Dive Rite Demo Days at Cave Adventurers

[jimdiverman]

Left home yesterday (Friday May 2nd) afternoon to drive to Marianna, FL. Stayed at the new Fairfield Inn in Marianna right off 71. I think I am the first person to ever sleep in the bed. The hotel is in great shape, and if you are coming down here for the NSS-CDS workshop at the end of the month and you don't have lodging arrangements yet, I highly recommend it.

Showed up at Jackson Blue around 8am this morning (Saturday May 3rd) and started putting my kit together while helping Steve, Jeff and John get the DiveRite gear unoaded and setup. Since there were only two of us signed up for the Rebreather demo at 9am, we had the opportunity to listen to John Faircloth tell us about Optima rebreathers and related stories about diving on rebreathers, what he likes about them, and why he still prefers the Optima over the other models. After waiting a little longer and no one else signing up, we then decided to grab a quick bite to eat. Edd and Stacy from Cave Adventurers cooked up hamburgers, hot dogs and all the fixins for those of us that came to this event. The food was great.

So finally it was time to get suited up in the Optima and get in the water. This was my first time on a rebreather, so I breathed it a few minutes under the pavilion to get used to it. The first time I took the mouthpiece out, I let all the gas out of the loop. I was careful about closing the mushroom valves after that. Once all the harness adjustments were made and I was in the water, John went through some checks on the Optima. There is a red light (DVA?) that is supposed to blink in a particular way if all is working properly. All three sensors were indicating PO2 in the loop and you could hear the valves opening to add diluent into the loop whenever makeup was required. John let me swim around in the open water while he swam behind me. I didn't find it particularly difficult to breathe through it. It wasn't as much work as I thought it may be. I was a little underweighted during the dive, but I was trimmed out pretty well even though I had a 80cf stage bottle on my left side for bailout. (I never needed to breathe on the bailout reg in the water.) I only swam around for a few minutes (there isn't much open water at JB deeper than 8 feet. I got to spend a little while with John at the surface discussing the operation and maintenance of the gear, particularly the canister. You do not pack the scrubber of an Optima like some other rebreathers. You use a scrubber canister which has a limited shelf life and limited life once its been opened. Its whole mission in life is to take CO2 out of the loop. One of the most unnerving things about rebreathers is that if you don't properly track your scrubber life, there are no CO2 sensors on the rebreather to tell you that the CO2 in the loop is rising. The sensors measure O2. The other gases in the loop are Nitrogen and CO2 prior to the scrubber, unless the scrubber media is exhausted. Fortunately, John and Steve take good care of their equipment.

After the Rebreather dive, we were getting the worst of the storm that came through today. So during the downtime, I checked out the deals going on through Cave Adventurers and wound up buying a pair of RG2500s (complete with 1st stage, second stage, SPG, hoses and carry bag) and a Nomad sidemount kit. You can PM me if you want to know the deal I got. It was a really smoking hot price. I think Edd sold about 8 or 10 Nomads today, and as many or more regulator kits. I still need to break down to get that dry suit. One of these days, Edd...

So Mat (SuPrBuGmAn) called me Thursday night and said he wasn't coming, but on the drive yesterday, he called back and said he was coming. Mat tried out the Nomad and wound up getting one also. There's going to be a whole new crop of sidemount divers soon. Anyway, Mat and I finally decided that it wasn't going to be lightning when we got out of the water, so we got in the water and made one cave dive. I ran the mainline into the cavern, and Mat led us into the jump off the main line to the Goodman circuit. We had plenty of air, but for some reason, I started out of the cave after Mat collected his jump spool when we made the circuit, and we finished the entire dive and circuit on, not thirds, but a third. Sorry Mat. Next time roll off my primary (j/k) . Even though it was a short dive (45 minutes, max depth 91 feet, water temp 69, used 1200 PSI, vis excellent - light length), it was enjoyable to get the dive in nonetheless. It was a new section of the cave that I had never dove previously. The line was in good shape (I think it was pretty new). The only thing we need to fix before the summer is add another step on that farside set of steps into the water. That first step is a douzzy... but that step getting out of the water with twin 130s is even worse. Let us know when you get that done, Edd.

I want to say thanks to Edd, Stacy, Gordon, John, Jeff and Steve for putting the event on and offering us these great deals, as well as their valuable time and experience. I look forward to seeing you all again at the NSS-CDS workshop in a few weeks.

Tomorrow, I'll be at Vortex diving the cave with Eduardo. If you are in the area, come out and join us. The DiveRite folks have about 8 divers that I know of testing out the Optima and Shane will also be offering deals on gear.

Dive Safe!

- Jim

[willardj]

Dang Jim sounds like the deals were there. You and Mat in sidemount rigs now. I want one myself. I'm still in trouble from 2 weeks ago. I'd really would have been in trouble this wekend. Must stay away from Edd's. Haha! How did the RB do?

Jaime

[jimdiverman]

Dang Jim sounds like the deals were there. You and Mat in sidemount rigs now. I want one myself. I'm still in trouble from 2 weeks ago. I'd really would have been in trouble this wekend. Must stay away from Edd's. Haha! How did the RB do?

Jaime

I have been studying rebreathers and talking to a lot of instructors about different rebreathers. Everyone says "try all the rebreathers that you can, but you are going to come back to the one I am using." So the jury is still out.

I like the Optima, and of course, John is a very knowledgable and experienced instructor who dives the Optima exclusively. As John says, "the Optima is designed, manufactured and tested by and for cave divers." There's a lot to be said for being at the back end of a cave with one of these units.

The big questions for me are:
1) is technology evolved enough to jump in,
2) is this the right price point considering RB manufacturers want to start tapping the recreational market (i.e. cheaper)
3) do I know enough yet to make an informed, intelligent decision about which RB I want to dive with.

I think the jury is still out in my mind on what I want. This was only the first RB I ever dove. I certainly was impressed with the Optima. At least now I have something to compare future RBs to.

Jamie, you missed some great diving today. Are you coming to NSS-CDS workshop in Marianna at the end of the month?

- Jim

[willardj]

I have been studying rebreathers and talking to a lot of instructors about different rebreathers. Everyone says "try all the rebreathers that you can, but you are going to come back to the one I am using." So the jury is still out.

I like the Optima, and of course, John is a very knowledgable and experienced instructor who dives the Optima exclusively. As John says, "the Optima is designed, manufactured and tested by and for cave divers." There's a lot to be said for being at the back end of a cave with one of these units.

The big questions for me are:
1) is technology evolved enough to jump in,
2) is this the right price point considering RB manufacturers want to start tapping the recreational market (i.e. cheaper)
3) do I know enough yet to make an informed, intelligent decision about which RB I want to dive with.

I think the jury is still out in my mind on what I want. This was only the first RB I ever dove. I certainly was impressed with the Optima. At least now I have something to compare future RBs to.

Jamie, you missed some great diving today. Are you coming to NSS-CDS workshop in Marianna at the end of the month?

- Jim

I really want to try a RB out as well. Maybe one day I'll get to one of there Demo Day's to try one. I am trying to get someone around here to go with me so I can split the fuel with. I want to get back down there for this. There is going to be alot of great speaker's. I think I found a guy here that want to go. Have to check back with him. A guy in my scuba club. Hope to know more real soon.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Enjoyed the dive Jim, doesn't matter that it was short, the Goodman circuit is always fun. The line there is new, as you expected, you can thank Jim Clark and Ben M here on CDF for that, the new placement is very nice!

I think I'm going to enjoy tinkering with the new setup.

[willardj]

Mat you going to break the dub's down or use other tank's?

[RN]

So, Mat, let me know when you're ready to see some new passage in JB...

[jimdiverman]

Enjoyed the dive Jim, doesn't matter that it was short, the Goodman circuit is always fun. The line there is new, as you expected, you can thank Jim Clark and Ben M here on CDF for that, the new placement is very nice!

I think I'm going to enjoy tinkering with the new setup.

I just got home. It was a long day again. I hear ya, Mat. We are going to have a blast with Edd showing us how to get around in those sidemount rigs.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Mat you going to break the dub's down or use other tank's?

At first, just gonna use AL80s and keep the HP130s backmount. Its very possible that I'll break the 130s down once I get finished with classes and get dialed in to sidemount more.

So, Mat, let me know when you're ready to see some new passage in JB...

Looking forward to it, and looking forward to getting into some of the tighter divesites I already know about that I'm too big to access in backmount!

[turtle]

The whole reason we (husband and I) were making this trip was so he could get some time in with his new Nomad and we could do some JB diving. Well we bring along my 104 doubles and a set of 85's (already set up for sm, came with the nomad).
So he gets into the water and just goes on about how great it was and that I had to try it. Thankfully Edd asked Stacey if I could test out her system (thanks again Stacey, hope you get to dive it soon!).
So here we go both in SM diving into JB. The "flow" was great and the part where I was not struggling to get to the water in doubles was even better!
I ended up buying a nomad for myself and we came back on Monday to get in more dives with my new gear. The best part was putting my tanks in the water and jumping out when all was done.
So long, BM 104's hello SM 85's. Life is great!! Especially when you have a dive buddy that enjoys spending funds on more dive gear. Thank you!!
Now to get more dives in to work out the kinks. I've already had to add more weight to my shoulders. Thanks again Dive Rite for the great deals and to CA for the good grub.