Diving to 200' and Beyond

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

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.

Not a good analogy. A surgeon is affecting someone else with their quality of work and technique. A solo diver not so much. (Which is not an endorsement, I just really dislike bad analogies)
 
I consider myself an old timer because I was diving before nitrox and trimix and bcd and spg became main stream.

But I also believe that there are better ways of doing things.

My father was diving an oxygen ccr down to 15-20 meters in the 60 (war surplus) that is 3 bar of oxygen partial pressure if you flush the loop correctly ...

This does not mean I believe that is the right way of doing things. I now dive tmx and an apd inspiration using 15/50 as diluent, use a bcd and read my spg every 5 minutes.

Cheers
 
@Mr.X
I don't agree with your analogy. Other than deco computers there haven't really been any advances in diving. BCs and Regs look different but aren't better. Training seems to be getting worse. Oh well, we have split fins and AI now...
A 180' OW dive in good conditions I'd rather do on air than on Trimix. I usually don't get woozy shallower than 210'.... it depends on the person, state of mind and level of experience.

- what's the point?
Why dive at all than?

Sure, going deeper than 130' more dangerous than diving to 30' but it's not nearly as dangerous as people seem to be implying in this thread.

And frankly, some dive shops really have annoying rules... sometimes you really are treated like a baby.
I dove the Blue Hole in Belize once. It was guided diving only (which is Ok) and we had to back on the boat after 35 or 40 min. We dropped down to 40m for a couple of minutes and had to go straight up pretty much. When I got to the boat I had about 120-130 bar left. I mean, c'mon, you pay a few hundred bucks and you can't even use half the tank? This felt more like a theme park ride for kids.
 
Not a good analogy. A surgeon is affecting someone else with their quality of work and technique.

Not only that, but the "old timer" has way more experience and will likely come with higher quality of work and technique and ability to keep clear head if things go south. Since OP's lady bought a computer when they became available, she's not opposed to progress. So we're talking an "old timer" surgeon using modern instrumentation.

You bet I'll pick that surgeon any day.
 
How many people think that planning a 60 minute dive to 200 feet with an al80 is a good idea?
 
I've been diving for 53 years now. The vast majority of my dives have been solo. Initially that was because we only had one set of gear to share! A few years ago I was repeatedly diving to 200 ft solo on air to film subjects for an episode on "deep ecology" over a period of about three years. One day I averaged 180 ft on three successive dives. My dives were with a 120 cu ft tank plus my pony. Fortunately reaching those depths requires little effort here off Catalina where you can be in those depths quite close to shore.

I wouldn't repeat those dives today because my body is not conditioned for excess nitrogen loading and I don't have a specific reason to do them. I can't prove it, but given the frequency of my dives a few years ago (up to 350/year) I feel my tissues were soaked in nitrogen. I believe it led to my body tolerating it more than a casual diver might. I could reach those depths and not feel significantly impaired by nitrogen narcosis back then. I assessed that by my ability to locate subjects at depth, frame them properly and follow their movement.

On the other hand, I've been narced out of my gourd at 151 fsw on a dive during a period where I had not been doing any really deep diving and my frequency of diving had dropped to about 100/year. I've even been noticeably narced at 107 fsw after long periods of fairly shallow diving.

These days I prefer to go for bottom time to gather as much video footage as I can, especially if I'm in a new dive destination. I'll still dive in excess of 100 fsw, especially in the toasty tropics, but try to keep my average depth in local waters to about 40 fsw.
 
How many people think that planning a 60 minute dive to 200 feet with an al80 is a good idea?
28 minutes to empty an AL80 11L/bar Stage Cylinder at 60m (7 ATTA) and Depth Consumption Rate of 7 bar/min.

Then switch to double AL80's with 80 bar Minimum Gas Reserve for 32 minutes . . .and you get a bottom time of 60 minutes at 60 meters.

-->(Oh yeah, plus a Total Time to Surface of 160 minutes for decompression profile stops on 50% and 100% Oxygen).
 
Not a good analogy. A surgeon is affecting someone else with their quality of work and technique. A solo diver not so much. (Which is not an endorsement, I just really dislike bad analogies)

In retrospect - not a great analogy as it doesn't really involve direct participation with an individual. That said - have seen solo divers bite it when I training students - and it becomes a very bad day for all. Also, a senior diver I knew and appreciated died on a deeper dive - so this thread runs a tad close.
 
Diving to great depth on a single tank is stupid.
Diving to great depth on air is stupid.

Cumulating both? Yeah, that's very stupid.

Arguing that these can be done "by old school divers that have had real training" is ******** at best, especially coming from people that have been flaming others as being unsafe divers...
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom