Diving with a hookah. Decompression times

[Garth]

I am going to agree with the comment about starting over. Otherwise you are going to get yourself killed. Being able to deal with something underwater and knowing what to do with a problem underwater are two totally different things. You need to figure out that information.

Also, I Know of commercial divers that have died using these hookas. Don't know if there is a class for these but having surface support and redundancy is necessary.

There are whole 1000 page threads on spare air but I'm going to save you the time reading through all of it... Forget about it you need something better.

Good luck. Take a class and forget about your diving background because you need a new one.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have read every one of 123frankie's posts, and I don't think he is a troll, but I am otherwise very confused. In his last post he said he was certified 15 years ago. In another post in another thread he said this:

I have over 2000 hours at 20-30 ft. Took my advance course. Im a good comfordable diver who hasnt dove in 15 years.

So, unless I am missing something, he said in this thread that he started diving 15 years ago, and in the other thread he said he got his advanced certification and stopped diving 15 years ago. If I recall correctly, in another post he said he stopped diving 10 years ago. (I could be wrong--couldn't find the post today.) Somehow he accumulated more than 2,000 hours of bottom time, a total I probably won't reach in my lifetime. If I understood his previous posts correctly, he accumulated those hours looking for clams.

If you read through his posts, you will see other inconsistencies.

Frankie, please explain yourself carefully.

In what year did you get your OW certification?
Through what agency did you get your certification?
Did you really do a 5 minute 100 foot dive in your OW training?
When did you get your advanced certification?
When did you stop diving?
How many hours of diving do you have, and how did you get them in so little time?

EDIT: I found where he said he stopped 10 years ago--the first post in this thread.

 

[Garth]

Funny. I get it. But my opinion still stands. That's all.

 

[Elvistheking]

As everyone seems to be tip toeing around the issues can I try and lay them out as I see them.

1. Your Hookah can run for upto 4hours and can supply air/has a hose upto 80ft (which is for the sake of argument 25m), great long dives, no need to carry huge heavy tanks.
2. I fire up vplanner (some deco software) plug in air (21% O2) and 25m, then keep adding more and more bottom time until the total run time is 4 hours'ish (240 minutes).
3. Turns out (with my conservatism settings, etc.) that I can do a 100 minutes bottom time, I then have to do 3 stops: 5 minutes at 12m, 14 minutes at 9m and 112 minutes at 6m*. Great well the Hookah can run that long and there is other stuff to do/see at that depth.
4. BUT lets look at the worst case scenario the engine fails or the reg explodes or a storm kicks up and overturns the hookah or someone runs over it, you get the idea, after 100 minutes just before you start your ascent, you've now got to do over 2 hours deco, Oh ****.
5. How much air will you require well I'll just plug in 22% as deco gas** see what it says. 4418.6ltrs, which at 200bar is 20L, which is in effect a twinset, but you wanted to dive without heavy tanks!! Also this assumes assumes no buddy.

And that boys and girls is why a Hookah without a decent size bailout for deco diving don't work.

* No 3m stops for me the swells in the UK can make keeping a 3m *interesting*.
** Yes I know it'll be a marginally better deco gas than air, out of interest I tried 50% as a deco gas, you could if you sucked it dry just about manage on an Ali80, but please don't.

 

[Garth]

As everyone seems to be tip toeing around the issues can I try and lay them out as I see them.

1. Your Hookah can run for upto 4hours and can supply air/has a hose upto 80ft (which is for the sake of argument 25m), great long dives, no need to carry huge heavy tanks.
2. I fire up vplanner (some deco software) plug in air (21% O2) and 25m, then keep adding more and more bottom time until the total run time is 4 hours'ish (240 minutes).
3. Turns out (with my conservatism settings, etc.) that I can do a 100 minutes bottom time, I then have to do 3 stops: 5 minutes at 12m, 14 minutes at 9m and 112 minutes at 6m*. Great well the Hookah can run that long and there is other stuff to do/see at that depth.
4. BUT lets look at the worst case scenario the engine fails or the reg explodes or a storm kicks up and overturns the hookah or someone runs over it, you get the idea, after 100 minutes just before you start your ascent, you've now got to do over 2 hours deco, Oh ****.
5. How much air will you require well I'll just plug in 22% as deco gas** see what it says. 4418.6ltrs, which at 200bar is 20L, which is in effect a twinset, but you wanted to dive without heavy tanks!! Also this assumes assumes no buddy.

And that boys and girls is why a Hookah without a decent size bailout for deco diving don't work.

* No 3m stops for me the swells in the UK can make keeping a 3m *interesting*.
** Yes I know it'll be a marginally better deco gas than air, out of interest I tried 50% as a deco gas, you could if you sucked it dry just about manage on an Ali80, but please don't.

this is true and interesting.

to the OP.... when did you schedule your advanced nitrox and deco procedures class? because your going to need it with that profile. :-0

 

[DandyDon]

Just find a good instructor, start over with OW & AOW, and when he teaches you something that seems different - just accept it.

Just in case, you know that solo diving is riskier than buddy diving?

Then there's the CO risks of hookah diving deep.

 

[Dr Deco]

The decompression situation was what I was discussing in my post of January 15th. You can get into real tight situations!

 

[Elvistheking]

The decompression situation was what I was discussing in my post of January 15th. You can get into real tight situations!

I just thought the discussion required actual figures.

A really good example of the dangers of this sort of thing is in the BBC program Human Planet:Oceans, about the "Compressor divers" of the Philippines, it was shown here a week or so ago I don't know when (or if) it'll be shown anywhere else but catch it if you can, truly scary.

 

[Elvistheking]

Just find a good instructor, start over with OW & AOW, and when he teaches you something that seems different - just accept it.

Sorry but that is just plain wrong, if you instructor teaches you something that doesn't seem right, challenge him/her on it, it's likely that it's due to a misunderstanding but getting to the bottom of it is important and if the instructor can't backup his statements with valid reasoning then get a new instructor!

You should always understand why you are doing something, "because the book says so" is not an acceptable response!!

 

[DandyDon]

I guess I said it wrong, but it seems he might need some corrective instructions. Thanks.

My Nitrox instructor was wrong about MOD at 5,000 elevation. I challenged him, he stood by the wrong answer - so I shrugged, shutup, and got my card. Works both ways at times.