100' vs 130'??

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

SSI & PADI are limited to 30m, CMAS & I believe NAUI (not sure about the last) 40m.

Unless there's something really interesting to see, stay around those 30m max depth. The main reason some agencies are more conservative is Nitrogen Narcosis seems to 'kick-in' around that depth (for the average diver). Anything below that and you put yourself under unnecessary risk.

If I can give you a little word of advise: make sure to create and follow a little UW protocol with your dive buddy if you go below 30m. What I do is I throw a random number with my fingers (one hand) and my buddy needs to calculate double that number and reply back (he / she can also initiate the exercise at any time). IF he / she takes more than a second or two that might mean early narcosis symptoms and automatically we ascend a few meters

On my AOW course, as a group, we hovered at 100' while the instructor did "finger math" with each of us. On the surface, she was pissed that, nobody got narced. :-D I did not do my AOW right after OW, but rather, after 40 logged dives.
And since there are no scuba cops, I of course went to 118' on my first dive after my advanced, just so I could look at a claw foot bathtub on the bottom. I did get grief from some diving mentors about that though.

 

[Marie13]

No one has to tell me about getting narked. I’ve posted often about my “mush brain.” The dark narked wreck dive I posted about was what started me wanting helium for deeper dives. I’ve done two days of class dives on 20/20 for AN/Helitrox to 108ft so far. END of about 75ft. The clear head is AMAZING. Well worth the $4.60/cft.

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

My Shearwater Perdix does not have audio alarms. That is what I like about it. You pay attention not waiting for some alarm that you may hear or not.

My Shearwater Peregrine does not have an audio alarm, it does, however, have a very nice vibration alarm that I can feel through my drysuit.

 

[El Diablo]

On my AOW course, as a group, we hovered at 100' while the instructor did "finger math" with each of us. On the surface, she was pissed that, nobody got narced. :-D I did not do my AOW right after OW, but rather, after 40 logged dives.
And since there are no scuba cops, I of course went to 118' on my first dive after my advanced, just so I could look at a claw foot bathtub on the bottom. I did get grief from some diving mentors about that though.

‘Clever girl… we’ve all done our share of crazy stuff

Luckily enough we are here to share them!

 

[BoltSnap]

LoB(GBR)

What is that?

 

[BoltSnap]

I love the audio alarms as well as the vibrate alarms. They rarely come on because I am vigilant about paying attention but when I do get distracted, it is nice to be reminded. The only alarms that ever came on are the ascent rate alarms on infrequent occasions.

For those that complain about audio alarms, you must be screwing up a lot and not paying attention to get that many alarms

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

I love the audio alarms as well as the vibrate alarms. They rarely come on because I am vigilant about paying attention but when I do get distracted, it is nice to be reminded. The only alarms that ever came on are the ascent rate alarms on infrequent occasions.

For those that complain about audio alarms, you must be screwing up a lot and not paying attention to get that many alarms

My Peregrine, I have set to give me an alarm once I hit 85', and when I have 3 min to my NDL. It is the depth alarm I feel most.

 

[Centrals]

What is that?

Liveaboard in Great Barrier Reef.

 

[Centrals]

They are still responsible for monitoring their gas, depth and NDLs.

You will write that out 100 times...

A big safety feature on cars would be to remove seatbelts and airbags and put a spike on the steering wheel to make them understand the consequences. Diving's similarly unforgiving and should not need alarms (and the time to comprehend what it's alarming about).

Of course they are responsible to monitor all those relevant info. But for some inexperienced divers they simply could not handle that competently.
Alarm is just a tool just like anything else eg. seat belt etc etc. I still see drivers not using seat belt even it is against he law.
No one need to do the F class for diving and I never did all the way to full trimix.
Opinion is one thing but just do not make it one dimensional.

 

[Wibble]

Of course they are responsible to monitor all those relevant info. But for some inexperienced divers they simply could not handle that competently.

What should the response be to this?

The purpose of the raw novice training (e.g. Open Water) that they should be trained to be competent on the most basic skills, such as monitoring their gas, depth and NDLs. If they're not, then they can only be doing a one-to-one supervised "discover scuba" type dive.

My point all along is that it's not wrapping people up in some comfort blanket of alarms / seatbelts. It's about the core skills of them monitoring their "vitals".

Anyway, this is outside of the OP's question about the difference between diving to 30m/100' and 40m/130'. Anyone who's not capable of monitoring their gas and depth shouldn't be going deep.