One year later... Well, actually, I did start pre-training on my CCR about 4 months before my class. 
But it's been a year and more than 100 dives since I took my CCR classes and I'm still alive!
Done dives down to something like 240', much of it on a scooter, dived off shore and private boat and charter.
So it's one year later, and here are some random observations:
But it's been a year and more than 100 dives since I took my CCR classes and I'm still alive!
Done dives down to something like 240', much of it on a scooter, dived off shore and private boat and charter.So it's one year later, and here are some random observations:
- My buddy dives a Meg & I dive an Inspiration (we both use Hammerhead electronics), and you definitely throw away more scrubber material using the smaller canister.
- The rig is better on my back than the doubles were, but I still injure my back regularly on the other stuff, like the big O2/HE bottles, or helping my OC friends and stuff like that. Just can't blame the doubles anymore.
- My friends at the dive shop forget who I am, and on the rare visit make comments like, "Well, gee wiz, who is this stranger who is too good to come buy the shop anymore?" Of course, they wouldn't forget who I am if they hung around the shop less and went diving more.
- The CCR and I have a very dysfunctional relationship. The more I dive it, the more it seems to want to kill me, and yet the more I love it. It just seems to function so perfectly and easily every dive that it pulls me in to trusting it to always work. The more I dive it, the more I trust it. And yet, should I just forget a single O-ring, I could fall asleep during the dive unaware and never come home. Increasing compliancy is the natural result of consistent functionality. I must fight to distrust this machine on every dive for it to actually be trustworthy. I must continue to discipline myself to use both the written and mental checklist every dive, period.
- My OC buddies do not appreciate how amazing it is when I actually control my buoyancy as well as they do, and they look bored when I point it out to them post dive.
- Deep dives are so easy! Mixing is a non-event compared to OC. Cost of gas is minuscule. I have a bail-out bottle I filled 6 months ago. I'll run it empty soon on a bail-out drill, just to give it a fresh fill.
- There is a serenity to the easy drifting deco ascent, without needing to do switches, that you don't get with the regimented OC move-and-stop, bottle switching deco procedures.
- Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. Pre-dive, post-dive. O-rings and sensors and connections and electronics and buttons and wires and everything else. More time in the dive room pre-dive.
- The most common time for an OC diver to strike up a conversation with you, or ask you a question is during the pre-breathe.
- I am dieing to dive the CCR solo (intentional wording), but have managed to ignore the evil calling. The idea is as selfish as it is appealing.
- I like the shear volume of ways there are to handle a malfunction or mishap underwater, and the removal of the time factor, which makes the flexibility of the CCR in a problem situation wonderful (assuming one is up on their skills and keeps ones head together). But I miss the utter simplicity and highest safety of good DIR-style team diving. There is no doubt, the CCR is the ultimate stroke machine.
- I miss being able to swivel my head around.
- I can feel it in my jaw muscles the day after a couple of long dives.
- It's still not as easy to clip and unclip stuff as it was OC.
- The (bubble-free) quiet is amazing, until my buddy starts yelling at me or singing.
- I still enjoy the geek-factor a bunch.
- When they finally invent the $19.95 CO2 detector, everyone will dive a rebreather.
