My late partner and I always tried to ensure we would get a minimum of 60 minutes (gas permitting).
We refused to book with a number of operators who wouldn't agree with this.
Generally my partner would prefer to avoid more than 10 minutes of decompression penalty. But even she would run more if the dive was of interest.
When diving on reefs / wrecks. We would often move up and on to the reef and run down the decompression penalty on the reef. We often would run down the decompression penalty, then do another 10 minutes in the shallows. Quite comfortable when you are carrying a camera (and you have the gas).
We had the amusing issue in the Red Sea of having to rescue the guide, he thought he could match our air consumption rates. We where at 100bar and he was at 30bar. In fairness, most of the guides do better on gas than me.
It very much depends on the operator, and your ability. We had an excellent night dive on the Thistlegorm in the Red Sea. It included penetration, and about 5 minutes of deco. Which we run as 10 minutes for a safety buffer.
Under normal circumstances a night dive is not usual on the Thistlegorm, penetration at night even less so.
This was down to the guide being comfortable with our little group.
If I am paying to go diving, I expect to be able to dive. I have no interest in getting hurt, or being macho about it. But, if the dive is within my capability, and most importantly, my buddies capability, then I expect to be able to do it unless there is a very good reason why we shouldn't.
I have sat out dives, scrubbed the days diving, when conditions have not been suitable. I have got in, and then immediately got out because the conditions on the dive where not sensible, despite what the skipper had said.
I have done dives with limited bottom time, but there was a sensible reason for a limited bottom time.
I pay a skipper for his expert knowledge, so I always listen carefully to the briefing and the skippers advice.
Gareth
We refused to book with a number of operators who wouldn't agree with this.
Generally my partner would prefer to avoid more than 10 minutes of decompression penalty. But even she would run more if the dive was of interest.
When diving on reefs / wrecks. We would often move up and on to the reef and run down the decompression penalty on the reef. We often would run down the decompression penalty, then do another 10 minutes in the shallows. Quite comfortable when you are carrying a camera (and you have the gas).
We had the amusing issue in the Red Sea of having to rescue the guide, he thought he could match our air consumption rates. We where at 100bar and he was at 30bar. In fairness, most of the guides do better on gas than me.
It very much depends on the operator, and your ability. We had an excellent night dive on the Thistlegorm in the Red Sea. It included penetration, and about 5 minutes of deco. Which we run as 10 minutes for a safety buffer.
Under normal circumstances a night dive is not usual on the Thistlegorm, penetration at night even less so.
This was down to the guide being comfortable with our little group.
If I am paying to go diving, I expect to be able to dive. I have no interest in getting hurt, or being macho about it. But, if the dive is within my capability, and most importantly, my buddies capability, then I expect to be able to do it unless there is a very good reason why we shouldn't.
I have sat out dives, scrubbed the days diving, when conditions have not been suitable. I have got in, and then immediately got out because the conditions on the dive where not sensible, despite what the skipper had said.
I have done dives with limited bottom time, but there was a sensible reason for a limited bottom time.
I pay a skipper for his expert knowledge, so I always listen carefully to the briefing and the skippers advice.
Gareth
