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Mike, I dunno. Y'see, with these fancy computers that OC divers can use, it is taking all the "thinking" out of diving. In some ways, that might be a good thing, like automatic pilot on airplanes. But when we are talking rebreathers, we are not just talking technology making our lives easier - we're talking technology making each of us rebreather divers a damned engineer. Even if I just want to do 2 hour dives to 50 feet, and photograph fish to bore all my dentist friends, I still have to understand a tremendous amount of theory and maintenance to dive a rebreather. Scuba has evolved to become quite easy to learn and practice. The dive equipment for scuba is extremely reliable, and durable. Most of it works no matter how badly it is treated. The same is not true for our rebreathers, as you know. The average Joe who wants to dive in the Caymans to 40 feet to look at corals can do so relatively easily. Rent the gear, throw it on, jump in, look around, come back out, go get a margarita, and try to pick up on the waitress. To do that with a rebreather, Joe will have to trust that the rental house maintains the 'breather in excellent condition, he'll have to understand advanced gas physics (like the "advanced nitrox" course you mentioned), he'll have to learn a totally new method of buoyancy control (which is something I'm still mastering), and he'll have to understand how to manipulate at least 6 different gas addition strategies. See what I mean? It aint like the old days of scuba, where you had to worry about your reg free-flowing, or whether or not the J valve was up or down when you started your dive. This shit is complex. I think that is why so many of the yahoo's out there are advocating semi-closed with passive addition. It is the simplest kind of rebreather. The idea is (I'm sure) that if you build something simple, then anyone can dive it. No PPO2 to monitor, no multiple gas combinations, no sensors to burn out... etc, etc... Witness the Fieno ads tha feature a 12 yr. old Japanese girl wearing one on her back - see? Everyone can dive a Fieno! 'Cept after they kill a dozen or two people... But like I said before, I could be wrong. Kevin HeyyDude
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