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Tony, You said: >>Please explain. What options do you have with your unit? (in the event of >>various failures) Hokay, here it goes, one more time.... You are at 130' - diving open circuit. Your first stage blows, all your gas is now in the water. What do you do? You are in Fiji, clear water, warm water, nice buddy with you, who happens to be 50' away photographing one of Pyles counterlung eating fish. You've been down a while, and only had 1200 psi left in your tank - enough for the 5 minutes of deco you needed, as well as your safety stop before exiting the water. You don't have a pony, because this is just a little recreational dive on a reef with a live boat. You also don't have a SpareAir because McKenney told you you looked like a girl wearing it. Well, the answer is simple - you bail to the surface - get to the boat, maybe breathe some O2 for a while, or if you are bold, grab another tank, and do in water recompression. Maybe you get bent, maybe you don't. The old lady bitches you out for not using her brothers spare-air. You kick McKenney just before you pass out... Now, you're wearing a CCR-155. Not only do you look cool underwater, but the women all want you on the boat. In fact, they've thrown your wife overboard while you were making your dive. Lots of fun awaits you when you emerge from the abyss looking like a cross between James Bond and a Navy Seal. But your first stage on your O2 bottle just blew. All your O2 rushes into the sea. Bummer. Well, you've still got a counterlung full of gas at 1.2 ATA of O2, so you can sit there for a second and think to yourself "Damn. That O2 isn't cheap. I'll have to steal some more from McKenney.." You begin your leisurely ascent, stopping briefly to rip the mask off of your buddy because he's just an open circuit weenie anyway... As you ascend, your ppO2 will be dropping, but that's no biggie, you've got a full sphere of Diluent, which you can add manually as you need it to refresh your loop, and breathe down the mimimal amount of nitrogen you have built up. You have no real deco time, so you do a safety stop just to make sure you are flushed, and get back on the boat. The women swarm you, and give you banana daquiri's. You vow to call Dick King on the satellite phone and have him ship you a new 1st stage, just as soon as Monique stops nibbling on your ear... Second scenario - Your Diluent 1st stage just blew. Bummer. Now, you do the same thing, except the unit automatically adds O2 to the loop to maintain your setpoint. Maybe you swim over and pull your buddy's shorts down to his ankles this time. Let that moray eel that's hiding under the rock where he is floating have a good look at today's lunch... You get back on the boat, the women have cooked you a pile of shrimp. They feed it to you, as Monique oils down your body. Third scenario: Electonics failure. Bummer. Gotta fly this dude manually. You take a look at your secondary display, and add O2 manually as you need it. Maybe you don't even abort your dive. Maybe you slip on over, pull your buddy's mask off AND turn off his air, just to watch his face. It makes you laugh. You get back on the boat. The women have decided to surprise you by being naked on the deck. You smile. You know you are cool. Fourth scenario: Electronics failure, AND you blow BOTH first stages. Bummer. Gotta fly manual, and leave the water. Only reason you gotta leave the water is because only the ghost of your now dead wife could cause both those things to happen at once. She wants your ass. Bad. Luckily ghosts aint too smart. They forget that you've got a whole lung/counterlung/scrubber full of oxygen rich gas. Since you did your training and learned just how long you have to go before that mix becomes hypoxic, and you've got your secondary to tell you when you are in danger, you swim over to your buddy, tie his leg to the reef, and cut his hose. After all, he IS Monique's fiancee, and you want her bad. You ascend, waving good-bye to your buddy, do a safety stop, and get back on the boat. Monique is very happy. She feeds you grapes. You impress the women with how close you came to death. They hang on your every word, then give you a full body massage. McKenney questions the truthfullness of your story, the women throw him overboard too. Life is good. As the sun sets, and you sit on the sun deck smoking the Cuban cigar that Monique has lit for you, you reflect on the days events, and thank your lucky stars that you had the sense to become... "Rebreather Man..." I hope you now see the wisdom in buying a rebreather. Kevin HeyyDude
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