Changed depth limit for PADI Open Water

[spoolin01]

I was PADI OW certified in 1995, using the 1994 manual. I don't recall much emphasis if any being made of a 60 ft limit, but have stronger recollection of 120-130ft being stressed. Maybe I was enthralled by the instructor's litany of derring-do anecdotes and missed it.

I just thumbed through the manual and the 60 ft business is not mentioned until 200 pages in, followed by extensive discussion of dive tables and the importance of the 100 ft and 130 ft limits in the PADI perspective on recreational diving. The 60 ft limit is at one point described as applying to a "novice", and is restated again in the last few pages as the recommended limit for a new diver. In the front of the book during description of certification and its benefits, no mention of depth as a feature of OW certification is made, aside from inclusion by inference in being qualified to dive within NDL. In particular, you are qualified to "engage in recreational open water diving without... supervision...", which is later defined as 100ft.

So at least back then, it seems the PADI perspective was that OW certification made you good for a *minimum* of 60ft, and that with additional training and experience, you were limited only by NDL and PADI's assignment of the 100ft rec limit. Is it presented differently nowadays?

 

[pittelli]

I didn't think I was hallucinating.

 

[Scubagolf]

On almost 300 dives, over the last 15 years, I have never had any dive op or DM ever restrict OW divers to 60 FSW, or even refer to a 60' limit for OW divers. I admit none of my diving has been in Australia.

 

[Thrawn7]

I'm a newbie Sydney diver. The ops around here generally is OK taking me down to 22m mark. No deeper than that though.

Queensland is much stricter in terms of scuba dive ops regulation. There's far more inexperienced and unfamiliar tourists diving there though.. with a couple of highly prominent diving incidents in the past few years.

 

[tursiops]

The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving said that the primary reason for the 130 foot limit was indeed narcosis, but I don't recall any mention of the other depths.

The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving (1996), page 2-39, says:
"It is nitrogen narcosis, not decompression sickness, that limits the depth of air diving (in recreational diving, the extremely short no decompression limits below 40 metres/130 feet are a factor, too)."
Later, on the same page:
"The 0.79 (ata) nitrogen partial pressure in surface air causes no discernible narcosis. Doubling the pressure has little effect, but at three atmospheres (20 metres/66 feet), mental processing slows measurably. Experimental animals, including humans, have been shown to learn more slowly and make more errors in simple tasks when breathing air at three atmospheres. Most human subjects don't notice the impairment at three atmospheres, but most recognize some mental dulling at four atmospheres (30 metres/99 feet), and virtually everyone is affected at 45 metres/150 feet. Deeper than that, divers become unreliable in judgment and performance. It is this effect of nitrogen that determines the depth in which professional divers shift to heliox and limits the operational use of air."

 

[drbill]

Another reason I'm glad my 1960s Los Angeles County certification is good to 130 fsw... if only the PADI instructors knew what that card allowed! Decades later I finally got a PADI AOW card from an Australian dive instructor who knew what my LAC card meant.

 

[dreamdive]

Officially it's a recommendation. Many people treat it as a rule.

However, there is no scuba police and you're not going to get in any "official" trouble if you dive deeper.

R..

Except in Australia! I heard that some operators will check your dive computer post-diving.

 

[tursiops]

Except in Australia! I heard that some operators will check your dive computer post-diving.

I've been on a number of boats where the max depth and dive time were checked after each dive. On a Mike Ball boat in the Coral Sea I got dinged for having a dive that was more than 10 feet deeper tahn an earlier dive that day...a "reverse profile." This was after DAN had pronounced that there was no evidence reverse profiles were problematic, just that it was not the best N2 management. My argument carried no weight...do it once more, I go to the penalty box.

 

[Octopusprime]

Yes certified divers are responsible to plan their dive and dive within their limits. I am sure there are many reasons for the 60/100 ft depths including Narcosis, CESA, air consumption rates and more. But as I see it the main question of the original post is should he get his AOW. I would say yes, as an experienced diver I am sure he will get more out of the class than a newbie if you choose to.

Can he dive deeper than the 60ft, sure there is not SCUBA police. However, I have seen charter services state on their registration forms/waivers that you will not be able to dive this dive without AOW C-card, but on the other hand I have been places that did not even ask for any C-card.

Unfortunately, in todays everyone seams to use PADI as the scape goat because they are unable to explain why they have a policy and will say it is against the law. I have read a ton of posts on this site referring to tank fills, hydro or inspections with similar things where a shop says they can not fill a tank because of a scratch or age of tank. If the shop is honest and knowledgeable they will tell a customer they for their personal safety they will not fill the tank instead of lying and using the scape goat. It is the same with the charter service they should say that they made the choice to limit their liability.

 

[dreamdive]

I've been on a number of boats where the max depth and dive time were checked after each dive. On a Mike Ball boat in the Coral Sea I got dinged for having a dive that was more than 10 feet deeper tahn an earlier dive that day...a "reverse profile." This was after DAN had pronounced that there was no evidence reverse profiles were problematic, just that it was not the best N2 management. My argument carried no weight...do it once more, I go to the penalty box.

Wow, how ridiculous! Yours and many other stories like this steer me clear from spending my money there. Too many other and nicer places to dive without self-imposed scuba police.