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You are probably reading this as either a very experienced and competent recreational diver, or as a qualified and regimented open circuit technical diver. Either way, you want to take your diving to the next level and have already promised yourself a rebreather. Maybe you’ve already read Jill Heinerth’s excellent ‘The Basics Of Rebreather Diving’ and have familiarized yourself with a new glossary of terms like ‘scrubber’ and ‘dsv’ and ‘bov.’ With dozens of commercially available CCRs on the market, how do you choose a rebreather you will be happy with?
Between the cost of the unit and the training involved, getting into rebreather diving is a huge commitment of time and money. You want to choose wisely. Trouble is, there is so much cloudy information out there. You can go down countless forum rabbit holes and discover online shouting matches as to why (XXXX)-rebreather is the best rebreather blah blah blah. So let me try to guide you, give you structure in your search, not towards buying the rebreather I dive, but to help you find the rebreather that is right for you. And yes, I will be using the clichéd car analogy.
I drive a pick up truck because I run a diving company. I am not a truck dude. If I had a boring office job, I would probably get myself something sporty and german. But a truck is the right vehicle for the job I do. I have a nice truck, with comfort and performance enhancing features. My truck is two wheel drive because I don’t need to tow anything and I live in Florida which is as flat as a pancake. I can afford the truck and the maintenance it requires.
When you’re picking a CCR, it works the exact same way. What features do you want? What features do you not want? How much money do you have? You might have german sports car desires, but korean shitbox money. So either make piece with your korean shitbox, or make/save more money.
Of course, I own and dive and teach on a Divesoft Liberty. I like it a lot. Is it the best? Best at what? The best for me and my type of diving? Yes. The best for you? Who am I to say? Only you can answer that. Once you’ve read Jill’s fantastic rebreather book, make notes on features you’re interested in and make a list of questions. Then you need to be real about your budget for buying a unit and add about 10% for additional accessories (nobody ever talks about this, but you’re going to want new fins for your CCR, maybe a new bailout reg, transmitters if you don’t already have them. You buy your unit, which leads to the desire for more parts and accessories. Hey, I didn’t make the rules.) Now you have a budget amount and a list of features you want. That should help narrow the field. What’s next?
Just like buying a car, reliability is a key deciding factor for your new $10-15K purchase. But, as with any advanced technology, rebreathers break. When they break, how easy is it to get parts? Hell, how easy is it to get someone on the phone from the manufacturer to even order parts?
Unlike most major car companies, CCR manufacturers do not shift large enough volumes of their units to employ customer service teams or 24hr tech support. Amazingly, still some rebreather companies consist of ‘one guy in a garage’ knocking together rebreathers. And whilst that ‘one guy’ might be an engineering genius, what happens to your rebreather if something happens to that one guy? Can you still get parts? Service?
As an exercise, I’d recommend calling the rebreather companies on your shortlist. Or sending them an email through their website. How long does it take them to respond? Does anyone answer the phone? If you struggle to get a response when you’re a potential customer of theirs, how helpful do you think they’ll be once they’ve already got your money?
Demos. Try-dives. Demo as many units as you can. Go to tech diving events and try units out. Go to CCR week or Tech week in Bonaire. Go to any event or festival where you can try CCRs on your shortlist. There are certain factors to decide which unit is right for you that you can only discern in the water. How does the unit sit on you? Is it too long or too short? How does the work of breathing feel? These are things a glossy website can not tell you. And yes, this adds time to the process, but it gives you a greater chance of finding CCR true love. I have dived about 12 different CCRs and the Divesoft Liberty is my favorite. Lots of people out there will tell you their CCR is the best. Ask them: how many CCRs have you dived? Usually they’ll say: ‘Just this one. It’s the best.’ Ok then.
It’s a debate as old as time. If you’re new to this game, let me explain the state of CCR Instruction. Imagine you’re a driver’s ed instructor. You’re teaching student drivers in your Volvo C90. Your students, once they’ve passed their tests, can then only drive a Volvo C90. No other makes, no other models, not even different Volvos. That’s how CCR instruction works, unit specific.
I am certified to teach the Divesoft Liberty Backmount. I can teach the classic, light or heavy versions of the Divesoft Liberty (think of these as trim options) but I can not teach the sidemount unit.
So do you choose a CCR Instructor you want to teach you and just buy whichever unit they teach, or do you buy the unit you want and then search for an Instructor on that unit? B. Buy the unit, find the Instructor. Here’s why.
At the end of the training, you’re left with the unit. It has to be the right CCR for you. You have to love it, want to dive it, miss it when you can’t dive it and dive it whenever you can. You may have your local guy at your dive shop, who you know is a cool instructor, super nice dude, but of the unit they’re qualified to teach isn’t right for you, that you don’t love diving, that CCR is going to sit in your closet or garage and then go end up on the secondhand market. If you don’t believe me, go check the secondhand car market for a list of peoples’ ‘expensive paperweights’ they got bored of looking at!
Decide on the unit, then find the instructor. The absolute best way to find an authorized CCR Instructor is through the CCR manufacturer. And then, as with any dive course, speak to a bunch of different instructors for the unit you’ve chosen and find the one who’s teaching style, you believe, best suits your learning style.
What I would advise against, is convenience. Don’t buy a unit and train with an Instructor just because that’s the unit they teach, they’re local to you. If the stars align, and that’s the unit you’ve landed on and the Instructor is cool and local to you, that’s incredible, go for it. But make your own informed choice about the unit first.
You were a solid OC diver. You were confident in your skills. And now you’ve gone closed circuit and everything you knew has changed and now you suck. It’s OK. I’m here to tell you… it’s OK to suck.
As the great prophet Axel Rose once sang, all you need is just a little patience. Give yourself 30 hours. 30 hours on the unit to get yourself right. I can’t tell you how many secondhand rebreathers I see for sale and the ad says, ‘like new. dived 5 hours.’ You are going to hate yourself. You are going to suck. You are going to have days when you curse the money you spent on this thing. I know, I’ve been there. Patience and persistence. And then somewhere around the 30 hour mark, everything will click. And you’ll be a CCR diver.
At Miami Technical Diving, we provide highly personalized instruction. We build a course tailored to your specific goals and needs.
Schedule a free consultation and we’ll help build the perfect training plan for you.