I’m in between San Diego and LA and I haven’t left the house in three days. I’m staying with Jeff Bozanic, one of the most knowledgeable and experienced rebreather instructors on the planet, learning rebreather dive theory and spending hours in the pool getting comfortable on the units. Closed-circuit rebreathers are complicated units, far more so than open-circuit systems (what you use on a recreational scuba dive, for example). Every time you exhale on an open-circuit scuba system, you’re wasting a ton of oxygen. Our bodies only metabolize about 4% of the oxygen in each breath, so open-circuit is wildly inefficient. A rebreather, on the other hand, recycles each breath, scrubbing out carbon dioxide and adding oxygen to the loop as necessary to keep the gas we’re breathing at safe levels. In order to do so, complex electronics are required to analyze the amount of oxygen in the breathing loop at all times and to automatically add oxygen when O2 levels drop. The added risk inherent with diving rebreathers is that electronics don’t mix with salt water, obviously, so if the rebreather isn’t prepped properly, something could potentially fail underwater. The difference between an equipment failure on open-circuit and closed-circuit is that you tend to know immediately on traditional scuba gear (there will probably be lots of bubbles) while problems on closed-circuit systems aren’t as apparent. To make sure we’re diving safely and can address any problems that do pop up, we have to know the rebreathers inside and out, which means hours of learning what every piece of the system does and what would happen if it fails. Thanks to some busted electronics that we caught in our pre-dive checks and the fact that I had been doing a heck of a lot of soldering at DUI last week, I got a bit more training than I signed up for!
We head out to Catalina Island tomorrow for the open water dives required for the certification, where I’ll be testing out the DUI heated undergarments and working on my skills on a rebreather!
Hey Josh, I hope you enjoyed the rebreather class as much as I did. I’m glad I got to meet you, you’re a great guy and an outstanding dive buddy. I’m sure you’re off on a new adventure by now and having the time of your life. Best of luck and be safe. Hopefully I’ll see you at DEMA, so until then, take care. Shoot me an email sometime, I’d like to get a copy of the video and pics. Have fun, Ryan