For those who have not read or heard about it PADI has designed and released two new courses, Recreational Rebreather Open Water and Advanced. For now The Poseidon is the only approved Rebreather to be used for this PADI course, I will not bore you with the details, but most probably more brands will either adjust their existing Rebreathers or come out with new Rebreathers to get them approved for these new courses. As you might think, well isn't this technical diving for people who want to go deep? Let me list a few benefits of using a Rebreather compared to the traditional Open Circuit.
You don't make bubbles or sound, meaning you can get much closer to the marine life. Years ago Draeger had a advertising campaign for the semi closed Rebreather, with a close up picture of the eye of a hammerhead shark and the text "How close do you want to get?". For me this was the main reason to think about diving with a Rebreather, being a underwater Photographer and Videographer it sounds like a dream coming true.
Less Heat Loss, because of the chemical reaction that takes place inside the machine to get ride of the CO2. You are actually breathing warm air. Even in warm water like here in Bali, this is a blessing, during my course I did a 2 hour dive and when I came out of the water I was not cold at all, with normal scuba gear after one hour I will start freezing.
As long as I have been diving I have been intrigued by Rebreathers, but never took the time to take a course, mainly because I thought to technical, too much hassle, too expensive.
When I heard about the PADI course which is focusing on recreational diving not technical diving, and when I got the invitation to join the course I knew this was my time to try it myself, see what it is and check out if it is something that we should be doing.
The course was great fun, first all theory and the DVD had be done before we started the course. As I said I was among the first people in Indonesia to take this course, this course was meant as a kick-off for the new courses and machines. The people invited where all dive shop owners, instructors and Course Directors, interested to see what's new.
The Pool sessions gave me a first feel and glimpse of how it is to dive these machines. Setting up and testing the equipment is a way bigger deal than with open scuba. It will take more time before you are in the water, but once in the water....
You are immediately punished for bad habits that you might have picked up as a open circuit diver, for example breathing through your nose. Your buoyancy works different, there is no effect when you breath in or out. You will feel clumsy, awkward like learning it all over again...
You need to get used to the fact you don't make bubbles and no sound. it's like breathing above the water, you need to start trusting the machine.
For the Open Water sessions we took of to Tulamben, one of the great dive sites in Bali, where we stayed for two days.
These Open Water dives really gave me an inside in diving with these machines. We dove Seraya and the USAT Liberty wreck. It was fantastic, completely different than diving Open Circuit, no noise, the fish where close up, I even had a few Lionfish that did turn there back to me as the normally do but turned around to look at me.
So after the course it was time to make up the balance, is the new way of diving? It, as Poseidon says, the Rebreather revolution here? Honestly I don't know, I know one thing Rebreather diving is not for everyone, there much more preparation and much more work after the diving. You have to be precise and patient. But if you are and you don't mind the extra preparation time, the diving is great.
I believe that Rebreather diving will earn a higher status in the recreational diving world, and much more more people will take it on, I just don't believe it's for everyone.
I think it's a big step forward for the diving industry to have these recreational Rebreather units, which makes it much more accessible for a bigger group, but I also know that this is just the beginning units will get easier, cheaper it's just a matter of time.
So what does this mean for Joe's Gone Diving well we are thinking about it, keep following us and I will let you know :-)
