Coming up! Jonathan and Todd are going to Kiss rebreather
boot camp with legendary cave instructor Edd Sorenson! Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World! If you have been watching Blue World in the
past few years, you have almost certainly noticed that I have become fascinated with
cave diving. I have been fortunate to dive all kinds of
caves all over the world, from Florida, Bahamas and Mexico all the way to Portugal and even
Death Valley. But in all of these dives, my time has been
extremely limited by the amount of air I can carry. In order to really explore and document some
caves, you simply need more time underwater. And this is where a rebreather comes in. Unlike conventional scuba, where each exhaled
breath is exhausted into the water as bubbles, a rebreather recycles a divers’ exhaled
breath, massively extending the amount of time available from the amount of a gas one
is able to carry. And so, Cameraman Todd and I have returned
to Marianna, Florida to be trained in the ways of the rebreather by legendary cave diving
instructor Edd Sorenson! With all our gear loaded into our trusty rental
minivan, we head on over to Cave Adventurers Dive Shop for a five-day intense rebreather
class. Ah back at Cave Adventurers! Good Fun! Hey Edd! Hey! Great to see you back! We are so excited to start our training. Alright, can’t wait. Edd takes us over to his classroom, which
doubles as his gym. And our day starts by filming out the requisite
paperwork. There’s always paperwork. Even though both Todd and I have been certified
on other rebreathers in the past, we are taking this class as if we have never used a rebreather
before. You guys have been on open circuit. Yes. And so every time we breathe in, we’re taking
that breath from the tank, and we’re metabolizing that four percent oxygen and we’re blowing
the rest out into bubbles and we’ll never see it again. So now, we’re gonna be on a rebreather. And this basically instead of… The first day, we spend most of the time learning
about the preparation, operation, parts, and assembly of the KISS Sidewinder rebreather. The class will be co-instructed by Edd’s
head instructor Mehdi Zinetti. …the right direction, and I’ll cover that
in a moment… …so you see that corrugated hose goes right
into the canister… …when we get in the water, we’re going
to do very little today. We just want to get comfortable on the unit…. ….so working on buoyancy, trim and propulsion. So keeping those feet up, knees up, making
sure our buoyancy is good. So today we’ll probably just do the confined
water, and we’ll be done for the day. After our first lecture, we finally get to
the fun part: unboxing our brand new sidewinders! Very nice! The sidewinder is a special kind of rebreather
designed especially for sidemount cave diving. It is highly customizable and Edd has a huge
amount of experience in setting them up, so he takes several hours to help us configure
the units perfectly based on our preferences. We will have to decide where that’s going
to be. Is it going to be across here, or is it going
to be down there or down here. Some people run it over their shoulder and
you have to put a ninety here. You have to love it when your scuba equipment
comes with a sticker that says this device is capable of killing you without warning. That little tab in there? Yeah. Some people put a screwdriver in there to
pry that out. Ok, there’s number two in. I’m starting to get a little worried when
the torch comes out and we begin burning holes in my XDeep sidemount harness, but this is
where you trust the expert! How’s that? Oh yeah! One of the things we will soon be learning,
is the importance of the checklist. Rebreathers are more complicated than open
circuit scuba. In order to be sure the unit is assembled
correctly and working properly, a checklist is always used on assembly. The first thing on the checklist, is to check
the breathing loop, so first we have to learn how to check it. We have to learn how to test and calibrate
the oxygen sensors. And of course, we have to learn how to properly
pack the carbon dioxide scrubbers. These are the filters that absorb the CO2
we exhale so we don’t re-inhale it. Now, I start where the bolt snaps are, and… Basically work your way around and down the
canister? Yup! And then gently…see how I keep holding pressure
down? The material used to absorb the CO2 is casually
referred to as “sorb.” It’s a granular substance that looks a lot
like kitty litter…but a lot more expensive. Tapping on the side of the scrubber canister
helps to settle the sorb and pack it tightly, so there is no way gas can seep through without
getting scrubbed. With the scrubbers packed, we can start assembling
the rebreather. Edd tells me that once we have it down, we
can do this whole process in 15 minutes, but at this point, the assembly takes us more
than an hour. At last it’s time to load the rebreathers
in the van, and try it them the water. We head on over to Jackson Blue Spring, Edd’s
local teaching spot. Jackson Blue is a first magnitude spring that
pumps out several million gallons of clear water every day. We start suiting up with the whole place to
ourselves, except for a few local residents. Now if I can only figure out how to put it
on. Putting the sidemount tanks on is pretty much
the same as doing it for open circuit, except there are a few extra pieces in the way. Next we have to learn the proper way to do
a “pre-breathe,” which is mostly about checking the gas mixture and oxygen sensors
before the dive. Blow it out, open it, turn our oxygen on. We’re all going to say O2 open so that we
know that the oxygen is open. Work on our buoyancy a little bit and just
get used to breathing. OK? Let’s do it. O2 open. And finally, the moment of truth, we get to
submerge. But for now, we’re not going anywhere. We will do our first confined water session
right here in three feet of water. Since neither Todd nor I can use a camera,
we have enlisted Mehdi as the newest Blue World cameraman. Everything on a rebreather is different than
open circuit. I have to completely re-learn how to control
my buoyancy. Being an experienced open circuit diver actually
works against me. We practice lots of basic skills, such as
bailing out of the rebreather to open circuit. Next, Edd demonstrates a shallow swimming
path that we will follow, so he can look at our posture and buoyancy. And now the pressure is on. It’s my turn. I think I’m doing pretty well. As it turns out, Edd does not agree. Next it’s Todd’s turn. I only hope I looked better than him. When we start losing the daylight, we realize
how long we have been at this on the first day. With the sun setting, we have finally finished
day one. Only four more long days to go! The next morning, we begin by reviewing footage
from the Edd Cam, where Edd notes configuration changes to make. …close that two-and-a-half, three inch gap… Then we start class and talk about new skills
to add for today. …PPO2 way too high today. We’re going to close, get it out, bring
your reg up. Then tuck that. You guys did a really good job of that. Then we’re going to just slide down, shut
that O2 off. …if it’s at .82 and we want to see .79,
.77, somewhere in there…. We also have to learn more operational theory. So we’re not adding 32%, we’re adding
whatever that depth says we’re at…so when you bring the MAV up, if it catches a wrinkle
in your suit or something, it’ll hold that button in. You’re basically turning it on by shoving
the dill valve open… Next we have to assemble our sidewinders by
ourselves. It’s the Zen Art of compacting your sorb. I think Todd is angry at his. Patrick and Mehdi help us with some configuration
tweaks that Edd suggested, based on his Edd Cam footage. A little while later, we are back at Jackson
Blue for the underwater part of the day. I’m clearly no better at putting on the
rebreather by day two. Mehdi’s cameraman skills are progressing
much faster than our rebreather skills. We begin by reviewing the skills from yesterday
before we add in the new skills for today. Edd introduces his flash cards which tell
us which skills to practice or which emergency we need to deal with. Then, we have to swim the test circuit again. Hopefully we look better than yesterday. Next we head down into the cavern zone, to
get a little more depth, and practice the next set of skills. Todd is checking me for leaks by looking for
bubbles. It’s called a “bubble check.” Then we head further into the cavern. Normally, the sidewinder class is taught entirely
in open water. However, because most of Edd’s students
are cave divers, and because he is so close to Jackson Blue, Edd has special permission
to teach the class in the cavern zone of Jackson Blue. For the first 20 minutes of the dive, Edd
has us simply swim, practice our buoyancy, practice managing our O2 levels, and generally
get the feel for the Sidewinder. But then, when you least expect it, the dreaded
flash cards come out. And when you do the wrong thing, you get the
finger wag--if you’re lucky. Todd screwed up. And presented with the same card, I just made
the same exact mistake, and get the same finger wag. Clearly this is going to take a while. The circuit Edd has us swimming around the
cavern zone is cleverly designed to challenge our buoyancy skills. And Edd will not allow us to cheat by touching
the ceiling or floor. We stop periodically for another flash card. Then back to swimming. Every once in a while when you get something
right, you get a first bump, and that always helps lift our spirits in between mistakes. After two hours in the water, we head back
to the surface to discover another day has ended. You know, I gotta be honest. I wasn’t expecting the class to be this
hard. I mean, I know, OK, it’s a rebreather, there’s
a lot of skills to learn. But you know, I’ve been diving for thirty
years, I’m pretty comfortable in the water. I kinda figured this was pretty simple, pretty
straightforward, and at this point I’m realizing it’s a lot harder than I expected. I’m enjoying the challenge of course, but
I am also to be honest with you a little worried about passing the class. Edd is a good instructor and he’s very tough
and he doesn’t let you slide on anything and no only do we have to like master these
skills but we have to do them with perfect buoyancy control. And I just feel like I’m a bit of a train
wreck down there. I’m just hoping that in the next couple
of days that I can straighten it all out! Starting Day three, we are not feeling super
confident in our abilities. Alright, so Mehdi will take over this portion. I’ll see you guys in a little bit. Alright. Mehdi gives us our lecture for today as we
learn more about dive planning. I’m gonna close that and I’m gonna watch
my PPO2 going down, down, down, down. So this one will be more efficient in terms
of scrubbing the CO2. What would be the advantage of the four weight?...You’re
going to be filled up at 34. OK so 34. What was the…times two…that’s 218. You are descending then you will add some
more volume in your wing, and some volume in your… By Day three, we do feel like we are getting
the hang of assembling the Sidewinder correctly, but it still takes an hour! And then it’s back to Jackson Blue. This is the first day we have made it into
the water closer to lunchtime than to dinnertime. My buoyancy skills are improving. They still have a ways to go though! We head into the cavern to do a bubble and
sensor test. Then back to Edd’s buoyancy torture loop. And of course, the flash cards come out. We are doing a little better with the skills,
but we both tend to neglect our buoyancy while we perform them. Plenty of room for improvement. We have new skills to practice at 90 feet,
so we work in a deeper section of the cave. On Day four, it’s all about practicing our
skills over and over. So back into the cave we go. And we’re not the only ones getting better. Mehdi is getting downright artsy fartsy with
that camera! It’s not long before the dreaded flash cards
come out again. The worst part is knowing that you are being
filmed and will have to watch your mistakes later in class. Today we are practicing a mask swap. Because we are practicing this skill in a
cave, we also need to adhere to cave diving protocol, and stay in contact with the guideline. Monitoring and controlling our partial pressure
of oxygen is a skill we practice continuously for the whole dive. Back at the classroom, we review the Edd Cam
and learn from our mistakes. So all that is, is more SCR, but we are going
to be a little more conservative, because we can’t watch the PO2 now. We gotta remember all that stuff tomorrow
though. Tomorrow is the last day. Day five begins with an ominous fog. Well, it’s the last day of the class and
in order to graduate, we have to get all the skills right, plus the new skill we are going
to do for the first time today. We’ve got them mostly down. Mostly down. We have to be in perfect trim when we do them
(working on that). So you can’t just do them! You have to have perfect form while you do
them. If not perfect, at least pretty good. Look like a parachuter. It seems to me that it’s harder to do that
than to do the skill but okay. We have to get at least 72 more minutes on
the machine under water today to have out five hour minimum. But that should be okay. Yesterday’s dive was like over 100 minutes. Yes, so that should be no problem. And then the question is, do we pass? Alright! So today we want to talk about real life diving. So if we just learn to react to a card and
we’re never gonna have Edd following us around showing us cards what to do. So we have to start thinking, you know, what
do we do? Like you said yesterday (which was an excellent
question) what if..you know…why is our PO2 dropping, when we do the PPO2 too low and
too high. You have to be sure you are keeping some residual
gas in that side of the loop because…the whole loop actually, because you inject gas
here, through the counterlung and out the OPV. Alright, any other thoughts, questions, concerns? Go, go, go!! So this is it. This is our last day, and this is like the
final exam. It’s like the in-water final exam! He could ask us to do any skill he wants and
we have to be able to do it. We’re going to be alright, we are going
to do this. We’re gonna be fine. Alright let’s go! Let’s go! Finally the moment of truth. Will we pass Edd Sorenson’s Sidewinder class? So, but this time we should have all this
stuff, so we are going to just drop down into our confined water mode, and we should just
breeze through this list of stuff. Alright, let’s do it. O2 open and go! Entering the cave, I have some trepidation. On the one hand, I feel pretty confident in
my abilities. On the other hand, I’m worried about making
a mistake just because I’m nervous. As the flashcards fly, Todd and I are both
dealing with every scenario like we actually know what we’re doing. We are better about maintaining buoyancy and
trim at the same time as well. For nearly two hours, Edd tests us over and
over on every skill we learned. And we made zero mistakes. That’s my story and I’m sticking with
it. At last we complete the tests and head back
towards the light, where we’re greeted by a school of fish applauding our efforts. After a short safety stop, we ascend to the
surface. We are taking high fives and fist bumps as
a good sign. That was a blast man! I loved it! I hope we passed! On the way back the shop, we’re feeling
confident. Well, I think we did okay. I agree. You know there’s things we certainly could
improve upon but I’m hoping and confident. I think we will pass. I think. This morning I wasn’t sure but I feel like
we did alright. I was stressed the entire dive! We review the Edd Cam, and for once, most
of the comments are positive. Everything is horizontal here. Knees up, feet where they belong. Look at how good your calves are working! So, did we pass? All in all, congratulations on being sidewinder
divers! Awesome! Woo hoo, we are sidewinder divers! Yeah! Huh? Ta da! With my KISS sidewinder, a whole new world
has opened to me. A world where I can stay down longer, travel
further, and interact with marine life without bubbles. I need to build experience and confidence
with the rebreather slowly, so I’m not going to do anything too ambitious for a while. But I am excited to have a bunch of new adventures
with my new Sidewinder in the Blue World! Hey you guys! Check out that video! It’s a really good one! Also this one’s pretty good too! Oh and don’t forget to subscribe!
