wasn't perfect, but not overly bad either. I wasn't "yo- yo'ing", crashing or anything that severe, just bumped the bottom a little here & there. I just need to let my reactions to the changing gas volumes become a little more intuitive to get/ maintain control. I tried a couple different weights that first night. At first tried 4 lbs in each of the pockets of the counter lungs, I found, once I got down, I was rather negative & nose heavy. My instructor then told me an easier way to descend. Lo & behold, it was much easier & I didn't need so much weight. I then tried 3 lbs in each pocket & was not quite as negative & was perfectly trimmed out Head to toes. I may even try 2 lbs in each pocket & a little adjustment of backplate for trim to see if I can improve on the negativity, but honestly the two 3 lbs weights weren't that bad.

The course, while yes, will be stretched out, I'm not losing anything I've learned (yet) because my instructor is constantly lecturing me & drilling me, verbally, when I'm working at the shop (usually 3-4 days a week). One big thing my instructor has been hammering me on is, if ANYTHING doesn't feel right, get off the loop immediately & onto bailout for a few "sanity breaths". Then try to figure out what is going on. Even if it is or isn't anything I've done the right thing.