Well said. The only thing I would add is that if you own a rebreather and 
use it- BEWARE!! You will never go back to open-circuit. However, keep your 
open-circuit life-support equipment because you can strip parts or 
modify to use in your rebreather to make it a deeper machine.

On Fri, 1 Sep 1995, Richard Pyle wrote:

> 
> > As for rebreathers, well...that's a totally different beast. I'm not sure
> > that anyone right now has the best answer for `How to train on a
> > rebreather?'.
> 
> I suspect the USN has the best and most insightful answer to that one.  
> The German military might be just as qualified.  Not many others yet...
> 
> > I'd be willing to bet that becoming a safe and proficient
> > rebreather diver is going to involve more than what most think is
> > sufficient now.
> 
> That's an understatement.  However, I am becoming increasingly convinced 
> that tons of experience on open-circuit scuba is not necessarily a 
> beneficial prerequisite to rebreather diving.  In fact, such experience 
> may be harmful in 1) providing undue overconfidence, and 2) establishing 
> habits which need to be deprogrammed.
> 
> While it is true that the amount of training required by a non-diver to 
> become a qualified rebreather diver is much greater than the amount of 
> training for a non-diver to become a qualified (not certified) scuba 
> diver; it is NOT necessarily true that the amount of training required by 
> a non-diver to become a qualified rebreather diver is much greater than 
> the amount of training required by an experience trimix diver to become a 
> qualified rebreather diver.
> 
> Some of the qualities a prospective rebreather diver should have are:
> 
> 1) Enormous discipline
> 2) Humility
> 3) Solid comprehension of gas physics
> 4) More discipline
> 5) Patience
> 6) Good mechanical abilities (and brain)
> 7) Yet more discipline
> 
> I'd be very interested if any of the other rebreather divers on this list 
> have different viewpoints.
> 
> Aloha,
> Rich
> 
> --
> Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@terra.net'.
> Send subscription/archive requests to `techdiver-request@terra.net'.
> 

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]