re-breathers

[banjofish]

DO any of you guys or gals use these things...and why?...Diving the east wall of fox island a couple weeks ago and two guys were diving them and except for the reason they look cool and have alot of extra money I can't see any reason .

[Jeff Pack]

yes, and chicks dig guys that go deeper and longer too.

[banjofish]

thats what It thought..Its all about chicks...thanks for confirming this for me.

[Linedog]

Let's see, longer dive time, moist air=no dry mouth, no bubbles to scare off critters as you photograph them. Ya I'd like to rebreathe sometime just not now.

[banjofish]

please give me a break...Moist air.....your under water for christ sake....And I say alot of bubbles coming from those guys...

[Jeff Pack]

Trust me, you dont want a rebreather.

Stick with the obvious simplicity of Open Circuit, it suits you better.

[spatman]

Rebreathers allow for better gas efficiency, allows for decompression without carrying extra tanks of various gas mixes, recirculates warm moist breathing gas that can help keep a diver warm, and closed circuit systems don't give off loud bubbles that can scare off wildlife.

[Linedog]

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

[Joshua Smith]

Re breathers are a way to shed tons of extra cash while slowly going insane. Acually, not so slowly.

They're tools, like any other gear. mostly use full for people that want to do deeper dives.

[RenaB]

So that when you are down nice and deep, when the rebreather fails (without any warning) you die. No thanks. Deep isn't for me anyway. And breathing without bubbles seems wrong.

[camerone]

Wow. Flashback weekend. Had to check the date on this thread to make sure it wasn't one from 2004 with the comments made

You're gonna die. Now can we all grab a beer and watch the GI "plums" video together in peace

[Desert Diver]

You guys are spelling it wrong. It's be-reaver

[spatman]

So that when you are down nice and deep, when the rebreather fails (without any warning) you die. No thanks. Deep isn't for me anyway. And breathing without bubbles seems wrong.

Do you fly in planes? Because when you're high up in the air and they fail without any warning, you die.

[banjofish]

ok ive got alot of smart remarks but nobody has answered my question. I believe Rena b has made the most sense. Diving deeper is NOT and I repeat NOT the goal of recreational divers...Ever....NO recreational diver should EVER make a decompression dive unless there is a chamber waiting for them on the boat topside. And the moist air warmer body thing is just stupid...No I think its guys with large wallets and huge egos

[rjw]

ok ive got alot of smart remarks but nobody has answered my question. I believe Rena b has made the most sense. Diving deeper is NOT and I repeat NOT the goal of recreational divers...Ever....NO recreational diver should EVER make a decompression dive unless there is a chamber waiting for them on the boat topside. And the moist air warmer body thing is just stupid...No I think its guys with large wallets and huge egos

Sounds like you have it all figured out.

[CaptnJack]

LOL this was ummm fun?

BTW open circuit people do decompression dives too yanno

[YellowEye]

Hi
Here are some of the reasons I enjoy rebreathers here in the pnw...

Shore diving. Why do two dives with a surface interval when you can do one long dive? Fox island is a perfect example with that long hill and so much to explore. Doing cove a 2 to cove 0 run at 90 feet and finding a six gill is pretty cool too. I've done 3.5 hr dives, explored the entire day island wall on one dive (14 wolfeels), etc.

Boat diving. You spend all that time and money getting on a boat, why not maximize it? I often do three 70 min dives in a day when my oc friends do three 50 or 60 min dives. It's like an extra half dive for free. And I spend most of that time at the 70-80 feet sweet spot and never hit deco all day.

Photography. I haven't noticed a huge diff with critter skitishness with bubbles in the nw, but I hear it makes a big diff tropically. Not having bubbles is great for wide angle, where the best shots are usually upward. And going under overhangs (like the best cove 2 piling) w/o bubbles is great. And best of all, if I find an Octo out in the open 55 minutes into my dive I can spend an extra hour with him if I want.

Comfort. You can't beat warm moist air. It makes long dives much more doable. And you have less noisy, more comfortable breathing. Without breaking your back like doubles.


There are definitely downsides to rebreathers that should be understood. I will say costs are amortized, and I've had my rebreather 8, 9 years. I'd much rather spend money on dive gear than a fancy car for example.

Let me know if you have questions.

[Desert Diver]

ok ive got alot of smart remarks but nobody has answered my question. I believe Rena b has made the most sense. Diving deeper is NOT and I repeat NOT the goal of recreational divers...Ever....NO recreational diver should EVER make a decompression dive unless there is a chamber waiting for them on the boat topside. And the moist air warmer body thing is just stupid...No I think its guys with large wallets and huge egos

OK, I've never had my computer say I'm in decompression and I plan to keep it that way. Of course I dive a "liberal" computer so sometimes other people I am diving with are in decompression, but I'm OK. I just do kind of a long safety stop. I don't know if diving deeper should be the goal of any diver. Seems people die when the goal is to dive deeper. But sometimes we need to dive deeper to see what we want to see. And sometimes we would like more than a quick look at it. Do we really need to be non-recreational divers to do a decompression dive?

[H20doctor]

i am a tank breather, and i do decompression dives... rebreathers are for divers who want to have more bottom time, and go deeper, wrecks, caves, and large Drop off into the abyss... yellow eye said it best

[fishb0y]

ok ive got alot of smart remarks but nobody has answered my question. I believe Rena b has made the most sense. Diving deeper is NOT and I repeat NOT the goal of recreational divers...Ever....NO recreational diver should EVER make a decompression dive unless there is a chamber waiting for them on the boat topside. And the moist air warmer body thing is just stupid...No I think its guys with large wallets and huge egos

Ughhh... I had to check to see if I was on Scubaboard...

[Linedog]

ok ive got alot of smart remarks but nobody has answered my question. I believe Rena b has made the most sense. Diving deeper is NOT and I repeat NOT the goal of recreational divers...Ever....NO recreational diver should EVER make a decompression dive unless there is a chamber waiting for them on the boat topside. And the moist air warmer body thing is just stupid...No I think its guys with large wallets and huge egos

WOW and your an instructor! I'm just a recreational diver, but I have dove deep enough, long enough to have a touch of deco obligation. I would give my left useless testical for warm moist air and a bit of body warmth. The few rebreather divers I have dove with are some of the nicest most humble people I have ever met. But it sounds like your mind is already made up, so have a nice day and please don't judge them kitty litter divers to harshly.

P.S. Yellow Eye is a great guy, if you ever get the chance to dive with him I recomend it highly.

[RenaB]

So that when you are down nice and deep, when the rebreather fails (without any warning) you die. No thanks. Deep isn't for me anyway. And breathing without bubbles seems wrong.

Do you fly in planes? Because when you're high up in the air and they fail without any warning, you die.

I fly in planes because I have to. I can dive without a rebreather.

[spatman]

So that when you are down nice and deep, when the rebreather fails (without any warning) you die. No thanks. Deep isn't for me anyway. And breathing without bubbles seems wrong.

Do you fly in planes? Because when you're high up in the air and they fail without any warning, you die.

I fly in planes because I have to. I can dive without a rebreather.

And you can travel without planes too, but sometimes there's a preferable method for both travel and diving. It all depends on the risks you are willing to take.

And fwiw, your open circuit gear can fail without warning too. Then you're in the same situation as a RB diver whose 'breather failed.

[RenaB]

Didn't mean to cause an issue by saying that, but I also haven't dove long/at all. Not ever plane that fails causes everyone on board to die either. I actually don't know much about rebreathing, but the way I have understood the argument against is that everything is fine until it isn't anymore, then without warning you die. So I am not really interested when nitrox seems to aleaviate some of the same deco requirement without the danger?

Moist air would be nice. The dehydration, as I have argued before, does cause an increase danger is DCS.

When I said I am really not interested in deep, it's because I am really not interested. I will say that I don't like deep so much that when an instructor stated that I should take the advanced class right after the open water class, that I took a pause because there is a deep dive requirement for that. Now, I am really hoping that once I get very comfortable at no deeper than 60 feet (that's what I think I will be comfortable at), I hope I change my mind. Because it looks interesting, and scary and uncomfortable for me.

So my question for the rebreather is this, do you get that much more time without deco requirements as nitrox? And how? I know I should just go pull up some information on the internet, but I figured you guys could help. There is a balance between nitrogen and oxygen. You decrease the nitrogen in the mix you have less nitrogen ingassing. Which makes sense, but I am not sure if they go over this in class, I am sure they do, but you add oxygen and at pressure that's actually more dangerous. So with a rebreather how are you overcoming this fact? Honest question. Basically is it really worth the money over nitrox? That's my question.

Thanks for the attempt to compare this to flying, but just didn't resonate. I always say to each his own. I am not knocking anyone for wanting to use one. Just wondering what the bonus is.

[RenaB]

So that when you are down nice and deep, when the rebreather fails (without any warning) you die. No thanks. Deep isn't for me anyway. And breathing without bubbles seems wrong.

Do you fly in planes? Because when you're high up in the air and they fail without any warning, you die.

I fly in planes because I have to. I can dive without a rebreather.

And you can travel without planes too, but sometimes there's a preferable method for both travel and diving. It all depends on the risks you are willing to take.

And fwiw, your open circuit gear can fail without warning too. Then you're in the same situation as a RB diver whose 'breather failed.

Ok, come on! Let's not get silly here. Of course you can drive, and that's more dangerous actually. It was a poor comparison.