Was this a terrible idea, or merely a bad idea?

[Nation of Heat]

For my inaugural post, thought I'd ask for some input on something that has been on my mind since getting my OW last year. We were in Roatan, and my girlfriend and I did our OW certification. We're both pretty athletic and picked it up quickly and were very comfortable throughout the whole thing, including 4 dives between 40-60 feet. (I had done several "discover scuba" type resort dives before as well). So as it happened, the dive to the wreck that I had read a ton about was the day after we finished our certification and it wouldn't happen again while we were on the island. The catch? It sits at 110 feet. We asked the dive shop if that was do-able, and they said yes.....we would just do it as one of our "adventure"/specialty dives and pay an extra fee. We went out the next morning, did the dive, and it was fantastic. There was minimal additional training aside from "stick with the group". We did, and everything was fine. The DM was attentive the whole time and the group was small. The DM also checked our air a couple of times along the way.

In the process of furthering my education I've spent some time reading many of your posts here and kept thinking to myself....wait a minute, diving to 110 feet on my first dive as a certified scuba diver??? That was a TERRIBLE idea.

So i guess my question is.....was this a situation that it was a bit of an overreach, or is this a "don't dive with that shop every again" type of thing? All in all I was very happy with the shop and their staff.

Some details for those not familiar with Roatan that may or may not affect the verdict:

-Water was 80+ degrees, zero current and perfect visibility
-The site was just off shore
-There is a decompression chamber nearby
-The wreck is at the bottom of a wall, so after you visit the wreck you slowly work up the wall towards the surface, so a slow ascent is built-in to some degree.

I'd really appreciate any feedback here. Obviously in retrospect I would've made a different decision but that's part of why I'm asking this....to get some better perspective on when to "roll with it" and when to put the brakes on it.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

This was what I'd call a trust me dive. People have died and disappeared on those.
What size tanks were you using?
What is your SAC rate?
What is your GF's SAC rate?
How badly were you narced?
Was this discussed with you?
What was the gas plan and the contingency plan should someone have a problem?
What was the emergency deco plan should someone exceed the NDL's?
Why was the DM checking your air?
What was the plan if someone ran low or out?
How many were in the group?
If two of you ran low or out of air who was supposed to donate to you?
Would they have enough air to donate?

Warm water deep dives can be more dangerous than those in a cold, dark quarry or lake. The conditions lull people into a false sense of security.

Most people would look at a DM like they had two heads if he said lets go see the wreck at 100 feet in 40 degree water with 10 feet of vis as one of their first dives after OW.

Yet in the Caribbean it's no big deal?

Nothing bad happened or went wrong. This time.

If the DM had become disabled or lost did you and your buddy have enough knowledge and skills to handle that and end the dive on your own safely?
Perhaps while also assisting the DM to the surface?
If you don't know the answer to any one of these questions, IMO, you should not have done the dive.

 

[Wookie]

Sounds like my first dive after certification.

 

[Lorenzoid]

. . . they said yes.....we would just do it as one of our "adventure"/specialty dives and pay an extra fee. . . .

If you did it as an Adventure Dive, then isn't the instructor supposed to use it as an educational opportunity about the considerations involved in "deep" diving (some of which Jim mentioned above)?

 

[The Chairman]

I've been on that wreck, and it's the easiest 110ft dive you could hope to do. I surely wouldn't sweat it, but I'm sure the Scuba Police will bash you for it.

FWIW, we'll be back on that wreck in about a year as ScubaBoard will be invading Anthony's Key next year. Come join us and you'll get to be mentored by a bunch of great divers.

 

[northernone]

Likewise.

However, a disproportionate number of fatalities are reported on those kind of dives from what I've seen on DAN. Glad you are ok.

 

[Nation of Heat]

If you did it as an Adventure Dive, then isn't the instructor supposed to use it as an educational opportunity about the considerations involved in "deep" diving (some of which Jim mentioned above)?

There was some talk for sure, including mention of narcosis signs and remedies. Also covered the plan and the time we'd be spending at the wreck before we had to begin ascending. But it was more of a briefing than instruction...nothing nearly as in depth as what Jim mentions. Luckily, neither of us noticed any signs of narcosis...perhaps b/c the deep part was at the beginning and we only spent about 10 minutes at the wreck?

Another detail that i neglected above....there were actually 2 DMs, one of which had a pony. (There were 6 divers so the entire party was 8)

 

[Colo Hippie]

I've been on that wreck, and it's the easiest 110ft dive you could hope to do. I surely wouldn't sweat it, but I'm sure the Scuba Police will bash you for it.

.

Having dove the wreck many times ^^^^ this , and yea you will get bashed on here for attempting to kill a boat full of nuns and orphans

 

[nolatom]

yes, it was a bit of an overreach. But in perfect conditions, gin-clear warm water, no current, you sound as though it was a fairly relaxed dive for you--otherwise you'd have burned air faster than you apparently did-- it was probably about as low-risk a 110' dive as you'll find. But if anything went wrong, you'd have been task-overloaded quickly, and maybe too deep to fix it. Jim L, above, is right.

That said, I once took an instabuddy who was making his first ocean boat dive and was quite new, to 100' on the Chevron platforms off Pensacola (which top at about 85' anyway so we stayed near the top), in perfect conditions, and he was a cool cat, relaxed underwater, and a good communicator who didn't use air too fast, and whose unknown OW instructor I silently thanked. It worked out fine.

In some ways, Caribbean-like conditions do make possible a dive profile that would be ultra dangerous in cold New England murk. Even so, I'm not saying this was a brilliant idea--just one that worked out well with an instabuddy who was a good diver despite being very new at it.

Also, I wouldn't have considered it if it had been *two* inexperienced instabuddies--if anything went wrong with one, you might have to leave the other unattended. Not good.

 

[scrane]

I think it's great you got to do the dive.