Diving myths taught for safety?

[TONY CHANEY]

This thread was forwarded to me by a student. My answer to him was, take a course, or don't take a course but ALWAYS, dive within the scope of your training and experience. Audit your skills frequently and be honest with yourself. Video cameras do no lie and leave little to the imagination. Scrutinize and reflect your diving habits. Are you diving solo because you have trouble finding people who will do more than one dive with you? You mentioned having done an overhead dive and a decompression dive. Would experienced divers conduct these dives with you are or you conducting them solo because no one else will or with people who do not know any better? If the answer is either of the later than maybe you need to give this some consideration. I have extensive wreck and technical dive training and experience and there are many divers who penetrate wrecks and conduct decompression dives who do not have the ability to deal with the added potential risks. They often find other divers who do no know any better to undertake such dives with them and put both at risk, while myself and the people I dive with who have extensive training and experience in these environments would never undertake such a dive with someone who is a liability. I have all the time in the world to teach people who want to learn and improve their diving. You can verify with the people in the Victoria dive community but for every dive I do with a student as part of a course, I do at least 3 on my own time to help them gain experience and practice their skills. I have little patience and zero time for knowitalls who endanger other divers. You mentioned that nitrox would make sense for the deep part. If you take a nitrox course, one of the first things you will learn is how nitrox actually limits your depth. Nitrox is most beneficial at depths 100ft and above and for decompression purposes. Maybe you are thinking about trimix?

Am I missing something here? What does this post have to do dive myths?

 

[liztribe]

The entire 15 pages of the thread are off topic from the original post. I am addressing the comments made throughout regarding people thinking its acceptable to dive beyond training an experience or how they do not see the need to take courses.

 

[swimmer_spe]

The entire 15 pages of the thread are off topic from the original post. I am addressing the comments made throughout regarding people thinking its acceptable to dive beyond training an experience or how they do not see the need to take courses.

Actually, I feel as the OP that it has been on topic. I have learned a lot, and understand the dangers with things that are not myths, and understand why those myths 'exist'.

 

[spoolin01]

Kind of a refreshing thread.

Not sure I've seen this one, a favorite:

- the safe second is a critical piece of equipment, and only an octopus - in conjunction with a long hose on the primary or octo - is clearly optimal.

Others:

- it's better to trust the maintenance of your regulator to a dive shop than to do it yourself
- safety stops are optional, meant only to slow your rate of ascent
- don't draw your tanks down because water will get in
- cold water diving is not worth it

 

[BDSC]

safety stops are optional, meant only to slow your rate of ascent

So safety stops are mandatory?

 

[Sir-Dive-A-Lot]

Actually, I feel as the OP that it has been on topic. I have learned a lot, and understand the dangers with things that are not myths, and understand why those myths 'exist'.

I feel it overlaps a lot with the recent "scuba snopes" thread, but this one is slightly more specific to safety.

 

[bl6394]

So safety stops are mandatory?

Yeah - I've always heard that safety stops were optional - but strongly recommended - for recreational divers.

I've also seen the ultrasound studies that detected much higher incidents of "silent bubbles" in divers who skip the safety stops...

Bjorn

 

[BDSC]

Yeah - I've always heard that safety stops were optional - but strongly recommended - for recreational divers.

I've also seen the ultrasound studies that detected much higher incidents of "silent bubbles" in divers who skip the safety stops...

Bjorn

I'll be at the DAN headquarters next Wednesday when they have their bi-monthly presentation. I'll be sure to get their take on the silent bubble thing. I would assume the studies you have seen on that are most likely from DAN research. This month they are going to talk about your heart condition and diving.

 

[boulderjohn]

On safety stops:

PADI OW instruction still says that, when using tables, safety stops are required for any dives 100 feet or deeper, any dives at extreme end of the allowable time for the depth on the tables, and any dive within 3 pressure groups of end. That was all based on research tied to their creation of their tables in the early 1980s.

If you are using a computer, recommendations for doing safety stops are even more strongly stated. (I don't have the actual wording for the computer course with me at the moment.)

Since that original research for the tables, further research indicates that safety stops are more valuable than that early research showed. One study that you will find on the DAN website showed that stops were more important than the ascent rate. Consequently, I will do stops for all but pretty shallow and and short dives. No, I don't have a specific cutoff.

 

[Adam Grose]

I tell my students at the beginning of class one that I am not actually going to teach them how to be scuba divers. What I AM going to do, is teach them, to the best of my abilities, not to die (while scuba diving). And in that process, not to kill your buddy, who will be me until the end of the course!
They all quickly agree this is a good idea.
Then, I compare their training to a Martial Arts class. i.e. when you start a Karate class, the first day you're there in your shorts and t-shirt, looking around saying to yourself "I hope they don't kill me!". After about class three, the Sensei hands you a gi and a white belt. You've shown him that you can walk onto the dojo floor and not trip over your own feet and fall down and break your nose. Now you are ready to start learning.
That's sort of what it's like at the end of the scuba class. Now you are ready to start learning, to start really developing your skills and deciding what path you want to take on your scuba journey.
I try to teach them good habits. Be safe and thoughtful about what you do. Expand your circle of awareness with proper training. And get out and dive!

Hmmm..... kind of Miyagi-esque.

---------- Post added May 30th, 2013 at 08:41 AM ----------

Has anyone mentioned turning the SPG away from your face when you turn the tank on? I do it out of habit but in 43 years I've never seen one explode.

I was taught to put the SPG face down against the place where the valve on the regulator joins with the tank.... just in case either one gives way. FWIW.

Adam