Newbie question RE "How Deep do you Dive Poll"- How deep SHOULD I dive?

[Michael Schlink]

Well I couldn't stop myself from chiming in, I tried but came back. There ares oe very good comments here and some that aren't exactly correct.
How deep is deep or too deep is going to be a question that comes up regularly and will always be difficult to answer. Here is my version for what it's worth
Everything that Mike said is correct
You always MUST have a dive plan. What needs to be considered when "deep" diving is this.

Air/Gas mgmt. do you have enough gas to make the dive AND effectivly handle a problem/emergency without having to also handle an impending OOA. It doen't matter what your air consumption rate is, it matters that your carrying enough gas.

Equipment MUST support the dive.Do you have the proper redundency so that regardless of what goes wrong you can still make it to the surface comfortably and not exceeding proper ascent rates, safety/deco stops etc.

Your TRAINING and SKILL level must be that you can implement the two previous criteria with ease and confidence

Those that are telling you that there isn't anything to see below a cetain depth and therefore don't need to go any deeper are incorrect. There is plenty to see at deeper depths and those with the skills, experience, training and equipment SHOULD go see these things-JMHO

Diving progressivly deeper doesn't really increase your abilities for deeper diving and in fact often creates a FALSE sense of security. Get more training and experience under the tutalage(sic) of a qualified deep inst.-M

 

[To_Narced]

Hi y'all-
After reading the "How Deep do you Dive" poll thread, I realize I have what may seem to be a dumb "newbie" question, but I figure I can get great answers and help here on Scuba Board! So here goes:

How deep SHOULD I dive?

I have about 45-50 dives in my log, all in Caribbean waters, most in Cozumel. I'd self-evaluate my skills as advanced beginner to intermediate (at least for those waters), most of my dives have been to an average max. depth of 60-85ft. or so, and my deepest dive so far was 110ft. this past February in Coz. And after reading the above poll thread I started to get the feeling, based on a lot of your own responses, that 110ft. was WAY TOO DEEP, but (and I hate to admit this) I'M NOT SURE WHY! :blush: What exactly is TOO DEEP?

The circumstances of the 110ft. dive: first dive of the day, Columbia reef, beautiful surface weather, but my first dive to any real depth in a year or so (the day before I had done a "refresher" shore dive with the DM in shallow water, 25-35ft., and checked out fine). But just to be safe, I asked her to "keep an eye on me" the first few dives of the week as I re-established my skills.

There were 6 other divers on the (fast) boat, most of whom were advanced level divers. I was traveling solo, so the DM paired me with another intermediate level diver, described our planned route, the reef and potential critters, the currents, and set the dive profile as max. to 80-85ft. with the bulk of the dive at 50-60ft. before a gradual rise ending with a safety stop at 20ft. Then she told me to stay close and follow her and she'd check out my skills at depth. So I did! I followed her to 110ft.! :wow:


I was a little surprised when I looked at my computer and saw our depth, but stayed with the DM. The currents were pretty strong and tricky, and we soon rose to 70ft. or so to find milder current. We finished the dive pretty much according to profile, although I had to surface before the rest of the group because I was sucking air like a jet engine ( mostly from the nervous excitement of being back in the water after so long). Later, during the surface interval, I mentioned to the DM that I was surprised that we went to 110ft., and she said that only the advanced divers were doing 110ft. and I was supposed to stay ABOVE them at 80-85ft., as planned. But, I said, sheep that I am, when she'd said to follow her...well... I did!

I know I'm rambling here, so I'll get to why I'm confused: I felt fine with the dive and the depth- and no, it wasn't narcosis! :loopy: No problems on the dive (except for the aforementioned air sucking), no problems with my skills (I was a little over-weighted but corrected that before the next dive), and even though the current was very strong and tricky (even the DM and the advanced folks found them a little challenging) I didn't have any real problem with it. Yet as I read the responses to the poll, I got the sense that I had actually done a risky and dangerous dive for my experience level. Did I? And if so, how do I determine beforehand if a dive falls within my "range"? In other words, how do you know when too deep is too deep? I have no real compulsion to dive deep just for the sake of diving deep, but someday I would like to try some wall dives that fall in the 100-130+ft. range. When and how do you know that you're ready to do so safely?

For those of you who are still with me, thanks for reading so far, and thanks in advance for your responses and advice! Let me know what you think!
FastDen :rainbow:

Hi there,

How deep you dive should be evaluated on your experience level, equipment limitations and water conditions. It is important to recieve some form of advanced training not only so you are comfortable with diving deep and hadling narcosis, but so you can safely plan and execute a dive within your NDL and gear limitations. Of course the finall decision to dive deep always rests with the diver. I frequently dive to 150ft in canadian waters but it took time to reach this level and I know my limits. Knowing your personal psycological, training and gear limits is essential before undertaking a deep dive

 

[android]

I'm a pretty new diver, but I'll say you're over your head. Here's why:

and set the dive profile as max. to 80-85ft. with the bulk of the dive at 50-60ft. before a gradual rise ending with a safety stop at 20ft. Then she told me to stay close and follow her and she'd check out my skills at depth. So I did! I followed her to 110ft.! :wow:

I was a little surprised when I looked at my computer and saw our depth, but stayed with the DM.

You didn't follow you're plan and you didn't look at your depth gauge on the way down. There should have been no surprises, you should have given the level off sign at 85ft and made it clear you sticking to the plan. You blindly followed someone you don't know and failed to take responsibility for your personal safety.

 

[greg somers]

Everyone suffers from the narcs at that depth. It starts around 60-80ft. Everyone feels it differently depending on their physical & mental state at the time. Some handle it better than others. Descision making definately becomes slower and it is important to keep referring regularly to your depth guage as it's easy to become distracted and forget to monitor your buoyancy. It happens to everyone, including myself. I would recommend that you do your AOW to learn the proper techniques and once you have done so, start more gradually. I have dived at 100ft or over many times. Once you are trained and confident and have a good buddy, there are many great things to see at that depth. It's YOUR skills that need to be developed first, rather than simply following someone else. The thing to remember is that it isn't a competition. The only reward for going to 100ft is the enjoyment of the dive. Keep that in mind when making your descision to the type of diving that interests you and then focus your training in that direction.

Hope that helps

Gasman

 

[Keysdrifter454]

Hi y'all-
After reading the "How Deep do you Dive" poll thread, I realize I have what may seem to be a dumb "newbie" question, but I figure I can get great answers and help here on Scuba Board! So here goes:

How deep SHOULD I dive?

Only you can tell yourself that.

Just make sure it's an educated decision.

Two bits of wisdom:

A) Why, exactly, do you need to go deeper?

B) The more time you spend wondering about a particular dive depth, the more inclined I'd be to doubt you're ready for it.