Loose rules in Fort Lauderdale, FL

[gcarter]

Buddy system is not mandatory so why would anyone enforce it? Fortunately, this is not Maldives where solo diving is prohibited by the government. And, if you are so concerned about safety, diving 100 ft on Nitrox is borderline.

Do it regularly, 32% MOD is 111' @1.4, 132' @ 1.6. So if you define borderline as a 32' safety...............

 

[gcarter]

Nitrox is made and checked with a certain margin of error, so "32" can mean anything from 30.5 to 34 (in my experience). And at 34 your max is already 103 ft. Then there is the error of your depth gage, etc. So if we trust the tables, I'd say "borderline".

And, at 1.6, it is 122'. Calculating your MOD at already 1.4 builds in a safety, or did you not know that?

 

[tarponchik]

I feel pretty good about the accuracy of my analyzer, but if it is a percent or two off--well, I am afraid I don't think it matters. All around the world, thousands of people are trusting their nitrox analyzers every day. Have you heard of a recreational diver having an oxygen toxicity issue because of an inaccurate reading? In fact, have you heard of a recreational nitrox diver having an oxygen toxicity issue--period?

Well, what about technical divers, who use the same kinds of testing methods and go much closer to the edge on MODs? Yes, oxygen toxicity is too often a cause of a fatality, but is it because of an inaccurate gas reading? If so, I have never heard of it. Those fatalities come because the diver is breathing the wrong gas at the wrong depth because of some other error. The most well known recent one came when the diver insisted that the tank he had marked oxygen really had air in it, refused to analyze, and took it to 100 feet, where he might have realized it really did have oxygen in it just before he died. In another case, a diver who had not dived in months was sure he had air in his doubles and took them on a dive to 160 feet without analyzing--they had 36%. In another famous case, the diver intended to leave his tank with 50% at a shallow depot site but left his deep stage bottle there instead, then went on breathing his 50% bottle to a depth of 200 feet. None of those are due to analyzers being a percent or two off.

OK, then I am correct that we the recreational divers only use analyzers to make sure it's Nitrox, not air. All cases you described fit into this category. We write down results up to decimals in %O2 and max allowed depth on daily worksheets simply because this is a silly ritual required by dive shops. I am incorrect that diving 100 ft on Nitrox is borderline in safety.

 

[gcarter]

I wonder how you manage this? If you have a solid grasp of what you're talking about, you do know, of course, that there is no oxygen tank where we divers pick up Nitrox.

So what do shops partial pressure blend from? Their coffee maker?

 

[CuzzA]

OK, then I am correct that we the recreational divers only use analyzers to make sure it's Nitrox, not air. All cases you described fit into this category. We write down results up to decimals in %O2 and max allowed depth on daily worksheets simply because this is a silly ritual required by dive shops. I am incorrect that diving 100 ft on Nitrox is borderline in safety.

Your profile page say you are EANx certified, is that correct? Because you alone are basically arguing with the world wide standard of diving enriched air, including what you should have been taught if you were in fact certified as a EANx diver. Stop and think about that for a second.

 

[Nemrod]

The VIP is not a legal requirement. It is, possibly, an industry standard and profit center for dive shops. While I consider it a useful convention and I would not put a decal on if I did not follow the process as defined (by who) but exactly what rule was broken? He charged you for a decal that he installed, so you got the decal and the fill. The decal has no legal definition or requirement. What CFR or state regulation specifies the specifics of a annual visual cylinder inspection for consumer SCUBA tanks not used in commercial service?

N

 

[tarponchik]

Your profile page say you are EANx certified, is that correct? Because you alone are basically arguing with the world wide standard of diving enriched air, including what you should have been taught if you were in fact certified as a EANx diver. Stop and think about that for a second.

Sure I am. I've been taught to avoid exceeding PPO 1.4 if possible.

 

[tarponchik]

So what do shops partial pressure blend from? Their coffee maker?

You tell me...

 

[PfcAJ]

OK, then I am correct that we the recreational divers only use analyzers to make sure it's Nitrox, not air. All cases you described fit into this category. We write down results up to decimals in %O2 and max allowed depth on daily worksheets simply because this is a silly ritual required by dive shops.

You're incorrect about those two things, too.

 

[KeithG]

The VIP is not a legal requirement. It is, possibly, an industry standard and profit center for dive shops. While I consider it a useful convention and I would not put a decal on if I did not follow the process as defined (by who) but exactly what rule was broken? He charged you for a decal that he installed, so you got the decal and the fill. The decal has no legal definition or requirement. What CFR or state regulation specifies the specifics of a annual visual cylinder inspection for consumer SCUBA tanks not used in commercial service?

N

are vip stickers a north america thing? i dive in the caribbean and have never seen one on a tank. on a recent dive trip to bonaire i did notice that the dive op took a black sharpie and circled some numbers stamped into the tanks - hydro dates? (about the only thing i know about tanks is that you get full ones from that pile and should put your empty one over there)