PADI advanced diver skills

[mullannix930]

I am getting ready to take the Advanced diver course. I understand the skills for the navigation dive, but I am wondering how the Deep dive goes, Skills etc.

What info can you give me?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It depends on the instructor. What skills did he/she say you would be doing? It can be an educational and really fun dive with some real new skills if the instructor chooses to make it one. Or it can be a boring waste of time and air.

 

[TSandM]

The required skills for the PADI AOW Deep dive are few. You do some type of memory or calculation test, and examine a color chart.

If you do the class with my husband, you will also calculate the gas you will use on the dive and the emergency reserve you need. You will be asked to note your depth and gas at five minute intervals (virtually everybody starts to forget to do this at about 80 feet or so). You'll go over light signals and using light to communicate. And during the dive, you will work on an ascent that makes defined stops.

AOW is very different from instructor to instructor. The minimums are minimal, but a good teacher can add a lot more.

 

[TMHeimer]

We did the usual combination lock thing (do it on boat then at depth to check any effects of Narcosis). Other than that it was just the usual things to look out for-- Check gas frequently since you use up the tank a lot quicker. Bottom times shorter so beware. Narcosis? What position to descend in. Be careful not to slam into bottom as wetsuit compresses. Stay very close to buddy since ascending to look for him on surface not practical. Don't do too far afield since less time down there. Begin ascent with enough gas--ei. 100 PSI for every 10' of depth. I guess there are other things you can do but can't think of any offhand.

 

[Searcaigh]

Tying knots was one thing I had issues with on the surface never mind at 30M

 

[Wookie]

If you took it with me, you would learn what a SAC rate is and how to figure it for yourself and use it on deep dives, in addition to what TS&Ms husband teaches. Yes, that is way beyond standards. It's also important.

 

[TSandM]

Wookie, Peter teaches SAC rates -- I just didn't use the term in my description.

 

[boulderjohn]

The comparison of time to do a task on the surface vs. time to do it at depth is no longer an official part of the class, although an instructor may still include it. It was often counterproductive. People would do something on the surface they had not done before or not done in a long time (like simple addition problems), and they would do it at depth. They frequently did better at depth, largely because they had just practiced it on the surface. The test was supposed to show you the debilitating effects of narcosis, but at the depths at which the class is done, there is usually not a lot of narcosis going on, and people got the mistaken idea that it was nothing to worry about.

I, too, work on a diver's gas consumption. To me that is the most important thing about the deep dive, and it is why I am opposed to people who do the deep dive at a minimally acceptable depth. I have on several occasions had students get increasingly anxious at depth and had their SAC rates increase to the point that the dives were very short, much shorter than predicted. They learned a very valuable lesson about gas consumption on those dives.

 

[kafkaland]

My AOW deep dive was valuable in some regards, but perhaps not as intended. I took AOW right after OW, where I had done the checkout dives in warm water. The AOW deep dive was my second dive in a dry suit in cold water (37F at depth), in poor visibility. I was also not feeling well that day and was squeezing my butt cheeks together during the entire dive to prevent an accident from happening. The skill was a simple counting and signaling exercise; I did a little better at depth (70'ish), because obviously I had done it before at the surface. But I also learned about myself that the combination of poor conditions, unfamiliar equipment and dive site, me not feeling well, and a small problem that I didn't fully understand while down there (the DM had a problem with a leak from a pony, and the instructor was working on it while we were kneeling at the bottom, waiting do do our skill), all added up to making me a bit anxious. Nowhere near panic, but I was surely watching my pressure gauge ticking down while we were sitting down there and thinking about what I would do if I somehow had to abort the dive on my own and at what pressure I would be forced to do so. Maybe a bit of dark narc at work here? And I was really glad once we were done with the timing exercise and swam back to surface. I have been considerably deeper in cold water since, but never had that feeling again.

 

[mick allein III]

My deep class involved SAC rate, signing my name at depth, math calculations at depth, and constructing a simple puzzle. We also looked at what pressure does to a Gatorade bottle. ( I didn't recognize it on the bottom). Also saw a new diver in an unfamiliar BCD rocket to the surface in a mass of bubbles. Scary. She was okay, but I would encourage you to be very comfortable in your gear. Cold and dark make everything harder.