Surprisingly there were lots of spaces available, so we both put our names down. Wetsuits and towels and wet speedos(!) were provided by BSAC. No thanks! No way was I going to wear another man's jocks! So I went commando! Sorry BSAC! Ian had sensibly brought his own trunks - good DO!
Ian ended up having a play on an AP Diving Inspiration and Bob had a go on an AP Diving Evolution. It was very different to using open circuit equipment. For starters it was almost silent, with the only noise being made whenever the unit automatically added Oxygen or diluent to the loop. The air was also nice and warm and moist - none of this cold+dry throat tickling nonsense! You also have two large counter-lungs on your chest that seem quite big and bulky, and mine kept wanting to float up in my face. Almost like breasts, or so I imagine! The last huge difference is that breathing in and out has no affect whatsoever on your buoyancy, as you're breathing from a breathing loop that has a constant volume.
So what was it like? Well, we got to spend about 10 minutes swimming around the bottom of a 4 foot deep swimming pool! At least there were toy animals and underwater Frisbees to play with! The strangest (best) thing was that you could almost talk through the mouthpiece, as there wasn't the hiss of compressed air. Although that could be a downside for some people - at least the chatterboxes can't currently talk underwater on normal SCUBA equipment! The electronics console had all the information you could ever need to know on it - mainly the ppO2 in the breathing loop. The units even had little heads up displays so you could tell at a glance if anything was wrong.
We both really enjoyed ourselves, and did think for a moment about embezzling club funds to purchase ourselves a couple of rebreathers!! I did make the mistake of asking how much mine cost - only £5000! Oh, and the best part of the day was getting a sticker to put in our log books! Deary me!
