Learning to Dive on a Semi Closed Rebreather - Taking Recreational Diving to New Realms
Most leisure divers will only ever dive on open circuit.
Mention diving on a Rebreather and they'll think straight away it's for technical diving and very expensive.
Well, the Semi-Closed Rebreather (a steping stone before diving on a Closed Circuit Rebreather) is easy to learn to dive on and can provide big benefits to recreational divers.
Read on to find out more about what a Semi Closed Rebreather (SCR) is and what's involved in learning to dive on one.
What is a Semi-Closed Rebreather? There are several types of Semi Closed Rebreather.
With PADI you can take the PADI SCR Speciality course and learn to dive on a Dräger Dolphin.
The Drager Dolphin uses as standard a 5 litre steel cylinder fill to 200 Bar with Nitrox or enriched air.
But, this relatively small cylinder can give you up to 180 minutes of dive time - Cool! The Dräger Dolphin is a very simple, reliable all mechanical unit.
It has several key elements: inhale and exhale counterlungs, scrubber unit or canister, breathing loop with mouth piece, regulator, dosing head with integral demand valve and finally a 5 litre steel cylinder.
However, the unit can be fitted with just about any size cylinder within reason.
You just need the right adaptors.
The Drager Dolphin unit uses a constant mass flow mix of pre-mixed Nitrox (EAN) 32 to 60 and is rated to a depth of 40m.
How does a Semi-Closed Rebreather work? Order of things - Gas passes from you via the breathing loop to exhale counterlung and onto the scrubber unit.
The scrubber unit removes the CO2 and allows the gas to pass to the inhale counterlung.
In the inhale counterlung Oxygen rich gas is added "Nitrox" and then it travels via the breathing loop back to the diver.
Nitrox is added continuously throughout the dive to replace the oxygen metabolised by the diver.
How can I learn to dive on a Semi Closed Rebreather? The PADI Semi Closed Rebreather (SCR) Diver Course with Borneo Dream in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah allows you to move into the realm of technical diving without the costly investment in the equipment as the rental of the Dräger Dolphin re-breather is included in the course.
Diving on an SCR increases the bottom time of your dives significantly with a lot less bubbles than open circuit diving - meaning you can get very close to marine life without disturbing it.
Great for underwater photography and videography.
The PADI Semi Closed Rebreather (SCR) Diver course is 2 days in duration.
There are some pre-requisites for the course.
Divers must be:-
Mention diving on a Rebreather and they'll think straight away it's for technical diving and very expensive.
Well, the Semi-Closed Rebreather (a steping stone before diving on a Closed Circuit Rebreather) is easy to learn to dive on and can provide big benefits to recreational divers.
Read on to find out more about what a Semi Closed Rebreather (SCR) is and what's involved in learning to dive on one.
What is a Semi-Closed Rebreather? There are several types of Semi Closed Rebreather.
With PADI you can take the PADI SCR Speciality course and learn to dive on a Dräger Dolphin.
The Drager Dolphin uses as standard a 5 litre steel cylinder fill to 200 Bar with Nitrox or enriched air.
But, this relatively small cylinder can give you up to 180 minutes of dive time - Cool! The Dräger Dolphin is a very simple, reliable all mechanical unit.
It has several key elements: inhale and exhale counterlungs, scrubber unit or canister, breathing loop with mouth piece, regulator, dosing head with integral demand valve and finally a 5 litre steel cylinder.
However, the unit can be fitted with just about any size cylinder within reason.
You just need the right adaptors.
The Drager Dolphin unit uses a constant mass flow mix of pre-mixed Nitrox (EAN) 32 to 60 and is rated to a depth of 40m.
How does a Semi-Closed Rebreather work? Order of things - Gas passes from you via the breathing loop to exhale counterlung and onto the scrubber unit.
The scrubber unit removes the CO2 and allows the gas to pass to the inhale counterlung.
In the inhale counterlung Oxygen rich gas is added "Nitrox" and then it travels via the breathing loop back to the diver.
Nitrox is added continuously throughout the dive to replace the oxygen metabolised by the diver.
How can I learn to dive on a Semi Closed Rebreather? The PADI Semi Closed Rebreather (SCR) Diver Course with Borneo Dream in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah allows you to move into the realm of technical diving without the costly investment in the equipment as the rental of the Dräger Dolphin re-breather is included in the course.
Diving on an SCR increases the bottom time of your dives significantly with a lot less bubbles than open circuit diving - meaning you can get very close to marine life without disturbing it.
Great for underwater photography and videography.
The PADI Semi Closed Rebreather (SCR) Diver course is 2 days in duration.
There are some pre-requisites for the course.
Divers must be:-
- 15 years or older
- PADI Open Water Diver or Advanced Open Water Diver or equivalent.
- PADI Enriched Air Diver or equivalent
- A sesson on the theory of an SCR and kit preparation
- Half a day of pool/confined water skills
- And 3 open water dives
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