Professional divers, explorers, photographers, and divers just like you who dive KISS rebreathers.
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Curt Bowen
Publisher Advanced Diver Magazine, CEO Rebreatherworld.com, Photographer, and Explorer
Curt has been shooting both under and above water photography for over 20 years. He has traveled from the Great Lakes of the United States, through Central America, Bahamas, and the Pacific Ocean.

Specializing in extreme underwater exploration, Curt’s goals are to explore new locations and document new discoveries through still photography and video.

“Due to travel weight restrictions and the often difficult task of transporting heavy equipment across rouged terrain, through dry cave passages, or packed in over miles of foot path, my simplified, light weight, and easy to maintain in remote world locations Classic KISS has proven to be an exceptional tool that always gets the job completed. When you have spent thousands of dollars, traveled great distances, and discovered something no other human has ever seen, the rebreather you have chosen, must work every time”! - Curt Bowen
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Eliot Danner
Technical diver and instructor
Eliot is an active technical diver and instructor on the East coast of the United States. From wrecks to caves, salt water or fresh, if it’s wet, Eliot wants to dive it.

Two words: Reliability and Flexibility. My KISS has taken a beating in every imaginable way; it has been dropped, scratched, sunk, manhandled by airlines, bumped and generally abused. It has taken me on deep cave dives, complex wreck dives, shallow reef dives and almost everywhere in between. In each case it has adapted and proven itself a superb diving tool. – Eliot Danner
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Doug Ebersole
Kiss CCR Trimix Instructor, Underwater Photographer, and Interventional Cardiologist
Doug has been diving since 1974 and has travelled the world documenting the underwater world. He loves teaching all levels of diving, but especially enjoys teaching KISS rebreathers. To pay the bills, he practices cardiology in Lakeland, Florida where he is the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.

Coming from a physiology background, I love the simplicity of the KISS system. It is very intuitive and very easy for divers to comprehend all aspects of the system. Additionally, the small size and light weight of the Sport Kiss makes international travel much easier. – Doug Ebersole
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Brett Hemphill
Technical Cave Explorer
Many people say my KISS Classic is not your typical stock model, and although this may be true, I can assure you, my limited modifications have not changed the overall philosophy behind this CCR. “Keep It Simple Stupid” Before I began exploring deeper than 300 ft or 91.44 m, there wasn’t even a practical use for any modification. I used my stock Classic in the exploration of over 6 underwater cave systems in 2 years.

Years before purchasing my KISS Classic, I spent a significant amount of time researching just what type of rebreathers were being used actively in exploration, and what I found was that SCCR units were the rebreathers of choice especially for cave exploration. Why was this? I wondered. The answer was simple, unquestionable reliability.

“If you’re breathing and there’s no bubbles, it’s probably working.”

Definitely not a phrase we use when diving any rebreather, but none the less, you see my point. These SCCR’s would allow the explorers to free their mind from monitoring multiple components or question their reliability thus allowing them to focus more on the exploration. But the draw backs for using these units were still the need for staging excessive bail-out /breathing gas in addition to other necessary redundant equipment. I knew this wasn’t the answer for me. After examining additional logistics and statistics, I purchased a mechanical/manual CCR, the KISS Classic. Soon I realized some startling truths about using a mechanical CCR. What I found and what shocked many of my dive partners time and time again was how, in most scenarios, whether during recreational or exploration dives was how I manage to still do more than my fair share of the work load and regardless of how long the bottom times were, my total decompression was no longer than theirs. What I also witnessed during many of these dives was as the intensity of the environment increased, so was the transfixed nature of their attention towards their electronics and what the electronic/manual CCR was doing.

“There comes a point where too much technology can separate one from the environment they are trying to engage.”

Respectfully

Brett B Hemphill

http://www.karstunderwaterresearch.org/
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Dave Oldham
Northeast wreck diver, Engineer, Instructor (KISS and Technical) and Photographer
Dave enjoys diving on the local shipwrecks along Northeast Coast of the USA, and traveling to dive locations around the world. This includes diving many well known historic wrecks, and searching for new ones. As an amateur photographer since childhood, he loves combining that hobby with SCUBA diving. He enjoys sharing with others, the beauty of our underwater world, and his love of diving.


As a wreck diver, CCR greatly simplifies the logistics of deep dives. As a photographer / videographer it also improves your ability to get closer to many subjects, and allows you the bottom time needed to get the shots you are looking for. The streamlined, uncluttered design of the KISS reduces entanglement hazards common to wreck diving, while also simplifying the handling of dive and photo gear. The simplicity of the KISS design makes it easy to learn, operate, assemble and maintain. I believe this also makes the KISS less prone to failure. The compact design and light weight, but rugged construction makes it great for dive travel. - Dave Oldham
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John Rawlings
Pacific Northwest Technical Diver and Photographer
John has been diving in the cold, emerald waters of the Pacific Northwest for over three decades and takes particular delight in introducing divers around the world to the beauty that the area has to offer. He has traveled extensively in his role as a Photojournalist for Advanced Diver Magazine, but continues to treasure his home waters above all others. In addition to ADM, John's work has appeared in a variety of magazines, newspapers and on the World Wide Web.

I am known for being a "critter guy", and I am particularly attracted to sites at which the diversity of the underwater animal kingdom literally burst forth - a common situation in Northwest waters. Many of the species that I photograph are difficult to approach - it was this that first lured me toward closed-circuit-rebreathers. On one of my first dives with my Classic KISS CCR, in an effort to see how close I could get, I literally touched noses with a large Cabezon, a notoriously skittish fish. He finally bolted at the sound of my laughter! As an underwater photographer dealing with a lot of equipment, I prefer the back-mounted counterlungs of the KISS units as they allow for an uncluttered chest area, (that I promptly fill with camera gear!). The KISS units are also famed for their simplicity and easy maintenance, something that I prize greatly when on location. - John Rawlings
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Walt Stearns
Publisher of the Underwater Journal online magazine and free-lance photographer.
For more than 20 years, Walt’s images and writing have appeared in a broad range of well-known national and international publications, as well as a wide variety of promotional and advertising mediums.

It is through his deep wealth of knowledge, experience and love for the ocean, that his quest is to bring readers the wonders that they seldom, if ever get to see.

“Making my living as an underwater photographer, the one thing I hate is monkeying around with fussy equipment. When it comes to rebreathers, the KISS Sport is as easy to set up, dive, breakdown and clean as a CCR system can get. Another point I should add, due to growing weight restrictions we are constantly subjected to by the airline industry, the Sport KISS’s design, allowing it to be broken down into a lightweight, carry on size also makes it one of the most travel friendly rebreathers on the market.” – Walt Stearns

http://www.underwaterjournal.com/
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Tim Taylor
Owner Research and Exploration Company, Explorer and KISS diver
Tim Taylor is an accomplished ocean explorer, adventurer and naturalist. He has been diving throughout the world for over 30 years. Tim works with innovative diving technologies and operations, specializing in exploring new locations and sharing them with the scientific community and the general public. He has discovered and explored numerous reefs, including Sherwood Forest Reef, considered the centerpiece of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve, Pulley Ridge, the deepest hermatipic coral reef in the world and black forest reef, the largest black coral tract in the United States. He is President of RV Tiburon Inc., an ocean research, exploration and expedition corporation based in Key West, Florida, and is the founder of Ocean Outreach, a nonprofit with a strong focus on educational awareness programs.

"We have made the choice to equip our entire team with KISS rebreathers. They are simply the sturdiest and most reliable units available. We are underway for months at a time and need to count on our equipment to perform. No other units I have encountered can beat a KISS in the field."
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