Web Monkey:
As soon as I wrote down a number, I knew somebody was going to pop up and say "I've been to xxx feet."
130' is the NDL for SSI. I beleive PADI is 140', and the bottom times are very short.
If they make you happy, feel free.
Terry
Terry
To clarify, for PADI as well the recommended recreational limit is 130' or 40 Meters (which is actually about 132' when converted. So I guess if someone "breaks" 130' by a foot or two, just log it in as metric and you'd survive, ha ha.
The rest of this are just my thoughts on the depth limits....not directed at anything you (Terry) said:
I think "recommended max depth for new divers" is often translated as "max depth forever until you pay for another course." With most new divers, it IS a good idea to stay fairly shallow until they get comfortable with diving. When I have divers making their first deep dive, I can tell them what they'll need to know to do that dive safely with me, under the conditions on that day. The main things to consider are 1) your air consumption will of course increase 2) you have to pay attention to time....at 10m 33', you can basically stay down for hours if you have air and 3) you have to pay attention to depth....dropping from 30' to 60' won't create any narcosis risk, for example, but that same 30' "drop" from a "deep" dive might cause significant narcosis. And even deeper, you'll have oxygen toxicity issues to deal with (as a recreational diver on air, you don't have to consider them at rec. depths.) When I'm guiding/teaching, I'd PREFER that the diver keep those 3 points in mind during the dive.....but I explain that I WILL be watching time, depth & air consumption.....so my only real concern is the diver's comfort level...if they're not going to panic at the THOUGHT of diving a little deeper, they'll be fine. Even when we have a deep dive "planned" I always tell them we'll "re-evaluate" at around 15 to 20 meters (50~70' roughly)....we have a prearranged "are you ok going deeper?" hand signal...anybody doesn't want to go deep, and we don't go, no problem. (I don't get paid by the foot, ha ha). In some cases, I'll decide on the initial descent that today we will NOT be going deep....if the divers are obviously having problems with the descent, I'll decide to make the dive as easy as it needs to be.
I won't take any customers below the rec. limit (mostly because of liability issues) but I feel I can give enough training (no extra charge) to make a safe SUPERVISED recreational dive without requiring the diver to take an AOW or Deep course. Extra courses are fine, but in some cases I think competent divers are "held hostage" to a degree by being forced to take a course before they can do certain dives. (for example, a shop I used to work for wouldn't allow night dives unless people took an advanced course....even if they had hundreds of dives already...and these were very easy, unchallenging beach night dives.) This wouldn't apply, of course to cave or wreck penetration dives where specific training would be needed, I'd think, to make the dives safely.