South Florida: which CCR do you dive?

[boriss]

Very curious which rebreathers divers in south Florida are using. I'm sure northern Florida is dominated by cavers, but what about here in the south?

Would love to hear not just the make/model, but also the type of diving you use it for, why you initially chose it, what features you like/don't like about it, what changes would you make in hindsight, etc. Pretty much anything you could share would be great.

I'm looking to go CCR route, have done tons of research, but unsure which unit to go with. I dive out of Pompano, but have no problems traveling elsewhere. I'm interested in using it for deep wreck penetrations and have a bunch on my list which would require a CCR.

Thanks in advance for your responses!

 

[boriss]

3 votes, but no posts. and no explanation for "Other." Is it a secret??

Would love to meet others in the area who dive CCRs, please PM me if you don't want to post publicly. Thanks!

 

[Rayk]

3 votes, but no posts. and no explanation for "Other." Is it a secret??

Would love to meet others in the area who dive CCRs, please PM me if you don't want to post publicly. Thanks!

It might be Fathom.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Not alot of votes in the poll I noticed. Truthfully, I rarely see rebreathers on the dive boats here in South Florida. I see them on occasion, but apart from the tech boats, it is rare. I saw them far more frequently up on the Great Lakes and at the Midwest quarries like Gilboa.

 

[macado]

I am not from South Florida but I dive there frequently. Specifically the upper Keys and Pompano Beach / Fort Lauderdale. It's honestly all over the map. There used to be and still is a large community of rEvo divers because of AddHelium / Peter Sotis.

There are quite a few JJs, KISS units and P2s. Not too many Divesofts but there are definitely a few Fathoms up there. You do see Megs as well.

It is hard to make an accurate guesstimate but I would say rEvos dominate or used to dominated the South Florida rebreather scene. All I will say is you either love or hate the rEvo, there are some pretty strong opinions here. Search on the forum for the tireless debates..

While I do feel it's important to know what the local community dives you may want to expand your question to the rebreather section. One thing that is nice is if your buddies have the same unit you can potentially share parts in an emergency or even have a second set of eyes for helping you troubleshoot. It's good to have local resources available to help but it's not the panacea that some think it is.

I'm not going to get into specifics of pros/cons of units here as it's been discussed ad nauseam here but you may want to reach out to Dan Dawson (teaches JJ and P2 I believe) and Jeff Knapp (teaches Choptima) out of Horizon Divers in Key Largo. Other Florida options - I believe @Superlyte27 teaches on the Divesoft and Optima/Choptima. @kensuf is also a Fathom and SF2 instructor; He is based in North Florida but travels/teaches in South Florida regularly.

 

[broncobowsher]

Why do the locals dive what they dive is an important part of the question.
As the OP stated, cave up North. So northern divers will pick stuff based on what works best in caves.
But southern, different diving, different needs.

I know one of the big reasons I got what I got was travel. It has been in salt water ranging from the Atlantic, cool California, and warm south Pacific. Freshwater from California to New Mexico. And always looking to expand.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

... Dan Dawson (teaches JJ and P2 I believe) and Jeff Knapp (teaches Choptima) out of Horizon Divers in Key Largo.

Dan was on his JJ during several of my Trimix course dives with him (I was on open circuit). The only other rebreathers I see in the Palm Beach/Jupiter area, which is where I typically dive, are a couple of P2s.

 

[boriss]

I am not from South Florida but I dive there frequently. Specifically the upper Keys and Pompano Beach / Fort Lauderdale. It's honestly all over the map. There used to be and still is a large community of rEvo divers because of AddHelium / Peter Sotis.

There are quite a few JJs, KISS units and P2s. Not too many Divesofts but there are definitely a few Fathoms up there. You do see Megs as well.

It is hard to make an accurate guesstimate but I would say rEvos dominate or used to dominated the South Florida rebreather scene. All I will say is you either love or hate the rEvo, there are some pretty strong opinion here. Search on the forum for the tireless debates..

LOL, I've read the countless pages of back/forth already... familiar with the biases.

While I do feel it's important to know what the local community dives you may want to expand your question to the rebreather section. One thing that is nice is if your buddies have the same unit you can potentially share parts in an emergency or even have a second set of eyes for helping you troubleshoot. It's good to have local resources available to help but it's not the panacea that some think it is.
I'm not going to get into specifics of pros/cons of units here as it's been discussed ad nauseam here but you may want to reach out to Dan Dawson (teaches JJ and P2 I believe) and Jeff Knapp (teaches Choptima) out of Horizon Divers in Key Largo. Other Florida options - I believe @Superlyte27 teaches on the Divesoft and Optima/Choptima. @kensuf is also a Fathom and SF2 instructor; He is based in North Florida but travels/teaches in South Florida regularly.

Bingo! I posted in this section because I was getting no hits in the rebreather section: South Florida Rebreather (CCR) Groups/Buddies/Dive trips?

A friendly person suggested privately that maybe I post in the local forums... so this is the round-about-way of learning about/meeting local CCR divers

I really like the idea of a Choptima. If I understand correctly, I can use my doubles as DIL/bailout. So if I have a normal doubles dive I use them... when I need the additional runtime or trimix for deeper dives I strap on the Choptima and good to go. The modularity (and size, for travel!) is appealing. Unfortunately once you're in the >200ft range you're carrying hypoxic mixes and then there are other considerations. So I'm really unsure which way to go. So I'm hoping to find people who are already doing these types of dives and learn from their experience.

Dan was on his JJ during several of my Trimix course dives with him (I was on open circuit). The only other rebreathers I see in the Palm Beach/Jupiter area, which is where I typically dive, are a couple of P2s.

Thanks you both for your input. Horizon is very high on my short list. I just don't want to waste instructors' time if I don't know which rebreather I want to learn on yet. Thus I'm hoping to find out what people are using locally for deep wreck dives, etc.

 

[macado]

I really like the idea of a Choptima. If I understand correctly, I can use my doubles as DIL/bailout. So if I have a normal doubles dive I use them... when I need the additional runtime or trimix for deeper dives I strap on the Choptima and good to go. The modularity (and size, for travel!) is appealing. Unfortunately once you're in the >200ft range you're carrying hypoxic mixes and then there are other considerations. So I'm really unsure which way to go. So I'm hoping to find people who are already doing these types of dives and learn from their experience.

I am definitely not an expert on the Choptima but this is what I've seen a lot of people do in South Florida. Their doubles essentially become their deep bailout/dil. I'm personally not sold on the front-mount concept myself but I can certainly understand the appeal for travel and modularity. You can use it with singles, doubles and sidemount. The downside is you end up with an overall thicker/wider profile than doubles because the rebreather is now on the front.

With the Choptima (and other rebreathers) you're still going to want to carry a rich 50% bailout (or something equivilant) for deeper dives.

For ~150-250' dives my standard configuration is typically two AL80s of bailout Typically 18/45 or 15/55 and 50%. I will add a third bottle of O2 (AL40) depending on the profile/runtime when it calls for it.

I'm sure someone will jump on shortly to argue and disagree with me but I personally think for a first rebreather I'd recommend a traditional backmount unit. A lot of people like to argue that a sidemount rebreather is not necessarily the best first rebreather; I'm not so sure that statement applies to a front-mount rebreather so I'll defer to others with more experience on those units.

Thanks you both for your input. Horizon is very high on my short list. I just don't want to waste instructors' time if I don't know which rebreather I want to learn on yet. Thus I'm hoping to find out what people are using locally for deep wreck dives, etc.

For a lot of divers the first rebreather they train on/buy is not necessarily the last rebreather they will ever own. I think reaching out to instructors and asking their opinion is a good idea, if only to make the networking. It is also good to interview the instructor to see if you like them. I don't think it's wasting their time. I'm sure both Jeff, Dan at Horizon and other rebreather instructors will tell you why they think X unit is the best or give you some recommendations.

 

[Dsix36]

What might be a pro for one diver may very well be a con for another diver. The only way that you will ever know for sure what you want/don't want or like/dislike is by time in the water on units. Any of the mainstream RBs will do the job so just pick up a used one that has local support and get some time on it to make your own decisions. After a bunch of hours you will start to figure it out.
I have experience on several RBs and still go back to my tried and true rEvo. I use it for extremely deep tech dives and cave dives. The lack of a easy way to dewater it is a big turn off for many and the ADV is a real POS imho. The size and weight make it fairly easy to travel with too.