Changes that Senior divers make?

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!

Maldives and Egypt are open. Is it just your personal choice not to go?
We can go, in theory, but have to do a mandatory 14 hotel quarantine in the UK and then 14 days self isolation when we get back to our island. So not worth it for now !
 
We can go, in theory, but have to do a mandatory 14 hotel quarantine in the UK and then 14 days self isolation when we get back to our island. So not worth it for now !

Oh my gosh, sorry! I should have realized, at least about the first 14!
 
The easy answer for me is we moved to St Croix because the diving is easier and year round and since I still like long technical dives I went to an APD rebreather instead of doubles, even for the shallow 40 ft dives.
 
The easy answer for me is we moved to St Croix because the diving is easier and year round and since I still like long technical dives I went to an APD rebreather instead of doubles, even for the shallow 40 ft dives.
What is the difference in weight carried?

I'm mostly diving single steel 72s or my twin AL40s, twin Steel 52s or twin steel 45s. I also have one AL80 that I use with my vintage Dacor Nautilus CVS unit.
51116705401_d79e2edfcc_k.jpg
FF887C40-2788-41A0-9D6C-470EF2042606 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
The UDS-1 is not at this time divable, and the twin 50s and Dacor single, yellow 72 have been decommissioned (the Dacor 72 did not pass hydro). Otherwise, these are about half of my tanks.

SeaRat
 
What is the difference in weight carried?

I'm mostly diving single steel 72s or my twin AL40s, twin Steel 52s or twin steel 45s. I also have one AL80 that I use with my vintage Dacor Nautilus CVS unit.
View attachment 671803FF887C40-2788-41A0-9D6C-470EF2042606 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
The UDS-1 is not at this time divable, and the twin 50s and Dacor single, yellow 72 have been decommissioned (the Dacor 72 did not pass hydro). Otherwise, these are about half of my tanks.

SeaRat
Holy crap, Dude I thought I had a bunch of tanks.

Since all of my dive gear is in a container 3 weeks from delivery :( I'll just have guesstimate.
For single tank in the New England area (where I used to live) I would dive a steel HP100 with a stainless backplate of 6 pounds or so.

With the RB (I have a travel kit from Silent Diving) which weighs 4.5 lbs. Then I have 2 2ltr tanks which I think are about 16 lbs each, then add the sorb of 5 lbs or so. Call it 40 or so pounds. Extras like bailouts/ponies etc. are the same for either, although I don't usually carry a deco O2 bailout for shorter dives. which reduces the number of tanks I carried.

And then add in I get 4+ hours of diving per fill and I'll only do OC when I teach :)

Course if you went RB you could get rid of 90% of the tanks. I'm using my steel 100s as my compressor bank.
 
Course if you went RB you could get rid of 90% of the tanks. I'm using my steel 100s as my compressor bank.

Still laughing at that!

I thought that with 18 cylinders whilst diving open circuit (backmount and sidemount) that I'd simply get rid of most of them when I got a rebreather.

I now have 28 cylinders. Just bought another twinset for use as a rich helium bank.

I might get rid of a pair of ali80s but they're full of helium mixes. Oh heck; I need a booster and a compressor....


Actually am nursing a mild back-ache as there's so many, lifting some over the others pulled my back!
 
At 68 and about to retire from my day job in 52 days (but who's counting :wink: ) I tend to exclusively dive Nitrox although when I was in Egypt last month I did mainly dive air due to the lack of an O2 analyser.

I've only done one tech dive this year, mainly because my main tech buddy moved to cave country in Mexico otherwise I'm sure I'd still be doing the occasional tech dive every month or so. The deepest I've been to this year has been 40m.

I do carry a 30 cu ft deco / stage bottle and use it frequently when doing dives beyond 28/30m when I ascend to 21m in order to mitigate any possible negative effects of diving to these depths, and have been doing so for a number of years (? 10ish).

Most of my dives are from a boat primarily because there's practically bugger all shore diving here in UAE. I did enjoy doing the shore dives at Dahab last month though.

I have been considering sidemount for boat diving as I do like the idea of climbing a boat ladder without a tank on my back.
 
I have become more conservative, my risk delta is reduced and this is not just for diving but everything. But I still ride fast motorcycles, just raced a 100 mile Hare Scramble, race my bicycles and do all the things I have always done. My fitness standard, since I took up triathlon decades ago when I was, oh, maybe 28, has been that I should be able to get up from this couch and do a triathlon at any time. That is an International distance, 1.5K swim, 40K bicycle, 10K run, and I can. Of course not as fast as I used to, I was sorta semipro for a short while. I guess I am lucky, I take no medications of any sort and have always been healthy and aside from the bicycle crash (dogs) that shattered my left femur and a mild stroke (is there a such thing) 12 years ago, which was an attitude adjuster for sure, I am pretty much good to go.

The last year+ has been hard for me to dive due to the C-word but a month last fall in the Keys and just came back from another month in SoFla plus some planned trips coming up that were delayed multiple times due to you know what, things are looking up. I have no interest in cave dives, wreck penetration and "Bereavers" but I am pretty much good to go. I do continue to simplify and upgrade my various SCUBA rigs. I invested in a new camera rig and I plan to dive for years to come. I may turn the conservative factor up on my computers.

And just to say, depth is an artificial limitation somewhat, it is the nitrogen loading delta that is the concern, we can achieve similar loadings at 60 feet as we can at 120 feet, just takes longer, getting bent either way might probably hurt just as much. But, yes, 100 feet is a nice round number, but if I have some good reason to go deeper, then I will. I am 67yo.

I will relate this. I was on a three tank dive trip. On the third dive, I rigged up and then tried to stand up so as to reach my camera and get it clipped in. I would not move. Oh, darn, I forgot to remove the tank hold down bungee. So, I slipped out and turned around to find that I had not forgotten to release the bungee. I quietly slipped back into my rig. I thought nobody noticed, of course the mate belts out, "tank heavy huh!" Yeah, guess it is. It was embarrassing because I was the youngest diver on the boat! Dive, Dive, Dive! It is GO time!

James
 
I'm only 79, so I'm not sure that classifies me as a senior diver. Still, I have had to make changes. Cold water is out of the question, as are thick wet suits, so I limit myself to water temps no lower than 70F, fine for my delightfully flexible 2 and 3mm suits. I decided a few years ago when I hit 70 that I'd go no deeper than about 75 feet, but on my last Caribbean trip I succumbed to temptation and went down to 95 fsw. Still, most of what I like to see is in less than 60 feet. Multiple location dives are too tiring, even boring, frankly, so I try to stick with single tank dives when on holiday. Some operators permit unaccompanied dives from their shore locations, and these are often the most fun. Dealing with instabuddies is something I try to avoid. i find my patience and tolerance have diminished.

NJ wreck dives are in the past; it's too cold below the thermocline. I try to stay away from strong currents, and do most of my dives these days in fairly shallow NJ inlets. There are places that I used to do shore dives from that are too difficult for me to get to, so I now have limited choices. I often use a 40 cf cylinder with no BC, completely adequate for the 50 minutes or so of slack tides in local inlets, and much easier to carry. I do much more solo diving. In fact, I only do solo dives here in NJ. People I used to dive with are either dead or shuffling around inflicting pictures of their grandchildren on innocent bystanders. When I travel I always contact the potential dive operators to ask if they have a problem with someone my age. I do the same with the vehicle rental people. More than anything, it's an awareness of how other people react to me, and the assumptions they frequently make. There's also a slightly melancholy awareness that it's not going to get any better. Quite the contrary.
 
Quite Senior Citizen Diver with my View; One, all you young pups need to realize that with age comes the lessing of ALL functions of the body. If you do not dive with that Knowledge, you might as well swallow an electric eel underwater, and be done with life. For me its shore dives, shallow water, shorter time underwater and related tidbits.How would you like to 'bet' the 'older diver' who died in the water, which was posted here a short while back, did not remember that Detail?
Recall the apt adage; "Gracefully surrendering the joys of Youth" or near to that.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom