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I just wanted to say to the assembled group here that it was a pleasure to meet a lot of you at the Rebreather Forum this last weekend. Finally putting faces to names like Billy Deans, Rich Pyle, Pete Heseltine, Chris from Abyss, Bev Morgan, the Pink One, and many others that my small brain hasn't registered yet was great. For those of you who got a chance to dive my rig in the pool session, I want you to know that it took me 4 hours to get all your goobers out of my breathing loop, but I also found a pair of socks in there that I had lost a few months back... The information presented in the forum was at times interesting, boring, and enlightening - typical of forums of this sort. One of the biggest impressions I came away with from this forum is that rebreathers are still a developing art, and no one seems to have all the answers yet. The boys from the Navy made a point that they have done the research, and we should all follow their lead, but I have seen that individuals such as Farb have done things with these units that the Navy hasn't even considered. I was especially interested in the ppO2 tests that the Navy presented, and now feel even more comfortable with a working ppO2 of 1.2 on my rig. I'll leave higher setpoints for the more experienced dudes like Farb, Pyle and McKenney for now. One question I didn't get to ask the Navy was their experience with O2 "spikes" during a dive (i.e. - you're at 1.2 and you have a spike to 2.0 for 20 seconds - what is the data on your likelyhood of tox in that short a duration?). Maybe someone out there has some relevant data. Another thing that this forum made very clear (in my opinion) was that rebreathers are never going to replace compressed gas in the general scuba diving community. Your average dentist on vacation to the Bahama's has a tremendously higher chance of hurting himself using ANY kind of rebreather than either Nitrox or compressed air. This is going to be a really tough issue for rebreather manufacturers and training agencies alike. That point was made abundantly clear by that lawyer that stood up in the middle of the session and essentially told all the assembled manufacturers that if they don't put every single aspect of their units, and mixed gas diving in their manuals that accompany the rigs, that he was going to have a field day suing the pants off of them. I can just imagine the size of the manual that would accompany my CCR-155 if that were the case. Imagine if you had to do that for a car: You'd have to explain (in detail) how to rebuild the catalytic converter, and include schematics of all the electronic circuitry. The manual alone would weigh as much as the car. You'd also have to go through a years worth of training at Ford to learn NOT ONLY how to rebuild your car from the treads up, but also how to mix gasoline to make it run, and how it behaves at each particular speed. What a mess that would be... One last observation: There were a lot of people on the dias representing "rebreather manufacturers" but the only significant representation of actual working rebreathers was from BioMarine. I was surprised that Dick King was so silent on the issue, since he was so well represented by attendees. In fact, at the dive, there were 3 CCR-155's (Rod's, Leon's and Mine) - if Mark Thurlow and John McKenney had brought theirs, it would have been a BioMarine Blow Out. Now I know why Rich left his Cis back in Hawaii (oh, I forgot - He needs permission from Nordstrom just to open the carrying case... Got you there, Richie... ;-) ) Bottom line for me was that the technology to make safe, effective rebreathers is here, but no one is quite certain how they should (or even IF they should) get them into the hands of the general diving public. These things are still incredibly complex when compared to tanks and regs, and only those individuals who are willing to put forward the time and energy to fully use them within the parameters of their operational requirements (read knowledge, training, and strict maintenance) should dive them. That said, I also believe that there are sufficient individuals out there who are willing to conform to those requirements to provide the manufacturers with a good market base to serve. Anyway, that's my $.02... Kevin HeyyDude
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