Thank you mystery man!

[anthony12]

Today I was sitting here thinking of the ironic things that happen in life. I was a navy salvage diver for 6 years and thought I knew it all, cocky as could be. After leaving the Navy I decided to begin recreational diving, thats when I realized how limited my knowledge truly was. So I quickly went through my rec classes and nitrox classes (very stong in diving phisics and really lacking in OW skills, I was used to walking into a wreck not swimming). I then met some guys who introduced me to DIR and took the DIR fundamentals course. These guys are great and I really enjoy diving with them. As it happens on one of our dives there was a gentelman in his 50's on the boat with a younger guy diving inspirations. I had seen many breathers in the military so did'nt really think anything about it. The guy had on force fins as well, my buddies were in shock. How could such a big stroke even be on the boat with us. Well not much was said between us and our dive comenced. The three of us were out first with the inspiration guys following us out of the boat. We had a real strong west current and the reef runs north-south, it was a real ***** staying on the reef. It must have been about 10 minutes into the dive when the inspiration guys cruised past us. I could'nt believe it here is this old guy(no offence to my elders) cruising past me in force fins. I was struggling for all I was worth in my jets and they truly looked like fish leisurely cruising past.

We popped up and rentered the boat. About 15 minutes later I began to get a little worried about our inspiration guys. I asked the capt. were they were and he said not to worry they usually stay down till the end of the second dive. I thought that is fricking impossible! Well we followed their ball on the surface interval and the captain put us in behind them so I didnt see them the second dive (70' foot ranges on both by the way). So we popped up from the second dive and still no inspirations, the capt said theyd be up in 10 min. at this point I was truly amazed. My buddies also had some pretty confused looks on their faces. Well like clockwork they were up and back on the boat. They looked good and not near as dead as I figured theyd be.

They both casually got on the boat and began removing there gear. It was when they removed their wetsuits that the respect began flowing. The older gentelman had a UDT tatoo that covered his whole back, and the younger guy had a tatoo of "freddy" on his shoulder. I thought Holy $%$# two generations of seals(turns out they were father son). They took of there gear and were both obviously in a good place.

The elder of the two looked at us and asked how our dive was we commented on the current and the difficulty maintaining the reef. He responded with a casual Yep. And we all began talking casually(as it should be). Then one of my buds quoted the DIR thought on rebreathers. He just grinned, and the young guy turned around and laughed. He then appologized and said they heard that all to often. The elder then began explaining the unit and its workings. After a few minutes we were all popping questions, none went unanswered. My buddy then appologized for being rude earlier, with him responding that there is nothing to appologize for, he then said a HOG Rig is the only way to go open. I then began to ask more and more specific questions and he really got my thoughts going.

He provided the name of an instructor and said if I had a need he would arrange a test drive. Well about a week later all of us were in a pool, two months later 2 of us had our units. I am now enjoying diving more than I ever had. I never got his name, the younger one's name was Mike, very tall, very fit guy. I would like to thank them for opening my eyes to yet a further adventure in diving.

 

[Mverick]

Nice to hear of divers helping divers...

 

[Scubatooth]

anthony12 once bubbled...
Today I was sitting here thinking of the ironic things that happen in life. I was a navy salvage diver for 6 years and thought I knew it all, cocky as could be. After leaving the Navy I decided to begin recreational diving, thats when I realized how limited my knowledge truly was. So I quickly went through my rec classes and nitrox classes (very stong in diving phisics and really lacking in OW skills, I was used to walking into a wreck not swimming). I then met some guys who introduced me to DIR and took the DIR fundamentals course. These guys are great and I really enjoy diving with them. As it happens on one of our dives there was a gentelman in his 50's on the boat with a younger guy diving inspirations. I had seen many breathers in the military so did'nt really think anything about it. The guy had on force fins as well, my buddies were in shock. How could such a big stroke even be on the boat with us. Well not much was said between us and our dive comenced. The three of us were out first with the inspiration guys following us out of the boat. We had a real strong west current and the reef runs north-south, it was a real ***** staying on the reef. It must have been about 10 minutes into the dive when the inspiration guys cruised past us. I could'nt believe it here is this old guy(no offence to my elders) cruising past me in force fins. I was struggling for all I was worth in my jets and they truly looked like fish leisurely cruising past.

anthony

I really dont mean to mash on anybodies toes but, i really have a worry about the comments you made in this paragraph because you are doing a double slam, and one against DIR it self, for which you claim to be.

1. DIR is a adaptarion of the hog gear method/setup that was adapted by the WKPP for exploring caves for which then evolved into GUE, so calling this guy a stroke is the wrong thing to do. Also you are misusing/abusing the term completely because i have talked with several GUE instructors and asked them the term of the stroke and the answer has been the same and that "a stroke is a diver who does something that is wrong and knows it, but still continues to do it, and not to correct it". furthermore GUE instructors know that a diver has to start somewhere(OW) to improve there skills so that they are in full control the whole time, and this is when the GUE training(IE DIR-F) takes a good diver and makes them even better
.

finally what is so wrong about force fins????? is the Scubapro jet fins are the best so beaten into your head that you cant see straight? i mean geez force fins cant be that bad if there used by our navy seals for missions in just about every condition and in the test results (unclasified that is ) that they had the best air consumption rates, and thrust/movement ratios , and water dynamic results then any of the over 2 dozen fins tested). Yes they work great in a current like you see, and i know this personally because i own several pair and have access to many more pair.


Its comments like this from those who think that they are DIR that give it a bad name, you will never here anything like this from a GUE instructor , they may disagree on certain topics with you but they wont slam someone like this.

 

[padiscubapro]

I'm glad you met up with some knowledgeable divers who were able to share their experiences with you...
I too have gotten some OC divers over to CCR in the same way.. Unless I get cold on a dive I'm usually one of the first in and the last out.. I'll do one long dive and relax afterwards, while everyone else is trying to get 2 dives in and assemble their gear between dives I'm usually still on bottom..
In warm water 2.5 to 3 hour dives are commonplace.. I'll work a wall from extreme depths all the way into the shallows..

You and your buddy should look into Zero G at sunsethouse next year.. They are already taking reservations (it sells out fast and all previous attendees get first shot, so you'll probably get waitlisted).. This years guests included several manufactures (rbs and dive computers) and accomplished other divers including several women from the women's diver hall of fame.

The Manta (biggest day boat on GC) is reserved exclusively for CCR divers, this year (last week of august) most of the participents were full trimix, so most "shallow" dives were 225ish with the deeper stuff in the neighborhood of 300, with typical runtimes between 2 and 3 hours (my longest was about 3.5 hours).. A few divers did stay near recreational depths, so everyone can be accomodated.

On the north wall we found a neat cavern at 270, that several divers could enter at the same time and go perhaps 50 feet or so in...



.

 

[anthony12]

Scubatooth

You obviously didnt read the post very well. I was stating how a man opend my eyes and changed my opinion on a great deal of things. I now dive force excellerators. Why is it that when a guy changes his mind grows in maturity you have to bash him for how he once was. I am not at all bashing DIR. In fact I would not be half the diver I am today without the DIR-F. I would recommend that to anyone I know, what a great class. If you took the above as a slam, Im sorry. It was not meant to be, just a description of my eyes being opened by a very nice gentleman. I was very ignorant and closed minded, so if the above was meant to bash anyone it would be me. I made alot of wrong assumptions and had a very closed mind.

 

[blackice]

padiscubapro once bubbled...
The Manta (biggest day boat on GC) is reserved exclusively for CCR divers, this year (last week of august) most of the participents were full trimix, so most "shallow" dives were 225ish with the deeper stuff in the neighborhood of 300, with typical runtimes between 2 and 3 hours (my longest was about 3.5 hours).. A few divers did stay near recreational depths, so everyone can be accomodated.

On the north wall we found a neat cavern at 270, that several divers could enter at the same time and go perhaps 50 feet or so in...

Sounds total wicked diving... great fun ... wow

 

[saturated]

1. DIR is a adaptarion of the hog gear method/setup that was adapted by the WKPP for exploring caves for which then evolved into GUE, so calling this guy a stroke is the wrong thing to do. Also you are misusing/abusing the term completely because i have talked with several GUE instructors and asked them the term of the stroke and the answer has been the same and that "a stroke is a diver who does something that is wrong and knows it, but still continues to do it, and not to correct it". furthermore GUE instructors know that a diver has to start somewhere(OW) to improve there skills so that they are in full control the whole time, and this is when the GUE training(IE DIR-F) takes a good diver and makes them even better

1. DIR is a adaptarion of the hog gear method/setup that was adapted by the WKPP for exploring caves for which then evolved into GUE, so calling this guy a stroke is the wrong thing to do. Also you are misusing/abusing the term completely because i have talked with several GUE instructors and asked them the term of the stroke and the answer has been the same and that "a stroke is a diver who does something that is wrong and knows it, but still continues to do it, and not to correct it". furthermore GUE instructors know that a diver has to start somewhere(OW) to improve there skills so that they are in full control the whole time, and this is when the GUE training(IE DIR-F) takes a good diver and makes them even better

Your definition of stroke, and the words of GI should convince you that many DIR divers do refer to Inspiration Divers as strokes. The fact that Anthony came around and regrets those opinions is a testiment to his good nature. Congradulations and welcome aboard.

BUDDY INSPIRATION OR EXPIRATION?
BY GEORGE IRVINE - Director WKPP

Since those who do not know want to make an issue of me not being willing to waste my time talking about why elephants can't fly, I will waste all of your time with this one to get at those who keep recommending the Buddy Inspiration, and who apparently have an agenda with this thing and other shade tree rebreathers out there.


Besides all the failure modes common to all rebreathers, like if the mushrooms in the mouthpiece malfunction and take the diver hypercapnic or hypoxic right away, or a loop hose failure, etc, the Desperation has its own plethora of problems idiosyncratic to the unit. Other units have many of the same issues, and almost all of the civilian rebreathers are poor excuses for anything other than assisted suicide devices. In fact, most are merely

copies of each other’s bad ideas, and most are poorly funded, poorly capitalized, poorly tested and otherwise poorly conceived wet dreams. The Halcyon is a clever device, made more clever by Reinhard Buchaly, but is still a dangerous piece of `kit`, whereas the Buddy is a dangerous piece of `****`.


I will talk about the Inspiration Rebreather as it comes from the factory. There are many ways to modify the rebreather as one may observe on the Star Wars Bar Scene lists like `rebreather@nwdesigns.com` and is a complete topic onto itself. I will stick to the basics here and leave the `fix it at home` mods to the die hards on the other lists.


There is a small metal screw inside the oxygen sensor compartment, it is located directly across from sensor number two. Condensation often forms on this metal screw and will allow droplets to fall onto the oxygen sensors. This will happen particularly if the diver moves from side to side as in dumping gas from a drysuit or if they invert from horizontal for any reason.


Condensation is inherently found within this area and will form on the oxygen sensors even without this metal catalyst. The O2 sensors are located on the inhalation side of the breathing loop, so you have warm gas that just went through the scrubbing process meeting with cooler gas that you will inhale thus the condensation forming on the cell faces. This condensation causes discrepancies/inaccuracies within the cell readings and they begin to VOTE trying to figure out which one is more than .2 bar out of line with

the other. Cell warnings will manifest within this period of time and the diver will begin to get audible and visual alarms ...task loading increases.


The unit alarms if it senses a PO2 over 1.6, which is a good thing. Problem with this is that many of the divers will run 100% oxygen at 20 ft, which is a PO2 of 1.6, if they drop below the 20 ft they get an alarm, fair enough. If you have several Inspiration divers in close proximity with cell warning alarms, and high PO2 alarms it becomes very difficult to know if the alarm is coming from your unit or from another diver. Some will be able to

assimilate this to being in an area where several cellular phones begin to ring and everyone pulls out their phone to see if it was theirs. Mix this with CCR divers using wrist computers that alarm and you really have an orchestra playing down there, so much for the peace and tranquility of `no bubbles`.


Weight must be placed on the top of the rebreather in order to balance the trim. If divers put to much gas in the counter lungs the upper body is lifted and trim is then off center. Gas in a counter lung is just another source to administrate, along with drysuit, BCD, PO2 on handsets, pressure in O2 and DIL cylinders.


Many divers use the Inspiration to extend their times in open ocean, this in itself may pose problems. If the decompression gained by the increased bottom times is met with undesirable conditions such as rough seas it is not so easy to adjust buoyancy as with breathing open circuit. Many of the buoyancy characteristics involved with rebreathers require a longer learning curve and must be anticipated, if the diver is not up to par they are much less forgiving than OC. If the constant PO2 is increased or decreased too quickly due to unforeseen circumstances the diver could quickly become hypoxic/hyperoxic.


Mouthpiece does not have OC bailout built into it, bailout is a time of increased stress so it is pertinent the transition should be smooth without chance for a mistake. The bailout procedure on the factory unit uses a device called an Auto Air, this duals as a breathing device and BCD inflator. I couldn't imagine this being an effective tool for gas sharing,

nor proper bail out for the user either, as the CCR mouthpiece has to be effectively closed before the transition to OC bailout is performed or it will flood the breathing loop making the diver negatively buoyant. Bail out should be in the form of a combination unit on the mouthpiece to facilitate safe transition.


If the O-ring on top of the cartridge lid is dirty or not aligned properly CO2 will take the path of least resistance and bypass the carbon dioxide scrubber therefore breathed back into the loop. Hypercapnia begins and the diver is faced with another problem to solve.


As the diver descends they must equalize the counter lungs, if this procedure is not adhered to and they begin an uncontrolled descent the lungs collapse and the diver is not able to breath, an automatic diluent add is an aftermarket product which does combat this. But since we are talking factory here the diver is faced with equalizing counter lungs, ears, sinuses, mask drysuit, BCD, monitoring PO2 on handsets, buddy position, light and depth in the water column. It has been mentioned before that this is `a busy time`.


Inspiration does not have SS backplate and utilizes many plastic fastex clips, which some view as failure points. There are seven quick releases on the soft harness including the crotch strap and handset clips. The clips that hold the yellow casing lid on the unit break frequently so spares are required as well.


Often difficult to transport with Sofnolime, if you do not have an MSDS on your person you will be declined, even if you do have the Material Safety Data Sheet on hand and the handler does not feel comfortable with the issue they will not let the scrubber material on the plane. Most Inspiration divers seek out `Inspiration friendly dive Centers` so they are able to obtain the wide array of parts required to service and maintain.


The oxygen sensors are proprietary to the Inspiration, which limits the diversity on this product. Many of the CCR's will allow various types of sensors to be used but not so the case with Inspiration's and it is strongly voiced by Martin Parker. Patrick Duffy with Oxycheq in the US sells similar sensors and says there is absolutely no difference between the Teledyne's he sells and the Inspiration sensors.


Scrubber canister is small (2.45 Kg of 8-12 mesh, 797 diving grade sofnolime) and does not facilitate the use many of the mixed gas Inspiration divers put it through. At depth CO2 breakthrough is rapid even with a resting diver, if breathing resistance is elevated the scrubber is near void. With increased CO2 build up the diver is of course exposing

oneself to further malady. Diving high helium concentrations assist with this problem as it is less dense than air, easier to breath therefore less CO2 buildup and the scrubber should last longer but it is playing on the edge. High PPN2 should be ultimately avoided.


If counter lungs are not situated adequately they will float above the divers shoulders and increase breathing resistance. It is taught in the basic course to watch for this ... But they are clipped down with fastex buckles which as we know do fail on occasion. With the diver already quite task loaded on the CCR it is easy not to notice the lung has crept up, CO2 will then increase from breathing resistance.


The LP hoses which feed the diluent and the oxygen inlets on the counter lungs use a different end than the BCD inflator. The BCD is inflated with Diluent gas, the same which you are adding into the counter lung, there is no sound reason not to have the same end on this for diversity. The reason the end is different on the BCD inflator is to supply a greater amount of gas to the Auto Air regulator used as a bailout/inflation device. This

Auto Air is prone to free flow situations and can dump the diluent gas if not tended to quick enough. Most Inspirations divers discard this Auto Air early into their CCR career.

If both handsets shut off in the water the diver is faced with a series of questions in order to `reboot` the system. One of the questions ask if you would like to calibrate `yes or no` if the diver is stressed and chooses `yes` they will effectively be adding 100% oxygen into the breathing loop no matter what depth they are at in the water column.


If the battery is low it will not supply enough EMF for the oxygen solenoid to open the valve and add life sustaining gas.


The control handsets are secured to the canister via rubber hose, the wiring is run through this conduit down to the electronic handsets that are monitoring the dynamics of the oxygen sensors. These rubber conduits enter into the scrubber/O2 sensor compartment where it is humid and if not perfectly sealed will allow condensation to migrate into the hose and wreak havoc with the electronics in the handsets. Many electronic problems with the handsets have involved this scenario.

 

[caveseeker7]

Tolerance and open-mindedness are both good traits. Without the latter, there wouldn't be many DIR divers, by the way, as nobody is born that way.

As for Saturated's re-post of GI3's rant about the Inspiration, that happened before. At that time Madmole took the poster and GI3 babble on with an excellent response. You can find it half-way down the page here, under the posting subject "Has GI ever seen an Inspiration":
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13047&perpage=15&display=&pagenumber=3