Cedric Verdier

There is no such thing as safe technical rebreather diving without proper preparation. But preparation means much more than just checking equipment, going through dive planning and “What-ifs”. It is also a matter of long-term preparation.

Do you plan to explore a deep virgin wreck? Is it your dream to discover a unique cave system deep in the jungle? Have you heard about a Blue Hole miles off shore and want to give it a try? In any case, chances are you’ll be diving in a remote location where emergency medical systems are not much more frequent and up-to-date than traffic lights in the Himalayas.

It has been a year now since I started to exclusively side-mount the off-board tanks of my rebreather—either a Megalodon CCR or an Evolution CCR. Why? Simply because it’s much more convenient!

How to deal with an unconscious rebreather diver?
The title of this article was originally: “What to do if a convulsion happens”. Based on a lot of discussion, private or on various forums, the

Bailing out to Open Circuit is like falling in the snow when you are learning to ski. It’s a solution when facing a problem—not always the most elegant solution, but always the easiest one, and most of the time, the most efficient one. But Open Circuit bail-out is actually much more than simply going off the loop and breathing from another second stage. There are lots of possibilities.

Discussions about diving are very often boring—always the same stories about numerous sharks dangerously close, strong current ripping a mask off or friendly dolphins playing during a deco stop. We

There used to be a time when there was no safety margin in any activity that the human being wanted to participate in. In a merciless prehistoric world, on a daily basis, the cave men were hunting with stones and sticks, a large variety of predators the size of a truck, expecting to feed a hungry family. Then, Winchester gave men the ability to kill wild animals while staying at a comfortable distance, without risking their lives. Safety margin was born.

Most of the articles one can find about rebreathers deal with potential problems and limits of these wonderful pieces of kit. They give extensive information about oxygen sensors, scrubber duration, e

Henry Nelson. Does the name ring a bell? You’ll not find him in any history book or see any monuments to his honor. However, the thousands of scuba divers who visit Vanuatu every year should bless this name. This former French/English colony, which was named New Hebrides till 1980, was also the second most important US base in the pacific during WWII. The 80 islands strategically located between Fiji and Australia is still home to some remains of this strange time. Amongst them is the wreck of the SS President Coolidge.

Nowadays, the name Yamashiro could have different meanings depending on where you come from. If you live in Los Angeles, a huge pagoda near Hollywood is the oldest structure in California and hosts a famous restaurant named Yamashiro or “Mountain palace” in Japanese. If you live in Kyoto, Japan, Yamashiro is the name of an area close-by. And for the older generation, it’s also the name of a never forgotten Japanese battleship lost during WWII during one of the major battles of naval history, the battle of Leyte, October 1944. Finally, if you’re a scuba diver, you might have heard about the wreck of the HIJMS Yamashiro as definitely the most challenging shipwreck in the world, because of the remoteness of the location, the extreme depth and the very bad diving conditions.

The entrance of the Sra Keow cave, north of Krabi, Thailand, is dark and quiet. All the local kids who use the pond as a playground are now back home for dinner. The only three people still there, closely watching the motionless pond, trying to see any bubble or glow that could reach the surface now start to worry. The divers were supposed to complete their dive within four and a half hours...
Still nothing after six long hours.