247 Feet -- "We can't stay here for very long"

[aquacat8]

I envy the simplicity of those old rigs... I recently watched part of a Cousteau film where they emerge from the water and easily casually sling their very simple rigs to the boat deck and I gotta say that looks like a lot more fun than being burdened with a ton of complex gear. The white cotton straps on my new “FrankenBC” are a reference to that. I was thinking... could I do that? Like if I went solo shore diving in say 25-30 feet of water, with the surface as my redundancy, do I need a pony, an octo, or a bc, or a computer?

 

[BRT]

I envy the simplicity of those old rigs... I recently watched part of a Cousteau film where they emerge from the water and easily casually sling their very simple rigs to the boat deck and I gotta say that looks like a lot more fun than being burdened with a ton of complex gear. The white cotton straps on my new “FrankenBC” are a reference to that. I was thinking... could I do that? Like if I went solo shore diving in say 25-30 feet of water, with the surface as my redundancy, do I need a pony, an octo, or a bc, or a computer?

The best diver I know dives routinely to 160' plus with an AL80, no BCD, no computer, no octo, and usually has to decompress before coming up, often 3 times a day. He has been doing it for 25 years or so. He talks about someday getting an OW card.

 

[aquacat8]

The best diver I know dives routinely to 160' plus with an AL80, no BCD, no computer, no octo, and usually has to decompress before coming up, often 3 times a day. He has been doing it for 25 years or so. He talks about someday getting an OW card.

Whoa... commercial diver?

 

[aquacat8]

The best diver I know dives routinely to 160' plus with an AL80, no BCD, no computer, no octo, and usually has to decompress before coming up, often 3 times a day. He has been doing it for 25 years or so. He talks about someday getting an OW card.

I don’t get it

 

[BRT]

Whoa... commercial diver?

Fisherman. And he loves to dive. Nothing I like better than to go with him. He backs way off on max depths. I use big nitrox tanks. Some dives I can almost keep up if he slows down enough.

 

[aquacat8]

Wow

 

[aquacat8]

how does he plan his decompression?

 

[BRT]

how does he plan his decompression?

They seem to do it by guessing based on prior experience. If they get symptoms they learn to stay down longer. When a tank runs out while decompressing they signal to a snorkeler above and he yells for the boat to bring a rigged tank. They usually breathe the tanks until the yokes can be removed without bleeding the regulators. He carries a watch and a depth gauge.

I dove with him once to 90-95 feet with me on nitrox and him and another guy on air. We were down 35+ minutes pulling out lobster. He was not happy when I slowly ascended to 15 feet and did a long safety stop as they hung below. On the boat he was surprised that I didn't have any pain.

Now they use nitrox as much as they can while decompressing and they feel a lot better at the end of the day.

In January I went with them but didn't dive. We were about 25 miles north of Cancun, alone, out of sight of land in a boat 24 feet long and 6 feet wide in big waves, and they go diving.

 

[aquacat8]

Wow, that is amazing!

 

[aquacat8]

One thing I’ve learned on Scubaboard, diving is a lot more diverse than I would have imagined.