How deep have you gone on air?

[axxel57]

Since I started diving in the 80ies, I have done quite a lot what today would be called deep air dives, at this time that was simply not a big thing ( at least between dive pros).
Just for relaxing all the instructors of the company would come on Sunday morning to the boat of our boss and in the Pemba Channel we would dive the dropoffs. Everybody solo ( that was the understanding even when you were diving close to a fellow instructor), some would go to 330 feet, others 'only' 180', anyway it was always quite and relaxing. Since we dived single 12 liter steel tanks the dives were obviously bounce dives (with a tank waiting at the 15' range), but I liked them so much that I keep on doing them when I have the chance.
For me it makes a huge difference if you dive in tropical warm waters with 100' viz and no or hardly any current, or if you dive cold waters with bad viz or overhead.
Here in the tropics I consider this a calculated risk, O2 no issue because you are too short only exposed in a bounce dive. Narcosis is a different issue.
I get slightly narced everytime I go below 100' ( or I'm simply sensitive enough to realize it). A couple of dives I had to stop descending, because I felt too narced. The funny thing is that this never happened deeper when I had been okay until 120'or so ( have an idea what kind of comments will come for this).
A couple of years ago I changed my descending technique, so nowadays I go down with feet first, forcing myself to breath in a moderate rythm until I hit the deepest point. Only then I start to breath my normal very slow breathing rythm. I haven't had any problem with the narcosis ever since.
Is here a forum to discuss this without getting mobbed?

 

[umberth]

USS Oriskany
135'
poor viz
67F

 

[Slamfire]

Is here a forum to discuss this without getting mobbed?

I was going to stay away from this thread. I was expecting a blood bath. But then I was pleasantly surprised as I read more posts and didn't encounter too much "mobbing" -- to the point that I decided to make a post myself. I think there is a big difference between a healthy respect and irrational/unfounded fear; just as much of a difference as there is between healthy respect and irrational/unfounded suicidal carelessness. A key differentiating factor separating healthy respect from these opposing extremes is knowledge paired up with experience and skill. I don't think it serves anybody's best interest to treat this subject as a taboo.

 

[jimthediver]

The70's, 80's and most of the 90's saw the deep wreck dives to 200-250 on air using twin 80's and a 30 or 40 pony of air. Sometime around 88 or so we started using boat supplied O2. All on Navy air tables with most dives planed for 15 to 25 minutes max due to the limited gas supply's of the tanks we had available at that time.

One buddy of mine was Gary Gentile's usual buddy for the Doria, he would hang up at 200 to 220 and shine a light on Gary down at the debris field inside at 230 to 250 so that Gary could turn and look up and see the way home.

We worked up to these dives over many dives so that when we were narked we could function at the level we needed to do the dive. Where we safe, well some of us were not and paid the ultimate price. Now that I'm 50 with kids and a mortgage my air limit is 150' with mix preferred below 130.'

By the way, I never thought I was badly narked at 180 till I started taking a camera with me and had to figure out F-Stops for a film camera down there. Getting the 3 variables of shutter speed, aperture, and distance correct takes a relatively clean head.

This pretty much describes the way we were wreck diving in the Great Lakes during the same time period. The deepest I ever went personally was on a wreck a buddy and I found in Lake Huron. It was in 260 ft of water. It listed to starboard so the port rail was 220 ft, the starboard rail was at 240 ft near the mast where we had set our mooring. It got deeper as you went forward. Back then I was pretty comfortable down to about 180 to 190 feet, but this was really too deep for my liking and we didn't explore very much of the ship. It had a magnificent three note steam whistle and a beautiful engine gage panel that you could see through the hole left when the structure over the engine room was blown away as she sunk.
One of the crew was a former Navy diver. He experienced some O2 issues when he tried to go down the starboard rail towards the bow. There was a gap in the rail on the shallower port side from the collision that sunk her so he tried to take the deeper route. We basically abandoned further exploration on this wreck for some future time when mixed gas technology became available. We knew guys that were diving even deeper on air, but it wasn't for us.
By the time training and technology caught up I had met "Jan the diver" who made it very clear she was not into cold, deep and dark water. Not too long after that, there were two kids and my days in Great Lakes wreck diving were pretty much over. Now we dive the world and except for wreck diving in Chuuk, which I still love, I don't go much deeper than 100 ft anymore.
I think it would be crazy to be doing the kind of diving we did back then on air today. The training and technology available today, even though it is expensive, would make the experience much much safer and much more enjoyable.


Live to dive, dive to live!

 

[mmintz]

On air I have been to 85' and on the USS Oriskany my computer said 137', and I was on 32% EAN. We touched the flight deck then started working our way back up the super structure. After a 5 minute safety stop at 15' and a painful reverse squeeze for a few minutes that kept me in the 15-20' range until I could equalize on my way back up to surface gave me a total dive time of 30 minutes. There have been many comments made about narcosis, I however don’t think I have been narced, at least I haven’t had and well defined noticeable symptoms of narcosis.

I would like to state for the record that I was not at 137’ for that long so my O2 exposure at the deepest point of the dive was kept to a minimum, and also my dive leader for the trip was and still is one of the most experienced USS Oriskany divers, and also was an EOD dive technician in the Navy, so he laid out the dive plan and the rules to follow in order for us to be safe and only have a calculated risk to issues. Additionally, I want to state for the record for the inexperienced divers reading this thread with rapt attention that you should never violate the PPO2 of 1.6 for O2 when diving, and also that a vast majority of the divers that have commented on this thread that have been to very deep depths (I consider anything past 165’ very deep) they are experienced divers and know their limits, and a fair number of them are technical divers with the gear, knowledge, and skills to safely complete a dive of that nature. Finally if you are one of those divers that is drawn to the deep depths I would recommend that you stay within the 130’ recommendations until you have the experience to take technical courses in order to learn how to dive mixed gases such as trimix or heliox.

 

[JohnnyH]

USS Oriskany
135'
poor viz
67F

Oriskany! I dove that on air to 180' on the 1 year anniversary. Long story. My buddy and I came down from Boston and were the only divers to go out on the wreck (well, one other diver kitted out in just an 80 for a recreational dive). Our original charter scrubbed the dive due to weather and we arranged another captain to take us out. Great experience - great wreck - great companions. And we had absolutely zero people with us on the site. Great day. However we got pulled from the security line at the airport two days later because the guy running the x-ray machine didn't believe we dove the Oriskany on the 1 year anniversary because everything had been cancelled due to 'inclement weather'. Being a diver from NE, the conditions were absolutely perfect!

 

[Tortuga68]

On air I have been to 85' and on the USS Oriskany my computer said 137', and I was on 32% EAN

I'm curious to know if you chose that mix knowing you were going to 137' or was it that you exceeded the planned depth of the dive?

 

[currier]

I want to state for the record for the inexperienced divers reading this thread with rapt attention that you should never violate the PPO2 of 1.6 for O2 when diving, and also that a vast majority of the divers that have commented on this thread that have been to very deep depths (I consider anything past 165’ very deep) they are experienced divers and know their limits, and a fair number of them are technical divers with the gear, knowledge, and skills to safely complete a dive of that nature. Finally if you are one of those divers that is drawn to the deep depths I would recommend that you stay within the 130’ recommendations until you have the experience to take technical courses in order to learn how to dive mixed gases such as trimix or heliox.

Please note that I am NOT trying to throw stones here ... I couldn't agree more with EVERYTHING you've stated above.

But I'm under the assumption that you've completed said training yourself?

On deeper or more challenging dives, I don't believe that recreational divers (such as myself) should blindly follow more experienced divers 'just because' the latter know what they're doing.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

This is a recent video I shot of myself on a solo air dive to around 185 ft, Everything was cool until it got completely out of hand..thought I might die for a few seconds.

The jacks are all about 3 feet long, FYI.


YouTube - ‪Diver VS Bullshark‬‏

I try not to dive past 200.

 

[mmintz]

"Originally Posted by mmintz
On air I have been to 85' and on the USS Oriskany my computer said 137', and I was on 32% EAN
I'm curious to know if you chose that mix knowing you were going to 137' or was it that you exceeded the planned depth of the dive?"

I exceeded the planned depth for the dive. The planned depth was around 110' but the DM who also happened to be a former navy EOD technician, and therefore trained to dive by the best asked us if we would like to change the plan and do a flight deck dive instead and assured us that we would be safe because we would still be well within the PPO2 levels that he dove when he was in the navy. We all agreed so it wass a violation of the planned depth. Besides 32% was the mix that we got from the dive shop after telling them we were doing an Oriskany dive. Now since she is something like 8' deeper they use a lower EAN percentage.

currier, no I have not completed any tech training yet. I don't have the money right now to get tech certified, nor do I feel that I have the experience yet to do tech training much past the advanced nitrox level.