Bill’s Reals Blog - Scuba, Travel & Gadgets

I just saw this on Rebreather World and it’s called the Open Revolution rebreather. Typically, rebreathers range from $5,000 to as much as $20,000, it’s a niche market with boutique manufactures. However, the Open Revolution is looking to upend that model and come to market with a manual closed circuit rebreather (mCCR) that will retail for approx $1500 USD.

For your $1500 you get an injection-molded mCCR with back-mounted counter-lungs, integrated diver alarm system in a heads up display (HUD), integrated carry handle, harness and first-stage regulators.

The catch? It’s not on the market, it’s unproven, currently has no CE rating and is being manufactured by a 3rd party company.

Link to RBW

To whom it make concern, please consider me a “stroke” for this day forward.

About 7 years ago, I got into Tech Diving/Cave diving. I remember it vividly because my psycho-ex-wife tried to throw all my dive gear away the day before I started taking my nitrox course. I quickly got hooked up with DIR/GUE and progressed thru Cave 2, Tech 2 and other courses.

Let me say that I’m interested in all diving equipment/techniques, be it DIR, monkey diving, cave diving ,wreck diving or rebreather diving and I frankly don’t believe the GUE mindset of rebreathers killing you if you so much as touch one. Also, I’m a geek, no’f said

I was always interesting in rebreathers but thought they were voodoo. Something that didn’t have a mission in my diving. However, I kept my eye on them and recently thought that the risks were far outweighed by the benefits of them.

Basically, my dives were deep and for “big dives” I was humping a heavy set of doubles and a bunch of stages for one dive. Also, I starting to do exploration dives where you really don’t know where you might end of up and need some flexibility. I felt a CCR was a great tool for these requirements, with the added feature that I would be silent to marine life and have a huge gas supply at almost any depth.

I then went thought the selection process which I can only describe as trying to find out which brand of car you like best. Coming from a DIR/HOG mindset, I didn’t want anything on my chest to clutter it up, which only left back mount counter lungs.

Next, I took part in a rebreather experience course and tried both a manual and electronic rebreather. I really liked the manual ccr and didn’t really care for the electronic version, as I felt like I was merely a passenger in a car and I really prefer to drive. During this time I did a bunch of reading, asked a lot of questions and settled on a KISS or a rEvo.

In the end, it came down to cost. I was offered a very good deal on a KISS and that, as they say, was it.

I liked the rebreather experience course that Robin Jacoway of Deepoutdoors, taught and I wanted to train in the area that I would be doing my diving. Deepoutdoors is in Poway, CA which is only 20 mins from my house and we have a plethora of dive spots that are great for training.

Day 1:
The class was Robin’s first KISS class and was team taught with Dan Crowell. There were 3 KISS divers and 1 rEvo student. We went thru the academics, and built our units, it was a long day. But I was like a kid in a candy store, I get to really do something with my rebreather.

Day 2:
Pool rebreather diving. Buoyancy wasn’t bad, DIR slams buoyancy into you, so adjusting to the lack of lung volume affecting my trim wasn’t a big deal, but it did take some time to dial it in. Then it was back to Deepoutdoors to strip, clean and prep our units for the next day. Oh and go through more class room material. Since it was Sunday, Nate and I volunteered to get cylinders filled for the class at the dive shop Nate works at. We loaded up my truck with a gazillion rebreather and bailout bottles and then spent the next 2 hours waiting for the shop manager to get back and open up the shop.

Day 3:
Open water beach diving @ Marine Room. We kicked out to horrible vis and a leaky manifold on my KISS unit, so my dive was only about 30 mins before I had to head in. We had planned on doing two beach dives but Robin scrubbed the second due to the poor conditions. Then it was back to Deepoutdoors to strip, clean and prep our units for the next day. This was also the start my nightly rebuilt project as each night something new would fail the negative test.

Day 4: Open water boat dives. Motored out to the artificial reef, Yukon, off the coast of San Diego. We were practicing our skills a little deeper and did three dives on the Yukon with no major issues. I did have my DSV o-ring go out on the last dive but this happened as we were practicing our bailout ascent so it didn’t ruin the dive but did make it more realistic. Then it was back to Deepoutdoors to strip, clean and prep our units for the next day. Oh and repair my DSV/BOV.

Day 5: Back on the Yukon for out two last dives. These dives were going to be deeper and longer while we practiced our skills and adjusted to the unit. This is the first dive where I really started to pay attention to anything besides my PPO2 and I got real close to all the fish and listened to the the silence. Theses were fun dives and allowed time to fine tune our oxygen addition, minimum loop volume and learning the muscle memory of where everything is on the rig.

Then it was back to Deepoutdoors to take the written tests and then Robin informed us that we passed. We are now manual rebreather operators.

A short piece aired near the top of 11pm news Sunday night on Channel 8 here in San Diego, ca I have not been involved in discovering or researching this, I involved in the video shot.

The wreck is the Cape Charles (previously referred to as the “workboat” by some). It was discovered in January 2007 by Ray Arntz and Gary Fabian while they were searching for the nearby TBM Avenger (http://ub88.org/avenger.html). Tyler Stalter and other divers found the wreck shortly afterwards and have done several dives on the wreck to establish its identity.

Tyler Stalter says:

“After many dives the SDTechDiving.com team has finally identified a 110’ long, steel hulled vessel off Point Loma. This vessel is sitting upright and intact on the bottom in 165’ of water. After hours of bottom time we were finally able to gather valuable evidence to use to identify the unkown wreck. Al Bruton was able to provide some valuable insight into how the vessel wound up off Point Loma. The vessel in question, “Cape Charles” sunk in San Diego bay. It was slated to be re-floated and towed to wreck alley for disposal in the late 80s. En route to wreck alley the vessel capsized and sank in 165’. Her tumble is evident in the debris strewn around the wreck and the gash in the bow from the towline. Another link is the abundance of large inflatable “lift bags” to float the wreck in the bay for towing which are all over the exterior and even the interior of the wreck as well. After reviewing all of these clues it is our opinion that the wreck we have been diving is in fact a 110’ ft hulled vessel known as the Cape Charles. This is the perfect wreck for any technical training in the San Diego area. Several decks to penetrate and some very cool features such as the large intact crane on the aft deck, debris field and its unique placement just off the tip of Point Loma will make this a very popular wreck for technical divers.”

Dive Report:
We dove it Saturday morning at slack tide. Vis on the wreck was about 15′. Temp was 50F. We dove trimix due to the depth. 25min bottom time, 70min total runtime with deco. Some people dove rebreathers, some dove open circuit doubles plus deco gas.

VIDEO:
KFMB doesn’t have the broadcast video on their website, but here is the raw video (not including Tyler’s studio interview):
http://rogerbly.s3.amazonaws.com/video/cape-charles_iphone.mp4

(NOTE: this video is 100MB, 10min. Can be viewed in Quicktime, VLC, Totem, or any mpeg-4/AVC/H.264 player. In Quicktime, best to use File->Open URL… with the above URL. That way you can watch while it downloads.)

To divers, traveling on airlines with tons of scuba gear is almost always a pain. Add a rebreather and it can get even more complicated. You have weight issues, extra baggage fees and the fear that something will get broken, stolen or confiscate.

I saw this on San Diego Tech Diving and Rebreather World and it’s an excellent run-down of all the issues.

I work for the airlines in the US, so I will try and throw in my 2 cents.

- TANKS. you can travel with tanks (ill advised) as they can be siezed by TSA without warning and you will not get them back. They must be checked, valves removed, with absolutely nothing blocking the tank opening. They can be asses even about clear packing tape over the opening, or they can be cool. It is anyones guess. Pre-ship or make arrangement at your destination for tanks.

- SORB. Easier to pre-ship. There has been discussion on another forum about putting all of you sorb in a Kitty Litter tub and checking it in as baggage. Probably illegal but who knows. There are MSDS sheets you can print out and attach to your sorb tub. BUT while passengers have followed all of the rules on taking sorb on the plane the TSA has still chosen to confiscate it. You have no recourse for the confiscation, it is gone. Make back-up arrangements at your dive destination for SORB purchase.

- Rebreather. Carry on what you can, the delicate parts, the computers whatever you don’t want the baggage handlers or TSA rooting through (without your presence), possibly stealing or confiscating. Double check the allowed carry-on weight allowance.

- Check you airline website for weight restrictions for both carry on and cheaked baggage. All airlines are different and they change all of the time. Weigh you bags at home and work out the weight distribution before you get to the airport.

- I took my KISS CLASSIC as carry on baggage the last time I travelled, with my computer, DSV, put other parts in my scrubber. Just be prepared to take it all out and show them EVERYTHING.

Sometimes it is just easier to ship everything, with insurance.

Link to article

This is from a couple of years ago and the video quality isn’t great but it gives a quick introduction to the KISS rebreather.

The KISS rebreathers are like the rEvo in many regards some highlights:

• Easier to travel with
• include an integrated bailout value (BOV)
• have 3-independent oxygen displays
• non-integrated harness and wing
• easy to repair as most of the parts are off-the-shelf from places like REI/HomeDepot

It lacks:

• the modular scrubber
• integrated HUD
• tool-less maintenance chassis, the KISS needs tools

These units are about the same in cost but know that both of these units are sold in units other than the USD so the price for these units fluctuates as the United States Peso Dollar moves.

Rebreather Pro has a nice video review of the rEvo rebreather. It’s a manual closed circuit rebreather that has been on the market for a year or two and has been getting pretty good reviews for it’s users.

Features:

• Manual user controlled closed circuit rebreather
• Unique twin scrubber system, two are sometimes better than one
• Integrated Heads Up Display (HUD) with redundant oxygen monitors
• No-tools-necessary low-profile stainless steel chassis
• 80m or 240ft depth limit

Check out the video.