Thread: Tanks vs breath hold lets get your thoughts.

Freedived a lot as a teenager living in the tropics. Up until a few years ago, could still do 3 lengths of a 50m pool on a single breath, along the bottom, no fins. Got my NZUA ticket in 1980 (CMAS 1 Star equiv). Over the next 6 years sold two lots of gear due to engagement rings and car payments. That was when finance rates were running at 21%... Racked up several hundred hours recreational diving (um, bug hunts) here and in the tropics then switched to TDI qualification in 2006, Nitrox, then Semi-Closed Rebreather, then Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures. Sold my SCR breather a couple years ago with the intent of getting a Revo CCR but work prevailed. Still have two twinsets, deco slings, OMS wing, harness and regs, custom Bare drysuit. I take that stuff to my grave, I'm so over having to sell my hard earned equipment...

Getting back to the OP, if you want the best of both worlds, get a breather. You'll get closer to the prey, have phenomenal bottom time, stay warmer and enjoy your tasty burps several times over!

I breathe the long hose.

Ray.

What are these breather things?

Originally Posted by gadgetman

What are these breather things?

They've been around longer then Open Circuit. They come in a few flavours but basically all have an ambient breathing loop incorporating a scrubber to remove CO2 and a counter-lung that is basically a flexible reservoir that opposes your lungs.

SCR = Semi Closed Rebreather about 8 times more efficient than Open Circuit, runs on a fixed percentage of Nitrox so the O2 partial pressure varies with depth. The SCR trickles Nitrox into the breathing loop at a fixed rate, so there is some wastage being vented out of the loop as you're only consuming the O2 and the Nitrox has other gas constituents that you don't use.

CCR = Closed Circuit Rebreather about 25 times more efficient than Open Circuit, mixes pure O2 with a diluent (usually Nitrogen or Helium based mixes) and maintains a fixed O2 partial pressure regardless of depth. The CCR only injects O2 when required to maintain the O2 partial pressure at the set-point. Very little excess because you're body is consuming the O2 at very close to the same rate as it's being injected.

this is me on the Canterbury...