Oztek and Rebreathers

My diving buddy and I went to Oztek this weekend, the big technical diving show in Sydney. We figured it’d be a great show just for regular scuba diving stuff (dive trips, talks and so on) but doing some good research on rebreathers was definately on the agenda too. Over the course of the couple of days I sat in on a few talks about rebreathers and went and spoke to just about everyone I could find who was flogging/training rebreathers. In the evening discussed things with my pal James to see if we were arriving at any sort of consensus. I’m not sure we exactly have, but we seem pretty close.

One particularly interesting talk was from DSAT/PADI’s director of rebreathing stuff Mark Caney. This session really highlighted the ideologcial divide that exists between various camps in the rebreather community – mostly due to some of the comments at the end. On one side the vast bulk of rebreather divers naturally came out of technical diving because rebreathers were complicated, techy, dangerous tools that allowed you to do more of the sorts of things they are doing anyway. The common mantra has really been that this is how you get into rebreathers.

However it’s also highly apparent that if you actually talk to CCR trainers, they’ll tell you the least high-level OC training you do the better, with the caveats that they’re not expecting to train morons or the extremely inexperienced. For people in our position this is a very compelling argument because it’s pretty big bucks to buy OC technical diving gear and do all the training, only to throw it away and buy an outrageously expensive CCR and do a pile more training…

As for what Mark Caney was talking about, he essentially went through a bunch of things that ought to be engineered into rebreathers if they are to become genuine recreational devices. I agreed with most of what he was saying but I’m not really sure that this day will come. Mostly because it’s too easy to die in insiduous unrecognisable ways with CCR. I can’t for the life of me see how the solution can be anything but rigorous training and dicipline. The dive industry doesn’t want people to die, it’s bad for everyone. So while it’d be nice if there was a mass market cheaper CCR and there absolutely should be work going on in all the areas discussed, I still think CCR will always belong at an upper enthusiast level.

It was very interesting to look at several different CCR models and their approach. None of which was new to me, having researched extensively already. What’s always been a bit of a surprise to me is just how much digging around I had to do, just how much talking to different people I had to do, just to figure out the kind of sector in the market that the products fitted into. I’m sure some of them would disagree with my conclusions there too. The whole diving community seems absolutely riddled by mantra based on experience (annecdotal is another way of saying it) rather than cold hard facts. That’s inevitable to some degree but it means every bastard has an opinion and it’s hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Ultimately you have to make your own decision. For example, there’s a fair gap between mCCR and eCCR. Ignoring depth limitations of mCCR, both camps have plenty to say to back up their case. I’ve listened to both and honestly, I can see it both ways. It becomes a personal choice issue. Now my dive buddy is a computer gazer, so really mCCR would suit him down to the ground. I prefer to look at fish than readouts where practical. A substantial factor here is there’s a big chunk of change difference in price and complexity between mCCR and eCCR.

I look at the Meg (and upcoming Eagle), and think hey I like this gear and I could really see me doing <40m rec diving on these for a good year, mCCR configs. James and I would be very happy with that I think. On the other hand I look at the APD Evo and it’s hard not to be impressed with the integrated electronics, HUD, buzzer, entire build package and you think… well you know, there’s not that big a price diff here and I’m kind of liking all this safety stuff and the widespread experience of it in Oz. It’s also good for pretty much any depth as and when that becomes desirable… That’s a snapshot view I had at the end of Oztek anyway.

As a result of Oztek I know a shit load more than I knew before, vital experience based stuff too. I asked the guys who dive these rigs how they actually pack it all up and haul off to dive trip. This is major question and as an aside James and I talked over three modes of diving that we do, or want to do. Local diving (all CCR), warm weather reef (OC, Cairns live-a-board etc), and dive trips with wreck diving etc – CCR potentially. This sort of model of usage pattern made it easy to go back and look at gear and ask questions about how it fits those usages.

I also looked at handsets and electronics in action, priced what the entire kit costs were with training and decided on a set of features which are must-haves. Although that feature list has a pretty gaping hole in that I’ve not decided mCCR or eCCR yet.  It seemd a very useful starting point though, when you know enough to work out what you’re interested in, suddely you’re asking specific questions. Things on that list include the ability to donate gas to another diver, even on a shallow rec dive without off-board sling. BOV mouthpeice, integrated dive computer and of course some reasonable abilility to purchase, get trained and service a CCR in Australia.

I’ll ninja edit into this another point about training: One sticking point on CCR training is the need for advanced-nitrox. James has this and I don’t. The reason is simple, he has a technical rig which is what you need to do that course. I don’t. This is a little absurd, I buy a technical rig just to do one course which then allows me to do CCR training? Clearly it’s nonsense. Some guys will do you advanced nitrox in the same training (which presumably you do on CCR), but not all. If they don’t, for me that’s an out and out wash. I’m not buying a whole new twinset and wing rig at this stage in the game.

As I indicated before, by the end of Oztek I had gravitated towards the APD Evo (kind of ubiquitous and obvious but I really liked what I saw and there’s a lot to be said for the sheer experience and aftermarket expertise/availability of modifications etc – and likely re-sale value in moving to something else). I also liked the Eagle and Meg in terms of utterly obvious construction, solid build quality and price advantage. However it really wasn’t that straight forward because a lot of the features written on the must-have list are aftermarket upgrades, or haven’t even been demonstrated/released such as the Eagle (it’s on sale in a couple of months or so – it’s basically a Mk 15 remade).

Did discount some things like Revo. I like it a lot, I’ve talked a lot to a guy using one that I dived with but ultimately it offers no huge advantage and is enormously expensive (even in mCCR guise) and is somewhat rare in Australia. The guy who made the Sentinel did a couple of talks, I sat in on the genric one. It was great. As for the Sentinel itself… it seems likely to be too expensive, not many around – same sort of deal but I probably know the least about this, I never actually talked to a trainer/dealer because I didn’t see any. Of course the Apocalypse (see previous blog) was a regular topic that came up but most of this discussion would include phrases like ‘vaporware’ and the revelation that the Apoc hasn’t actually done any standards testing (this was hear-say but it was mentioned by a guy who should know because he sits on some board or other). Anyway they’re saying to expect units to May (for all those that ordered sight unseen) but it all sounds a bit iffy now. Something to look at when they show up, get independently tested and so on.

I was out and out most impressed by the APD gear I have to say. The Meg looked solid, nothing wrong with it but I think I’d just rather something that shipped from the factory with proper integrated dive computer stuff – and I really don’t like the blocks on the Meg and the farting about necessary to plumb in manifolds to extend offboard diluent etc. Could be wrong on some of that of course but it looks more like a basic plumbers rig that you’re going to have to bolt a lot of stuff onto. The whole shebang was cheaper, sure, but it wasn’t that much cheaper for what looked like a whole lot less gear with quite a lot of aftermarket stuff required.

I have an electronics tech background so I’m not terrified of doing stuff like that but there’s no denying that it’s attractive to me to go out and buy something that does everything I want, right in the box. If stuff is funny, I’ve got someone specific to take it up with. Deciding to shave off $5k and go with something you’re not completely happy with? That doesn’t fit my risk profile.

I feel like I’ve really not looked at the APD stuff close enough previously, seduced away by smaller manufacturers. I guess you think the biggest guys must be the incumbents, not nimble or innovative an not offering value. Also in any community you always hear the folks moaning about things rather than the good comments, so you hear more moaning about APD. When I get back from this work trip I’m going to start researching it properly, pull down whatever docs I can and look into specific criticisms. It looks like it’s the benchmark that absolutely offers the features we’ve deemed necessary.

Oztek was great, I really enjoyed the talks and the great chats I had with vastly more experienced divers than me and those guys actually doing CCR diving. Truly awesome to get some insight into practical dive trips on CCR.

It was also awesome to talk to the lady representing diving in Tasmania too, since we’ve got a trip there a week after I get back. Very excited about that. Another interesting set of discussions that are bound to arrise on that trip involve CCR and our dive shop owner. He’s an enormoustly experienced OC tri-mix guy and pretty anti-CCR too. He obviously thinks we’re mad. Should be an interesting trip