Reaching Greater Depths

[tcraigie]

Hi there

I'm travelling to the Andaman Islands for a week-long diving expedition after having completed my PADI Open Water Level 2 Autonomous Diver Standard course last year then diving 40m down the Belize Blue Hole for a total of 8 dives.

I am eager to advance my qualifications as I have ambitions to increase my ability and reach greater depths in due time.

Naturally I thought I would next complete an Advanced Open Water course but have read that the name is just deceptive marketing.

What is the best way to continue to advance my qualification with the aim of diving to greater depths as soon as is safely possible?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers
Tom

 

[RJP]

What is the best way to continue to advance my qualification with the aim of diving to greater depths as soon as is safely possible?

By slowing down!

Don't confuse "improved ability" with "greater depth" because the two are unrelated. You saw this yourself... you were able to survive a dive to 40M (deeper than what your certification is for) with the exceedingly limited ability and experience you have now. (I wouldn't suggest you try that again until you have "improved ability" and a lot more experience.

What's the rush? There are very few things to be seen at 40M that you can't see at 20M. And anything that there IS to be seen at 40M... will still be there in a few months.

A phrase you might hear is "There are many OLD divers. And there are many BOLD divers. But there are very few OLD, BOLD divers."

 

[Lopez116]

Don't jump right into AOW. Best thing you can do is just dive a lot - especially with more experienced divers who are good role models. Sounds boring, but it's true. You'll be surprised at all the things you thought you were doing right, which you really weren't.

 

[KeithG]

maybe you could (think about and then) explain why you feel you need to go deeper?

have you already seen all the fish at 5 ft? what about 10 ft? 20 ft? 30 ft?

i suggest instead of deeper, that you focus on extending your bottom time. the longer you are under, the more diving you do. deep is short. you get much less diving when you go deep.

what is your longest dive to date? why not focus on improving your skills so that you can accomplish a dive that is 10 minutes longer than that? instead of 10 feet deeper.

 

[tursiops]

PADI Open Water Level 2 Autonomous Diver Standard course

What is this? I've never heard of it, and it is not mentioned by PADI in its materials.

---------- Post added November 9th, 2014 at 10:41 PM ----------

Naturally I thought I would next complete an Advanced Open Water course but have read that the name is just deceptive marketing.

Don 't believe everything you read. The name just means "advanced beyond basic open water."

 

[RJP]

What is this? I've never heard of it, and it is not mentioned by PADI in its materials.

By the context it sounds like someone (OP or wherever he trained) is referring to Open Water Diver as "Level 2 - Autonomous Diver" based on probably referring to PADI Scuba Diver as "Level 1" requiring a DM/AI/Instructor.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Reaching great depths is easy - only takes me a couple minutes of free fall to hit 300+ feet. It's reliably coming back from them even if things go wrong that's the tricky bit. Keep that firmly in mind as you go forward and you'll be fine.

 

[Rhone Man]

I empathise with the "I want to go deeper" school of thought that some newer divers have. I know I certainly had it.

If you want to go deeper "just because" then, it's a free world and you should do it. Not going to lie - going deep is fun - always gives me a real buzz. But heed the advice on this page and do it cautiously. To paraphrase Dr Lecter - going deep is easy, it is getting back that counts. The road to diving hell is paved (well, sporadically decorated at least) with corpses of divers who tried to go "too deep, too early".

You can take all the training courses you like - some are good, some are not - but for me the soft skills which newer divers really need to acquire to dive deeper safely are:
- Ability to respond to unforeseen failures and similar stressful situations. We really don't know how we react to these until they happen. Failures at 40ft / 12m are no biggie. But at triple that depth, they can rapidly escalate into a big issue. You learn a lot more from the first time you find yourself in the poo then from reading a dozen PADI manuals. I suspect, like most of us, you will not like everything that you find out about yourself on those occasions.
- Task loading. The deeper you go, the more to think about. Anyone can swim down and swim up. But if you are planning bottom time at depth, you are going to have to keep a better eye on more things. Gas goes faster. Minor variations in depth more critical. Greater range of bouyancy variations. I suggest people try task loading at shallower depths (ie. photography or something similar) to develop good habits under safe conditions.
- Narcosis. Some people are not affected much until they go stupidly deep. For others it is dramatic. But everyone is affected to a degree. How affected will you be? Only one sure way to find out, and my suggestion is to approach it incrementally. Good way to test yourself as you work your way deeper: whether you use bar or PSI, every time you check your pressure, try converting it in your head to the other system: dividing or multiplying by 15 becomes difficult rapidly with a little brain fuzz.

Good luck, and try to be safe. Not a statistic.

 

[TMHeimer]

Agree with all said so far. Except that when you do AOW depends on each person and how comfortable they are with the basics. I always recommend Rescue as well, as soon as basic scuba skills are automatic. But to your question about increasing depth. Open Water divers as you know are certified to a "recommended" depth of no more than 60 feet (20m) and to dive in conditions similar to or better than those in which they were trained. To my knowledge, there is no official guidline on how and when to extend either of these limits other than taking AOW. So, if you have 1,000 dives as an OW diver and you gradually increased your depth, then I guess the "recommended" depth would now be deeper. Or, you can take AOW and get recommended to 100', then Deep Diver and recommended to 130', when you're ready. After that you can look at all the tech. stuff. So either experience or some of these courses (or both) are the only ways I can figure to increase your depth. Don't know of any "safe" quicker way.

I agree with the last 2 posts that problems magnify the deeper you go. Don't care that someone will say that you can also die in 10 feet of water. Yes, but IMO the deeper you go the more danger you are in, period.

 

[Max Speed]

I can't pass the narcosis tests you suggest sitting in ny living room. ;-)