Rebreather questions

[Freedive WI]

Sorry I didn't answer sooner, but I have a newborn who won't let me type.

DRE pretty much summed up my answer anyhow. 80's are cheaper than doubles and allow more flexibilty in the dive plan.

As much as I love freediving, you are right that you can't do any kind of penetration diving, but you are not allowed to penetrate the Gunilda to begin with. :'(

There are freedivers out there doing 300 foot freedives in cold dark water. Eric Fattah set a constant ballast( swimming only, no sled) in 280' of 38 degree cold Canadian water with only 3' of vis at the bottom. "Kiki" is a diver from Europe who was out freediving on the Andrea Doria with just a monofin and no sled. He could spend all day just swimming down and back at a relaxed pace. Frederic Bule( Belgium freediver) used a sled to freedive many shipwrecks in over 200' of water off of England a couple of years ago.

I have only freedove the wrecks in Michigan and Huron down to about 100'. I don't have a regular buddy to spot me, or train with, so I am somewhat limited in my depth. It doesn't much matter in Lake Michigan because the good vis, thanks to the zebra mussels, is all above 100' anyhow right now.

When you do a rebreather trip, how much Sofnolime do you need? I didn't see it pictured at all? Also, what do you do for back-up parts to your rebreather? computers , batteries, hoses, and such must take up some space? I imagine that if your diving in a team of rebreather divers you could spread the spares out inbetween the group members. In DIR we are allowed complete redundancy inbetween team members by our OC set-ups. I can switch out a second stage on the fly with a buddy if need be. I know that you must have the same protocol for your dives.

One other question. What about bailout? If your breather goes down, is 40 cuft enough of a bailout to get up and deco? Once you use it up, say on the first day of a trip, are you sidelined for the rest of the trip?

Just curious, not attacking. Although I choose to dive DIR I am not a "nazi" about it. I am always interested in how other teams plan out their safety protocal. I was afirst attracted to Dir because it was a step up form the deep air cowboys around here who are always running out of air and getting bent. The DIR divers that I know actually put safety above brass and I feel very comfortable diving with them.

Jon