Quote: (Originally Posted by
Alastair)
First chance I've had to login for ages and what do I find but Chasey talking bollox!
What's the WKPP done this year? Or how about DIR Mexico? Or the Norway expedition? Sounds like plenty of deep diving/exploration without an ECCR or an MCCR in sight.
If you want to come up with a standarised system for rebreathers that make it safer then go for it. But please pick another name. DIR means weighing up the risks vs the rewards and making the safest decision. If you need more gas than OC then the RB-80 is proven technology. The balance of risk for CCR makes them impractical for DIR as they stand today.
If I reach the limits of OC then RB80 is the right path. If you can't pass Tech-2 and the RB80 course then you're not experienced enough to use one hence you've not reached the limits of OC
Cheers
Al
How many 60m+ dives can you afford to do in a year M8 at £150+ per dive
I have 32 booked for 2007. How many have you got booked?
Game over I win
Thats the problem. Its has nothing to do with major dives like WKPP are pulling off. The fact remains normal divers like you and me are limited by such simple stuff as money. I pay £15 in gas, lime and batteries to do a 60M dive or a 160m dive and you by comparison pay hundreds of pounds.
As an OC diver i could afford to do a handful of 60-100m dives in a year. As a CCR diver haven't pre booked a single dive shallower than 60m for May onward in 2007
We are diving new wrecks and exploring new areas. This is the second golden age. The first was the opening up of trimix depths to OC divers. Now we have access to the areas where logistically the OC divers couldn't go. As a result there is still untouched stuff in the 60 -100m range in the channel. Soon any new discoveries will be 100M+ or rely on special research and investment like shallow discoveries do now.
As for cave diving? DrJM is pushing 200m deep caves with another successful dive to 190m recently. Cedric and Dr Mike are pushing 200m in new caves in Thailand and they are presently involved in diving a 210m deep sub
All on CCR with very very small support teems.
Can you point me at any projects that are being carried out to similar depths on OC or PSCR?
WKPP and similar projects have monster support teems and massive preparation. Whilst this all sounds cool the truth is a ECCR with redundant ECCR back up could pull off the same dives with a massive reduction in logistics.
So on one hand we have a massive operation thats expensive and demands huge manpower and on the other we have a system thats cheep, logistically light weight and requires greatly reduced manpower to succeed.
Guess who wins?
ATB
Mark Chase