Loose rules in Fort Lauderdale, FL

[scubadada]

Whether it is ridiculous or not, it is indeed agency policy. I trained with such an agency for several years, and we were not allowed to dive below 100 feet without a helium mix. At the shallower levels it was supposed to be 25/25. After that it went to standard 21/35. I was recently diving a site with some people who were part of that training with me, and they were not at all involved with training--just diving for fun. They would not go below 100 feet because they did not have helium with them that weekend.

I'm part of the "helium below 100ft" crowd.

It's the bees knees.

Kool-Aid for you, water for me, thanks

 

[boulderjohn]

When I was with that agency (and I am with it no longer), we were also required to use nitrox 32 for all dives above 100 feet. During that time I learned a little trivia. When the agency made a series of training videos, a local dive shop gave them all the gas they used for free. That shop did not make nitrox, so the instructors making the videos were diving on air. Of course, they still required that everyone else use nitrox 32.

Which brings me to the point of this post. IMO, certain agencies make policies that are easy to enforce when you are doing pretty much all your diving in a location with facilities that allow you to follow those policies easily. When I am in South Florida, I can go into pretty much any shop and get banked 32%, and many will have banked standard trimix mixes (like 21/35). I live in Colorado and do most of my "local" diving in New Mexico. Only a handful of shops in those two states offer ANY nitrox. I can only think of one off the top of my head that offers trimix as a regular part of its program. When I use those gases with the classes I teach, I need to bring 300 cubic foot oxygen and helium supply bottles to the dive site, put the appropriate gases into the tanks, and get them topped off with air in a little fill station located in a plywood shack. I just decided to take a real financial beating and purchase a booster and an additional filter to improve the air purity. Under those circumstances, it is pretty darn tempting to dive with air for a lot of your dives.

 

[WarrenZ]

@boulderjohn care to share what you are doing for your additional filter since I also use the little fill station in the plywood shack.

 

[boulderjohn]

@boulderjohn care to share what you are doing for your additional filter since I also use the little fill station in the plywood shack.

It has not arrived yet. I had it custom made. I had a lot of trouble getting the maker to understand what I wanted. If it turns out to be what I want it to be, it will be a filter stack just like you see on a compressor. I should be able to attach its input to a standard fill whip and have a fill whip coming off the output. It will thus give additional filtration to the air that would normally go directly into the tank. I should be able to use it in any place that provides fills. It was not cheap.

By the way, the filtration at that plywood shack is maintained by a technical diver who blends his own mixes in his own tanks with it, so I have always trusted it by itself in the past.

 

[WarrenZ]

I trust it too but I was thinking about a portable filter stack for myself to use at other fill stations.

 

[Texasguy]

The train has left the topic. Now boldly going where no man on nitrox has gone before.

 

[KeithG]

The train has left the topic. Now boldly going where no man on nitrox has gone before.

Welcome to scubaboard.

 

[WarrenZ]

The train has left the topic. Now boldly going where no man on nitrox has gone before.

My apologies. Back to nitrox at 100' and no rules in Florida. I prefer a dive op that treats me like an adult and let's me do what I want within reason I'm OK with keeping them on schedule and won't blow the dive window for no reason but if we only get an hour stay out of the way I will have little patience for someone who forgot their fins and is expecting the whole boat to wait while they look for them.

 

[PfcAJ]

My apologies. Back to nitrox at 100' and no rules in Florida.

 

[kelemvor]

Yeah, back on topic, kind of screwy for a shop to stick a vip sticker on something they didn't inspect. I guess all those who complain about VIP's being useless money grabs just got vindicated.