100' before AOW?

[RJP]

would you have any hesitation about diving to 100' within your first 10 dives?

I went to 103' on dive #7, which was in fact my "Deep Dive" for AOW.

 

[axyto]

i did a 140' on my 9th dive and a 210' shipwreck on my 23rd with very experienced divers, my AOW course was on my 31st dive. but i would personally not recommend this..

 

[vladimir]

I just dove three hours ago (on a long lunch break).

I have to re-evaluate my choices.

 

[DevonDiver]

i did a 140' on my 9th dive and a 210' shipwreck on my 23rd with very experienced divers, my AOW course was on my 31st dive. but i would personally not recommend this..

Quite rightly...

It's easy to be fooled into thinking that 'everything is the same' as you do deeper, especially in calm, bright tropical waters.

Just because you cannot 'see' or 'feel' the physics and physiology at work, doesn't mean that nothing is happening.

Diving to 210' with very experienced divers, is an extreme example of what we call a 'Trust Me Dive'. Basically, you aren't capable of safely conducting the dive by yourself and put your welfare at the mercy of your dive partners. A highly dangerous situation to put yourself in.

It takes a bit of common-sense and insight to understand that an OW course doesn't educate you about the facts and dangers of deep diving, decompression diving, overhead enviroments etc etc.

When inexperienced divers venture beyond the limits of their training and knowledge, they do so in ignorance of the risks that they are taking. They may feel 'confident', but that confidence is based upon a failure to understand the risks they are taking. It's a false confidence.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Right out of open water on my 5th logged dive, a buddy (classmate) and I drove down to Monterey and got on a charter boat. First dive was on a cascading wall outside of Point Lobos that went down, way down.
during the breifing the Captain said it was a deep scary dive and if anybody wanted to sit out a dive this would be the one.
We sat there wide eyed listening not saying a word and as soon as the gates were open we bailed over the side like school kids at recess.
We found 95 feet and took our tables to the max.
After we came up the captain shook his head like we were a couple of out of control brats.
I'm surprized he didn't bench us for that. We dove the next two spots.

We had a ball that day, I'll never forget it.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

NAUI and PADI Open Water Certifications allow diving limits down to 60 feet (18m).

I took NAUI AOW and that is limited down to 130ft (w/ deep diving specialty).


PADI references "Limits" and NAUI references Maximums (per their web sites).

The Advanced Scuba Diver course is an enjoyable certification course for 12-year-old (or older) certified divers who desire additional training, have moved from one diving area to another and desire local orientation, do not have, but wish to obtain, NAUI certification, or who desire orientation to a variety of diving sites and conditions.

As part of your certification, you will complete a minimum of six open water dives including three separate dives for navigation, night or low visibility diving and deep diving (130 feet/40 meters maximum depth), plus three different dives.

NAUI has training dive Standards, just like PADI. The NAUI web site does mention training dives max depth; does it mention a max depth "limit" of the AOW cert, or OW cert?

 

[bs63366]

I did go past 100' on my first dive out of OW. That being said my buddy was a DM and we also had an instructor on the boat with us as well. Prolly not the best idea but its your call on how comfortable you were in your class and any dives after your class.

 

[AndrewA]

I did my first "Deep" dive (28m) as part of AOW, my 18th dive. My first 30m dive was dive 23. I did less than 10 dives deep to 30m during my first 100 dives. My first 40m dive was dive 105 (by which time I was a BSAC Dive Leader, which carries a 50m max). All of these were organised training dives with very experienced instructors.
I would not be happy taking a diver with only 10 dives deep to 20m.

 

[DevonDiver]

its your call on how comfortable you were in your class and any dives after your class.

It's your call... but that doesn't mean your self-assessment is valid.

Confidence in newbie divers can often be attributed to an incomplete knowledge of the risks they face.

 

[knowone]

There are serious, considerations of the ramifications, when diving deep.

More so, of the experienced diver facing newer deep diver contingencies.

It is fortunate when you are able to categorise all dives, as serious ones.

But to proffer an analogous hint try mowing a strangers lawn in the rain.