How Deep on Air

[Pavao]

Agree. I did a 151 fsw dive about a year after I stopped doing my routine deep dives and I was as narced as I've ever been. Today I could not do such deep dives without being an idiot.

However, when I had acclimated my body to deep air diving with 2-3 months of increasing depth, I could dive to 200 fsw without any serious narcosis. I judged that because I was able to search fairly wide areas (vis was good down there) to locate subjects, properly frame the subjects and follow them as they moved. If I were to drop down to 200 fsw today, that would be impossible as my maximum depth over the last year or so has probably been no deeper than 120 fsw.

Can you please define impossible?
As in you wouldn't be able to swim, control buoyancy, breath?

 

[Mikko Ilari Laakkonen]

Feet? Feet are what I attach my fins to. I prefer not to dive much further than 35ish meters nonhelium but I in case HE not available and there is something to see and I have a familiar good buddy whom I can trust and who can trust me I am comfortable pushing myself down to over 50m but preferably no more than 60m.

- Mikko Laakkonen -

I love diving and teaching others to dive.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I would have answered the poll differently if the word routinely wasn't used. I routinely dive shallow, but do make an occasional deep dive or two.

 

[t4e]

Yes these names ring a bell and from your reply so do you, or at least the story. So please take the time and ask John if he will do any form of deep air diving. The anwser will be NO and NOOO!!! Because John undestand the dangers of deep air and the value of trimix. That is why he started using it at great expense, risk and little data for the dives he planned.

So when you through names around please use the full story and not the bits that support your view!! Your are norrow minded and missed the entire point of his "adventures". John helped change this industry and made it a safer place. Stop dragging the name an effort around the dangers of deep air through the mud!!!

John contributed and unfortunately I am not allowed to use the word I want to describe your contribution.

english not your first language either?...maybe you want to look up the definition of narrow minded and refrain from using it in the wrong context

please do go ahead and describe my contribution, i'm curious

what you mean "ask John if he will do any form of deep air diving"? that tells me you have no clue who he is and what he did lol

you missed the whole point of me listing those names, but whatever floats your boat as long as you don't attack me


hmmm let me throw another name at you to ponder...Sheck Exley

 

[PfcAJ]

Sheck drowned chasing a record and with an absurdly high END. Broke his own rule.

 

[darushin]

I can tolerate and function (ie perform multi step tasks and be aware) well up to 150ft/45m.

I have never tried being deeper because I got a rebreather and the difference between trimix and air fills is about $2.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Stoo]

Sheck drowned chasing a record and with an absurdly high END. Broke his own rule.

I don't think anyone is talking about depth like that in this thread.

I was thinking a bit more about this thread last night. Lest I come across as some Neanderthal, let me explain something. First, I have been doing "deeper" dives in the Great Lakes for almost 40 years. I have a very definite limit as to how far I will go on air. And that is 190'. But I regularly... and often... dive to 170'-180'... as in most weekends, from spring until late fall. The dives that aren't that deep, are almost that deep... 150' for example. If I was diving trimix in these, I literally couldn't afford to dive like I do if I was dropping $100 a fill. I'm not looking at my log, but my guess is that I did about 70 dives in the Great Lakes last season and of those, probably 90% were deeper than 100' and of those, probably half were in excess of 150'. So that's more than 30 dives on mix (or $3-$4000) and if I was to believe some here, well in excess of $6000 a year for gas if I dove mix beyond 100'. As opposed to $0 for air (I have lots of friends who own shops!) and MAYBE $200 for 02 for "accelerated deco". Did I mention my family is originally from Scotland? We Scots are notoriously cheap!

Then there's the whole deco obligation... mix is nice and all, but if I am functioning very nicely at depth, why would I add all of that additional deco required by diving mix.

Don't get me wrong, I have NOTHING against anyone diving mix, and I have clearly defined limits for how deep I'll go on air. I have been deeper, and I didn't like it. So, much like hitting my head against a door frame, I stopped doing it.

There. I feel better now.

 

[DaleC]

I used to use EAN quite a bit but now dive almost exclusively on air, unless I am doing a charter where I want to get maximum BT for depth. In the last 2-3 years this means I have saved 100% on fills (EAN being twice as much as air for me).

On air, I will go to 130ish for short periods but the clock is ticking as far as BT at that depth. I've dropped to 140ish to see something quickly but wouldn't dwell there for more than a quick glimpse.

My usual depth limit is 100' where I can and do feel the effects of being narc'd. It may seem shallow but most of my dives are solo and in cold, low vis conditions where the psychological precursors are amplified and recovery can be problematic (self assessment of narcosis being a risky proposition). The most nerve wracking environmental effects being darkness and the relative silence of lakes compared to oceans. Unfortunately/fortunately, I usually get a dark, confused narc which is not a desirable mental state so I try to avoid it.

I have never dived in a tropical locale but have always wanted to try a warm, high vis type deeper dive to see what the effect difference is.

 

[Tigerman]

I used to use EAN quite a bit but now dive almost exclusively on air, unless I am doing a charter where I want to get maximum BT for depth. In the last 2-3 years this means I have saved 100% on fills (EAN being twice as much as air for me).
...

Umm.. then you've saved 50% given youve paid half of what you woulda had to. If you had saved 100% it woulda been free...

 

[Pavao]

I have saved 100% on fills (EAN being twice as much as air for me).

Well, then EAN is free for you. Or was the math a little confusing for you? Deep air can fry brain cells, be careful.

---------- Post added February 27th, 2014 at 07:59 PM ----------

Then there's the whole deco obligation... mix is nice and all, but if I am functioning very nicely at depth, why would I add all of that additional deco required by diving mix.

Here's another pearl