lamont
Contributor
Kim:Yes - but if they did could it be DIR? It's an interesting thing that the only 'DIR' rebreather is one made by Halcyon. Whether it's true or not it begs the question of whether this is more to do with marketing than real safety. If this rebreather is 'safe' enough to fit in the DIR system then why not others? It seems to be a similar story when it comes to scooters as well. I believe that they are the core issue that has caused the split in the upper GUE echelons. It would seem that no matter what GUE really doesn't like competition, or maybe I should say JJ.
(sorry Sean!)
There's a long history of flamewarage behind DIR and rebreathers. Basically if you take an RB80 and slap it betwen two jacked up LP120s you get something like 7 hours of gas at 350 fsw which is sufficient for the dives the WKPP does/has done. Therefore it gets the job done. It is an SCR unit which means it can be considered an 8x gas extender and your %O2 never goes above the concentration in your tanks. The CCR units are considered to not be DIR because they expose you to the possibility of a ppO2 spike and tox. Their logic is that a different tool exists which does the job and which doesn't expose the diver to the risk of a tox, so therefore the CCR unit is not DIR. You can disagree, but there is a thought process behind that decision which is more than just "Halcyon doesn't make a CCR so it isn't DIR".
Still at the same time GI3 has given props on gavinscooters to at least one team out there who dive CCRs -- presumably GI3 thinks they've got a reason to and are going about it in a safe way.