The DIVE TALK GO—A Rebreather for Everyone

by Gus Gonzalez. Images courtesy of the author unless otherwise noted.

Contrary to popular belief, we are not full time YouTubers. Dive Talk started as a vehicle for us to share our views, opinions, and best practices with anyone interested in the opinion of two very different divers. Woody has been diving for 50+ years and has taught countless students ranging from open water to Instructor. I started diving in 2018 and did not have the “baggage” (others call it experience) of seeing how the scuba industry evolved over the decades. So, our takes on industry topics come from completely different angles and perspectives.

We learned early on that, because of the limited time we have to record episodes, we needed to listen to our audience and cover topics and stories that they requested through our website, email, or in YouTube comments. We decided to “obsess over our customers” rather than picking the subjects ourselves.

Once we zoomed in on listener feedback, we started to notice how many of our viewers were not divers. They praised us for “making scuba diving accessible to everyone.” We accomplished that by making diving fun and entertaining instead of leaning into the ego-driven, ”macho” contest many divers are sadly exposed to when they start their journeys. Some of the comments were from experienced recreational divers who had never thought about becoming tec divers until they watched our videos and saw all the amazing things you can see and experience as a rebreather diver or a cave diver. While  these comments weren’t as common as those from people becoming open water divers, they were still eye-opening.

This made us think: “If we can help scuba diving globally by bringing non-divers into scuba diving, why is it such a struggle to bring recreational divers into tech diving and rebreathers?”

What is it that makes rebreathers so unappealing?

Based on the feedback we received from divers in our audience, there are three main reasons why recreational divers are hesitant to become closed circuit rebreather (CCR) divers:

1. Rebreathers are super expensive.
2. Quality training isn’t widely available.
3. They believe that the dangers outweigh the benefits.

Here’s how I see it: Rebreather manufacturers are notorious for being “legend-driven.” They take a cave diving legend or super-elite diver and say, “What kind of unit would this person need?” Then they design a rebreather for that person. The goal of the manufacturer is to build a rebreather that a Sheck Exley would dive with, for example..

We took a different approach. 

We asked ourselves, “If I was an open water recreational diver, what unit would I need?” So, that obsession with the customer drove every decision we’ve made around the Dive Talk GO. 

We used this approach to tackle all three of the above concerns about rebreather diving.

1. Rebreathers Are Super Expensive

We looked at the cost to design, engineer, and produce a brand-new rebreather for the masses; it is staggering. 

But we learned that Mike Young, former owner of KISS rebreathers,  had been working with tech and rebreather instructor Edd Sorenson on a new chest-mounted mechanical or manual CCR (mCCR) unit aimed at first responders who need something easy to don and dive during field missions. 

We tested Mike’s and Edd’s prototypes and realized the huge potential they had for the masses—not just first responders. We partnered with Mike to make design changes that would benefit the people most likely to buy and dive the unit—both open water and recreational divers.

We focused on simplicity and compatibility with existing gear. We realized that many units on the market required a specific wing, mounting rig,  and other equipment to make it dive-ready. We wanted to make sure the Dive Talk GO worked with any gear our customers already owned. We wanted to reduce the total cost of acquisition and ownership and take advantage of divers’ familiarity with their existing gear.

We also looked at the rebreather acquisition process and noted how dealers and vendors (i.e., middlemen) ultimately increased the cost. Plus, CCR units are not mass-produced, which increases the cost of all the parts needed for the unit.

So what do you get when you make the rebreather simpler (less moving parts), negotiate bulk quantities with manufacturers, and sell directly to consumers?

You get not only the best lead times in the industry (most orders shipping on the same day the order is placed) but also the absolute best value: The Dive Talk GO starts at $2,999 for the oxygen-only version and at $3,500 for the full mCCR version. This is a fraction of the cost of similar units on the market.

2. Quality Training Isn’t Widely Available

Having had our own share of poor quality instruction, our experiences were confirmed by a plethora of comments, emails, and messages from people who reported disappointing scuba instruction.

We realized that, in order to ensure the highest possible quality of instruction for the Dive Talk GO, we had to manage how instructors were trained and how they delivered the training to our customers.

Initially, the Dive Talk GO training was delivered via the International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD). The course was created following all safety standards by The Rebreather Education & Safety Association (RESA) and either met or surpassed all global scuba agency standards. The first twenty or so students were certified under IANTD.

As we worked to onboard other mainstream agencies, we realized that we really had no direct supervision and guidance over the quality of instruction these agencies enforced around the world. As a manufacturer, we could label individual instructors as “factory approved,” but the instruction standards were enforced at the agency level, and we had no oversight over how global scuba agencies enforced their own standards.

Based on internal conversations and advice from our legal team, we decided that the best way to ensure that our Dive Talk GO instructors were up to the standards we created (internally and in cooperation with RESA and other industry leaders) was to create our own agency: Dive Talk Academy.

Dive Talk Academy has one main focus: To connect divers with the absolute best instructors around the world. 

It started with our GO Course, but the agency is expanding into recreational diving and other technical diving courses as well—all driven by industry experts and meeting or exceeding industry standards. This is not “Woody and Gus making courses in their garage;” we are not even instructor-trainers within our own agency. 

We knew that, in order for Dive Talk Academy to be successful and for our instructors to be the best in the world, we needed world-class talent and leaders involved in building our content, crafting our operating procedures, and ensuring that every student that goes through a Dive Talk Academy course receives world-class instruction: no more “let me roll the dice and I hope I get a great instructor.” If you register for a course through Dive Talk Academy, you will experience quality instruction. Period.

3. “Rebreathers Are Death Traps”

When many recreational divers consider rebreathers, they imagine a complex unit that allows for dives that last multiple hours at depths that are extreme, and they can’t justify spending an outrageous amount of money on a heavy, complicated unit to do dives they would never attempt. And they’re right!  

This is where the Dive Talk GO shines. 

The unit is a fraction of the cost of other units on the market but, notably, it has some of the best work-of-breathing (WOB) ever tested on a rebreather. You can compare the WOB numbers from 30+ units on InDEPTH’s 2024 Rebreather Guide which includes the numbers reported by each manufacturer… 

Well, at least for the units that have been independently third-party tested; there are multiple units on the market that have never been third-party tested. And yet, they are still sold and divers are certified by agencies to use them. How is that possible? 

I digress.

The Dive Talk GO is designed with recreational divers in mind: people who perhaps have a lower-than-normal surface air consumption rate and find themselves going up to the boat 20-30 minutes into the dive when everyone else can get a full hour. It’s for people who need something lightweight because they can’t get back on a boat with 40-60 extra pounds on their backs.  Also for people who are more interested in looking at pretty fish and taking pictures than exploring the deepest caves. And for people who want to go down to a wreck at 30 m/100 ft and not worry if they have enough gas to spend more than five minutes enjoying the wreck. 

The Dive Talk GO weighs 10 kg/22 lbs fully assembled and ready to dive.

It’s a rebreather for the masses.

It is also a great rebreather for explorers, cave divers, and current rebreather divers who do not always want to carry a massive unit on a dive. We have actually sold more units to current rebreather divers than non-rebreather divers. When current CCR divers see that you can pack two full Dive Talk GO units in a carry-on bag, they are immediately sold!

But I don’t want to diminish the death trap issue. It is true that many divers have died on rebreathers over the years, and we wanted to take a hard look at the reasons for most fatalities on CCR.

We found that CCR diver fatalities occur mainly for two reasons [Editor’s note: This is the author’s opinion. There are no easy data-based answers to the question of why the fatality rate is so high for rebreather divers]: 

1. Poor training or lack of diver preparedness (which we addressed with Dive Talk Academy and high standards). 

2. Poor maintenance: divers who are not replacing sensors per manufacturer recommendations (or not performing maintenance at all on their units) either due to the complexity of getting it done (i.e., filling out paperwork, sending it to a specific service center within their region, and so on) or lack of incentive to get it done (i.e., “if it’s working, why service it?”).

We solved this by offering something unheard of in our industry, Lifetime Warranty.

We offer a Lifetime Warranty on the Dive Talk GO, as long as manufacturer recommended maintenance is performed on the unit.

We want people to be as safe as possible when diving rebreathers, and we are willing to guarantee the unit as long as it’s properly maintained. 

If you buy a Dive Talk GO and, five years later, your ADV starts leaking, your DSV is not firing gas the way it used to, your MAV button feels weird, or anything else, we will fix or replace it at no cost—as long as you kept up with routine maintenance on the unit.

Dive Talk SHIELD

We understand that scuba diving equipment maintenance is not the easiest task in some cases. Overhauling an oxygen first stage may not be trivial for every diver in the world, which is why we introduced SHIELD.

Dive Talk SHIELD is a maintenance program that encourages you to keep up with your unit maintenance and ensures that your unit is in proper condition for as long as you own it. 

Instead of hoping you remember to send your unit in and pay a yearly lump-sum for servicing the unit, you can register for SHIELD and pay a small monthly fee to have the unit covered under warranty and receive all required maintenance, leaving the Dive Talk GO ready for another year of diving. 

The maintenance includes all rebreather parts that came with the rebreather (oxygen regulator, MAV, DSV, ADV, and everything in between) and three brand new sensors (which should be replaced every 12 months).  Plus,  we will perform all of the same quality assurance tests we perform in brand new units to ensure that every component of your unit is ready for safe diving. As long as a Dive Talk GO CCR is serviced and covered under the SHIELD program, we will guarantee all its parts.

The Dive Talk GO, Dive Talk Academy, and Dive Talk SHIELD are all the result of “customer obsession,” and they will continue to evolve based on customer feedback. 

One good example of that “customer-driven evolution” is the recent addition of the GO+: an extension that can be added to the Dive Talk GO to increase its capabilities and rating from a 2.5-hour and max depth of 60 m/200 ft to 6 hours and max depth of 100 m/330 ft while introducing zero change on the work of breathing effort. 

This new addition came directly due to feedback from our customers who wanted more from their units. 

They wanted to go deeper and do longer dives without having to purchase another unit just for those specific dives. As usual, we listened, and we delivered.

Dive Talk’s Future

We want more people to experience our underwater world. 

The secret to our success so far? Listening to our audience to find ways to add value to the scuba diving industry and community around the world. 

Our audience drives the content that we create: They expect world-class experts and experience injected into our training, gear, and events. They trust that we will leverage our network to find the absolute best resources to deliver the best possible results.

Everything in life worth doing is worth overdoing. And we believe revolutionizing the scuba industry and bringing a new generation of divers into our sport is worth doing.

DIVE DEEPER

Dive Talks: A Revolutionary Rebreather

Rebreather Forum 4: Accident Review: The Safety Situation  by Frauke Tillmans

InDEPTH: Has Rebreather Diving Gotten Safer? by Ashley Stewart

InDEPTH: THE TALKS: Leaders of the Pod by Stratis Kas

InDEPTH: InDEPTH’s Holiday Rebreather Guide 2024

Gus Gonzalez is a CCR cave diver and the co-host of Dive Talk on YouTube.