Chris Brown

Originally Posted by Hontihl

So after what seemed like a life time (registered on RBW in 2006) of waiting for my time to get into a rebreather, the opportunity finally came, when money and time and more importantly agreement from she who must be obeyed all came together.

The years of waiting weren't totally waisted though and I would dip in and out from time to time to keep myself up to date with what was going on with rebreathers, unit development, course development and the like, as well as OC Tec type stuff, so Trimix as a diver and Tec instructor bits and bobs.

Well this weekend I finished my mod 1 with Chris Brown and I have to say I'm now wondering if I re-test my two sets of out of date twins (other wise known as doubles Chris). OMG I only wish I could have done it sooner.

Anyone that teaches Tec always says its not about the agency, it's about the instructor, which I do agree with but I suppose it does also depends what flavour agency you like to go for too. I have done quite a lot of tdi training, I'm a tdi instructor so wanted to stay tdi.

and despite reading loads and thinking I knew a bit about rebreathers, it turns out I really didn't know that much after all, but I now know a man who does.

Of course there is always that eternal problem that you'll never know how a course would have been different else where, but I like Chris's teaching style, very relaxed, like learning without being taught. Having been involved with diver education for 10 years and having taught full time in real work, Chris delivered my course in exactly the style I hoped for, one that was all about me.

So most people I would think at least have an understanding of what's in the mod 1, 3 H's drill bail outs manual set points, scr, all the sort of stuff to hopefully keep you alive, all of which we did and more besides, but my overriding memory is of just being in the water swimming around, bouncing of the bottom (it was ndac so no issues with the bottom) being more frustrated with myself and my lack of buoyancy control than any of the skills that Chris wanted me to do, and just really enjoying being in the water. On the last couple of dives I obviously had enough control to notice I was a lot warmer than when on oc, which was really nice, and novel, especially for being in fresh water at this time of year.

So yes, Chris did ask me to write a review of my course, but I think these days most people know what's in the course before they do it, so tried to do a bit of both, course and instructor, and clearly, yes I would go back for more.