Kharon
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Rec limits within NDL. Other than that, vis and something interesting to look at (I don't consider wrecks interesting) determine my depth.
how deep max. when diving solo?
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Well,me as a solo diver usually plan dives not deeper than 30 meters. The main reason is nitrogen narcosis which is high risk hazard for solo divers. The deep which you are going to choose depends on many things but it should allways be in your comfort diving zone..
Stoo
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Everyone has a different tolerance for narcosis. As I have said elsewhere, I judge my mental acuity by fiddling with my camera! If I feel puzzled by common tasks, that's "a sign"... In my case, I really don't feel any narcosis at all until I hit about 160'- 170', so that's generally my solo limit, although I will stray passed that on occasion. I dive to those depths solo pretty much every weekend. I did a couple of nice solos this past weekend... one to 182', with about 15 minutes of deco, and another to 155' that was fairly long, and resulted in about 25 minutes of deco, using 02 even. It was just to dang nice to come up...
drrich2
Contributor
I don't do any deco. diving, or technical diving. I generally try not to get much over 100 feet at the local quarry (easy to avoid, unless I care to dig or go hunting a deeper section), or for that matter when I was in Bonaire last time. My understanding, limited and flawed though it may be:
1.) Narcosis is thought to be unlikely to be overtly symptomatic under 80 feet deep, can be a factor 80 - 100, is even more likely 100 - 130, and the risk really goes up after 130, using rough numbers and drawing on my limited recollection of varied threads & more that I've read over before. Symptoms can vary widely; some, such as intense anxiety attacks or (rarely, I think?) hallucinations may be overt, but dulling and slowing of thinking ability, impaired memory (e.g.: not recalling part of the dive afterward) and apathy (dangerous when going through gas fast far from the surface) can creep up on you. The numbers I listed were rough, and not intended to imply precision. Some of you may wish to debate my summary.
2.) I did a deep diver course in part to see how I reacted to narcosis at the limit of recreational diving. Didn't notice any problems. But I was down briefly, and this was under ideal conditions (e.g.: warm, great viz., negligible current) at Oil Slick Leap in Bonaire. Diving 100 feet in 45 degree water in a wetsuit, hood & gloves at the local quarry has a more menacing feel, because that water's dangerously cold, and even with adequate exposure protection, it feels dangerous down there.
3.) Susceptibility to nitrogen narcosis can vary within a diver over time, dives and conditions. So past good experience is no guarantee of being symptom free in the future.
For now, this is what I do. Now, if I had a strong reason to go deeper, say to 120 or 130', well, I might, but I'd be concerned about the added risk.
Richard.
1.) Narcosis is thought to be unlikely to be overtly symptomatic under 80 feet deep, can be a factor 80 - 100, is even more likely 100 - 130, and the risk really goes up after 130, using rough numbers and drawing on my limited recollection of varied threads & more that I've read over before. Symptoms can vary widely; some, such as intense anxiety attacks or (rarely, I think?) hallucinations may be overt, but dulling and slowing of thinking ability, impaired memory (e.g.: not recalling part of the dive afterward) and apathy (dangerous when going through gas fast far from the surface) can creep up on you. The numbers I listed were rough, and not intended to imply precision. Some of you may wish to debate my summary.
2.) I did a deep diver course in part to see how I reacted to narcosis at the limit of recreational diving. Didn't notice any problems. But I was down briefly, and this was under ideal conditions (e.g.: warm, great viz., negligible current) at Oil Slick Leap in Bonaire. Diving 100 feet in 45 degree water in a wetsuit, hood & gloves at the local quarry has a more menacing feel, because that water's dangerously cold, and even with adequate exposure protection, it feels dangerous down there.
3.) Susceptibility to nitrogen narcosis can vary within a diver over time, dives and conditions. So past good experience is no guarantee of being symptom free in the future.
For now, this is what I do. Now, if I had a strong reason to go deeper, say to 120 or 130', well, I might, but I'd be concerned about the added risk.
Richard.
Dr. Lecter
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I'd peg the OC "risk really goes up" range closer to 160'-180', but I'm in the minority on that point.
I think the time to be very cautious is when you find yourself at 220' (or whatever you think of as solid narc range), know you didn't have anything but air in your doubles when you analyzed them, yet feel absolutely normal and don't have the familiar wet-blanket obstruction slowing your higher brain functions. It happened to me once last year, before I moved to CCR...I realized within a minute or two of hitting the bottom that while there was a 1% chance I was just having a great day w/r/t narcosis management, there was a 99% chance I was more narced than I'd ever been before. I was hyper careful throughout the dive, which was a bit of a distraction, and I missed the buzzed feeling
I'm sure one of the DIR minions would pipe up to explain how they--and everyone else--is farm animal stupid below 90' without helium...if their wandering into the Solo forum wasn't so unlikely to begin with
I think the time to be very cautious is when you find yourself at 220' (or whatever you think of as solid narc range), know you didn't have anything but air in your doubles when you analyzed them, yet feel absolutely normal and don't have the familiar wet-blanket obstruction slowing your higher brain functions. It happened to me once last year, before I moved to CCR...I realized within a minute or two of hitting the bottom that while there was a 1% chance I was just having a great day w/r/t narcosis management, there was a 99% chance I was more narced than I'd ever been before. I was hyper careful throughout the dive, which was a bit of a distraction, and I missed the buzzed feeling
I'm sure one of the DIR minions would pipe up to explain how they--and everyone else--is farm animal stupid below 90' without helium...if their wandering into the Solo forum wasn't so unlikely to begin with
Stoo
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Na... just hanging around in the wrong circles. All of my friends (the ones I've been diving with for years) hit these exact depths every weekend in Tobermory. 170' - 180' is generally to the bottom of some of our nice walls before the bottom sort of rolls off on an angle...
One of the did 208' on air while were diving, but complained that the "green stuff was scarey" . He was pretty wasted I think. He's been up on the Gunilda and Judge Hart all week diving 250 (on mix of course).
Dr. Lecter
Contributor
Heh, I more meant the minority on SB. Hawaii and NY/NJ are about as good as it gets for deep air being acceptable these days (at least in the US). My experience put my limit for anything at all demanding on air at 220', and 240' is where I drew my 'I don't care how relaxed and simple the dive is, or how little I'm moving around, I'm not taking my PO2 any higher' line.
Now that I have a revo, though, I dive 10/50 for everything from 10m to 100m…just easier.
Now that I have a revo, though, I dive 10/50 for everything from 10m to 100m…just easier.
Many cave divers dive solo and that is a gear intensive & redundancy laden enterprise. Caves like Eagles Nest are over 200 feet deep- some of the better caves in Florida average around 100 feet deep- so I'd say that is pretty routine.
I've dove in Devils solo (100 feet deep or so) penetrating 1500 feet back with Deco under 20 minutes. I've also dove Northeast wrecks like the San Diego with a 115' bottom and done 30-45 minutes deco. As a sidemount diver with cave filled lp95s or 85s gas goes a long way. ... So does the deco clock. Add a stage bottle and two deco bottles and you can be down in open circuit a while. I've not dove Trimix solo because of my concern about its forgiveness... But it's only a matter of time.
I've dove in Devils solo (100 feet deep or so) penetrating 1500 feet back with Deco under 20 minutes. I've also dove Northeast wrecks like the San Diego with a 115' bottom and done 30-45 minutes deco. As a sidemount diver with cave filled lp95s or 85s gas goes a long way. ... So does the deco clock. Add a stage bottle and two deco bottles and you can be down in open circuit a while. I've not dove Trimix solo because of my concern about its forgiveness... But it's only a matter of time.
We aren't far off on that. Though rather than depth I'd say it's when I've got to do more than two gas switches. So for me that's probably ~200 feet based on typical gas choices. After which I both want a team and a rebreather.
So I guess that leaves me with, "any dive I'm willing to do on open circuit I'm willing to do solo"
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