Diving to 200' and Beyond

[AJ]

What's good is that she's doing it alone, but as mentioned in a previous post she'll ruin someone's day at some point.

What she want's to do is her business. It's up to you to decide to go with her or not. She will definitely not ruining my day

The minute someone starts demeaning other profiles as "baby" or other - clear sign to stay away.

That's good advice and what I would do.

 

[Bennno]

Guys, 60m/200' on air is what you are allowed to do when you are CMAS ***. The air table 'deco 2000' goes to 63m and in France you can still go to 200' on air, at least with some dive shops.
BSAC, I believe still has 50m/165' air limit.
It's certainly not a dive a 'vacation-type' diver should do, but depending on the person and the conditions, you dive in you might not even be 'really' narced.
If you're know what you're doing and the conditions are OK you can do it.

Dives like this used to be normal for advanced divers, not PADI Advanced or Divemasters though.
What that Lady is doing is not unusual, you guys just have never heard of it.

 

[Flutter]

@benno, & others, thank you for your comments. Benno, your profile identifies Germany, which is exactly what I was wondering - at some time, some place were there individuals (perhaps not many) diving similar profiles as she. They are just mostly gone (and sadly forgotten) now, in our age of excellent resources & technology. (She wears no drysuit; and her mother and aunt are 96 & 98 yrs old, so she may be older than my guess of 65-70). I felt talking to her & diving with her was a privilege.

 

[bamafan]

200' on air in a warm clear non overhead environment isn't that extreme. Yes you are narced but all you have to do is come up some. I haven't been to Curaco but I did a similar dive numerous times in Bonaire several years ago except I carried 2-3 al 80's depending on my dive plan. There is plenty to see at that depth. The sponges are bigger but there is less fish life except for Lionfish. They were everywhere at that depth. Her bail out gas quantity would concern me but maybe she isn't staying at that depth long enough to incure a serious deco obligation. I have a buddy who is a retired Seal and he told me that they have to do a CESA from 150'. He said he was worried about that in their dive training but it was one of the easiest things he had to do. He said as you are swimming up and feel that you are about out of air your lungs are suddenly full again. Sounds like an interesting person.

 

[100days-a-year]

I'd rather meet her, dive with her,hang out with her and talk to her than the doom and gloom crowd.Being a bit larger than her my SAC is likely a little more.I use a HP 120 to do essentially the same thing(155' to 190') up to 7 times a day 200+ of my 400~ dives every year.I worry more about driving than diving.

I have one buddy with far in excess of 10K dives and is her age that just cut down to 100 or so dives a year on steel 72s whose last hydro is older than me.He says if he croaks underwater to leave him as that's where he'd rather be.

It's sad so many people have far more opinions on other people's diving habits that actual dive experience.

 

[Bennno]

They are just mostly gone (and sadly forgotten) now, in our age of excellent resources & technology.

It depends on where you go. There are a bunch of 'old-timers' left that are under 40. If you were trained 14 years ago with a CMAS agency, you'd probably still be OK with deep air diving.
There are still shops that wont even let you do deep dive unless you have a CMAS cert like this one: Diving conditions sport diving

The training was different though, PADI/SSI vacation style training is designed so everybody can get through it. I mean you can become a SSI or PADI instructor even if you're a ****** diver (I would know, I used to be an SSI instructor). At least the older CMAS courses you could actually fail.
I think I had 500+ dives before I did the first dive to 165'. This is not something you should try on vacation.

It's funny when I hear people tell me how hard their 'tec' training was... I'd be willing to bet that a good amout of the tec and rebreather divers these day would not be able to get through an old school *** course or even **.

 

[tursiops]

"Nostalgia is just not what it used to be."

 

[fsardone]

Concur,
I DID learn from an old timer (my dad) who was diving up to 90 meters, in air no deco gas, no dry suit, no bcd.

He was relying on a couple of shoppers for extra lift, but he was not doing it with a single 12 liters tank, he was putting together 3 12 liters tank together each with its own regulator.

My first dive (36 years ago, I was 14 and I remember it like it was yesterday) I went down do 14 meters the next day I went down to 34 and then 30-40 meters was my 'normal' depth in air, using a twin set (no manifold no bcd but an spg!)

just for completeness, my father was not crazy I was a free diver diving in the 20-25 meters range for spearfishing and I had been doing that since I was 8, so I was kind of skilled underwater.

Diving deep air is not a problem, but you need training and experience to deal with nitrogen narcosis. My first bout of tech diving was getting certified tech deep air (deco on air deep as 60 meters).

So diving deep on single gas being air is not foreign to me, what I find strange is the lack of risk management.

Cheers

 

[Mr.X]

I think an analogy is in order. Who would you prefer for a surgeon - a old time doctor using primitive techniques because she/he knew those techniques worked some odd 40 years ago? Or a well-schooled, US trained, up-to-date surgeon using the best tools and methods?

Having done the deep air stuff some 25 years ago - what's the point? Yeah, you can manage the woozy with repetitive training + the brain and visual centers can still differentiate between up and down in the water column - but there is no point in doing it unless you are some cheap, old-schooler who doesn't know the difference. And BTW - legally, litigation in Europe/overseas is very, very different than in the US. You can sue there but get jack when you win. Hence, less oversight. Both a good and bad thing.

 

[DevonDiver]

"Don't know what you don't know" applies to the old and out-of-touch, as much as the young and inexperienced.

Trends regarding depth, deco, deep air and training changed a lot over the years.... and not just because entry-level training was made more accessible/convenient to the masses.

Going to 200'+ on a single cylinder of planned gas is not a validation of old-style training.