Rebreather instead of OC tech ?

[deep thought]

Excellent question, and good replies!  And I will try to answer it as concise as I can, but I will state that this is not a cut and dry subject by any means.  To tackle this question I will use my own personal experience as a student, the experience I gained by training rebreather divers for ten years now, and a few examples of my students, some of whom have now become rebreather instructors and rebreather authors.

When I got interested in rebreathers it was the introduction of the Drager Atlantis, which we dismiss today, but in the day it was “WOW A REBREATHER”!  And although it was only an SCR (Semi Closed Rebreather), it was a technical piece of equipment that required training that was foreign to open circuit divers.   At this stage of diving, I had 25 years of diving experience from diver to technical Trimix instructor.  It wasn’t boredom or lack of activities to engage in, it was new and exciting…

My first SCR students were primarily tech divers who were lured by the efficiency of gas use, the myth of “light weight” , and of course the gizmo factor.  They struggled with buoyancy at first since it was so different from O.C. , and I would giggle silently when they “poofed” into the silty bottom by using their lungs to provide O.C. lift.  Upon completion of the 4 requisite dives (and instructor satisfaction) they were in my mind as competent as an “Open Water” diver, or “Trimix” diver after certification, meaning they had a learners permit.  My goal has always been to provide activities to support my students post course education, and many of the students joined me for years of mentoring to really learn how to manipulate and get the best advantage of a rebreather.

When I trained at student level on a CCR ( fully Closed Circuit Rebreather) it was because I wanted more than the SCR was capable of doing.  I went in arrogant as I was when I took my first cave diver course…20+ years diving, thousands of dives, instructor levels, bla,bla,bla…then proceeded to crawl out of the cave with my tail between my legs!  The SCR training was helpful as it developed a few of the key principles of rebreathers, but I was now going from flying a Piper Cub to an F16 jet – Wow lots of stuff going on.  I didn’t pop to the surface when ascending, but the course was challenging and my instructor was hard core and serious.   I felt more confident than I did with my cave course, but returning home I was on an island in the middle of no CCR experience or divers to learn from.  I proceeded very slowly, and with a heap of paranoia as I knew of the recent fatalities and serious consequences of operating a CCR.

I set about on a campaign to travel North America and attend every CCR specific gathering, attend any advanced CCR training I could myself, traveled to Europe meeting and diving with some of the best CCR instructors, one of the best I knew (Penny) became a fatality while teaching CCR.  I took every course I could from Tom Mount at IANTD, from Florida to the Caymans, Bahamas, Belize…gaining more experience to pass on to my students when I was ready to teach.  Today I look back at the early gathering of CCR divers at events in Vancouver BC,  Plymouth UK, and Caymans and realize there are now more instructors sprinkled around the Midwest, so new divers do not need to travel as much to gain insight and experience as I did.

My first CCR students were primarily converts from the SCR, or my core group of Trimix O.C. students with “basic” experience going from 20 years to as little as 5 years.  I trained my divers like I was trained and pushed them when needed.  I was surprised at how many times they had serious buoyancy issues, trouble conducting the basics of operation, emergency bail outs, or deploying a lift bag.  Once one of my students who was a dive buddies of 10+ years fouled up so badly in the reel and SMB that he dragged both of us to the surface!  Things can go from ok to yikes in no time on a CCR, and  although I pushed hard for quality training I had empathy for my students as I recalled my training.  Not wanting them to be left alone without anyone to use as example, or reaffirm their skills and practice, I set about to provide years of activities from Great Lakes wreck dives to world wide CCR specific travel.  

Today I have students around the world, and some have become notable CCR instructors themselves.  But regardless of my travels and working with divers and instructors, I understand that all of these people have taken the task of CCR’s to heart and got over the hurdle or learning curve and are now quite proficient.  A particular case that struck me was a student (I traveled to in the states) who was a War Veteran, a brilliant academic,  a Surgeon M.D. , athlete, bon vivant…and he struggled to complete one of the very basic skills on one of the most simplistic, user friendly CCR’s on the market.  This got me to thinking; why do we teach all CCR divers like they were going to dive a Mk 5 CisLunar???  If you do your research you will discover that the training agencies have not changed the training from a Cis to a KISS Sport…even though the developer of the KISS was not a tech diver and he only imagined a diver who had “any” malfunction to twist the DSV (mouthpiece) and bail out to open circuit and ascend – not try to make a failing Cis take you out from a 400 ft. deep dive into a cave…and when I presented a question to the BOD of a tech training agency: “hey why do we do this…and why don’t we have a CCR course for divers who simply wish to look at pretty fish, if they experience a problem – bail out”?  I still have burn marks on may bum for even considering the bastardization of standards!!! Oh, the next year they announced at DEMA a recreational CCR diver course, “oh and Ron sorry for the thrashing we gave you”.  Funny thing as I did not propose this, I was asking to consider reviewing what we do and ask ourselves is this relevant to the current market and CCR’s???

So about 5 years ago I had proposed that the Midwest would mushroom with CCR divers, seeing all of the benefits of not hauling multiple sets of doubles, expense of helium, George Jetson sex appeal, etc…. and the East and West coast proceeded to do so, while the Midwest sat on its hands??  One of the major CCR vendors who I have had a tough relationship with (I considered their sales tactics sleazy, yet they had one of the most marketable units – while they considered me a threat as I was certified on over 6 different units) yet they asked me to represent their CCR in the Midwest because it was lagging behind all other areas???  My efforts included inviting all of the dive centers in the Midwest to my dive center to a CCR Forum on how to dive, teach, market, sell CCR’s to their customers.  I attended trade shows in Minnesota, Milwaukee, Chicago, Michigan on CCR.  I provided CCR demos all over the Midwest, even certifying as many instructors as I could on CCR’s – some tech instructors felt threatened by this technology, some embraced it.   While I understood the huge financial commitment, time and effort to not only train as a student, but to gain the knowledge and experience to teach CCR’s, I could not understand the bad mouthing?  Then I realized some of the issues are simple paranoia – assume that you are an instructor that has invested a bunch of money, resources and time to teach O.C. Trimix and some upstart is teaching CCR Diver to Trimix level, well unless you invest in the basic diver level training yourself, go all the way to instructor level at Trimix…you cannot offer this level of training – hummm… I’ve seen the denial (no, not the river in Africa) but true head in the sand ostrich type of refusal.  Today an instructor cannot ignore the potential for CCR’s and hence the popularity at some recent venues… As an IT for CCR’s, I am technically working myself out of a job…but the goal is to promote CCR’s and growth for this technology, and it’s fun!

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