Transition to CCR - YOUR experience?

[aainslie]

Very useful stuff - thanks everyone.

Brian - now you've got me thinking about a holiday in the Bahamas!!!

Hans - some great thoughts, thanks.

All in all, good thoughts as I proceed.

[FW]

Very useful stuff - thanks everyone.

Brian - now you've got me thinking about a holiday in the Bahamas!!!

Hans - some great thoughts, thanks.

All in all, good thoughts as I proceed.

Now *that* would be the way to do it !!

[apitkin]

Some excellent advice here.

A CCR is just one tool (a very useful tool, but not the only one) for breathing underwater in a cave. Often it's the wrong tool for the job, and sometimes it's the perfect solution. Other solutions include backmount doubles, sidemount and no-mount.

Diving in caves is not merely about what kind of underwater survival equipment you are using. It's about swimming techniques, line management, navigation, buoyancy control, conservation and situational awareness. These have very little to do with the equipment used to breathe underwater.

My feeling is that it is better to acquire these skills without the distraction of trying to manage a rebreather at the same time, so I think aspiring CCR cave divers should take the course in OC, and gain experience before adding the additional task loading of a rebreather.

From what I have seen, experienced OC cave divers have little difficulty transitioning to using a CCR in caves, apart from some early problems with managing buoyancy control and trim. That OC experience is invaluable in planning adequate OC bailout, as well as having a level of practice with basic cave diving techniques that allows more attention to be used for monitoring the rebreather, rather than worrying about how to run that reel or whatever the task is.

Just my thoughts.

Andy

[MengTze]

.....
From what I have seen, experienced OC cave divers have little difficulty transitioning to using a CCR in caves, apart from some early problems with managing buoyancy control and trim. That OC experience is invaluable in planning adequate OC bailout, as well as having a level of practice with basic cave diving techniques that allows more attention to be used for monitoring the rebreather, rather than worrying about how to run that reel or whatever the task is.

Spot on!!!!

[BillBowden]

I'd been cave diving over 20 years when I got my 'breather. I did the YBOD basic class, 2 after class o/w dives, then started back to caves. I'd say it took me @ a year to get back to where I was before going to the rebreather. Very conservative, build up of experience. Yes, I also did some o/w diving during the year. If you're already an experienced cave diver, I don't see the need for a formal course to transition to RB. Stick to familiar areas for your first 50 hours or so. If you're diving w/ open circuit buddy(s) think very carefully about bailout- for everybody. I have had failures in caves, but nothing I couldn't recover from. My unit tends to crash and burn in the first five minutes, or work flawlessly for hours. In @ 500 hours I've only had one real life "oh s**t" experience. Which tends to cause me to really trust the reliability of rebreathers...about as far as I can throw them. Still, nice to know if I misplace the exit, I've got hours to figure it out.

[aainslie]

Thanks everyone. Great advice all around.

I'll be in Ginnie in a few weeks, and am going to just take it easy in there getting used to it. Looking forward to it!

[Luxrok]

Thanks everyone. Great advice all around.

I'll be in Ginnie in a few weeks, and am going to just take it easy in there getting used to it. Looking forward to it!

Andrew,

One of other piece of advice, always get your buoyancy sorted first. I know it seems like obvious advice, but I can become distracted by the task at hand and forget to stop and get completely sorted before I start the next task like running a spool or reel. If you don't the task at hand will become increasingly difficult as you fight your trim and bouyancy. One of my instructors like to say, "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast." This applies big time on the CCR. Everything takes level of concentration we may not need to apply to OC.

Also, spend some time with your reel and light in your hands in open water where you can change depth. Practice hitting all the right buttons while task loaded. Running a reel through the trees at Orange Grove would be a great exercise. You can start in shallow water, 5' and work you way down to 40' and develop a little rhythm to equalizing, adjusting loop volume and wing volume. I was surprised how much more difficult it can be when the loop volume starts to shrink faster and faster because you are accelerating downwards. Before you know it, if you left your ADV closed, you have nothing to breath.

I haven't had that happen in a while, but it did happen in the beginning.

Hans

[ScubaAl]

Back in Feb I was in the High Springs area doing my RB training on the Inspiration Vision (open water). After the training I spent a few extra days in the area. After completing a OC dive at Devils I was relaxing and enjoying the great weather (I live in MN). I see a diver heading towards the water wearing a Inspiration RB. I head over to the water to talk with the diver. He was conducting a RB cave training. The instructor was Martin Robson http://www.eau2.com/EAU2%20Instructors.htm He was very friendly and more then willing to talk RBers with a newbie.
If training is considered, he might be one to touch base with.
Al

[aainslie]

Edited.

Florida has lots of resident instructors who are great. I'll stick with them if I train in FL, thanks very much. Jill Heinerth and Tom Mount for starters would be great. Or a holiday in the Bahamas - now THERE"S an idea !!!