Tech and Training

How can rebreather diving be made safer? That was the question at the core of the numerous presentations and discussions at Rebreather Forum 3 (RF3) held in Orlando, Florida, this May.

Breathing hyperbaric air causes a syndrome of behavioral and subjective effects called nitrogen narcosis, which limits the work efficiency of divers and is ultimately life-threatening.

Why rebreather divers, even more so than open circuit divers, need to be in control and focused when they ascend.

Learning to dive involves learning a new set of skills. Mask clearing, buoyancy control, regulator recovery and all the other skills that you learn on an open water course are essential for dealing with the underwater world. As a diver progresses through diving they learn additional skills such as using a drysuit, wreck diving or how to rescue their buddy. With technical diving there are again some new skills that need to be learnt.

When I started scuba diving, I became aware of the limitations of an injured body. Every time I carried a scuba tank, the acute pain in my lower back and shoulders increased, and it took a long time for the pain to go away. I did not want to give up scuba diving, so I looked for a solution and found one—diving sidemount.

As the word, rebreather, gains readership in diving magazines, brings novelty to shows and fills the mouths of renowned instructors many industry professionals are thinking of “rebreatherizing” themselves. This is predictable, as the rebreather has been hailed as the “greatest diving innovation since the regulator”.

Jill Heinerth, whose first job was a newspaper route in her home town of Toronto, Canada, is today a pioneer technical diver and instructor, a renowned explorer of underwater caves who owns a record for the deepest and longest cave dive, and a record for the longest dive into an Antarctic iceberg.

This is the moment I have waited for for years. I sit comfortably on the side of Denis Bignand’s dive boat and under my fins, which are already dangling in the water, I have a 400 meter drop off.

Technical diving gives you the opportunity to develop your diving without becoming an instructor. But the diving becomes more difficult, and the technology is not what you are used to.