How deep how soon?

[JDostal]

As soon as you have the training, experience, gear, confidence and attitude to do so.

It's not a time...it's not a number of dives...it's not a card from any organisation.

It's everything together.

Like others have said, it's an individual thing. I know some divers that have been diving for 20 years and have never and will never go deeper than 80 feet.

Others are already into their first trimix course in their third year of diving.

 

[TheDarknessLord]

Hi, the best deep to enjoy a dive shall be between 5 to 18 mts!
Below 18 mts until 40 mts become a deep diving. In that case you need a specialty, and below 40 mts, you need technical course... but I can tell you that below 18 you are not going to see anything better, on the contrary, you are not going to find the same life that you can find between 10mts and 18mts. For deep diving you need an specific object, like a wreck, cave or something like that!!!

 

[JDostal]

I would agree - you will get the most color, the most life and quite possibly more enjoyment out of shallower dives.

I know that I enjoy shallow dives because they are bright, sunny, there are more fish and plants and I don't need to work as hard and worry so much about properly pulling off the dive. It's a much more relaxing dive.

I enjoy deep diving as well, but there is definitely something to be said for those relaxed shallow dives.

 

[wreckchick]

So far the advice given in this thread has been sound and on target. I rambled plenty about my experiences (limited as they may be) already, but one of things missing from this discussion is how susceptible a new diver is to the "guidence" of a DM on any particular dive. On only "one" occasion did I dive the plan when the DM deviated and I can't even take credit for that, my buddy is the one that pulled up, he was narced. Thinking skills pretty solidly intact for someone with 7 OW dives post-cert, don't you think?

I'd like to hear from those of you regularly dive with newer divers, be you a divemaster, instructor, mentor, etc. and hear about how you evaluate a diver for safety at depth.

Clearly there are plenty of DM's that do no evaluation at all and I'm curious as to what skills or level of confidence you think adquately prepare someone to take the next step. The AOW or Deep Diver Specialty might be a nice place to start, but I think we can all agree it doesn't tell the whole story.

One other quick question, and this may be a stupid one but I'll ask anyway: If you plan a dive to 55' in cold water, you use the rule to add 10' to calculate bottom time on the tables, but does that still count as a 55' dive when you're looking at max depth?

Rachel

P.S. Can anyone point me to something that will help me understand multi-level dive planning? I have a computer but by it's very nature all my dives are calculated as multi-level dives and if it craps out I have no doubt that the RDP will tell me to sit down for 24 hours before diving again and I'd like a better solution than that.

Thanks again for all your advice and wisdom.

 

[Big-t-2538]

Eyes....if they are big and searching around for someone/something....they are not happy

Continually ask you student if they are o.k....and before you make that dive...communicate to them that they are the boss as far as calling a dive or not going any deeper if they are uncomfortable.

I would say the number 1 way to help a new diver experience new things is with good communication and buddy awareness.....it is a lot easier to tackle a new sitation if you have someone you trust right there with you.

<edit> I wouldn't call it wisdom...more of a random recollection of things I've seen...<edit>

 

[steeldiver]

The simplist thing in the world diving deep, you just drop to the bottem,its surviving thats the problem.How deep is deep A IOM/33FT dive in nearlly no visability can be a really frightning experience for some and a 50m/165ft dive can be a walk in the park conditions being perfect.
There are so many factors that come into play with depth and
your level of training will dictate what depth you want to dive to.
I've dived for years and done my share of controlled deep dives and yet more often than not you'll find me in water shallower than 10m enjoying the marine life ,the light ,the hour plus i can spend at that depth and the knowledge that it was a pretty safe dive.
I often see divers pushing themselves for that honour 'I dived **
so deep'
Bottem line never take deep diving lightly,if it looks deep to you it's deep.
Howard.

 

[JDostal]

steeldiver once bubbled...
,the hour plus i can spend at that depth

Heck yeah...I love 1+ hour dives - when I was in the Bahama's in January the deeper dives weren't as fun because they didn't last as long. Granted, my first time on a wall was pretty darn cool but it was still awesome to spend 80-90 minutes underwater on a little ol' al80.

 

[TheDarknessLord]

biscuit7 when you talk about cold water, how many degrees are you talking about. cold water is another story....

if a dm bring you below 20m, you shouldn't go if you are an ow diver, take care.

if you want a multilevel, you should use the wheel. i don't like it too much, but is the only one that i know to do a multilevel dive.
the best friend is the computer, and if your computer crash, you should end the dive.

 

[wreckchick]

I'm really not trying to determine how deep I *can* or *should* go, I've been deep, it ain't all that. In fact, the more I dive, the more conservative I am about my diving. The question is more theoretical at to how it applies to someone's analysis of a diver and their skill level.

I'd much rather spend all my air at 30' looking at pretty fish than 10 minutes at 120' just to say I did it. If the vis is 5', I *might* go in to practice good buddy skills and navigation, but probably I'd just sit it out. I've seen some really cool stuff both shallow and deep and by no means would I take myself and a buddy to 100' on a wall with bottomless ocean, I don't have the skill set for that to be a safe dive for either of us. I also don't think that not having an advanced certificate precludes a person from punching through 60', depending on conditions.

I don't know the wheel, it wasn't taught to me in my OW class. If my computer dies, obviously I abort the dive and try and pick up the pieces on the surface but without knowing how to calculate the diving I've already done by hand, the safest thing is to discontinue diving for the rest of the day and start over the next day with hand calculations, it's just not the most fun thing to do (the sitting out, not the hand calculations although the "not as much fun" applies to that as well).

And by cold, I mean theoretical cold as you would apply the cold water depth adjustment on the tables. For me cold means I'm wearing a hood and gloves..... call it below 65 degrees or so, I know I'm working harder at that temp than in temps above it.

R

 

[TheDarknessLord]

ok, you have to add some value to your table if you are working with cold water like you said before! I asked for cold water because in Europe we always use glove and hood, sorry about the question... I wear dry suit for cold water... je je je, gloves and hood are not enough.

about the wheel is the only one that I know, you can find any further info at any PADI center.

You are pretty clear about computer procedure!!!!

and for deep diving, a suggest to you to take of course the specialty, but the best thing to do is diving a lot and know your body, not everybody has the same behavior, maybe your body get narcosis before your partner does, or viceversa! in general deep diving is done by deco stops, and for that you should use nitrox. I love nitrox! for that you have take the specialty also... this the neve ending story, study, study and study all the time ut: