Technical Diving in the Maldives
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Technical diving in Maldives would certainly be a nice thing. But what about hyperbaric medical facilities?
There are 5 chambers here, spread all over. The issue would be the speed at which you could get to them, particularly at night as another poster mentioned, but as long as you dive with a reputable, organised outfit they should have it sussed on how to get you there with the least fuss in the best time.
DAN and International Diving Assurance (IDA) has a special offer in the Maldives called 'Short Term' Insurance. Not all dive centers are part of it, but the basic idea is that divers get insured for a single day/week/2 week period. The cost in US$ is approx $10, $20 and $30 respectively.
Right now this does NOT include deco diving, as this is against the law. However it is reasonable to assume that provisions may be made for this. At the same time, deco divers should have their own insurance.
Seaplanes DHC-6 Twin Otters run in the Maldives servicing many of the atolls. Although there are 5 different recompression chambers here, only Bandos (near Male) and one in Addu Atoll (far south) are staffed to a level where I would feel comfortable sending people.
From what I have heard, there is a whole lot of shark love to be found around 50m on certain sites. I have no experience of this first hand. I do know of a couple of oceanic mounts found outside the atolls where fishermen used to go for shark fins. Thresher, hammer, tiger, longimanus, silkies etc. Thresher and Hammers can still be seen on the outer reefs at an 'Italian 30m' depth (no offense intended guys and girls
) Personally I am not a deep diver, but I'm always keen for additional training.
There are some different 'cave' systems to be explored. One such karst? sink hole was discovered by Albatross apparently fairly recently. Unfortunately this is in Italian.
Maldive - Blue Hole
Right now this does NOT include deco diving, as this is against the law. However it is reasonable to assume that provisions may be made for this. At the same time, deco divers should have their own insurance.
Seaplanes DHC-6 Twin Otters run in the Maldives servicing many of the atolls. Although there are 5 different recompression chambers here, only Bandos (near Male) and one in Addu Atoll (far south) are staffed to a level where I would feel comfortable sending people.
From what I have heard, there is a whole lot of shark love to be found around 50m on certain sites. I have no experience of this first hand. I do know of a couple of oceanic mounts found outside the atolls where fishermen used to go for shark fins. Thresher, hammer, tiger, longimanus, silkies etc. Thresher and Hammers can still be seen on the outer reefs at an 'Italian 30m' depth (no offense intended guys and girls
) Personally I am not a deep diver, but I'm always keen for additional training.There are some different 'cave' systems to be explored. One such karst? sink hole was discovered by Albatross apparently fairly recently. Unfortunately this is in Italian.
Maldive - Blue Hole
Andrei Astra
Registered
Is the deco diving still prohibited in the Maldives?
In years 1985 to 1989 I and my wife Grazia worked as instructors and dive masters at Maldives, in resorts run by Club Vacanze, at the time the largest Italian tour operator, running at least 4 resorts simultaneosly (Buduhiti, Kudahiti, Alimatha and Diggiri, then also Gangehi), and one the first diving ships (Fatuhul-Bari).
At that time there were no strict regulations. We were both certified for a maximum depth with air of 50m, with deco, something that at the time was still considered fully recreative. So we were allowed to bring also our customers to these depths and to make typically 2 deco stops (very seldom 3). Everything was organized for this, decompression cylinders were made available hanging down a bar suspended below buoys, which was deployed from the Dhoni when the dive master was releasing the inflatable buoy at a depth of 9 meters.
It was normal to make 20-30 minutes of deco stops.
Customers were expecting to do such kind of deep and long dives.
There was no Nitrox at the time, but we had pure oxygen on the boat (for emergency) and a full size decompression chamber in each of Club Vacanze's resorts, and a permanent hyperbaric physician resident at the resort.
This allowed to make routinely diving in some very nice deep spots, the better of which were two passes (kandu, in Divehi language): Diggiri Kandu and Rakidu Kandu. Both were with the bottom inside the pass around 46-48 meters, and in Diggiri there were nice caverns just below the step, at 52-56 meters.
With current regulations, no one can dive there anymore, and this is really a pity, in my opinion. So I am strongly in favour of making this possible again. As 30 years ago we were doing this easily and safely using just a single cylinder of air, I do not see a real need for using complex gas mixtures or rebreathers.
But I am generally against limits, so if people accept the higher costs and complexity of these devices, let's allow also them...
At that time there were no strict regulations. We were both certified for a maximum depth with air of 50m, with deco, something that at the time was still considered fully recreative. So we were allowed to bring also our customers to these depths and to make typically 2 deco stops (very seldom 3). Everything was organized for this, decompression cylinders were made available hanging down a bar suspended below buoys, which was deployed from the Dhoni when the dive master was releasing the inflatable buoy at a depth of 9 meters.
It was normal to make 20-30 minutes of deco stops.
Customers were expecting to do such kind of deep and long dives.
There was no Nitrox at the time, but we had pure oxygen on the boat (for emergency) and a full size decompression chamber in each of Club Vacanze's resorts, and a permanent hyperbaric physician resident at the resort.
This allowed to make routinely diving in some very nice deep spots, the better of which were two passes (kandu, in Divehi language): Diggiri Kandu and Rakidu Kandu. Both were with the bottom inside the pass around 46-48 meters, and in Diggiri there were nice caverns just below the step, at 52-56 meters.
With current regulations, no one can dive there anymore, and this is really a pity, in my opinion. So I am strongly in favour of making this possible again. As 30 years ago we were doing this easily and safely using just a single cylinder of air, I do not see a real need for using complex gas mixtures or rebreathers.
But I am generally against limits, so if people accept the higher costs and complexity of these devices, let's allow also them...
I did some great 50 m dives in the Maldives in the 80's. The 30 m limit has stopped me from wanting to go back. Would be good if the depth/no deco limits were removed. Not sure what the situation is with solo diving but would like to be able to do that as well. I would probably orgnanise a trip if there weren't the restrictions.
I was offered a 6 month job in the Maldives teaching scuba. I declined the offer due to the depth limits and the no deco since I wanted to continue deco diving and improving my skillset.
I vote yes. I would love to dive the Maldives and heard there might be some very interesting sites below 30 meters worth checking out.
I vote yes. I would love to dive the Maldives and heard there might be some very interesting sites below 30 meters worth checking out.
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