Going deep?

[down4fun]

I have been hanging out on the board a lot more lately and I have noticed a lot of threads about going deeper, sometimes beyond ones current certification. And it made me stop and think about my own journey.

For whatever reason I have always been lured by depth. As soon as I got certified I wanted to be on the boat going to the 60ft wrecks. I instantly fell in love with the wrecks and second shallow reef dive, well that was just time under water.

Then I did my aow. This opened up a new range of wrecks to me. Now I was always on the boat going to the “deeper” wrecks. If it wasn’t going to a wreck deeper than 100ft I wasn’t interested. It didn’t take long to exhaust that range of wrecks. But I continued to dive them week after week building time and experience.

I knew at 100 dives (which was only 6 months for me) that I wanted to tech dive. I wanted to see those deeper wrecks, the ones fewer and fewer see. I took a cavern/intro to tech class at that time. And I was nowhere near ready. I had never been in doubles before or a bp/w set up, or a long hose and my trim and buoyancy was out of control. I didn’t get the card, but what I did get was a dose of reality.

I went back to diving recreationally in a bp/w with a long hose. I did a couple hundred more dives like that and eventually added doubles. I did 50 or so dives in those and then went back to the caver/intro to tech class and nailed it. What I needed was time and experience and now I had it.

From there I did NAUI Tech 1which is advanced nitrox/decompression and helitrox. This got me to 150 with single gas decompression. I did some dives in this range and made a big decision, I went to a rebreather because I knew there were still depths that I wanted to reach, wrecks to see and thought this was the best tool for the job. (but that’s not the point)

I have been on the rebreather for a year now and have been to 256FSW. Deeper wrecks still call me but I know that I need more experience and time at the levels I am currently diving before I move on.

What was the purpose of this thread. I see new divers wanting to go “deep” whether that is 130, 160 or whatever and it is hard to hear someone say “you don’t have the skills or the experience or the training” and I just wanted to convey that at my level of diving there are still depths that I want to go to and am not ready for. Time takes time and all I can do is dive, build on my experience and know that someday I will get there. So know that you are not alone in your quandary.

 

[Blackwood]

What was the purpose of this thread. I see new divers wanting to go “deep” whether that is 130, 160 or whatever and it is hard to hear someone say “you don’t have the skills or the experience or the training” and I just wanted to convey that at my level of diving there are still depths that I want to go to and am not ready for.

Nicely stated.

 

[wb416]

There will always be deeper water than we are "certified" or ready to dive..... but will we always have the common sense to know how deep we're really ready for?

 

[Cave Diver]

I agree. The lure of deeper stuff is a strong pull for some of us. Most of my training and trips have been geared towards extending my diveable range. It's not necessarily that I've seen everything to see in shallower depths, but I'll save some of that when I no longer feel up to hauling multiple tanks on multi-hour dives.

I won't tell someone they shouldnt pursue deeper stuff, just that like you, they should get the training and build the experience before pushing their limits.

 

[DevonDiver]

There will always be deeper water than we are "certified" or ready to dive..... but will we always have the common sense to know how deep we're really ready for?

1. Plan the dive, dive the plan.

2. Dive within the limits of your training and experience.

Good advice from the PADI OW course... relevant to divers at any level of training and experience.

A 'truly' good diver, demonstrates patience, self-discipline and the ability to effectively self-assess their capabilities.

Resisting the 'lure of the deep' is one of those tests that most divers face at one or more times during their scuba development.

That isn't to say that divers shouldn't progress into deeper diving... but they should do it for the right reasons and never on a spontaneous whim...

“Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless.”
Yoda, [-]PADI[/-] JEDI Master

 

[Crowley]

diving has different lures for different people. A good friend of mine loves to do the deep wreck and cave dives because they get an adrenaline kick out of it. Me, I just want to be a fish and have no interest in the deep stuff really, apart from the gas theory - I get my adrenaline from riding motorcycles at silly speeds, Diving for me is more like Zen.

100 dives can make you an instructor responsible for *other* people's lives, so why should it not make you responsible for your own? Some people need a hundred dives just to figure out how much weight they really need, others walk into the water and never really come out.

The problems arise when people attempt ridiculous limits well beyond their training, such as bouncing to 100 metres after an Open Water course. If people are serious about the deep stuff and really want to do it, there is a world of information and training available for them. Passion, Knowledge, Discipline - applies to all forms of diving, I think.

The fact that many people can't do it should not, I think, prevent those who can from trying.

Safe diving, however deep it is,

C.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Sometime ago I posted an article on my website that addresses many of the concerns the OP has brought up in this discussion ... like others have noted, I don't presume to tell someone they shouldn't go ... but would like to help people understand how to do so responsibly ... the article addresses my views on how to do that ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Akimbo]

…Time takes time and all I can do is dive, build on my experience and know that someday I will get there. So know that you are not alone in your quandary.

I also suffer from this obsession, going on 50 years now. The "going deeper" treatment does not last as long as decompression. The fact that there is less light, life, and time the deeper we go does not diminish the desire. It does not matter if we pretend that it is a sport or profession. Taking greater care becomes motivated as much by the embarrassment of screwing up as self preservation. It took about 40 years for me to reach the second phase of this malady; I no longer try to justify and simply accept it.

Enjoy the journey and planning the future because goals quickly fade.

 

[Lobzilla]

What's wrong with me?

I do not want to go any deeper than absolutely neccessary. Less light, less life, less warmth there. You do the depth, you have to do the (mindless) time. Hanging there and looking at the time counting down is not very appealing (unless I can get SB via Wifi on a pressure proof laptop).

The crystal caves of Abaco; that's another story...

It is not just the lure of the depth that you have to recognize and to respect.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It's not necessarily true that there's less life at depths. Some forms of life only grow deep. This time next week I'll be on my way back to Nootka Sound ... where I saw my first cold-water gorgonians a few weeks ago. You won't even see the little ones above about 150 fsw ... and the larger ones start at about 170.

Coming upslope, there's no need to hang ... cloud sponges between 120 and about 70 feet ...

... and carpets of color above that ...

... deco never looked so good ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)