To say the least modern technology has advanced over the years in every aspect of life including scuba diving. I recall years back when one of the first recreational rebreathers became available; that was the Dragger Atlantis. The manufacturer believed this unit would revolutionalize scuba diving and that every diver would have one. I would not say that was the case due to the high cost, and in reality the limitations of the unit itself. Although I will say, people wanted to have one because of the things that it did offer- the exciting technology of recirculation of gas along with extended bottom times.

As time went on, we all believed the technology would advance as it always does, and in fact, that has happened - more rebreather units became available along with better ways of making the wheel go round. Manufacturers started producing units and over time developed a proven record of accomplishment for each unit they produced. Over the years, I personally always took note to the advancements along with the sheer number of different units becoming available, but I never expected to see myself ever owning one.

It was not until a few years back that I saw the true advantages of rebreathers in the realm of technical diving. We were on a trip down in Ocean City Maryland, the depth ranges that we were diving ranged between 200’ – 250’. Diving with open circuit is doable but certainly not ideal, diving open circuit below 200’ gas management becomes a major issue. For some reason being at that depth the gas just seems to be gobbled up, like very fast, and because of this the bottom time becomes very limited, which means you can’t stay long. The rebreather divers would hit the water before the open circuit divers and exit the water after them. Being an open circuit diver seeing the advantages of this technology, you knew you had the wrong tool for the job.

Now the time has come, one of the issues that come into play is when your dive partner happens to be your significant other is that everything you do has to be times two. Especially if neither of you like to share, so the saying is "why buy one, when you can buy two for twice the price." Considering that, we were making a huge financial commitment. We waited about a year before even beginning to start the research although we did keep our eyes out as to what is available on the market. Being dive charter boat operators, we have the opportunity to see many divers using various types of dive gear, including rebreathers. When we saw a diver using a new unit we would stand back and take mental notes, maybe asking a question or two along the way.

It was not until March of last year did we really begin asking questions, doing our homework to find the right rebreather for us. Funny thing is we had our minds set on one particular unit and with in a few short questions, we determined that was not the unit for us. We went to the diving trade shows to see all the newest, latest, and greatest - we spoke with each manufacturer showing off their units. We asked questions, became educated, would go back to ask the why’s and how’s on each specific unit. The questions we asked become more advanced as our knowledge began to grow; we started asking detailed and specific questions. At no point did we make it easy, especially after we had it narrowed down between two units and decided on one – the PRISM Topaz.

Steam Machines has a good representative - Ron Scorese, who has extensive knowledge of the Prism rebreather and has worked with Steam Machines from their first prototype units. Ron has a strong working understanding of the Prism and he held nothing back in explaining the how’s and why’s of the Prism.  After Ron spent all the time that he did with us, he asked us to go back to the other manufacturers to see how they engineered their units. As the story goes, we did not get the same answers, and we did not get the same explanations as we did with Ron.

When purchasing a piece of equipment of this nature you are going to need to be patient. Thinking about it when you decide to purchase something, you think to yourself, pay the money, and receive the product -sounds reasonable. The reality is the units are built at a slow pace, you could say these units are constructed one at a time, and time is something its going to take. Just to sweeten the deal you need to put a substantial deposit down to put your name on a very long list, the best part is you do not get a confirmed date as to when you will receive your unit. How are them apples? You pay the money and do not know when you are going to see the goods.

Promises, promises, promises, something always made in the scuba diving industry that people just cannot seem to hold up too. The way we had it arranged, is that we would order the units, pay our deposits with the intentions almost a year later that we would be training on our own personal units, rather than rental units. Sounds reasonable and according Steam Machines they did not see any problems making the delivery date, but we still don't have them.  In all fairness to Steam Machines, you are making a commitment to purchase a specialized and technologically advanced piece of gear and it takes time to create these high-overhead, small profit margin machines.  Its not rocket science but knowing the company, man power and resources you would understand why it takes the time that it does to build these units. With all this up front on the table, which we recognized, we accepted the reality.

Putting everything into perspective I guess it would be good to explain why we opted for the Prism over other rebreathers. One of the first points is the way gas is injected from the cylinders into the breathing loop. With the Prism, the diluent gas is delivered into your inhalation counter lung. This would be an advantage as with some other units oxygen is delivered into the inhalation counter lung. The next reason for selecting the Prism was the heads-up display; the display is a feature that flashes lights in front of your eyes providing sensing information as to whether or not the unit is functioning correctly - and it is powered by a standard off the shelf nine-volt battery. I know you're thinking what is so special about a nine-volt battery.  Well, nothing is special about it - and that is what makes it great.  Some other units require an array of battery sources, and in some case’s you need to soder wires.

Other key features included the secondary display, this was the back up to the heads-up display; these are actually powered by output from the oxygen sensors. This device does not require power from the nine-volt battery that powers the rest of the unit. Therefore, in other words you would still receive valuable information as to the unit’s operational readiness without having the unit even powered on. Speaking of on, another feature was the simple magnetic on/off reed switch; wih some of the units on the market, for example, you need to open up the unit to turn it on or off.

Time passed by waiting patiently as we grew closer and closer to our training date. In the process of time passing by the details of the training comes into play. We knew the training was taking place in the winter, we knew that we would be traveling to some place warm. Oh, joy, just how warm we did not exactly know there was some talk of conducting the training in Texas at the NAUI Technical Headquarters, but this was a brief discussion since weather could be tricky even in Texas - and we didn't want to chance being blown out of dives.  We decided it would be best to train somewhere really nice - and it turned out we'd be traveling with a group of technical divers to Roatan Honduras.

Before heading south we had some classroom work to do.  Ron asked if we would join a small group of students down in Long Island, NY. There were six students total, a nice small class, one of the students offered to host the class at her house which was very nice.  The class was going to run over a weekend on both Saturday and Sunday. We met first thing Saturday morning, did the introductions and away we went. Surprisingly enough we knew a few people in the class, which really adds to the whole experience. Many times in dive classes you are not sure whom you are going to meet and how the dynamic will or won't work. Well it did not take long for us to all hit it off and to start cracking the jokes and making a fun time of it.

The two days were long with good food to eat, great conversations and stories shared by everyone and lastly great education. By the end of the class I personally could not wait to dive the unit, I felt that I had a good understanding as to how it was designed.  After many long years waiting, I was actually touching and feeling a rebreather, and most of all getting a clear understanding of how it actually functions. While the class was going on other Prism divers were dropping by to say hello and to join in the class. This was great as we had people who have been diving the units for years sharing their experiences diving. I was not sure as to the number but there were a few people who bought used units. When you buy a Prism, it is out of the box and ready to go, but in order to use the units for technical diving things need to be changed and modified.

After I sat back and thought about the weekend, everyone brought something to the table. One person would say they have a lead on some item; the next person would have a lead of another and so on and so on. As everything was brought to the table everyone would say oh yeah give me two of those and then you would say to the next person when you order those I will take a few as well. This added to the whole experience. Now with rebreathers one thing you need to take into consideration is that these things require high maintenance along with an assortment of spares. Guess what we all determined in the class? Everything that you want and need as a spare cost $450.00, I remembered the day with open circuit dive gear everything cost $100.00 ... guess those days are gone.

When the weekend was over we had less than two weeks before we were heading to Roatan. We did not have too much stuff to pull together, as typically when we travel, we have a tendency to bring everything we need, from tools, spares, and just about anything you could think of to make a successful trip. This time we figured differently, since we were students not knowing exactly what we would need we opted to skip carrying everything under the sun as we do on other trips. We are students, we were paying to be inept - and besides that, considering there were twenty-five rebreather divers we could assume that there would be plenty of tools and spares.

What we did conclude is that traveling with rebreathers is very gear intensive, in some ways more then open circuit diving. You have to consider with open circuit diving you are not carrying weights and tanks; this eliminates a lot of weight. Nonetheless, when we got our rental units they came with these huge cases, these cases are the maximum size for traveling aboard airplanes. Part of the class was learning how to properly pack rebreathers for travel; we removed the RB heads to carry on the plane with us. The RB head is the brains and most costly component on the rebreather so its best to carry these on the plane with us. The back plate, chasse, cover was carried in the big case; the tanks were removed and put into another case. This was done to spread the weight of the units out as not to get charged huge money for over weight bags - and the limit is now 50# per bag.

We had everything packed up and ready to travel - arrival time at the airport was around 5:00am and this was the start of a long day of traveling. The flights were taking us to Houston TX,  and then onto Roatan. It certainly had the makings for a long day. We were dropped off, we checked our bags and proceeded to head to the gate ... well wouldn’t you know we ran into another group of divers heading the next island over from Roatan. They would be taking the same flight as us down to Houston so we would be traveling with familiar faces. Once we arrived in Houston, we had about six hours to kill before our connecting flight so we decided to head over to another gate to meet up with the rest of the group traveling from New York. Their flight was departing earlier than ours so we figured why not spend sometime with them chatting up some good conversation. After spending a while with the other travelers, Heather and I decided to head back to our gate, as we were traveling on another airline.

We boarded for our second leg of our journey; and this had the makings for an interesting flight. All I could think about was the Arlo Guthrie song with "chickens flying everywhere around the plane, girl we couldn’t be much finer". That about sums it all up ... but we landed twice in fact, not just once.  We needed to take a little detour over to Honduras as the last plane that landed in Roatan took a huge chunk out of the runway and it needed repairing before our plane could land.  Continuing with Arlo, "don’t touch my bags if you please Mr. Custom’s man", it was just like that. You see they not only inspect your bags going out of the country but in Roatan, they inspect your bags going in as well. Well to say the least it was one long day, but we made it to the resort just in time to sit down for dinner.

The Bay Island Beach resort was a nice dive resort, the way this trip was set-up is that the entire resort was taken over by NAUI Tec, in other words NAUI Tec moved in. The team was taking care of the entire gas filling, arranging the boats and the dive sites. The way it worked out was there was the class boat, recreational boat and a deep boat - obviously Heather and I were on the class boat. After we had a chance to relax, eat a fine dinner and meet the rest of the group, it was about time to head back to the room to crash. Starting time every morning was 6:00am....

The next morning came quicker than we expected, and we needed to get an early start since we were doing a full equipment check and cleaning/reassembling our units.  This is one point to rebreather diving - it takes time, unlike open circuit you set-up your gear and go. With rebreather diving, the units require time to prep prior to diving, making sure the unit is safe to dive. During this procedure, Ron was taking the group through each step one at a time, and then we would make the adjustments on our own units. The whole time we went through the procedures I was thinking back to my first Open Water class and thinking about the first time I learned how to dive, it was that kind of excitement. Finally, the time came to test the units and take our first breaths from the rebreather; and it was very different from open circuit. When diving open circuit it is noisy and most noticeable is the resistance - with rebreather diving there is no breathing resistance, this was so cool.

The excitement was building at this point - we had the units prepped, and ready to dive, our open circuit bail rigs were ready to go.  We loaded the boat and off we went to a dive site in shallow water. After a short run out, before we knew it we were all in the water. Heather and I making our first rebreather dives ever, while some of the others making their second or third dive since some people in the group had the opportunity to try their units in a pool back home.   The long wait was worth every minute, it was everything I thought it would be and so much more. The plan was to do a long dive and practice skills on the rebreather.  Ron would demonstrate a skill, and one by one, each of us would repeat the skill.  This would be the general way things went for the week - diving and skills and lots of time on the rigs.

The rebreathers are very intensive and require maintenance; although they are simple in construction, they do require constant attention. Having twenty-five units on this trip you can imagine that everyone was busy fixing tweaking, and adjusting their units. It was not until the second or third day that I had time to adjust the back plate and harness for myself, it was amazing how much more comfortable I was not having the unit floating around on my back. During the class, we had opportunities to work on the units, at some point someone was fixing something. Ron and his team had the answer for everything, when something broke; they had the parts and know-how to get it fixed. This was a huge benefit, as we all have to learn about all the things that can go wrong.  This is what rebreather training is all about, learning about what goes wrong and how to fix it.

One benefit to diving the Prism is the unit operates automatically or you can operate the unit manually. What this means is when the rebreather is turned on it automatically injects oxygen into the breathing loop, this means you do not have to inject oxygen manually. When we learned how to dive with the rebreather the majority of time we spent diving with the rebreather off or "flying manually" - this way we learned how to constantly monitor and inject oxygen as needed. Most of the class we operated the units in manual mode, checking the secondary handset which displayed the PO2 every few minutes and adding the oxygen as needed. You may ask how the diving in Roatan was... Our answer would be I did not see anything except for the secondary handset. When learning how to dive the Prism you are constantly looking at the handset to make sure you have the proper amount of oxygen in the loop. If the oxygen level increased, you would have to add some diluent gas and vent gas through your nose. By doing this would bring the oxygen level back down, then if you found that the oxygen level was to low, you would add oxygen, vent through your nose and bring the oxygen level back up again. As you were diving, you found a happy medium for adding gas when needed.

Being proficient with open circuit diving having a full grasp on buoyancy control it was odd to dive the rebreather. When diving open circuit you use your breathing control to control you buoyancy, this is not the case with rebreathers. You have to remember on the rebreather you are simply exchanging gas from you lungs to the external counter lungs - in other words you not getting rid of the gas. This took a while to get use to, what I found to be the most difficult aspect diving with the Prism was the ascents and descents. Once you got to depth, you could get yourself adjusted to maintain that position. However, if you went up or down you would have to make adjustments, it was not as easy as it sounds and took some getting use to. By the end of the week, we all were getting more comfortable with the buoyancy characteristics of the rebreather.

Towards the end of the week things got easier for us, buoyancy was under control, diving the units more with the units on, so we did not have to constantly dive the units in manual mode, and for the first time actually getting to see some of the reefs in Roatan. Diving the rigs you get a true appreciation for rebreather diving, you can dive for hours at a time, breathing warm gas which intern keeps you warm. The other point is how quiet the units are, you cannot imagine how noisy open circuit diving actually is. For the first time we would swim up into schools of fish and they would not scatter away from you, this was truly amazing, unlike any other experience while diving. Being wreck divers we are not into reef bashing, give me rust any day. During the trip we did get to dive two wrecks, they were big wrecks and neat to see although we did not get much time to spend checking them out. Here again most of the dives were training dives so getting to swim around wrecks was not the objective. Over all the diving was great, the resort was great and having the opportunity to work with an experienced group of rebreather divers was truly exciting.