The proper way to dive is to use a backplate and a wing. It’s so simple it’s ridiculous. A wing is just the air bladder thing itself with an inflator hose on it and a dump valve. This bolts onto a ridged metal backplate and a simple strap harness loops through it all over the shoulders, around the waist and under the crotch. It’s modulator, so you can change any bits of it as required, it removes all the clutter from your chest and it’s infinitely better for trim – that is to say staying horizontal in water, with the air compartment right next to the heavy scuba tank(s). It costs the same as a BCD, but it’s better in every way.

So why do people buy BCDs? I think because they’re a whole unit. As a shop you can just sell something off the shelf. A BP/W set up needs to be sized up, have straps cut to length… even so, it doesn’t seem hard to do. Technical divers have some other techniques within the so-called DIR mantra which are useful takaways, like having a very long hose to your primary reg so you can donate it in a hurry to someone in a confined space. Meanwhile you just grab the secondary which is bungied under your chin. Standard BCD stuff has a short primary and a short secondary, and the secondary hands around on a clip at your waist and bashes into everything you swim over, frequently gets dislodged from it’s holder and is generally bollocks.

I would have moved sooner but I was umming and ahhing about whether to make the jump to twin manifolded tanks. I haven’t because it’s more money than I wanted to spend. It was expensive enough to have to buy some extra bits to make it all work but I’m very happy with it. Now I’m staring down the barrel of the Victorian winter and feel properly equipped for diving when the weather permits. The dry suit and wing set up is  a fantastic way to dive. Looking forward to going back to Tasmania in a couple of months, it’s a spectacular place with some legendary diving. So good on the last trip we had to do it again…

This time, however, I’ll endeavor not to do 48 meter deco dives on a single tank…

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

What it comes down to is that regular open circuit scuba gear (we tend to call it OC) is remarkably simple, well understood and pretty safe when it comes down to it. Rebreathers are expensive, complicated, introduce the same complex theory required of deep (technical) diving (and you need to literally breath that theory) with the ultimate result that they’re not very safe. A shedload of people have died on rebreathers. Plenty of them were muppets but lots of them knew what they were doing too. The most popular make in the world are refered to as the YBOD – yellow box of death. It’d be funny, if it wasn’t often true.

As far as benefits, there’s a lack of bubbles (good for photography etc), nice warm/humid breathing gas, extremely long bottom times (up to four hours sort of thing) and the ability to breath expensive mixes of gasses like trimix (has helium in it and enables you to dive 50-60 meters and beyond)  far more efficiently, and therefore cheaply, than open circuit. Even the regular boat dives that we like to do, diving with a good mix of nitrox (enriched oxygen air essentially) is often not practical because they can’t fill nitrox at the dive charter outfit near the pier. That means we dive near 40 meters on air, and that is not very good at all. It means poor bottom times before you run into decompression obligations and you suffer from fatique due to the nitrogen loading. A deep dive to 40 meters can really bugger up what you can do for the rest of the day too.

Something I keep asking myself, however, is how much of this is that well known male pursuit of feeble justification? That’s a good question and I’m not sure I know the answer. What I do know is that I’m as excite about this as anything else I’ve ever done so if we stick within the realms of acceptable safety – the only thing we have to lose is money. Lots of it… but it’s only money, that’s what it’s for.

All this is just in the nick of time because I’m at a cross roads where my next training is OC technical diving. I need to buy a load more gear for this, twin-set tanks, regulators wing, harness, stage bottles, HID torch and so on. Thousands of dollars of gear just to be able to do the training. My dive buddy and I were under the impression this was desirable in order to maybe,  just maybe, move onto rebreathers in 2010 after loads more exhaustive research and talking to people in the know and bag loads of technical diving training and experience. After all, neither of us is in a hurry to die. The big surprise to me has been in the last couple of days I’ve spoken to some experts who’ve disagreed with this approach. The timing is impecable too because it seems that rebreathers in general are on the cusp of the greatest shake up in their history.

The Open Revolution Apocalypse MK IV Sport mCCR Rebreather

It’s been pointed out to me, by ‘Rebreather Baz’  Australia’s foremost trainer, servicer, and all-round rebreather expert, that essentially we don’t need to do that OC training and that in fact it would be a waste of money. Baz reckons we should be spending our money on CCR specific training (which he happens to do, to be fair) and of course saving that money for CCR equipment. That was a bit of an eye opener. In another development I heard of and subsequently began researching a brand new rebreather made in Scotland called the Apocalypse Type IV Sports mCCR. This is a pretty stunning development. It ticks so many feature boxes that I wouldn’t have expected to be able to tick while managing to be half the cost of other rebreathers. Some of those features include CO2 monitoring, unbelievably low weight, built-in automatic bail-out (what happens when your rebreather packs up), insanely low work-of-breathing (it’s harder to suck/blow air in rebreathers than OC and this is a big deal) and more besides.

The catch is it’s only just in production but on the other hand these guys are active in the commercial rebreather area and have performed demonstrably more testing of the Apocalypse than any other rebreather on the market. I’ve been up to my eyeballs in what they’ve done and it’s impressive but no matter how technical I am, no matter how good at research I think I am – I haven’t seen one, and neither has anyone else.  Still, it appears to me that they’ve done a lot of this by genuine objective research rather than the much more usual approach of ripping off some previous unit which is what is seen a lot in the world of rebreathers. Not that this kind of evolution of critical life-saving equipment is a bad thing but I respect someone coming in looking at the issue from the ground up. Particularly if they’re good at it.

Naturally these upstarts are ruffling some feathers but having waded through just some of the thousands of posts about the subject on Rebreather World, and knowing first hand that there’s several people in my state who have placed orders sight-unseen, and a lot more worldwide to do the same, it’s clear there’s something going on here. This is an important product and an important company. Even if it turns out to be flawed, everyone is going to be asking why can’t rebreathers cost this much, why can’t they have CO2, why can’t they contain all your bailout gas on your back and not weigh 50kg?

It’s more than that though. The idea here is an affordable and safe rebreather for recreational diving. Something closer to the mass world of OC sports diving than the murky, opinionated and cultish world of technical diving. It’s brave, because this stuff is still dangerous and the companies involved have to put vast effort into their safety and training programs (you can’t just buy and dive) just to be able to defend themselves when people inevitably die. The guys behind Open Revolution rebreathers seem to be approaching it in an industrial-scientific way which is going to involve a lot of re-writing some of the rules and then spending vast amounts of effort patiently explaining your approach to everyone else.

What does this mean for me? Well, it means I’ve vetoed the idea of buying loads of technical gear. I’m going to continue to immerse myself in research, talk to the traditional rebreather community and wait until there’s Apoc units in the wild being dived but I now think there’s a reasonable possibility that I’ll have an Apoc on my back in 2009.  There’s just no point messing about with OC any more, at least as far as pursuing technical. I’ve got the gear and experience to do most recreational diving in most conditions on OC.

If I want more the path is CCR and the safety features in the Open Revolution gear, at least when it’s all working as advertised, are such that I can see taking the plunge happening a lot sooner than I believed just a few days ago. The trick, as ever, will be to maintain a level head – continue with the research and temper the excitement with superior judgement.

P.S. Amusingly my dive shop owner, knowing full well our interest in CCR, scratched his chin thoughtfully before declaring; “You know, of course, that for rebreather divers your account is strictly cash on the barrel?”

So in I go under the pier with Mark from Aquability, my dive shop, his partner and the rest of the shore divers. Couple of us diving drysuits for the first time and as with all significant gear changes, it’s a really damn good idea to test it out in the shallows first. The experience was pretty interesting. Firstly, the backplate and wing set-up is definately more balanced trim wise than a BCD, and the fact there’s air in the drysuit also lends itself to a great cruisy horizonal trim. However as normal I only carried enough weight to get under in the shallows which meant I was knocking about with no air in the wing at all. They might be balanced well at depth but with no air a twinset is a heck of a lot of weight on your back, no more barrel rolls for me…

I ran into this issue with the drysuit where air collects in the feet making it very hard to vent, you have to orientate feet down and try vent from the shoulder. It was tiring after awhile but I reckoned I had the hang of it, and it’d be fine at depth where it would be easier to maneuvre feet down, right? Wrong…

We go off the the proper boat dive, I hook up with James to buddy up with. First half of the dive is great. Trim is excellent, it’s very smooth and glidey, and it’s nice carrying around such large amounts of gas in a twinset – we were aiming for a 50-min total run-time. Everything was going great for the first half of the dive, then as we ascended, the air in the drysuit expanded and collected in my feet again. So I attempted to invert and vent from the shoulder but wasn’t adept at it. This maneouvre would also also lose a lot of depth to the point I decided to abort and swim down and try again. Obviously the further up I go the worse it’ll get if I can’t vent.

I had to perform this maneuvre three times and failed every time. This was absolutely exhausting. In the end I swam right the bottom, grabbed hold of some kelp and planted my feed on the ground. James saw I was in distress and came to assist venting. He later said he could see it was collecting in my shoulder rather than the vent. At any rate it was done, we carried on but it really wasn’t a great experience. This started at about 16 meters so looking back I wasn’t in massive danger, I could have just gently swum down, slowly ascended. No chance of a safety stop though, I was just infuriated at the time that I couldn’t solve it.

Amusingly since we were both on different gear than usual neither of us had an SMB and ended up a long way from the dive boat. Fortunately they saw us anyway, haha. By this point I had a massive CO2 headache, something which I know too well from my tendancy to skip-breath but this time it was entirely exertion based. It seems I’m reluctant to gulp enough air under workload for whatever reason.

In all, it was a relatively minor diving accident with no major harm done but it was a good demonstration of just why people extensively test stuff out in shallows. The moral of the story is that I was aware there was some issue I needed to solve on the pier test. Next time I shore-test new equipment I should be absolutely certain I have it nailed before taking it on a boat dive. To fix the issue I need to be aware of body position when trying to vent, I’ll also use some leg clips or possibly ankle weights to avoid the problem. I also need to fit some sort of padding to the inlet valve of the suit to avoid the nasty bruise I got from the suit squeeze.