Bert van den Berg
Contributor
Wilda had been diving on a hookah for a while but had never strapped a tank on her back and was not certified. We went on one of the monthly "mystery" dives one weekend put on by the Western Underwater Dive Club. Instead of the expected beach dive at some random location we found ourselves at the Devonport Naval Base where the club had managed to get the Navy to agree to allow us to do a pool dive with their Viper rebreathers.
The Viper is a high tech rebreather that is used to defuse mines sensitive to magnetic materials and/or noise.
The Navy didn't want a civilian getting hurt or killed on their turf so every one of us were personally escorted by a Navy diver as we swam underwater laps of the pool.
The club captain was a bit worried about what Wilda would do or how she would react to a tank on her back but crossed his fingers and off she went. She succeeded in swimming several laps of the pool without issue. Sadly we were not allowed to bring cameras onto the base hence no photos.
Several months later at age 64 Wilda took the PADI open water course and got her cert and now owns her own tank.
I'm pretty sure there are not many people who did their first tank dive on a rebreather.
Bert
The Viper is a high tech rebreather that is used to defuse mines sensitive to magnetic materials and/or noise.
The Navy didn't want a civilian getting hurt or killed on their turf so every one of us were personally escorted by a Navy diver as we swam underwater laps of the pool.
The club captain was a bit worried about what Wilda would do or how she would react to a tank on her back but crossed his fingers and off she went. She succeeded in swimming several laps of the pool without issue. Sadly we were not allowed to bring cameras onto the base hence no photos.
Several months later at age 64 Wilda took the PADI open water course and got her cert and now owns her own tank.
I'm pretty sure there are not many people who did their first tank dive on a rebreather.
Bert