Rebeather Build up Dives Advice

In recent analysis the casual factors leading to incidents has indicated that many divers get into difficulties for the following reasons:

They do not have the correct experience for the dive being conducted<
They have not sufficiently prepared for the dive being conducted
They have not practiced a schedule of build-ups dive after a lay off greater than 3 months (too deep, too fast again)
Use of unfamiliar equipment
Poor buoyancy control

This has resulted in contributing to the following statistics:

A continued increase in the number of incidents relating to deep diving
A significant increase in reported cases of DCI

This could also be relevant to new rebreather divers who have recently completed a basic rebreather course but have little experience of rebreather diving without the supervision of their instructor. A suggested incremental sequence of dives, to ensure that rebreather diving skills are developed progressively and are kept current, is shown below:

10 dives to 10 metres maximum
20 dives to 20 metres maximum
30 dives to 30 metres maximum
40 dives to 40 metres maximum

Obviously if the new Rebreather diver has no previous experience to the depths indicated the progression should be more extensive to build confidence and technique.

Before using new skills, e.g., decompression diving within the boundaries of their certification, the new rebreather diver should practice making stops at the desired depth before incurring a decompression penalty. In addition, prior to decompression diving the rebreather diver should be totally at home with deployment of a delayed surface marker buoy (DSMB) including bottom and mid-water deployment. For all these dives it is suggested that a reliable and experienced buddy is chosen.

The BSAC has a comprehensive development program specifically aimed at the newly qualified rebreather diver to provide support with integration into the branches. This is of value to DO’s, TO’s, Dive Marshalls, Buddies and anyone within the branch who comes into contact with a rebreather diver.

These Build-up Dive Programs are available for download from this web site or on request from BSAC HQ for both the Closed Circuit Rebreather diver and the Semi-Closed Rebreather diver.
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Page last modified: 16th Aug 2006 - 14:31:25