What would you do?

[drrich2]

These dives are clearly geared toward recreational divers, but are described as having only 10 minutes of bottom time and "a decompression dive with max depth 45m. Deco stops are compulsory and surface interval of 4 hours is mandatory before the second dive."

Sounds like you are planning to get into technical diving, however briefly. If you make a habit of deep diving in areas where only AL80's are available, you might look into side-mount. Just a thought; lets you take 2 tanks with 2 reg.s (giving you redundancy) without bands or a manifold (unlike doubles).

If I were you, I think the question I'd ask is what course would be best to fairly quickly gain the knowledge I needed to competently do this deco. dive. In fact, if you can get the details of their dive plan, you can then run V Planner or what-have-you and see whether it's a plan you agree with.

And one potential nasty surprise; even diving their customary profile, I wonder how your dive computer is going to react? Any chance the deco. they do won't satisfy your computer? If not, will it lock you out? Should you run it in gauge mode rather than regular mode? Does yours have gauge mode?

Richard.

P.S.: I've been 'deco. curious' myself. Haven't gotten into it yet. Don't know whether I will.

 

[CamG]

Greetings geoff and you find yourself where we all were at one time or another.
I was in the same spot and it took a while and I dove dives I was certed for and comfortable with for as long as it took to secure gear / training.
Do I have any regrets? NONE
I took a year to get my gear in order then secured a excellent Adv. Nitrox / Deco. instructor.

What I found was that I enjoyed diving with my redundant rig on less demanding dives to.
I was on a few occasions felt a bit like I was crawling along while collecting my gear and learning to dive it.
It was a great year of learning, training, understanding the mind set of what deeper longer dives entail.
TAKE YOUR TIME, TRAIN WELL, SEEK OUT OTHER DIVERS WITH A HEALTHY RESPECT FOR DIVE PLANNING.

This is only my opinion enjoy diving where you are at right now.
Seek out training, gear, mastery of skills before taking on deco dives.
The devil is in the details and at depth is a bad place to be made aware of a failure you have not been prepared for.
Decompression is not an exact science there is a level of risk even trained, experienced deco divers accept you can get bent even when you do everything right! TRUE NOT MAKING THIS UP!
The farther down the rabbit whole you go friends start getting hurt, "Bent that is" you become aware THERE ARE NO TRUST ME DIVES IN THIS REALM!
You must be able to handle yourself.

Leave the REC world without the proper gear,training, mindset your risk increases significantly for a dive related accident.
Not trying to scare you or sway your plan but make you aware.
AWARENESS IS GOLDEN!

CamG

 

[scubadada]

Without adding to the lively discussion in a couple of other recent threads about recreational divers going into deco, I am now potentially faced with a good dilema on the subject. I'm a relatively competent and experienced recreational diver with absolutely no plans of getting into technical diving. A friend invited us along with a number of her other buddies to go to Tufi Resort in PNG; if we take care of the airfare, this friend will pick up accommodations for everyone who joins her (and before anyone asks, I'm positive the offer does not extent to online friends of friends from Scubaboard!)

I started looking at the Tufi web site to find out about diving there, and there are some interesting wrecks; see Wreckdiving for the descriptions. These dives are clearly geared toward recreational divers, but are described as having only 10 minutes of bottom time and "a decompression dive with max depth 45m. Deco stops are compulsory and surface interval of 4 hours is mandatory before the second dive." There's even a muck dive off the wharf that includes a Land Rover on the bottom also described as a deco dive

What would you do in my situation and why? Just do the shallow muck diving and local reefs? Blindly follow their prescribed profile? Take a deco procedures class before going? These are 100 minute dives with stringent preplanned safety stops along the way, so I presume the resort has done this before, with plenty of tanks staged for those who can't make an Al80 last the whole dive, therefore assume there is some additional air besides the single on my back. Unfortunately they don't appear to have nitrox there. It sounds like there is a chamber in PNG

With deference to all the regulars, I would go diving.

 

[Namreg 58]

This sounds like old school air only deco, no O2, no gas changes, you just need enough air. Having done it many times in the past I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

After Dark, you simply can't go around telling lobotomised mushrooms that the earth isn't flat without retribution.

To the OP, we have a saying......."you'll never never know if you never never go".......if you do go, don't tell the mushrooms on here about it as they clearly have no idea about the advantage of diving in warm tropical water. :ssst:

If you don't go, ..........can I take your place?

 

[Akimbo]

It isn't rocket science, study up a little, and have fun.

 

[Centrals]

I wonder how many rec divers who went to Truk and did not dive San Francisco Maru(50m+) with a single 11L tank and 5 mins bottom time?

 

[gcarter]

I don't do trust me dives.

I'll read all kinds of theory, but I won't do a dive without training.

You are asking for permission to do something I think you know you should not do without proper preparation.

 

[Foxfish]

Good question. Here are the thoughts running through my mind:

If this was something that really interested me and I really wanted to do I'd go I'd give it some serious thought.

I have a mate who did shell diving on a single air tank to 70 m with staged decompression for a few years. It was tough but he survived.

Getting narced is possible so see how the depths affect you before you go. I understand you build up a tolerance to this over time. Can you do this before you go or do you have time to do this when you get there.

Can you get to talk with them about safety concerns before you go?

45 m isn't that deep but it is outside of recreational limits.

It sounds exciting and is a good chance to extend your diving capabilities.

PNG sounds remote. What happens if something went wrong? Where is the nearest chamber and how long to get there?

They sound like they're fairly careful about the dive planning.

I'd do any extra training needed to do this kind of diving and give myself the time to become proficient.

I'd take my own gear and ensure that anything I couldn't take that I thought was needed was provided.

I'd want to follow my dive computer profile and be able to check the guides dive plan.

Ideally I'd keep my options open until I done the necessary training. If after doing the training it seemed too risky I'd abort the trip.

I'd give what the experienced and qualified divers on this thread say serious consideration. When it comes to deco, I'm neither.

See dive Suunto dive plan to 45 m with 2x AL80 tanks

 

[Scubagolf]

Delete button pushed.

 

[clownfishsydney]

I have been to Tufi and the diving there is generally very easy. The wrecks of Blackjack B-17 and S'Jacob are not dives that are usually done by the average diver. In fact, when I went there they did not even do them as they are quite a distance from the resort. If you are experienced, they are rated in the top few wreck dives anywhere in the world.

Most of the dives will be walls, so you can go to whatever depth you need to want to go to. If some of the group opt to do the wrecks, then I am sure that alternatives will be offered on the way back from them.

As to the wharf dive, it is excellent, with a PT boat remains the main feature. Again, you can go to whatever depth you want, it is in a fjord.