60 ft.

[helopilot2be]

Well, I asked a question of the operator he answered and I did not discuss it further. As for a violation or the training standards like I said this was 1987 and there was no 60 limit. It was use common sense and dive within your own limits and your buddies limits down to 130ft. I also see these "limits" as a way to make more money.
Oh well like I said this operator will not see my money.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses.
Chris

 

[Garrobo]

It's all about selling you an AOW cert.

 

[2905luvsbubbles]

As some others have said, it is a recomendation. The biggest piece of safety is to not exceed your abilities and developed skill. Having taught students, many have the yoyo of going up and down very rapidly as they develop their buyoancy skills. diving to 100-130 feet early in a diving career increases risks. Just my opinion.

 

[Snarfal]

While I realize and agree that there are no Scuba Police, I think it stinks that an operator will pass of the 60ft as gospel. I have dived (dove) to deeper depths many many times (including my open water cert dives). I just don't believe that a cert card is the only measure of ability. Oh well I guess this particular dive operator just won't get my business.
Chris

all things being equal....how ELSE would he (who wants to protect his business and possible safety of divers) know your ability other than your certification level? If he takes you at your word and you freak out and bolt, or have the incorrect skills, you could endanger yourself and others around you. By that time, it would be too late.

Perhaps he is just playing the odds safely.

And maybe it is my naive self, but I'd like to think that the certification agencies set the limits at the currents depths more for a combination of safety and ease of understanding to the new diver than the desire to make a quick buck.

 

[iztok]

Well, I asked a question of the operator he answered and I did not discuss it further. As for a violation or the training standards like I said this was 1987 and there was no 60 limit. It was use common sense and dive within your own limits and your buddies limits down to 130ft. I also see these "limits" as a way to make more money.
Oh well like I said this operator will not see my money.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses.
Chris

You do an average of two dives a year (or less). (Based on your profile.)

Based on that I can see why some diveops don't want to take risk.

 

[Doc]

When I started diving in 1983, BCs were common place. I didn't see anyone dive without one until I did it years later. By 1983, horse collars were extremely rare.

I go back to a time in the late 1960's when we used purloined Airline Flotation Vests. I guess technically they were BC's.

Then BC's came in that had CO2 cylinders for theoretical inflation. (Fenzi, anyone?)

Suffice to say, "things change" over time.

The point: I believe that our understanding (or perception) of the physics has altered our proscribed behaviors in a much greater fashion than any technological advance has.

 

[DandyDon]

By 1983, horse collars were extremely rare.

My home bud and I were telling stories today of past trips, screw-ups, times we felt like nerds swimming with real divers, etc - and he told the one when we went to down on the Adolphus Busch off of Summerland Key, FL a few years ago. We boarded with the best gear we could afford in our bags and this really old dude showed up with the top of a 5 gallon jug cut off, handles made from rope. He wore a horse collar on the dive, a couple of weights duct taped to ply-board to wear his tank, hovered over the deck about an inch off of it for minutes waiting to get just the right shot, every now and then taking a tiny breath. Such a pleasant fellow. Wish we could have spent more time with him; we should have.

 

[k ellis]

Helo I think alot of dive ops want the advanced because they know an instructor has accompanied you on at least one dive beyond 60 feet. There is no scuba police and you wont be fined for going deeper then 60 feet. While I think PADI especially loves to make money on some sham courses such as boat diver we need to remember some courses like deep diver do contain some pretty good to know information.

My suggestion is find the ops that fit your needs as there are literaly thousands out there the world over. But be upfront and honest and let them know your experiences as they will know whether to keep an eye on you or not.

 

[Walter]

As for a violation or the training standards like I said this was 1987 and there was no 60 limit.

Actually, there was. In 1987, I was teaching the YMCA SCUBA Program and working on a dive boat in the upper Keys. I saw lots of classes from lots of agencies. They all had a 60 ft limit for the entry level class.

They also all had the 60 ft recommendation for OW certified divers in 1987, but that's not a training standard.

 

[Tigerman]

Well, look at it this way..

Youre a dive op owner. You get 2500 different divers on your boat(s) each year. How do you intend to have any idea wether someone actually has been trained and not just been lucky to survive a certain type of dive? The "best" way to do this short of starting to do time-consuming investigations is to check certs and hope the course was run according to the standards. If the **** hits the fan, atleast youve covered your ass.

No, Im not running a dive op, but I understand why they might want to see the cards. Even if making some effort to check a divers logs (which can be forged, easilly) or references might only take 10 minutes, thats ammounting to a whole lot of hours if youre gonna do it with 1000s of divers a year.
If you spend 10 minutes doing extra and pretty much unneccesary work to check 1000 divers, thats a month worth of labor. Thats time you could spend doing more useful and important things.