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

[seeker242]

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.

If you never dove with any shop in Roatan, that took people below their certified depth, you would probably have none left to choose from!

 

[Rhone Man]

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.

I'd also agree with Pete. As soon as people can locate a suitable stake they will tie you to it and burn you. But in reality, if you are athletic, intelligent and paying attention during your class, that is not a risky dive. Especially guided by pros.

People (especially dive pros) do like to stress the risk factors in diving - after all, it is their job. But sometimes you need to stand back and compare it in absolute terms. I remember when I was in Cyprus and the shop was training up a new guy to be their DM - young athletic guy, ex-military and at this time he had about 30 dives. Everyone else doing the dives was on nitrox other than him, and they were reasonably deep dives on the Xenobia. Well predictably enough he ended up in deco and so he had to decompress under the boat after the second dive. He was just diving a conventional open circuit rig. A few of us stayed with him just to make sure all was OK, although there was a hookah over the side for emergencies. Part of me was horrified at this clear breach of just about every standard known to man (well, PADI man, anyhow). I spoke to him afterwards and asked him if he wasn't a bit concerned. He told me: "Three months ago I was still with the British army in Afghanistan and people were shooting at me. This is sitting under a boat in warm clear water for a few minutes. This is not risky stuff." And he's kind of right about that. Risky in dive pro world is not exactly like base jumping or telling your wife that she looks fat.

 

[AdivingBel]

Sounds like you made reasonable decisions and had a good time. Glad you enjoyed your dive. Welcome to the underwater world. Also, welcome to SB.

 

[scubadada]

1st dive after recertification in 1997 was to 95 feet off the North wall in Grand Cayman, 3rd dive was to 100 feet. 1,183 dives later, I'm here to tell you about both of them.

 

[boulderjohn]

I will not debate the pros and cons of this dive. It apparently was an instructional dive, which means your instructors have to be held to standards. Your profile says you were certified SSI, and I don't know the SSI rules for training dive beyond the basic OW training. If it were PADI, that dive would have violated two instructional standards for adventure dives..

 

[dberry]

For kicks and grins I ran 10 minutes at 110ft on air through planning apps (ZHL16-C 20/85). 4minutes of deco (1 min each at 40,30,20,and 10ft.) Following the slope of the reef probably gave you what you needed, and it's likely the DM made sure you took your time on the ascent and did a safety stop. I realize that 110' for 10-20 minutes is considered within NDL depending on whose tables you use, but I wanted to see what Dr. Buhlmann says.

If you're curious, the linked jpeg shows the predicted tissue loading IF you had gone directly to the surface after 10min of bottom time (i.e. not the gentle ascent with safety stop at 15ft.) The two fastest compartments are over the red line - the limit of what's considered safe to reach the surface with. As I understand it, bubbles in the fast tissues are what lead to Type II DCS (neurological damage, paralysis, etc. - nothing to worry about

Dropbox - Dive110.jpg

 

[KDAD]

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)

I was concerned at first until you mentioned that there was a pony available. Surely it was at least a 30 cu ft. and you would have known what to do with it when shtf.

Feel good. Your experience level jumped up a bit and if you commit Jim Lapenta's post to your skill set you will have a good base to grow upon.

 

[Steve_C]

Why was the DM checking your air?

Because they should.

If I have an instabuddy or new buddy I always do a couple air checks so that I know how their air consumption is relative to mine and we avoid an LOA situation. (low on air) This was an instructional dive as part of AOW. You cannot always believe what the diver tells you on the boat. You cannot always believe they will check their air. Or in one case that they know how to read that computer they have rented.

"Instabuddy: Why did you send me up, I had air left?
Me: Because you had 4 minutes of NDL left.
Instabuddy: What is that? How can you tell?
Me: Let me show you"

This was an instabuddy on a 105 ft dive. She had done several ocean dives before and was good on trim and air but turns out was her first dive past 65 fsw. She was on air. I and my regular buddy were on 30%.

Note: Regular dive buddy is an instructor in two agencies with 5000 plus dives. We both had ponies and larger tanks. Instabuddies regular buddy had gotten sick but she had come diving anyway.

 

[Jonn]

Kind of terrible, could have died, but then the car ride to the shore was a risk as well. I suspect folks pushing the recreational limits right away is a fairly common story, and it's an unregulated hobby so the risks are fundamentally yours to weigh and accept. My first real dive was Minnewanka dam in Alberta; similar depth but much worse conditions and no cool wreck to look at. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do it.

 

[Nation of Heat]

I want to thank all of you for your responses....it's exactly what I hoped for in posting and is immeasurably helpful. I'm not some reckless adrenalin junkie, but i was totally comfortable in the situation so kind of rolled with it absent knowledge to the contrary. Learning about the things I SHOULD have been paying more attention to (with extra thanks to Jim's post) is incredibly helpful. We'll be back doing another 15 or so dives next month and this gives me a great chunk of knowledge to digest before we're back in the water.

By all means, please keep weighing in. But those of you who have already shared your take on it, you have my gratitude...