Northwest Dive Club

I love rebreather diving
So I went down to Sund today in hopes of getting some footage of all the octos and wolfies. My buddy bailed on me so I decided to do a little deeper dive and just enjoy myself. When I got there a couple other people were just leaving so I ended up having the entire place to myself. I entered on the south wall and started down. Visability wasnt that bad, maybe twenty or twentyfive feet. I rolled past the 150" mark and the light was pretty much gone, I stashed my video system on a ledge as I was continuing down past its rated crush depth. The bottom contoured downward and I passed through a forrest of sea pens. Several rockfish stood watch as I continued downward past the 200 foot mark. I reached my max depth of 226 and turned and cut diaginally along the slope. The silence is unreal down there, At one point I stopped and hovered over the abyss several feet off the edge of the wall and just hung there. I could actually hear my blood pulsing through my inner ear as I hung suspended two hundred feet below the surface. I wished I could stay longer but my planed deco and bailout constraints forced me to turn for the surface after only seven minutes at the bottom. I could actually make out the Green glow of the surface as I started up, the silhouetts of hundreds of fish mere shadows against the emerald backdrop. I retreived my camera and continued back to the world of light. I then spent the remainder of my first hour exploring the walls and crevaces but found my intended quarry particularly elusive. After scouring every square foot of the south wall and eliminating all my deco obligation without seeing a single wolf eel or octo I stashed my deep bail out tank and continued to the central reefs. I explored the entire site zig zaging across the center and on to the north wall and on to the fishing trawler all with no luck. this is the first time I have ever been skunked at Sund and needless to say it was a bit disapointing. Finally I spent the final part of the dive in the fish bowl where I managed to get a few "self portrat" videos by wedging the camera into a rock and filming myself swimming around finally I spent some time playing with how close the ling cods would let me get before they would swim off. this is where the rebreathers silence really shines. One shot I got is so close my dome port practically bumped the ling in the side of the head before he mooved. Finally after almost three hours below the surface I returned to the land of gravity, I never got cold, or dehydrated ( breathing air thats 95 degrees and 100% humidity is awesome! ) Driving home with that slightly tired, contented and peacefull feeling is the ultamate reward for a dive well done and it is what keeps me always wondering,,, "what experiences are still out there waiting for me ?"

Cool, thank you. That write-up *almost* makes me want to get a rebreather and do technical diving. Almost . . . but not quite. But cool nonetheless!

Aaron: Good write-up. I hope you never lose your sense of wonder. Of course you know that you don't have to be deep or novel to have a great experience. Appreciating the beauty in the commonplace, gulls, seastars, anemones are examples of things that enrich our lives without our really being aware. Their absence from some exotic dive destinations drove that home to me. Having four decades on you can permit me to assure you that there will always be new experiences awaiting you if you just look for them. Things I have yet to see include the sperm whale, whale shark, and green flash. Today I enjoyed the my encounter with the stubby squid, not new or novel - but cool just the same. It looks like you are getting good return on your investment.
Be careful out there.
- Curt

Agent 47 wrote:I could actually hear my blood pulsing through my inner ear

Ugh - I get that a fair bit these days when I'm at depth. The first time it happened I was fairly shallow and it stuck - didn't go away for about 14 months. Every night when I was trying to go to sleep I could hear my pulse super loud - sucked. Then, finally it stopped after another dive. A friend tells me that blood vessels and the eustachian tubes can shift with pressure changes - I work harder to equalize _before_ I am prompted by minor discomfort now. Sounds like you had a great dive. Weird how that works - for me it is often when I'm exploring by myself and somehow all the environmental/equipment variables are going my way that I really feel comfortable and in my element. Probably no coincidence that my gas consumption is also lowest at those times. Enjoyed your report - thanks for taking the time to share it with us

Dude.. You should tell me these things when i get air at the shop.. That's petty cool you went that deep, as i didn't know the wall went that deep.. Keep the reports coming

Incredible report!
If ever there was a single reason to have a rebreather, this would be amazing to experience.
I have not started my rebreather fund yet, but soon! Please entertain us with more of these reports.
You have a great way of explaining your experiences.
Thanks!

H20doctor wrote:That's petty cool you went that deep, as i didn't know the wall went that deep.. Keep the reports coming

Yeah it goes down past the 400 foot mark in front of Sund, it just keeps stepping down. Slopes followed by cliffs, the spot where I stopped was on a cliff that started at about 210 and plunged into the depths farther than my light would penetrate.

Wow --
Hopefully sometime you can capture some videos or pictures of the environment down that deep.
I know its maybe just dark but I would like to see

For those of use who will never venture beyond the 130 mark.

Wow, that is cool. I can't even imagine 226. I just started this year and recently picked up my dry suit. Scheduling to take my Advanced soon.

So I guess I need to start to save for a video camera and then a re-breather. I like the 3 hours down time. Thank you for the post. It is inspiring to hear about this stuff. I am off to HI this May for diving with the family (by myself right now, trying to get the wife hooked). It is like crack though. I thought I was going to get a Harley but now a re-breather seems more likely.

THE 1SG wrote:Wow, that is cool. I can't even imagine 226. I just started this year and recently picked up my dry suit. Scheduling to take my Advanced soon.

So I guess I need to start to save for a video camera and then a re-breather. I like the 3 hours down time. Thank you for the post. It is inspiring to hear about this stuff. I am off to HI this May for diving with the family (by myself right now, trying to get the wife hooked). It is like crack though. I thought I was going to get a Harley but now a re-breather seems more likely.

LOL thats exactly the decision I made. I saved for three years for a new Harley but then one day I thought to myself "I already own a motorcycle". Not very new but it still runs good, and a motorcycle wont let me explore the deeper wrecks and caves that I have only seen in pictures or in my dreams, and just like that my decision was made. Two years ago I took a three month long 14,000 mile motorcycle trip around the country traveling through 46 states seeing and experiencing things that I could have never imagined. That experience left me with the desire to experience everything life offers and that has been my driving force ever since. The rebreather is a tool for the furtherment of that goal and from my very first dive on it I have never looked back... anyone want to buy a set of doubles?

I hate you Thats all I have to say. You dream stealer!
MJ

Agent 47 wrote: The rebreather is a tool for the furtherment of that goal and from my very first dive on it I have never looked back... anyone want to buy a set of doubles?

HA! Boy, do I understand that!!! A year after I bought my rebreather I realized that I hadn't even TOUCHED my OC tanks during that entire time and it was costing me money just to keep them VIPed! I wiped the dust off them, sold all of my sets of doubles and converted most of my single tanks into bail-out bottles.

I still have two LP 98s in case my son ever wants to drive over from Idaho and dive, but even those might get sold soon. I don't dive anything BUT my rebreather now.

- John

Aaron, that's awesome. I've can't wait to go CCR and experience those types of things. Keep the dive reports coming!

Great writeup. Keeps me dreaming.

dieseldude wrote:I hate you Thats all I have to say. You dream stealer!
MJ

Well Mike, I did invite you along after all.

Just for the CCR ignorant like me -- what did you carry for bailout and deco?

Peter Guy wrote:Just for the CCR ignorant like me -- what did you carry for bailout and deco?

a 2-liter pepsi bottle full of 21/35 and a ziplock baggie of O2.








disclaimer: i know nothing about ccr diving, either. or diving in general, really.

spatman wrote:

Peter Guy wrote:Just for the CCR ignorant like me -- what did you carry for bailout and deco?

a 2-liter pepsi bottle full of 21/35 and a ziplock baggie of O2.








disclaimer: i know nothing about ccr diving, either. or diving in general, really.

FREEZER baggie of O2, geez, everyone know's that ziplock baggies fail under presure.......

so when you stashed your deep bailout, did you have other bailout or were you diving solo alpine style with few dives on your new CCR? just wondering why you stashed you bottle?

Agent 47 wrote:

dieseldude wrote:I hate you Thats all I have to say. You dream stealer!
MJ

Well Mike, I did invite you along after all.

Its not the location that I missed, it's the ccr experience. I could have done that with you(on no sleep since I work 3rd shift)but I would have had to wear doubles, 2 AL80's minimum, & probably an AL40 for backup air just in case(I didnt run the dive on vplanner with my profile so I'm guessing on the air supply). 2hrs is still my longest dive & it didnt have an MOD of 226'. My back would have hated you the next day.

The rapture of the deep calls me & I dont have the gear to get there
Soon though. This is the year I get caught up. Then I'm getting my CCR & takin' you down sucka! (to 300' that is).
MJ

Maverick wrote:so when you stashed your deep bailout, did you have other bailout or were you diving solo alpine style with few dives on your new CCR? just wondering why you stashed you bottle?

Peter Guy wrote:Just for the CCR ignorant like me -- what did you carry for bailout and deco?

I have a al80 of 18/45 and a al40 of NO2-50 I dropped the 80 on the way back up and finished the dive just using the 40 of 50% as a bail out. Thats another advantage of rebreather, my bail out tanks I never use so I never have to pay for helium fills just keep a stash of tanks with different mixes in them and grab what I need but never actually use it. So I could do almost an unlimited number of dives without spending a dime on OC gass.

I'm extremely jealous until I count the costs involved with CCR's. Maybe when my rich uncle dies and leaves me 15K for all the stuff and training, or something like that.

Good write though.