60 ft.

[helopilot2be]

When did 60ft become the "limit" for open water certification? I was certified in 1987 and the limit was 130ft. You were supposed to dive and learn and expand your boundaries. Now there are people who won't let you dive with them with basic open water, because we are going to 75 feet.
Chris

 

[v--Locke--v]

I thought PADI taught that the max rec depth was 100', but that open water cert divers should not go beyond 60' or make dives that involve more than a 3 min safety stop.

 

[Doc]

Other things have come into common acceptance as well, such as the 15 foot safety stop.

And, if you think about it, BCD's were just coming into common use at that point, and although now we call them BC's, there are people who look askance at them lest you have a BPW. In 1985, most people were putting their "horse collars" in the attic forever.

The use of nitrox also has become a universal "must have" for every dive.

SCUDA never really made much of a splash, if you'll excuse the term.

 

[USCScubaboy]

recreational diving limit is 130 ft. From what I've read in the many posts on SB, the trend for most cert organizations is to focus on safety for new divers (those who only have OW cert), but also just teaching them the basics of diving. Hence, the 60 ft limit. Probably unfair for those like you who might have more experience diving at deeper depths.

 

[drilldaddy_99]

The 60' and 100' limits are recommended limits. As with many posts here we have learned that there is no SCUBA police, however there are some dive operations that won't let you go below 60' unless you are advanced and won't let you go below 100' unless you have deep certification.

I wonder how much of these 'limits' that are recommended by certification agencies are marketing tools (sign up for advanced and you get to go 40' deeper) and how much is about safety?

Kevin

 

[Walter]

When did 60ft become the "limit" for open water certification?

It didn't. Some operators have this rule when diving from their boats. It's based on the fact that some agencies use 60 as a recommended limit for Open Water Divers. Some operators used it in 1987 as well.

And, if you think about it, BCD's were just coming into common use at that point, and although now we call them BC's, there are people who look askance at them lest you have a BPW.

They've always been BCs, BCD is an agency specific term. When I started diving in 1983, BCs were common place. I didn't see anyone dive without one until I did it years later.

In 1985, most people were putting their "horse collars" in the attic forever.

By 1983, horse collars were extremely rare.

 

[helopilot2be]

While I realize and agree that there are no Scuba Police, I think it stinks that an operator will pass of the 60ft as gospel. I have dived (dove) to deeper depths many many times (including my open water cert dives). I just don't believe that a cert card is the only measure of ability. Oh well I guess this particular dive operator just won't get my business.
Chris

 

[USCScubaboy]

In a scenario where this occurs, do you think busting out your log book would help? If you prove to the operator that you've had a lot of experience diving past this depth, why wouldn't he/she let you?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Well for starters, most certification agencies would now consider going below 60 feet deep during your initial diver training a standards violation. The idea is that with beginning open water training you are ready to dive with a similarly trained diver in similar conditions and to similar depths as your training dives.

Most manuals state that training OR experience allows you the next recommended depth. The manuals do not say ONLY AOW and higher cert divers can exceed the 60' recommended depth.

 

[Scubagolf]

In eight years with almost 200 dives at a wide variety of warm water vacation locations I never had a single DM or operator even suggest that I wasn't supposed to dive deeper than 60' on the OW cert. My first post cert dives in Hawaii had first dives of around 80'. The only issue that came up was in regard to advertised "advanced" dives where a discussion would be had whether at the time I was sufficiently experienced to do the dives, some of which required AOW. That led me to get my AOW and Nitrox certs.