New Oceanic Rebreather

Many of the old timers are aware of the Oceanic Phibian rebreathers. These were really slick, very streamlined rigs that were uncluttered via internal rear shell mounted counterlungs like the Submatix units.The unit had a single hose computer that handles all functions.

Stewart Clough is a CCR designer and was involved with marine and terrestrial photogrammetry in the early 1980s. He has worked on projects like engineering the CCR155 to operate with his own electronics module. He next went on to develop the SMS2000 with Drager and the Phibian with Oceanic. Later he set up Undersea Technologies and developed the UT240 and then was involved in the ground breaking, really slick Infinito rebreather manufactured by PowerBreathe in Italy.

Oceanic has always had a really great, intuitive graphic interface to their dive computers and their Phibian's computer was no different.

The new rebreather Oceanic has been working on will have realtime infrared c02 gas sampling as opposed to axial thermistor arrays in the absorbent bed. The hurdle has always been the battery power drain of the gas drying system so the sampled gas is dry enough to maintain c02 sensor stability and longevity.

Although there was some early claims by other than Oceanic that there new rig would recapture expanded gas upon ascent, such info was not correct unless you count surfing so slowly you metabolize the 02 portion of the expanding gas rather than vent it.

You can listen to Bob Hollis, founder of Oceanic being interviewed in a podcast talking about their rebreather project here Scroll the timeline to 22.48.

When Oceanic releases more info we'll bring it to you, as we're just as excited as the rest.