The New Dive Rite Optima CM - My 30 Hour Review

[rddvet]

I don't know how to upload a photo. But if you're in Florida near cave country, you can dive mine. I'll sanitize it and everything. Lol

I?m in st pete. I may take you up on a scooter ride and check out the unit.

I?ll keep the corona at home.


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[Superlyte27]

Just say when. We should have instructor credentials from TDI soon.

[chuuk]

I was lucky enough in Feb to dive the unit for about 11 hours for the week I was in Florida. Two of us were diving, we had the prototype and the first production model. The ease of on and off and no weigh to the unit.
The unit not only looks good but performs great

[Superlyte27]

I was lucky enough in Feb to dive the unit for about 11 hours for the week I was in Florida. Two of us were diving, we had the prototype and the first production model. The ease of on and off and no weigh to the unit.
The unit not only looks good but performs great

I believe we met in Dive Rite when you were here. I was the guy who didn't buy you guys lunch.

[bent]

Has anyone used that Optima with a scooter yet? Is it in the way of the prop wash?

Are people using this rig in Florida now or is it just Pete? Is it getting popular is what I'm asking, I guess. I think I might want one when the US border open back up. If anyone has an opinion on it, I'd like to hear it. I also like to hear what sucks about it.

[bent]

Oh, and I have one more question. How do you carry stages with that thing straped to your belly.

[MinimalMayhem]

Has anyone used that Optima with a scooter yet? Is it in the way of the prop wash?

Fwiw, my experience diving a triton, which is also chest mount, might help:

Scootering is absolutely fine.
Chest/shoulder area is as you might expect, busy. For me this makes top mounting hard because it is hard to reach around the bag with left arm to get to a boltsnap when mounting right cylinder (and vice versa on the other side).
Bottom mounting is straightforward but on triton a bit more fiddly reaching o2 and dil manual add as they?re on the sides of the bag and stages get in the way a bit.
Hope that helps.


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[bent]

Bottom mounting is straightforward but on triton a bit more fiddly reaching o2 and dil manual add as they?re on the sides of the bag and stages get in the way a bit.
Hope that helps.


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It is? It looks like front mounted stages would block both manual adds. So you need to push the tanks aside to add gas I guess.

[MinimalMayhem]

It is? It looks like front mounted stages would block both manual adds. So you need to push the tanks aside to add gas I guess.

Yeah that?s what I meant by a bit more fiddly but it is only a bit. For me, the o2 on the right it is actually pretty easy: I make a thumbs up and my thumb fits in the gap between the stage and the bag, hooks around the hose feeding the mav button so it is straightforward to pull the mav forward a bit and press the button.
Again that?s the triton, don?t know if that would work on the optima ofc.


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[bent]

Thx, MinimalMayhem. The Manual adds seem to be in the same position on both units.

If found that same OP on SB and read through that and Peter said this:
"... FYI, there's currently about a 5 month wait on Sidewinders, and we don't even know how long the wait is on the CM. These seem to be the two most popular rebreathers in cave country lately. ..."
If this is true and lots of people diving the choptima in FL now, I find it odd that nobody is wants to say anything about it. I know the board is almost dead... but jeez. I know at least rddvet and draker are still reading stuff on here ... is that choptima really that popular now?

And FYI (not that anyone give a ####): Several people in that SB thread said that, other than the triton, no other mCCR has CE. That can't be right. The Revo mCCR and at least one Submatix unit was a mCCR and was also sold in the EU.