Sea Breathe

[SV Gwendolyn]

Hi there

Has anyone out there had experience with Sea Breathe (www.seabreathe.com) or similar equipment? How would you rate it compared with conventional SCUBA gear considering the main use would be for boat maintenance and occasional reef dives?

Thanks

Craig

[Auzzee]

I do not have first hand experience with Sea Breathe, but have seen one in operation and according to the owner, it is a good piece of equipment. I am also very interested in it since local laws in Australia now require scuba tanks to be recertified each year at $50 per inspection.

I only use my tank on deck and use a long air hose with a regulator purely for checking the hull. Consequently, I use about a tank per year. This equates to $50 per immersion.

Cheers

[JeanneP]

The first or second year we were cruising we bought a gasoline-powered hookah that sat in an oversized inflated tube similar to what is shown for the Sea Breathe. It worked very well. I didn't particularly like it for diving because I really wasn't interested in going very deep, and I could free dive to around 20', sometimes deeper if I was really motivated by something on the bottom (not any more!).

Peter liked it for cleaning the bottom of the boat and routine inspections of the zincs and through-hulls, etc.

As the hookah got older and not so reliable, we finally gave it up as more work and weight than it was worth. However, Peter then decided to try a way to run a 12V air pump to provide enough air for him to clean the hull or other shallow underwater work. He found a 12V truck tire inflator (high pressure, low volume). It didn't work very well because the low volume meant he couldn't get enough air in one breath (low volume). He solved the problem by putting an accumulator "tank" between the pump and the air regulator. That made it possible for enough air to be stored for each inhalation, and the air was replenished as he exhaled.

The regulator was absolutely necessary, just as it is in scuba tanks, to prevent too much air being forced into the lungs.

So it does work, quite well.

Now the warning. It is not perfectly safe for untrained divers. If you have not taken a SCUBA course you might not know that you must exhale the air in your lungs as you swim for the surface. SCUBA training teaches you not to panic when your air fails. Experience teaches you that you can safely surface slowly, simply drifting up, from as deep as 40 feet (probably more) after all your air is gone, and thus you must still exhale as you near the surface. It is not something that most people would do instinctively and the reason that it is one of the first things taught in SCUBA classes. As you surface the air in the lungs expands as the pressure decreases, and failure to reduce the pressure can cause an air embolism. It takes knowledge and practice to do it safely.

Please be careful.

[Seeratlas]

Moderator is entirely correct. Here's the deal, you can die trying to breathe underwater. If NOT dying is important to you, take a scuba course. Its fun, you'll learn what you really need to know, you'll meet interesting people, and you'll end up qualified to rent equipment or join that once in a lifetime group for a tank dive in a spectacular location you may never visit again.

Bottom line, and I don't care whether its diving, flying, or jumping, if you're going to risk your life, do it after getting the best professional training you can get Take it from me, you'll live a lot longer and have a lot more fun.

seer

[SV Gwendolyn]

Thanks for all the useful info. I do intend doing a course but was looking at something more "practical" to have on board rather than all the scuba gear.

Thanks again

[GoneTroppo]

Hi,

I have had a Power Dive(Aussie copy of Sea Breathe) on board for 6 years. Have used it a lot and it works very well. Compact and easy to store and therefore easy to access and use. Not a cruising necessity but it does come in handy at times.

Regards,

Stephen