Most divers’ first reaction to a rebreather is that it looks complicated and expensive. Both are fair. They’re intricate machines, and getting into one properly is a real investment of time and money. But those two facts answer the wrong question. The question worth answering first isn’t “is it complicated” or “is it expensive.” It’s “would I actually enjoy breathing off a loop?”
That’s exactly what a Try CCR session is for. It’s a low-commitment way to find out whether the whole silent-diving thing is for you, before you spend a cent on training or a unit. Here’s what actually happens in one, who it suits, and who honestly should wait.
First, what a rebreather even is
Quick version, because it helps the rest make sense. On normal scuba — open-circuit — every breath you exhale gets dumped into the water as bubbles, and a good chunk of that exhaled gas was perfectly usable. A closed-circuit rebreather (CCR) captures your exhaled breath, scrubs the carbon dioxide out of it with a chemical absorbent, adds a little oxygen to top it back up, and lets you breathe it again. The gas goes around a loop instead of out into the ocean.
The payoff is twofold. You use gas dramatically more efficiently, and — the part that hooks most people — you make almost no bubbles. No roar of exhaust every few seconds, no curtain of bubbles between you and the reef. Just quiet. Wildlife behaves differently when you’re not a noisy, bubbling intruder, which is why so many underwater photographers and serious wreck and cave divers make the switch.
What actually happens in a Try CCR session
The specifics vary a little by unit and instructor, but the shape is consistent. You’re in confined water — a pool or a controlled shallow environment — not out on a dive site. That’s deliberate. The point is to get you breathing on the loop somewhere completely safe, with an instructor an arm’s length away the entire time.
Before you get wet, your instructor walks you through the unit: what the loop is, what the counterlungs do, how the scrubber works, and — importantly — how the machine is monitoring your oxygen and what the displays are telling you. You don’t need to understand it all yet. You just need enough to breathe safely for the next little while.
Then you get on the loop. And here’s the honest part nobody warns you about: the first few minutes feel weird. Breathing warm, humid gas that doesn’t come in a satisfying hiss from a regulator is a strange sensation, and the loop has a different feel than open circuit — there’s a gentle push and pull to it, and your own buoyancy behaves differently because you’re not venting a lungful of bubbles on every exhale. Most people spend the first ten minutes slightly fighting it. Then something clicks, and the quiet takes over, and they get it.
That moment — the click — is the entire reason to do a Try CCR. It’s the thing you cannot know from reading about rebreathers. Either the silence and the smoothness land for you and you start thinking about the full course, or you decide open circuit suits you fine, and you’ve saved yourself a very expensive detour. Both are good outcomes.
Who a Try CCR session suits
You should already be a comfortable, current diver — this isn’t a first-ever experience, and you’ll get far more out of it if your basic buoyancy and awareness are solid, because the rebreather adds a new layer on top of skills you want to already own. Beyond that, it suits a specific type of diver: the one who’s curious about going quieter, longer, or deeper, and who’s the kind of person who enjoys understanding their gear rather than just using it. Rebreathers reward attention to detail. If checklists and system-thinking appeal to you, that’s a good sign.
It also genuinely suits the photographer who’s tired of their subjects bolting the moment they exhale, and the diver eyeing serious wreck or cave objectives down the line, where a CCR’s gas efficiency and optimal gas mix at every depth start to matter enormously.
Who should wait
If you’re a newer diver still building comfort in the water, wait. Get your buoyancy dialed and log some more dives first — the rebreather will still be here, and you’ll get more out of it. If you don’t enjoy the fiddly, methodical side of gear, be honest with yourself: rebreathers demand a discipline that never really relaxes. That’s not a knock, it’s just the deal. And if the expense of the full path would genuinely strain you, know going in that a Try CCR is the cheap part. The training and the unit that follow are a serious commitment, which is exactly why trying before you leap is the smart move.
What comes after, if you’re hooked
If the loop clicks and you want more, the path runs through proper CCR training on a specific unit, building from the fundamentals up through the depths and environments you want to dive. It’s a real course of study, not a weekend, and that’s appropriate for a machine you’re trusting to keep your gas breathable. We can walk you through what that path looks like, what it costs, and which unit makes sense for the diving you’re chasing.
Few shops in the Phoenix area offer rebreather diving at all, and fewer still let you actually try one before you commit. If you’ve ever watched a CCR diver glide past a reef in total silence and wondered what that’s like — come find out. Take a look at our technical training options and the calendar, or just reach out and we’ll let you know when we set up a session.
Worst case, you learn open circuit is your home and you dive it happily forever. Best case, you find out the quiet was calling you all along.