Posted by Joe R on November 01, 2004 at 21:16:09:
In Reply to: Re: Was this diver using a rebreather? posted by MHK on October 26, 2004 at 14:55:57:
MHK,
I would have to disagree with you that "rebreather divers have a greater chance"
I would take the opposite stance, other than someone totally screwing up their stack or using it beyond its limits, I find OC divers in practice have a greater chance.. Let me tell you why I feel this is so.. I dive both so I think its a valid argument..
OC diver's buoyancy is altered by breathing patterns most OC divers by nature don't have very large volume shifts in their breathing, start working hard, and what little mental control they had over their patterns disappears and gets even shallower..
Experienced RB divers (especially CR divers) tend to have an enormous tital volume since it doesn;t alter buoyancy. The "natural" breathing pattern is very deep slow breaths when nature takes over, the breaths tend to spead up and get a bit more shallower, but since the person normally breaths deep, the gas exchange is quite good.
I know I have been caught in horrible currents where I was breathing as hard as I could and was no where near overbreathing a RB, The only negative effect was that the loop was getting VERY hot (which actually increases the co2 removal capacity) since alot of co2 was being removed.
I think metally a RB diver would also be less likely to panic since The dive KNOWS that no matter how hard he/she breaths runing out of gas isnt a concern.. An OC diver may get paniced further leading to poor breathing technique making the problem even worse.