Reconsidering Deep Air?

[Couv]

Aw... @Dr Simon Mitchell , I wish you had given a "spoiler alert." I haven't started part two yet. ;-) I've enjoyed the interview/discussion so far though and looking forward to finishing the video series.

Cheers,

Couv

 

[Wibble]

I don’t doubt you in the least, you would have to love your rebreather to put up with the hassle of one, the predive scenario alone is enough to put me off plus the very idea that I have to carry enough gas to bailout on OC.

It does help if you enjoy the build process the night before the dive. Following the checklist precisely even if you’re sure you did X, analysing the gasses, checking pressures, noting down the cell millivolts, battery voltages, pressures. It’s that Xen-like time spent polishing 'her' so she’ll be happy and look after you the next day. I should have named her after the wife, but I called her after the sailing boat she replaced, Contessa. She likes attention lavished on her.

 

[Kay Dee]

As to the intial question page 1.

OC yes, but not by choice, that is only if helium unavailbe at some location I was at.

CCR, no.

But I would never do planned deep air decompression diving using only air as the deco 'mix', never ever. No 'planned' deco diving for me without some form of accelerated deco (i.e. nitrox or oxygen).

 

[Centrals]

60m deep air decompression OW dive!!! Done it many many times, nothing to write home about!
CCR? Not my field.
Cave? Not my field.
Deep wreck? Trimix is preferred in planned penetration dive.
Helium is NOT that readily available in this part of the world and is very expensive.

 

[Celt]

It does help if you enjoy the build process the night before the dive. Following the checklist precisely even if you’re sure you did X, analysing the gasses, checking pressures, noting down the cell millivolts, battery voltages, pressures. It’s that Xen-like time spent polishing 'her' so she’ll be happy and look after you the next day. I should have named her after the wife, but I called her after the sailing boat she replaced, Contessa. She likes attention lavished on her.

Some divers love the mechanics and gear involved in diving, for me the less gear the better. I looked at buying a soviet partial pressure rebreather years ago and what I loved about it was it’s simplicity. People do things differently.

 

[Celt]

Hello,

I understand that the ambiguity in the wording of the above question is completely unintentional, but one possible interpretation is that information presented in the video could be construed as supportive of deep air diving. For those who have not watched the video, I just want to be clear that I do not endorse deep air diving.

Simon M

I made reference to the video after watching it four times, all divers are affected by gas density, some divers can inadvertently allow CO2 to build by not breathing fast enough to clear it but others do. Information is either right or wrong. What I’m saying is I know exactly what I can or can’t do underwater. Other people who don’t know me can’t say that.

 

[Centrals]

People do things differently.

As long as it is SAFE.

Good on you.

 

[Celt]

As long as it is SAFE.

Good on you.

It is a fact when you go underwater your no longer as safe as you were on the surface, you then make a personal decision as to how you wish to dive and obviously taking the safety of others if they are with you. Everyone knows that rebreather diving is not as safe as OC but you won’t hear UTD telling people not to use rebreathers but there happy to tell people not to dive air deeper than 100 feet

 

[Wibble]

Nobody gets more intelligent underwater.

Mitigate that with more practice, but mostly by not changing more than 'one' thing on a dive.

 

[Kay Dee]

Mitigate that with more practice, but mostly by not changing more than 'one' thing on a dive.

Re my now underlined above, I would go so far as to say NEVER change more than one item / accessory per dive.

I can tell a rather awful story of changing two depth gauges back in the day when we used 'hard tables' - not computers for our deco 'solution' - for a solo 130m OC wreck dive. BIG mistake on my part! No not the dive, but using two - 'personally' untested at that depth - new Uwatec depth gauges.