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Technology (DSAT) subsidiary. There
were more than 100 attendees, along with
15 rebreather manufacturers. Of these,
only five are building rebreathers today.A
T THE TIME, the US and British
navies were the largest users of
mixed-gas rebreathers, with an installed
base of about 240 units in service out of a
total of 600 in inventory. There were at
most 25-50 units in the tech community.
Most of these belonged to small groups
such as Stone’s team, small boutique
manufacturers such as Steam Machines
and a few customers, a handful of
explorers and film-makers.
At the time of the Forum, Dräger
product manager Christian Schultz
reported that it had sold about 850
Atlantis semi-closed rebreathers, and we
estimated that there might have been as
many as 3000 Fienos sold in Japan.
Stone’s company Cis-Lunar
Development Labs had also begun selling
its MK-IV (fourth generation) rebreather
for $15,000.
It would be another year, before
Ambient Pressure Diving in the UK
launched its Inspiration mixed-gas
closed-circuit unit, and the following year
when Jetsam Technologies introduced the
KISS classic.
The conclusions of Rebreather Forum
2.0 were several-fold. First, there was
universal interest in rebreathers. Unlike
nitrox, there was no opposition.
No one was worried that rebreathers
could be problematic for the sport-diving
community, although it was recognisedthat rebreathers were far more complex
than open-circuit scuba and had
insidious risks.
Again, the thinking was that semi-
closed systems such as the Dräger units
might be more suitable for sports divers.
It was also clear that the sport-diving
community had no appreciable
experience with rebreathers.
Though the technical training agencies
were actively promoting rebreather
instructor courses, there was no
standardised training yet. Training
agencies were urged to work closely with
manufacturers to develop sound training
courses, which emphasised proper
responses to failure modes.
The forum recommended that
instructors own, or have on-demand,
access to the units on which they plannedunderwater photos and film images of
undersea life had been taken by Hans
Hass in the 1940s using a Dräger oxygen
rebreather.
In addition, in Japan, Grand Bleu
began selling a semi-closed unit called the
Fieno. Interestingly, although the tech-
diving community was booming, it
seemed likely that rebreathers were going
to be adopted by the recreational
community before the tekkies got theirs.
The timing seemed right, so Robinette
and I organised Rebreather Forum 2.0,
which was held in Redondo Beach,
California, in September 1996.
PADI was one of our sponsors, and
agreed to publish the proceedings of the
forum through its Diving Science &Above: Simon Tapson with
the Starfish Enterprise team.Above right: Kevin Gurr’s
team diving the WW1
HMS M1submarine in the
Channel was one of the first
projects to combine mixed-
gas and filming for TV. Main
divers were Gurr, Richard and
Ingemar Lundgren and Phil
Short.Left: Dave Thompson, who
helped design the original
AP Diving Inspiration and
now works with JJ CCR.Below: The Lusitania 94
team led by Polly Tapson
carried out the first British
mixed-gas diving expedition
on a deep wreck.Below right: Kevin Gurr
helping to put a trimix team
in the water.LEIGH BISHOPKEVIN GURR