How Soon Before Everyone is Using a Rebreather?

[Nailer99]

Not to mention the huge advantages in NDLs brought on by wearing a Nitrox blending station on your back. The deciding moment for me was a dive with a buddy of mine last February- he was on a CCR, I was on OC- double 98's, no stage bottle, breathing air. We went to a local dive site that's very current sensitive, and can't be dived unless the tides are right- one of my favorite dives, partly because I can't dive it as much as I would like to! we worked our way down to ~120 fsw, and spent about 15 minutes there before working our way back up- anyway, by the time we were back in the shallows, I'd stupidly racked up 20 minutes of deco- I had plenty of gas to do it with, but I hadn't brought any 02 to accellerate it with, and it was COLD- Puget Sound in February, and we'd been down for 80 minutes at this point. Comparing our deco obligations, my buddy showed me that he was clear to surface- he'd never even hit deco! Did I mention that I had to pee really badly, and hadn't hooked up my pee valve, or invested in dry gloves at that point? My buddy was a trooper, and hung out with me at the 15 foot stop for the full 20 minutes......when I finally got back to the truck, after a full hour and forty-two minutes underwater, my hands were useless clubs of meat....it took me forever just to remove my fins, and getting the truck unlocked and removing my gear took an eternity. After that dive, I did the following things:

1- bought drygloves
2- started saving for a rebreather
3-started reading everything I could get my hands on about closed-circuit diving.

I just finished my training on the COPIS Megalodon, and did my second dive since class today- at the same dive site I mentioned above, with the same buddy. My review of the class can be found

HERE.


I'm a new convert to the dark side, but I love it. I agree that it's not for everyone, but in the tech diving arena, there is simply no better way- CCRs are the future, period.

 

[Nailer99]

yeah, basically

but because of their relative difficulty of use and relative danger, i am having a hard time imagining the standard rig in the recreational dive industry will switch from scuba to rebreathers

theyre a growing niche makert, but that's about it

and that's not even taking cost into account. how soon do you think it will be before a rebreather costs the same as a set of regulators?

I think the "niche" is going to be bigger than a lot of people realize. And as far as the difficulty of use goes- It's been easier for me than learning OC diving. And cost? Well........how long before it costs 500$ to fill a set of 130s with 15/50?

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

I personally have had the intention since before I took my first ow class that I would go to a rebreather (CCR) when I felt ready and could afford to. Although I now know I can not ever afford it but that does not stop me from planning on rebreather training next fall. Its the way of the future but will likely remain the way of the few unless they become completely idiot proof and cheap.

 

[battles2a5]

I'm going to ease into a CCR in a couple years, but want any & all OC dives to become second nature before I make the transition and being that I've completed deco & advanced nitrox & am currently working on normoxic trimix, I'm guessing I've got 2-5 years before I make that leap.

As far as the rest of the diving community, I can't speak for them, but I can't see CCR's becoming the norm. I think the maintenance & complexity of the units alone are enough to push people away from them. OC is easy & convenient, something our society thrives on. Also, I think the "vacation divers" out number "hard core" divers which would have to reverse before CCR's would take over, IMO.

Again, only expressing my opinion here, but cost, in my mind is not a factor and I'll explain... From a technical diver's standpoint, you're looking at around $100 to fill a set of tanks... a set of doubles, a deco tank & travel tank. Depending on which rebreather you look at, it will pay for itself after 100 dives or so. That's not factoring in the cost of OC gear costs that won't be necessary w/ a rebreather. Yeah, it's a lot to shell out at once, but long term, I would think the RB would pay for itself many times over.

I dive w/ a RB diver regularly & it floors me that on a dive that I use 200 cu. ft. of gas, he uses 3 cu. ft., It definitely sparks an interest.

First time I dove w/ Ed he said "If something goes wrong I'll probably just pass out. Hit the blue button and hopefully I'll wake up." :11: WTF?

For right now, I'm cool w/ a buddy in trouble freaking out w/ panic stricken eyes grabbing at my reg. Oh, you need help? Here ya go

I'll get there eventually, just need a few hundred more dives under my belt. Once I start diving mix I'm sure CC will start to make sense. But I have plenty of diving to do and a lot to learn on OC before I hit that point.

 

[H2Andy]

I think the "niche" is going to be bigger than a lot of people realize. And as far as the difficulty of use goes- It's been easier for me than learning OC diving. And cost? Well........how long before it costs 500$ to fill a set of 130s with 15/50?

re-read my post

i'm talking about recreational diving

granted the tech market will likely switch to CCR's in great numbers, but that's still a niche market

i don't see rebreathers replacing scuba as the workhorse of the recreational diving industry any time soon

here's my exact words:

i am having a hard time imagining the standard rig in the recreational dive industry will switch from scuba to rebreathers

theyre a growing niche makert, but that's about it

they can become the standard for tech diving and they will still be a niche market

 

[Shawley]

it will spread the day they get ALOT cheaper!

 

[grazie42]

Unless price and complexity drop significantly, rbs will likely stay a "very small piece of the scuba pie"..."Expensive" is of course relative but for what it gets me the ~7000$ I´ll pay for my rEvo with training, I feel it´s pretty good value for money...

My main reason for going that route is the logistics. On OC there is an incentive "not to dive" the deeper dives while the reverse will be true for CCR. I´ll also be able to dive the gasses I want to dive on every dive instead of on just the "critical" ones...

Besides being able to travel to remote places and still be able to dive safe -He in truk anyone? My unit only weighs 35lbs without tanks, the biggest advantage for me will be for my local diving. I pay about 100$ for gas every time I go below 180ft. For "serious" OC techdiving (here) you´ll need a few sets of doubles and a veritable forest of deco bottles and the logistics of filling are a PITA. Most boatcrews prefer RBs because they won´t have to kill themselves trying to work out fills/hauling tanks between dives...

Then there are the other benefits like warm air (not to be underestemated for my diving), greater gas supply during dives, being bubbleless etc all weighed against the added burdens of maintenance, prep, vigilance and of course the risk of an early demise...

 

[victor]

Price is a major issue, however, like computers, the more that are made the cheaper, relatively, they will become.
Safety, again electronics, sensors, etc, will improve the more that are produced, interchangeable components, standardisation, common maintenance procedures, all will improve the overall safety of the equipment. However training standards will get worse which will meant that a failure will have serious, possibly fatal, results.

After tech divers it will be the photographers that will be the next in the market. They already spend loads of money on their hobby and the price of a CCR, while a major investment, can be offset against silent diving.

Travel; I doubt whether anybody has tried to build a CCR for travelling but as tanks become standard, absorbent comes in cartridge form and readily available, etc. I am sure the weight could be reduced to a manageable package.

It may be 20 years before we see open water being offered on a CCR but it will happen. It was not that long ago that the suggestion of OW in a dry suit would have resulted in gales of laughter, a 1 week OW course being condemned as a death sentence.

Technology changes, remember
64k will be more than enough memory for anyone, Bill Gates,
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977]

On a boat deck in 30 years some will look back on today as the dark ages where we routinely wasted 97% of the gas we carried underwater, what a waste, and we routinely used air, not even the correct mix for our depth, everyone laughs out loud then don their CCR units ready to dive.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

I think the idea is really cool (especially since I'm a photo bug) but I'm no where close to having the experience let alone wanting to pay the price.

Just curious how most people feel about diving with a group where only one or two people are using re-breathers?

This happened to us at Cobalt Coast in Grand Cayman on our first dive trip a few years ago. A British couple checked in mid-way through our trip and we found it kind of annoying to have them on the boat with re-breathers. I thought one of the main reasons to dive with them is because of increased bottom time which made no sense to me why they would be on a boat with OC divers that are much more limited. One of the divers had a ton of problems with their equipment/absorbent and was in the pool most of the day trying to fix the problem. I suppose part of our irritation was also that it just seemed like they weren't very aware of where people's things where when getting out of the water and their equipment took up a lot more room. That was the only trip that I've seen someone with a re-breather on though.

On the other hand, several of the workers at Cobalt are tech divers and we saw them go out on shore dives a couple times for 3 hours which made a lot more sense to me. I can definitely see an advanced or professional underwater photographer using a re-breather but diving is expensive enough for most people.

We're getting ready to do a liveaboard and I know someone else was mentioning bringing theirs along on the trip right after ours, I'm secretly happy I'm not on that trip.

 

[MikeFerrara]

At current prices they're attractive to me if I use up a lot of helium or dive remote locations. I used to do both but not so much anymore so I don't have any plans to take up a rebreather.

I suppose if I had lots of money and lots of time for diving (like I used to) I might also consider it just for fun...but that's not likely to happen at this point.

So...we won't see "everybody" on rebreather until after my wife and I quit diving. OC works really well for most applications and I have enough open circuit equipment to last the rest of my life. LOL