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Mastering Rebreathers by Jeffrey E. Bozanic
Mastering Rebreathers by Jeffrey E. Bozanic
Frogmen employed rebreathers back in the 1940s. These crude devices were limited in performance and many of their users did not return to tell the tale. Fifty years on, the rebreather was re-invented for the leisure-diving public.
Diver sent me to learn about an early version of this new generation of rebreathers 12 years ago. I was daunted but went on to become a fan.
I was trained by Peter Readey who, with Stuart Clough, was the original evangelist of simple rebreathers for leisure diving. This was in contrast to the triple-redundant life-support systems intended for man's first walk on Mars, and being tested in Florida cave systems by Bill Stone. Peter has long since relocated to California, where he now makes his Prism rebreathers for the US Navy.
There followed a period in which every manufacturer seemed to be showing a box with a length of vacuum-cleaner hose as its prototype rebreather. We had to wait for Draeger to produce a version you could actually buy, even if its British-made Atlantis didn't take kindly to sea water. Its much-improved Dolphin is a semi-closed circuit unit.
We still had to wait until the British company AP Valves (now APD) took the brave step of manufacturing a fully closed-circuit design, the Inspiration. This is CE-marked and properly available.
Rebreathers are now in the next generation of development. All manner of makes and models are surfacing for sale, mainly in America. Halcyon, CCR2000, Frog, Kiss, Azimuth and Megalodon are just some of the names mentioned in Mastering Rebreathers by Jeff Bozanic. For most people, however, the subject remains as bewildering as I originally thought it to be.
The book reads like a NAUI manual for a structured diving course. It takes you step by step through history, physics, physiology, individual design and diving techniques and details on using individual models.
I was pleased to see Peter Readey's name mentioned. 'Peter took me under his wing as a novice rebreather diver, and enriched my knowledge significantly,' says Bozanic. Readey is credited here as a co-contributor, and there are also credits for reviewing editors that include well-known names such as Dr Bill Hamilton, Billy Deans and George Irvine. It has a foreword by Richard Pyle.
I have only one criticism of the book, but it's a big one. The APD Inspiration is conspicuous by its almost total absence, apart from some details in photographs. Why this is I don't know, but as it is the only closed-circuit rebreather in full mass production, and the only one that can be legally sold in Europe, it makes the volume look strangely irrelevant to readers this side of the Atlantic.
The author seems to have committed a major sin of omission. However, I am sure that many people here who already own rebreathers or are interested in them will find this an absorbing book. I did.
John Bantin
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Mastering Rebreathers by Jeffrey E. Bozanic (Best Publishing, ISBN 0-941332-96-9). Hardback, 548pp , $30
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