Up next in 10
Essential Gear for Deep Wreck Diving
1K views
May 18, 2025
Deep wreck diving requires you to have gear that you understand in a configuration that meets your requirements. In this video I show my Closed Circuit Rebreather and explain decisions that I have made with the configuration. These include extra elements of redundancy and tweaks to improve my safety. At the core, it's an AP Diving XPD (Inspiration) in a G-box case but with non-standard Manual Add Valves (MAVs) in a setup that meets my requirement *Highlights* 00:00 Introduction 01:10 Why did I choose an Inspiration? 04:20 My rebreather! 06:21 Right hand side 06:51 Left hand side 08:47 The front 11:50 Much maligned Auto-air 14:13 The four safety checks that I always do 16:11 What happens next! *Kit I Use* Note, some of these are affiliate links so help support making my videos: Gloves are Ansell Alphatec 87-063 - https://amzn.to/4jDHhX4 Main torch is an Orcatorch D630 - https://amzn.to/4jlT4tA Backup torch is an Orcatorch D710 - https://amzn.to/4jhddRk
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0:00
hi this is Dom Robinson and welcome to
0:02
my deep wreck diver channel the question
0:05
I get asked most frequently in the
0:07
comments on my videos is for me to talk
0:09
about the equipment that I use and
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that's what I'm going to do today i'm
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going to start off with this which is my
0:15
AP inspiration rebreather but I'm going
0:18
to cover all the other gear that I use
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as well so I know divers love talking
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about gear so I think you're going to
0:24
really enjoy it before I go on to do
0:27
that though just a a request from me if
0:29
you wouldn't mind please can you hit
0:32
that like button if you haven't already
0:34
done so please subscribe and if you have
0:36
subscribed please turn on the
0:38
notifications those things help me
0:41
immeasurably the other thing that would
0:43
be great if you feel like it is to leave
0:45
a comment it can be about anything
0:47
whether you think this video is good
0:48
whether you think it's bad doesn't
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matter i'd love to get your feedback so
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thank you right moving on then
0:56
so my CCR my baby this is the thing
1:01
that's h given me so many great
1:03
adventures it's kept me alive as well in
1:06
all sorts of uh of situations so I guess
1:10
uh one of the questions I get asked
1:12
quite a bit is about different types of
1:14
rebreathers and you know why did I
1:16
choose an inspiration well uh I guess
1:19
it's a really interesting question so
1:21
the classic advice for choosing a
1:23
rebreather is to use the same rebreather
1:26
as the people around you now everybody
1:29
not quite everybody but certainly when I
1:31
started the majority of people uh around
1:34
me were diving and inspiration and that
1:36
was fantastic because it meant I had
1:38
this whole pool of support all these
1:40
people who knew the little nuances could
1:42
help me out if something went wrong and
1:45
and obviously provide advice and
1:46
expertise the great thing about the
1:48
Inspiration is it has been going forever
1:52
it's pretty much the first mass market
1:55
ECR ECCR and they've been upgraded
1:58
continuously ever since so they're
2:00
always adding uh new bits of capability
2:03
most notably uh five or six years ago
2:06
the handset changed from being being a
2:08
grayscale one to being a color one and
2:10
that was a fantastic improvement loads
2:12
of other things and it's in continuous
2:14
development not least because there are
2:16
so many of them out there the other
2:18
thing to highlight of course is that I
2:20
have invested a huge amount of my
2:22
personal time in in one of these so I've
2:26
got 15 years of experience on on an
2:28
inspiration and if I was to change to
2:30
something else I would obviously not
2:33
quite have to start from scratch but
2:34
certainly it would be a long time before
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I got back up to up to that level so
2:38
I've massive investment in my uh in my
2:41
particular model a question you might
2:44
ask is would I buy an inspiration if I
2:47
was starting out again and that is a
2:50
really interesting question it's one
2:51
I've asked myself several times um and
2:55
I'm not 100% certain I I know the answer
2:58
there are certainly uh more advanced
3:01
rebreathers on the market there's
3:03
probably ones that have features about
3:06
the that have been uh that are on the
3:08
inspiration that have been improved um
3:11
things that that are done differently
3:13
that that I would quite like but on the
3:15
other
3:16
hand inspiration is absolutely tried and
3:20
tested it's whatever dives you want to
3:23
do on on your inspiration have almost
3:25
certainly been done and I guess that
3:28
level of uh proven ability is something
3:31
that that you need to uh need to
3:34
consider what else um I guess you got to
3:38
you it comes down to brass tax the
3:40
reality is that the inspiration you can
3:43
get a lot of them secondhand they are
3:45
relatively pre reasonably priced so I'm
3:48
not going to use the
3:50
term bargain basement but certainly if
3:53
you want to get started in rebreather
3:54
diving the AP is very very competitively
3:59
priced so uh there's a few reasons i
4:02
haven't given you an answer i haven't
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said you should buy this rebreather or
4:05
you should buy that rebreather i've just
4:06
given you a few things to consider and I
4:09
think probably the most important one is
4:10
the one that I started with so it's the
4:13
one about choose a rebreather that there
4:16
are loads of people around you diving
4:18
because you have access to that
4:20
expertise that knowledge that support so
4:23
moving on to my particular one it is
4:26
pretty much a standard AP inspiration or
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XPD as they they term them now the big
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change I've made to it is probably this
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thing here which is the the box
4:38
inspiration comes in a kind of standard
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plastic box i've replaced it with this
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Gbox frame um which is an aftermarket
4:47
product uh quite a lot of Inspiration
4:49
divers use this one or or there are
4:51
other ones available as well and that's
4:53
not to say the plastic box isn't bad it
4:55
is bad rather quite a few the guys I
4:57
dive with them uh dive with still use
5:00
them but uh for me it was a bit floaty
5:04
and I think the Gbox offers more ability
5:08
to hang stuff on the side and you can
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see that's absolutely what I've what
5:12
I've done here so if you're new to
5:13
rebreathers um it's probably worth just
5:16
highlighting what is inside this uh this
5:19
box because this is I guess the uh the
5:23
meat of it so uh opening this up here
5:26
what have you got inside well inside
5:28
here this canister here contains a
5:31
scrubber that's how the carbon dioxide
5:33
that you breathe out is removed you can
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probably see down the left hand side
5:37
here um I was wrong the the right hand
5:40
side rather you can see this tube coming
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down into the bottom so gas comes in the
5:45
top here comes up comes through the
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scrubber so this is uh an axial scrubber
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through the top is the head which is
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where the uh O2 sensors are where the
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solenoid is to inject um oxygen and it's
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also where the the brains of the uh the
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beast is in there as well so goes
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through that lot and then comes out of
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this hose here and goes into uh the
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mouthpiece and there's a a set of valves
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in there that make sure that the gas
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only goes one way one way round so what
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else do we have on here well I'm going
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to start off on this side
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here and on this side here you can see
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uh this large cylinder here is a 3 L
6:26
cylinder of
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oxygen 3 L cylinder is good um more gas
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by and large is pretty good that will do
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me for at least two deep dives and it
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would do me for for more shallow dives
6:39
what else have I got on the right hand
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side here i've got a spare O2 cylinder
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it's a small one um and that's there if
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for whatever reason I can't access the
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oxygen in my other cylinder moving to
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the other side then I've got two
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cylinders on this side as well the inner
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one here is uh my dilluent and that is
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the Tryix mixture that provides the loop
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volume when you go deep obviously as you
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go deep it gets crushed down you put in
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dilluent that brings the loop volume
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back up as you go down and that
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obviously provides the helium into the
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mixture that avoids narcosis
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um and provides a reasonable gas density
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to to help with the work of breathing
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selection of the right dilluent is a
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really important part of rebreather
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planning this other thing here this
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large 3 liter white cylinder this is
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full of good old-fashioned air now you
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might say what does a rebreather diver
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need air for well actually quite a few
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things so the first thing is I run all
7:39
my buoyancy off the air i run my dry
7:42
suit off it i run my wing off it and
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that means obviously I'm not spending
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expensive gas to fill up my dry suit and
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helium you don't want to be putting in
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anyway and also it means I've got gas to
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put in my wing and I've got I've got a
7:57
lot of it there if I need it so um and
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the great thing about air is that you
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can breathe it at any depth pretty much
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so that also goes into my auto air which
8:07
I will talk about in in a bit now a 3
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liter cylinder you might say is a bit
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excessive lots of people have smaller
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cylinders that do that um for me I if I
8:18
didn't carry a 3 L cylinder I would have
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to carry more weight so I may as well
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carry more gas why wouldn't I so that's
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the back of the rebreather probably the
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one other thing you've you've identified
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here is this green hose this green hose
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is the one that comes off my
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uh air cylinder and it's the one that I
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attach into my dry
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suit moving around to the front of my
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rebreather and uh there's quite a lot
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going on here as you can probably see
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let's start off up the top here with uh
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this thing here this is the handset not
8:54
currently turned on but that would be on
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my left wrist and that doesn't have a
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brain in it all that has in there is a
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controller and that allows you it gives
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you information about the the what the
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three cells are displaying in terms of
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the P2s it gives you information about
9:11
uh decompression it gives you
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information about your current depth and
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you can also change various things
9:16
associated with the rebreather on that
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so really important what else have we
9:20
got well we got the two hoses here this
9:23
one on the left hand side is the one
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that gas comes back from the scrubber
9:26
and it comes in and is going to go into
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the breathing loop this one here is the
9:30
one that um the gas goes to the scrubber
9:33
from and you've seen those on the other
9:34
side what What else have we got well
9:36
we've got the big thing here which is a
9:38
mouthpiece and this is a standard
9:40
mouthpiece it's not above at all so if I
9:42
need to bail out I'm going to have to
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get one of my open circuit regulators
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what else have I got attached to it i've
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got this thing here which is the uh
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mouthpiece retaining strap or gag strap
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um if you want to use common terminology
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that just m makes sure that the mouth
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piece stays close to my mouth and if I
10:00
was to lose consciousness hopefully it
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would keep the uh the mouthpiece in my
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mouth people have different opinions on
10:06
those people some people get really anti
10:08
them i I like mine i I'm a fan but hey
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this is big boy diving you make your own
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decisions you take your own risks what
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else have I got on here well uh you can
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probably see here this small thing is um
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is the HUD and there are four lights on
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there two red and two green and they
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provide a visual indication uh to me
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whether everything is okay or not if
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I've got two greens I know the world is
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well if the greens start flashing
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something's changing if I start getting
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red lights or red flat flashing lights
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then clearly something is wrong and
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those are right in my ey line so they're
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really good as an attention getter which
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will normally then take me to the
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handset and the handset on there will
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tell me if something is wrong the other
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thing to probably point out is just in
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the back of the box here is an audio
10:55
alarm as well so if there's a problem
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the audio alarm will go off and people
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who die with dive with inspiration uh
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divers tend to get sick of audio alarms
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because they are really effective you
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can hear them from a long way away you
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can always tell if somebody else in the
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group is having a problem um some people
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say that's a bad thing i have to say I
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am a big fan right so moving on to a few
11:18
other bits and pieces so I get this lot
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out the way what else have I got on here
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well probably the thing that's difficult
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to see around here is I've got a battery
11:28
for my torch it's in there and there's a
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lovely little pocket on the inspiration
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where my orcrch D630 fits there the
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cable goes over the top and comes around
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here you can see there my torch uh great
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great bit of kit i uh I love it to bits
11:45
and what else have I got well uh you can
11:48
probably see here this is the much
11:51
maligned auto air which is an AP bespoke
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thing it works as a regulator so you can
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inflate your BCD on it you can also uh
12:03
breathe off it as well so that is
12:05
currently plumbed into the cylinder of
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air on my back so if I need to I can
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breathe down that 3 liter cylinder of
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air should the 3 liter cylinder of air
12:14
run out then I have a spare hose here
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which I hope you can see this one here
12:19
is attached into my dilluent cylinder so
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if I needed to I ran out of gas or
12:23
something like that I could switch over
12:25
onto that other hose and fill up my BCD
12:27
with a cylinder what else have I got um
12:30
these are the manual AD valves here and
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you can probably see that there are two
12:36
so the the top one here is attached into
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my dilluent cylinder the bottom one here
12:41
is available for connecting to something
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else and I can either connect those two
12:45
and one of my offboard cylinders i've
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got hoses on there that I'll show you in
12:49
a minute or if I need to I can also
12:52
attach on the other side here this is
12:54
the oxygen mav you can see there's a
12:56
spare hose that goes to my spare O2
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cylinder the oxygen m is is this one
13:02
here and this is both these mavs uh so
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MAV for those of you who don't know
13:07
manual AD valve uh these are both the
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non-standard AP MAVs and this one here
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has got this thing on here which is a
13:16
shut off it allows me to isolate the
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solenoid if I need to i have had a
13:20
problem in the past with a solenoid
13:22
sticking open so I could solve that by
13:25
just uh pulling that out and shutting
13:28
the solenoid off um and I could then run
13:31
the uh the unit manually using using the
13:34
manual ad if I need to i can also
13:36
connect in my spare O2 cylinder as I've
13:38
already mentioned with that and it will
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go on there and I could drive my uh I
13:44
could could use my spare O2 cylinder as
13:46
well so a couple of different things
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there what else have I got well I've got
13:50
a uh oxygen pressure gauge at the front
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and I've also got a dilluent pressure
13:57
gauge at the front as well now uh some
14:00
rebreathers don't have pressure gauges
14:02
they obviously they're at the front they
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kind of some people think they get in
14:06
the way all those kind of things it's
14:08
I'm a bit old school like that i like to
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know how much gas I've got and it's
14:12
really important particularly before you
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get in the water i do four things i
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check that my oxygen is turned on and uh
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I've got enough contents i do exactly
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the same check with my dilluent i have a
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look at my handset i check that my
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handset is turned on and that I've done
14:28
the pre-breed so the scrub has warmed up
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and the other thing I always do is I
14:33
check that my dry suit feed is fitted
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and working and I reckon if I've done
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those four checks and I get in the water
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I am going to be okay uh I'm not going
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to uh I'm not going to die immediately
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so um sorry slight slight digression
14:48
there but those are the things I've got
14:50
what else have I got on the front of my
14:51
rebreather well um this thing here which
14:55
is a uh a dive knife and bit old school
14:59
once again dive knives so obviously lots
15:01
of people use cutters and everything i
15:03
love this thing it's a little Raora dive
15:05
knife really sharp it's located there on
15:08
this hose at the front i know where that
15:10
is i can get it really quickly and
15:13
uh I don't need to worry about it
15:15
because I'm a bit paranoid about cutters
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i also have another cutter located here
15:23
i have another cutter located here on
15:25
the waistband you can see it there and
15:28
that is a drill of ice you know you pull
15:30
it out and uh it's got a bit of a net
15:32
cutter in there as well so they're a
15:34
good bit of kit as well what else have I
15:36
got on my belt um I've got this thing
15:39
here which is a PLB it's actually an AIS
15:43
one it's the old one done by Nautilus so
15:45
it's actually got a radio built into
15:47
that as well so I can get on to channel
15:49
16 i can get on to channel 10 whatever
15:51
else it is obviously the range isn't
15:53
great cuz I'm going to be at sea level
15:54
but at least I can I can speak to
15:56
somebody if there's an aircraft in then
15:58
obviously the cons will be pretty good
15:59
and as I say it's got that AIS beacon on
16:01
it as well so um I do love those i
16:04
actually think they're they're much
16:05
better than the uh the newer ones so
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that is my rebreather and I hope you've
16:12
all found that very interesting now
16:15
unfortunately I had hoped to do all the
16:18
rest of my gear but I've simply ran out
16:20
of time uh to get it all edited and get
16:23
it published so I'm really sorry about
16:25
this but you're going to have to wait
16:27
for another video to cover all the rest
16:29
of my gear so my my dry suit my
16:32
undersuit my stages all the bits and
16:35
pieces I carry down with me they are
16:37
coming but uh not in this video so uh
16:40
anyway I hope you've enjoyed this one
16:42
and I look forward to putting the rest
16:44
of it together and getting it out there
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