(underwater splashing)(electro music)
- Hi, I'm Walt Stearns.
I'm the Editor-at-large
with Scuba Diver Magazines Destination,
and I'm going to be here
doing a test dive
on Dive Rite's new chest mounted, closed circuit rebreather.
And if you enjoy the video
be sure to like it and subscribe.
(upbeat techno music)
- [Walt Stearns] What possessed you to go
with a chest mount?
- [Lamar Hires] We started with a back mount
with over the shoulder lungs
and then went to back mounted lungs.
And then this right here was just, you know
the next generation.
Looking for something
that divers could travel with easier,
now that everything's getting more expensive
and then also something that will integrate
with anybody's core set-up,
whether their diving is single, doubles, or sidemount,
that this can be added on
and not become the actual platform for your diving.
And there were some things
that I wanted to do in terms of certain exploration
that everything conventional out there wouldn't work for.
- My own experience with diving rebreathers
began as far back as 2003,
which I learned on a Inspiration Classic.
And then few years after that
jump to a manually-controlled KISS rebreather
and I've been diving those for quite a bit.
And in between I've done some try dives with the Poseidon
and the Prism 2.
Usually really for photographic purposes
for working with skittish wildlife
because it allowed me to move around quietly
without interrupting them too much,
as well as giving me that added time
to spend there
working with that subject
which can take a couple hours just to get that one shot.
Now that I finished droning on
about my own experiences,
let's get wet.
(slower techno music)
- In order to put this unit on
there's two clips up here.
They can be adjusted for height,
usually higher than what you would normally
have a set of D-rings, so a second set's always better.
Now right there is perfect.
So then you've got a D-ring here.
- Yep.
- And here.
- Yep.
- to be able to tie in the bottom.
(background techno music)
- [Walt Stearns] What makes this rebreather interesting is,
is a fully electronic CCR
and it uses Shearwater controllers.
And the two popular configurations
is the wrist mount
with a HUD
or my personal choice would be with the Nerd 2.
That way you have all the information
right there below your eye.
A few things that Lamar ran me through
such as where the manual oxygen add,
fill add,
as far as getting familiar with the shutoff valves,
playing around with that a bit
after I did that
I kind of swam around for awhile
in the regular pump position
even kind of rolled over on my back and on my side
I wanted to see how the breathing characteristics changed
from one position to another.
One of the things that I was surprised at
is the work of breathing, especially
in a prone position as chest mounts
are notorious for being difficult on the exhalation.
Breathing is going to be a little different
than what you're used to,
if you're used to a back mounted or over-the-shoulder,
everything, like I said is a compromise.
You know, during this dive
I'm wearing somebody else's equipment
I'm not totally comfortable in it
but at the same time I felt comfortable enough
where I can function well enough
to handle my own camera,
shoot some pictures of Lamar and Jared,
as they're swirling around with it.
During the dive itself, I was actually turning in my head
what I can do to personalize the rig
to make it fit more to me,
because that is one of the things that Lamar stressed.
The way this can be configured
so you can dive it more comfortably.
The clips I really liked, I liked that idea
and the fact that it's used in a four-point attachment area
two up on the shoulders, two more at the waist.
It makes it very easy to take on and off
in or out of the water and looking at it,
if I were to go without the oxygen bottle there,
this thing, it would be just super light.
Just click, click, click, and off I go.
Dislikes?
It's, you know,
that to me is a very personal type thing.
I'd have to get a little more accustomed
to something being in front of me
because I normally don't have anything
encumbering my front.
Bottom line is you can't get something
straight out of a box and have it work for you
the way you want it.
It's everything always has to be adjusted.
Um, when I'm in really shallow water,
even at a set point of 0.5
it just keeps wanting to drive more oxygen in there
then what I'm metabolizing,
so I'm constantly burping off gas.
Um.
Once I got below 30 feet,
it was in a happier zone
and then everything worked the way it was supposed to.
So it was a lot, is was an interesting piece of equipment
but it was definitely one of those,
it got, got me intrigued.
I'll put it that way.
Um, say it put a whole realm of possibilities.
I'm Walt Stearns
and we just finished our wrap up
on diving the Optima chest mounted rebreather.
Do you dive a rebreather?
Or are you thinking about getting a rebreather?
We invite your comments on Scuba Divers comment's section.
Hope you liked this video.
Be sure to hit the like button, if you do
and subscribe to see other videos down the road.
(upbeat happy music)