AT 09.15 EST on Friday 18 May 2012 Dr Richard Pyle delivered this talk - 'Diving with Rebreathers' - to the RF3 audience.
Richard Pyle is an early adopter of technical-diving practices and is known around the world as a rebreather diver and designer. He is a highly respected Ichthyologyist (in plain English a scientist who studies fish) and he has discovered many new species of fish.
A dive with a profound effect
When Richard Pyle was 19 he was living and diving the western Pacific Ocean off Palau. During his time there he suffered a very serious case of decompression sickness and became quadriplegic.
Understandably that dive had a profound effect on how Richard Pyle decided to dive. He realised that diving air using scuba equipment to the twilight zone "was probably not the best way to do it." Richard Pyle decided to think about 'high-tech diving' because he knew there had to be a better way. However, he found that even when diving four cylinders filled with mixed gas, he still had very limited bottom time (about 10 mins) at 91.4 m / 300ft to collect fish.
On 16 November 1991 Richard Pyle wrote to Dr Bill Stone. "I've thought long and hard on my own position with respect to rebreathers. I've decided that I would like to invest in a MK-2S, as soon as semi-mass production begins...the idea of a dynamic nitrox mixture for optimum decompression is very appealing."
In this presentation, Richard Pyle talks about his history of diving with rebreathers, what changed him the most to have a successful and safe diving rebreather career, and what the real risks are when diving a CCR.
