Used rebreathers

[zaf88]

hi guys and gals, im closin in oon a hundred dives and i really want to get into a rebreather. does anyone know where i can get a used one(i am in new york but anywhere in the us is fine)?
id rather a ccr but might take a scr if its my only option.

[madmole]

Zaf, wait until you've another 500 or so dives under your belt and actually have a little experiance before rushing into a rebreather. They are not toys and can bite really really hard

You need Nitrox certs as well first

On the big Inspiration survey, the average number of dives before taking up CCR's was 1335 and the average number of years diving OC before swapping was 15

No one is going to sell you a second hand one anyway until youve done the training so read up all you can about them first and do an awareness or better yet a training course on one (cheaper than buying one and finding youve made a mistake)

Start of with my Rebreather site

http://www.btinternet.com/~madmole/divemole.htm where you'll find lots of links for further reading.

There is a slow but steady stream of second hand Inspirations around and these are made available to the Inspiration lists. You need to have done a training course to get access to these, but you could take a look at the open CCRInfo siet and check out its forums

Good luck in your search, take it easy and get lots of training

[gaschef]

Dear Zaf88

As a rebreather instructor trainer, I was a bit concerned that you want to find a used rebreather. Have you completed a training course, if not please complete one before you purchase.

You say you have 100 logged dives, have you certified in the use of Nitrox, if you havent you need to and get some EAX dives under your belt, as this will give you some underpinning knowledge as to what rebreathers are about.

How deep have you dived or what type of diving do you do. If you only stick to the 30 to 40 metre range your best option would be a SCR nice and simple to use, and will give you a start in rebreather diving. THe Drager Ray is a nice unit, easy to use
not to expensive, inexpensive to run, and if it goes wrong relatively inexpensive to have repaired

If you are planning on extended range or gas dives a CCR would be your best option, bear in mind however the purchase cost of these units is high, running costs compared to OC Scuba are low, but when they go wrong, there are no user servicable parts and repair and maintenance costs an arm and a leg.

Also beware, there are a lot of rebreathers out there, which are now obsolete, the manufacturer has ceased trading, or ceased manufacturing the unit. For your wallets sake get some specialist advice before parting with your hard earned cash

I see you live across the pond in New York. If you need advice on courses or which rebreather is worth buying, Try contacting
American Nitrox Divers INternational, Freeport, Long Island
516 546 2026. They will help

I hope this helps, but please do yourself a big favour and get certified before you buy. Rebreathers are a totally different animal to OC Scuba, and will bite you if you are not prepared.

Tim "gaschef" Stevens

ANDI Instructor Trainer IT#30

[usil]

Don't jump into something to quick,

There are alot of things that you must have intimate knowledge of befor you jump into a ccr rebreather, I.E. physics, physiology,watermanship skills. A thorough understanding of gas laws and how the body uses o2 is needed so that you can recognize problems that you may encounter underwater.

I hope to get into a ccr but not befor I know EXACTLY what my body is doing underwater.
COME ON,
one of the first signs of hypoxia is unconsiousness and one of the first signs of o2-tox is a convulsion

scary stuff if you are uncomfortable in the water AND with knowledge!!

[caveseeker7]

Reading the posts a thought just occured to me ...

15 years average time before the switch from OC to CCR,
how many of those years were spend waiting for a CCR to be available and affordable to the general public ?

I've read several opinions that differ from yours, comparing OC/CCR diving with flying planes and choppers. With over 1000 dives you'll have to unlearn a lot. Might just be harder than learning CCR/diving from scratch.

Either 'tauchen' or 'unterwasser', the German dive mags, send a couple of girls to get their basic open water c-cards. On Dolphins. Sure, they're simpler to learn and use than CCRs, but it a provoking thought.

Here in SoCal most everybody said 'you gotta clock some time' before you can switch to a drysuit. Plenty of places teach basic classes in them because the temps require it.

So don't tear me up for posting this, the thought didn't start here.

[madmole]

Yes, its a difficult question. In some ways it would be great to learn on a rebreather before you pick up all those OC bad habits (like breathing to control bouyancy)

BUT, a rebreather when you are learning requires 100% concentration for the first 5 or so dives (You stay glued to those handsets). This would be difficult to do, if all the other parts of the dive were not already second nature (nav, bouyancy, ascents, dive monitoring (depth/time) etc

So although a lot of us believe that NO OC specific skills are required before you swap, we believe that you DO need general dive skills to be spot on before you start. You also definately need to understand Partial pressures and Nitrox theory which would imply a minimum diving level

[caveseeker7]

I'm with you there, mole.

It certainly wouldn't be a PADI weekend class ... then again, it took me 5 days and 15 mandatory dives to get certified in '83. Who knows, maybe OC will go out of style. And we all just fly rigs from the get go.

Stefan

[madmole]

It will come

OC's days are numbered (apart from 5 min trips under the boat), once you've had silent diving there is no going back

It may take 5 years, it may take 10, but it WILL happen

[caveseeker7]

Brings me back to the little japanese OHPA thingy with the CO2-like O2 cartridges and like scrubber cartridge ... as supplied by Q
beats the hell out of an OC rig.

[canuckdiver]

there used to be a guy named adam, that ran a business called "harboursupplies" had some military surplus rebreather bits.

I've lost contact with him, anybody heard from him, or know how to get ahold of him?