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> So, here's the $10,000 question: Let's see....ten grand, huh? Well, O.K. I'll answer. Send me a cashier's check to my work address and as soon as I deposit it, I'll send a reply. > How long did you personally train in the > company of a master rebreather instructor? What were the instructor's > qualifications? I'm not trying to be 'upity' with these questions; you > clearly are still alive and using a rebreather after 100+ hours. You > may be one of the few examples we can draw any real conclusions from > (accepting of course that it's never valid to extrapolate from empirical > data :). Kevin Gurr, Jim Boothe and I spent about 10 days at Bill Stone's house about a year ago. We woke up every morning at 6am, spent each day doing the absolute most comprehenisve break-down and build-up of the rigs possible (every nut, bolt, screw, wire, etc), and discussed the rig design/theory until midnight most nights (we all knew "basic" rebreather theory already, so our discussion was focused on this particular unit). Also during this period we each got just shy of 10 hours of in-water time under very controlled conditions with two open-circuit divers watching (one of whom was Richard Nordstrom). When I got the units in Hawaii, I was given orders to follow a very strict and conservative training schedule. Richard Nordstrom wanted to be there for it, and I was going to fly him out, but in the end his schedule didn't allow it so he trusted me to pick my own open-circuit safety divers. He didn't want to ever turn anyone loose on the Mk-4 with less than 25 hours of in-water time under his direct personal supervision; however, he made an exception for me because he trusted my judgement, and he knew I had a baby on the way so he knew I'd be extra super-duper careful. I did my first 30 hours in very controlled conditions at depths less than 30 feet (OK, I once spiked to 40 feet for a few minuts). I cautiously moved out to 60 feet, again under very controlled conditions. Because I was falling victim to the "reliable rig syndrome" (it works well, so you become complacent) without even knowing it, I wanted to go out and do some "real" dives. Well, eventually I did, and only now, many hours of in-water time later, do I realize that I did not know enough back then to start doing decompression dives with less than 50 hours of time in shallower depths first. I didn't have any serious problems (fortunately), so I was lucky. I imagine when I have 200 hours I'll look back at what I'm doing now and shake my head in disbelief at how naive I was. What I'm learning is that most people will probably not fully appreciate the risks of a rebreather until they have a lot of time on one. This means there will be a window of time, from the end of their training until the realities sink in, wherein accidents are most likely to occur. I'm not saying that everyone is going to need hunderds of hours of in-water time before doing serious dives on rebreathers. But without the right combination of a good rig design and an appropriate attitude, I think accidents are likely to happen. Aloha, Rich
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