Rebreathers With(out) Tears

Martin Ackner

sometime pilot and amateur marine biologist, and discoverer of Hippocampus ackneri

(The Drager Dolphin is a semi-closed circuit rebreather, or SCC. The Buddy Inspiration is a closed-circuit rebreather, CCR – Ed.)

As the factor 50 soaks in accompanied by the gentle tinkle of ice slowly melting in the gin & tonic, my mind wanders back to September ‘98. A smile crossed my face as I remember Sarah’s and my Dolphin SCR course in the Florida Keys; warm and gentle seas with great viz.

Then I remembered my Inspiration course at Portland at the end of May this year. The smile vanished in an instant to be replaced by a great shudder; the cold gin & tonic ended up in my lap. I leapt up and sat on the uncapped tube of sunscreen, which shot out causing a few anxious glances in my direction.

The course had been planned for the previous year, shortly after two weeks of intensive diving on the Dolphin in Western Australia and then the local wrecks off Brunei. However, so much for the best laid plans!

This year would be different, we were definitely coming back to the UK for a friend’s wedding, and the tickets and leave were booked. The course dates Nigel offered would tie in perfectly, however, my plan to brush-up on some basic rebreather skills never materialized. Borneo Divers in the nearby island of Labuan, my normal source of nitrox, had broken their blending equipment and were awaiting spares from the States.

And so to the UK and the start of the course; the first day was spent in Kingston on academic work, learning among other things that the first real CCR was called the Electrolung and what the initials CCUBA meant. Assembling and checking the unit gave a good insight into its design, operation and maintenance; simple but clever as most good designs are. The evening was spent in a local swimming pool trying to find neutral, or indeed any buoyancy, and practicing drills. My apologies to those of you who were displaying this and other skills only to be attacked as I careered out of control around the pool.

The next day was spent at Wraysbury reservoir, and my first meeting with a drysuit! (Steep learning curve ahead – Ed). To say it was an interesting day would be an understatement. Amongst other things, I saw a lot of mud, a container and various road signs. Also I found out that a sub-tropical polartec hood is stuff all use in 12⁰C water. And so to Portland!!

I borrowed a neoprene hood from F & B that made an enormous difference to the heat-loss and the first dive seemed to be going well until we ascended after 60+ minutes. Halfway to the surface I lost buoyancy control and plummeted back to the bottom. Failing to add diluent to the loop with increasing depth, I was unable to breathe and bailed out onto open circuit badly hyperventilating; not a good thing on a 3L bottle with about 100 bar left. My knowledge of the Electrolung and what the initials CCUBA meant were not much help either.

Microseconds later Nigel arrived and took charge of a badly frightened and very scared student. Not my finest moment, but perhaps a long overdue wake-up call after so many years of trouble-free tropical diving.

The dives over the next two days were less problematical, though considerable time seemed to be spent with a hairdryer stuffed up the CO₂ scrubber. Definitive Tek diving perhaps! By Sunday evening I had actually passed the course and felt relaxed enough to visit the famous Breakwater Hotel.

My thanks to Martin Hull for putting up with me and being a great buddy, ditto Nigel plus the rescue and for just being Nigel, as well as everyone else we met for their help and friendship that made a long weekend a great one. We will be back to see you in Portland, not to dive most likely, but we now know where F & B and the Breakwater are!!

In the end however, the drysuit had the last word; the rash on my throat from the neck-seal went septic, but responded well to antibiotics. The cut that the inflater valve delivered to my nose the first time I removed the suit has scarred and still will not suntan.