Rebreather Training

Becoming a rebreather diver will change how you experience the underwater world. Closed Circuit Rebreathers (CCR) offer unique benefits and risks compared to standard open circuit diving. You’re granted the ability to stay longer, use gas much more efficiently, and do it all in silence.

Rebreathers are the stuff of action movies. They recycle the gas we breathe, remove CO2 and inject oxygen and diluent to maintain a fixed PO2 breathing system. We can extend our dive time at depth, optimize our decompression and dive in silence. The benefits of rebreather diving make it an appealing tool for deep divers, cave divers and photographers. It is extremely important to approach rebreather diving in a calculated manner and get properly trained – even between different unit models.

I am proud to offer training on the Dive Rite O2ptima CM. The choptima or chop for short (it’s not the proper name but it’s more fun) is a versatile chest mounted rebreather. It can easily affix to almost every gear configuration and has many awesome features that have caused it to explode in popularity over the past few years. I have experience with other rebreathers but have decided to make the choptima my primary unit for diving – in caves and the ocean.

Courses are primarily hosted between South Florida shipwrecks/reefs and North Florida springs.

Diving the choptima before it’s 2020 release.

If you have no rebreather experience then you’ll begin with a “MOD 1” course. Depending on your decompression diving experience and dive goals there are a few options for a mod 1 course and certification. All of the options require a similar amount of time. Your first rebreather course will have more academics than many open circuit classes, along with a big focus on assembling, disassembling and caring for the unit.

There are two main reasons that experienced rebreather divers are purchasing O2ptima CMs. The first is to upgrade from their existing units. Their units might have legacy elements like proprietary electronics, ABS plastic construction or maybe just aren’t reliable units. The choptima is a versatile and relatively simple unit. It’s an attractive upgrade for units that haven’t evolved with modern manufacturing and technology.  The second reason is mission specific diving. The choptima can be used when negotiating tighter passages or traveling to remote locations. Oxygen can be offboarded and it pairs with any configuration style. The chest mount configuration is the most versatile configuration.

Regardless of the reason, new users need a crossover course. The crossover course is a short – typically 3 day – program that introduces specific elements of the new unit and reviews rebreather skills.