Doing Tech+Cave on a RB?

[caveseeker7]

"Your gonna die on that contraption from X, or Y, or Z." Ok under which shell is the BS? Oh and that applies to one design but not that other one. How are we supposed to sort all that poo out?

The same has been said about caves, they'll kill. The same has been said about nitrox, and later He mixes. Neither is true even though either has risks normal, recreational, compressed air OC diving doesn't have. For a while people believed it, but eventually they were proven wrong.

Look at dives made on rebreathers and it should give you a pretty good hint that the "gonna die on the contraption" bit isn't quite true.

There are plenty of threads by people asking for info or info sources.
Search for them and you'll find books, video, DVD, unit and training manuals are available.

Read through some of the archives and you quickly get a feeling of who posts BS, who has open agendas, who tries to answer questions fairly. I did just that. I really wanted to know and understand RBs and related issues. Spend about 2 months reading archives here a few years back, taking notes on sources and materials. In the process I met some damned good people that have shared their knowlegde and experience. Have accumulated a pretty decent reference library on the subject. Done intros on several SC and CC units, got trained and certified on two and started experiencing myself. And never stopped learning or seeking new information or sharing experiences. Someone offers me an intro on a unit I don't know I'll try and be there.

I've read many of the unit descriptions on RBworld. And without having the pieces in front of me they are sometimes a bit hard to follow.

Most people taking the time to write those articles and reports will take the time and try and answer questions that arise from them. In their discussion/feedback threads or by PM. I know I've answered plenty of questions when I found the time to.

I have never seen a discover SCR or CCR course advertised.

They are offered by many instructors, and some can and will do more than one unit. Usually they cost somewhere in the $75 to $100 range. One local instructor in the L.A. area has been having them for free twice a year for the Dolphin SCR and Inspiration CCR. He now can include the (Sport) Kiss. Curt Bowen of Advanced Diver Magazine has been organizing them in various locations for Inspo/Evos, Optimas and Kisses, even Meg I believe. Keep an eye on the magazine's website or (RBW) forums, he usually announces them well in advance.

There are several instructors that teach more than one unit, including Mel Clark in Seattle. Don't know if she does intros but you can always ask.
http://www.silentscuba.com/

What an intro will do is get you some first hand experience with a rebreather, a look at the parts and how they come together, the amount of pre- and post dive work needed, the general info and background to understand it all. And of course, experience the feeling of diving silent.

 

[jkaterenchuk]

Heck show me a link to the 10 most common RB fallacies. That I would love to see.

Try the RBW site...specifically in the Library section under General and New to Rebreather Articles. It won't give you 10 but there are a couple of articles that list 7.

You will find several articles to address your question above. As well others in your posts.

When I was first learning about CCR's it became very apparent quickly that if I wanted to gain knowledge about CCR's from those that use them the best internet board to use was RBW. Alot of reading goes along way in helping to develop a sense of what's correct and what you do not know. This become a good base from which to ask the right questions of an instructor when you take a rebreather experience dive.

 

[trob09]

Reading the rest of the posts here just convinces me more that folks on SB spend more time writing than reading. Several posters have written things as facts but are completly incorrect.

...lots-o-stuff snipped....

So... this post is either going to make you laugh out loud and say "right ON dude!", or its going to piss you off. If it pisses you off, then I propose that you need your posts diverted to the PGP desktop shredder.
I have now activated the "right ON dude" detector and its hooked to my diverter valve and I have set the shredder to accept input.

Cheers fellow divers!

Ron,

While I don't always agree with you on the nit-picky details, Right On Dude.

Tim

 

[webhead]

Ooooh....I can hear the chest thumping from here. (or..I'll drop some names, and maybe somebody will be impressed)

You're the man.

Or maybe he is just providing evidence that what he says is not BS and actual fact. Telling you he has done dives w/ me to over 300 ft on a CCR probably doesn't mean squat. But telling people he has been on deep dives w/ people that are recognized professionals in this business should help you figure out that he is not completely full of doo doo. Just a little bit full.

I think most of the frustration and flaming heard in our posts is not to put anyone down per se but due to the fact that there is more and more fiction being said about RB than ever before. This is a sport which we are all committed to and believe in and when someone does things that hurt the sport rather than help it, they fail to serve a purpose in my mind. How would you feel if every time you get out of your car at a boat ramp someone comes over to tell you how crazy or stupid you are? Or boats telling you that you can't dive a RB on their boat or if you do, you have to have 100 dives on it and a written permission letter from your instructor while the OC diver is splashing in the water w/ their tank hanging by the hoses?

And when these statements at the boat ramp become recommendations and suggestions for a question on cave diving on a RB..... all I can say is hey, the world is not flat anymore. Get over it.

If you want a source of information, go read Mastering Rebreathers by Jeffrey E. Bozanic. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780941332965&itm=5 Written in 2002, so it's a little dated as far as equipment being sold and used today but it does cover SCR and CCR operation, risks and advantages to RB diving and recommendations on how to get into the sport.

And that thumping you hear is not the sound of us pounding our chests, it's the sound of us trying to pounding facts thru some thick skulls.

PGP shredder.... you the man!

 

[JeffG]

Or maybe he is just providing evidence that what he says is not BS and actual fact. Telling you he has done dives w/ me to over 300 ft on a CCR probably doesn't mean squat. But telling people he has been on deep dives w/ people that are recognized professionals in this business should help you figure out that he is not completely full of doo doo. Just a little bit full.

When your only claim to fame is who you dove with, quite frankly, I'm not impressed.

And that thumping you hear is not the sound of us pounding our chests, it's the sound of us trying to pounding facts thru some thick skulls.

I guess you're the man too.

 

[webhead]

This conversation was going along just fine before you showed up. Yes some of us used the wrong terms. So slap my wrist for inadventently calling an injector a solenoid.

I would have agreed that this thread has moved past speculation and bashing to investigation and even add that I was impressed with your posts - sounding like you're at least wanting to know what is fact and fiction. But realize that it is difficult to sit are read someone's post that reads as experience when they are really questions about operation. And no where are there caveats that the person making the posts has never seen a RB except in pictures.... until later.

And Ron, I meant to say "right on dude".

 

[webhead]

When your only claim to fame is who you dove with, quite frankly, I'm not impressed.

:shakehead It's not to impress!

I guess you're the man too.

No. I was told I can't be the man until I get my DIR c-card. Or own a Cis.

 

[rjack321]

1) I person, 6ish pages ago, said to not not do the tech or cave route on a RB. Its wasn't me, and it seems like its time to get over it.

2) I said that I had no RB training a long time ago. Right after I said that it would take years of OC work to get certified on the RB80. I happen to know how long it takes to get to Tech2 from GUE.

3) The fact that I disagree with Bozanic about isolators and other OC equipment will, in all honesty, make it hard to read his RB stuff with an open mind.

Ps. I know the RB80 doesn't have a "setpoint". "Changing" it by changing supply cylinders was a joke.

 

[rjack321]

And no where are there caveats that the person making the posts has never seen a RB except in pictures.... until later.

I have actually seen and examined to various degrees:
unmodified Dolphin
RB80
Meg
Kiss sport

Never a Cis, or a Boros, or any others that I recall though.

I have tried to study some of these through RBworld's writeups

 

[limeyx]

When your only claim to fame is who you dove with, quite frankly, I'm not impressed.


I guess you're the man too.

Well, and he came back to write about it -- don't forget that part