Diving to 200' and Beyond

[Flutter]

My husband & I are on a 2 wk shore diving vacation in Curacao. We have met (and dived) with a solo diver here from France who has been solo shore diving for over 45 yrs (her entire diving career), by her own report. She owns one of the rental units where we are staying and dives solo here (& in the Mediterranean where she also lives on the sea) apparently 5 or 6 days out of 7, with a single 83 cu tank & a back-up pony bottle to depths of 200' or more, one dive each day. My husband & I talked with her (and others here who know her) before diving with her. She reports diving 250' to 270' or so - "many many times" - using trimix & a back-up pony bottle (she called our 100' Nitrox limit a "baby dive"). She says she dives for an hour & then has a 30 min safety interval along the way back. People that have dived with her, generally have stopped their dive at 130' to 150' or so (admitting that if you dive with her, you are really going to solo dive part of your dive as well). She then continues down on her own, as prearranged before the dive. (My husband & I dive Nitrox, so we stopped at 102' & she continued down on her own). When I asked about her being nervous diving to such depths on her own, she replied that during her training in France "many many years ago", students only had belts & regulators; during each student's training their regulators were shut off at 80' and they all had to safely surface in one breath; she has her pony bottle as her back-up, in case of trouble; she has excellent breath control ("not like divers, today" she told me); and "I am very, very careful" she emphatically claimed. My husband & I finished our dive, took our planned safety stops, cleaned off our gear, and she surfaced about 20 mins later. When she got back to the rinse station following her dive, she quizzed my husband & I on the length & depths of our safety stops (which WERE beyond the normal recommended stops), telling us, "you can never be too careful".

Admittedly, my husband & I have only been diving since 2008, but I have never met anyone like her before - only read/heard of them in documentaries. I have to ask - would this intrepid & fascinating woman be considered a "normal" advanced diver in certain parts of the world (other than in women pearl & sponge diving communities)? I would guess her to be somewhere around 68-70 yrs old. She said to me, "diving is my life".

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I have dived solo to 200 feet and beyond many times and had buddies who dived to those depths even more times than I, however I would never attempt those dives on a single tank. One good rule is to never dive below the cubic foot capacity of your tank.

 

[JBFG]

My mind has been blown by the OP. I can't process that. What a great experience it must have been to meet such diver

 

[undrwater]

She wasn't using a single tank, and we don't know the size or fill of the "pony".

 

[Flutter]

@undrwater, I believe she had a 40 cu. ft. pony with her (it was about 1/2 her 80 cu. tank). @MaxBottomtime, thanks; I will remember your stated rule of thumb - although I won't be solo diving.

 

[Jax]

- would this intrepid & fascinating woman be considered a "normal" advanced diver in certain parts of the world (other than in women pearl & sponge diving communities)?

IMO, she would be considered an extraordinarily talented diver who is comfortable taking assessed risks.

 

[PfcAJ]

bananas.

 

[drrich2]

It'd be interesting to learn more about what she gets out of it. I'm not challenging it as a fool-hardy risk (which it would be for many people, including me); I don't know enough about the limits of risk mitigation in such a practice to know what's reasonable at that level.

What I'm talking about is, she's diving very deep. I'd think there'd be a lot less coral life & schools of fish down there. The lighting is probably black, white & blue looking, or maybe just black and blue. I take it she's not mainly diving wrecks, which are one of the big draws for deep divers.

Seems like more recreational range diving would be better lit, more scenic, safer...

I tend toward the 'live & let live' mindset, so I'm not asking if she should be allowed to do it, or even if it's safe enough. I just wonder what makes that specific type of diving so rewarding vs. alternatives as to sustain such a pattern of practice over time?

Wonder if she enjoys narcosis?

While she mentioned using tri-mix on some dives, was she using tri-mix on these 200' or so dives in Curacao?

Richard.

 

[Jax]

What I'm talking about is, she's diving very deep. I'd think there'd be a lot less coral life & schools of fish down there. The lighting is probably black, white & blue looking, or maybe just black and blue. I take it she's not mainly diving wrecks, which are one of the big draws for deep divers.

Richard.

You think so? I've seen it quite light in the Sea of Cortez at ~150-160 FSW. In the Caribbean, I imagine it would be very well lighted that deep.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I bet she is diving air. Doesn't sound like such a big deal to me - if she is dropping down to around 200 or so.. If it is more like 270.. well that is a lot different (to me anyway).

She does it on a daily basis and we should all be worried about some old lady endangering herself? LOL.. her peers are freaking dead!