RedSeaDiver2
Contributor
I'm Tassie-based and am in the process of moving on from my first rebreather to selecting a new one now - like you not for caves.
Question Good first rebreather for non-cave diving?
- Thread starter stolfyadventures
- Start date
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- Tags
- advice australia rebreather
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Well... All's is depending on which rebreather you've set your mind upon. See how it's possible to travel with a Triton as a carry on luggage. Wouldn't be surprise if other chestmount units allowed you this possibility.
RedSeaDiver2
Contributor
Glad your checking serviceability as this is one aspect that can be a real eye opener..
RedSeaDiver2
Contributor
Well I'm trying to anyway - would be helpful if manufacturers would at least reply to my question about it!
Finding which rebreather is right for you, is indeed the hardest part of diving a rebreather. What is good for your budddy, might not be for you.
If you are planning on doing research in CCR, your personal choice may not matter all that much. What are the institutions that are doing the type of work you want to do using?
Almost all of my ccr diving is for research. I own an SF2, but it hasn't even been wet for probably 5 years. All my current diving is on a prism2 because that is what has been widely adopted amongst my peers (mostly due to California Academy of Sciences choosing the P2 10 years ago, and the current Cal Academy DSO being the primary trainer of everyone else). P2 dives fine, I hate building it though, and would never have chosen that unit for myself.
Service is also a primary consideration, as was mentioned upthread. Another reason I stopped diving my SF2: it requires annual service and the last time I sent it in it took six months... that's clearly not viable. For institutional diving the normal recreational approach of "it's diving and performing fine, not going to service it" isn't an option. Everything has to be maintained to mfg recommendations. Didn't dive your unit for a year? Still needs to be serviced.
So my main considerations for a new unit at this point are:
eccr
shearwater controlled (not interested in proprietary controllers)
ability to get trained to service in-house
Unit's institutions in the US are diving that I know of:
X-ccr (feds mostly National Park Service and NOAA just adopted them)
Prism 2 (just about all aquariums)
Optima
A few on JJs and Megs and Inspirations are pretty much phasing out.
Almost all of my ccr diving is for research. I own an SF2, but it hasn't even been wet for probably 5 years. All my current diving is on a prism2 because that is what has been widely adopted amongst my peers (mostly due to California Academy of Sciences choosing the P2 10 years ago, and the current Cal Academy DSO being the primary trainer of everyone else). P2 dives fine, I hate building it though, and would never have chosen that unit for myself.
Service is also a primary consideration, as was mentioned upthread. Another reason I stopped diving my SF2: it requires annual service and the last time I sent it in it took six months... that's clearly not viable. For institutional diving the normal recreational approach of "it's diving and performing fine, not going to service it" isn't an option. Everything has to be maintained to mfg recommendations. Didn't dive your unit for a year? Still needs to be serviced.
So my main considerations for a new unit at this point are:
eccr
shearwater controlled (not interested in proprietary controllers)
ability to get trained to service in-house
Unit's institutions in the US are diving that I know of:
X-ccr (feds mostly National Park Service and NOAA just adopted them)
Prism 2 (just about all aquariums)
Optima
A few on JJs and Megs and Inspirations are pretty much phasing out.
Tassi Devil Diver
Contributor
Official rEvo service interval 5 years, have had mine 11, have not had it serviced yet. Can swap out change anything yourself on the unit other than the counter lungs.
OP
stolfyadventures
Registered
Yeah the allowance is very nice for those international flights and I am a frequent flyer through delta (1 return flight halfway around the world does that lol). Domestic flight baggage limits are not very good in Australia in my experience. The triton is a bit interesting as a carryon option, so is the chop, but Idk where servicing is possible for either in Australia (triton has a place in Bali i believe). Backmount is the standard in marine science though I would imagine, however just having any rebreather experience would still look good on an application so I'm not sure just yet on style.
OP
stolfyadventures
Registered
At the moment I am not sure, as I'm not done with my degree for a couple years and not sure what the job market will end up like by then. Even if I can't end up using the ccr in work and may end up having to use their model, I imagine having ccr experience would look pretty nice, and I do tech dive and would still use it for that in the future if not for work.
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