Max depth for OWD?

[Toolbox-13]

Commercial Divers and the Navy Divers do not go over 190 fsw on air ecept in an emergency and that is diving surface supplied air. You are Heavily Narced and over 200 fsw your safety is the last thing on your mind. I have dove to 180 fsw on air and your hand eye coordination iisn't too good, if you plan on diving deep get the proper training and do it right. Trimix or Heliox is the way to go and be safe

 

[fisherdvm]

I think 60 ft is quoted... However, personally, it depends on a diver's comfort. If you have not practiced emergency ascend... You might want to do it at varying depths to see if you can get from varying depth up to 60 ft. If you can comfortably do it at 60 ft. Then you can set your limit. Alot of time, you dive, and your buddy is not near you.

Otherwise, I think PADI noted that the limit for recreational diving is 130 ft. But this might vary for the individual. Some folks are more sensitive to nitrogen narcosis than other. I have not exceeded 92 ft in my dives.

Personally, how many dive instructors have noted folks with excessive problem with narcosis at depth above 130 ft??

 

[13psi]

Thanks for all the info.

 

[MikeFerrara]

In regards to most agencies, the depth limit associated with a certification level is usually arecommendation. PADI "recommends" that a diver limit their depth to 60 ft until they have more traiing or experience. However, they also tell you that an OW certification qualifies you to dive in conditions similar to or better than those in which you were trained. In other words, you're qualified to do what you've already done.

How deep should you go? What have you done before under what conditions? If all your training was at 20 ft following an instructor in a pack and you've never actually done any kind of a dive really on your own with a buddy, you probably want to keep it shallow and easy. If you've been to 60 ft....under what conditions and what did you have to do?

You'll often have people tell you to base your decision on comfort. I'm going to tell you something completely different. NOT being comfortable is a good reason to not do a thing. However, being comfortable is no where near as reliable. Lots of divers are plenty comfortable at a given depth but that comfort is unfounded. They shouldn't be comfortable but they just don't know it. Comfort is...what?...an emotion. Don't dive deeper based on emotion. You need an objective way to measure your skill and knowledge against the assessed risks and requirements of the dive.

All else being equal (they are certainly not always equal) the skills required at 20 ft are exactly the same skills required at 100 ft. The difference is the potential consequenses of failing to perform those skills adequately. For example, if you have poor trim and work to hard at 20 ft, you stir up the bottom and maybe have some trouble staying with your buddy. At 100 ft, it's that much harder because your suit in more compressed and you have more air in that bc and the air you breath is more dense (compressed). It's not uncommon for that same diver to suffer a bit of dispnea due to their over work and incorrect breathing causing some CO2 build up. CO2 adds to the narcosis. Best to stay shallow untill you have those skills prety well polished. And no, they don't teach this in the advanced class even though this has reared it's ugly head to bite the butt of many a AOW student.

The next step would be to discuss the skills you would need to really dive well at 20 ft and then to discuss how good, reliable and fine tuned we (you) think they should be to go to 60 ft or 100 ft. Do you really want to go deeper if you aren't doing a really good job shallow? Do you know what constitutes a good job?

After all this, you still don't know how deep you should go but hopefully, after digesting it some, you have a better idea of what questions to ask...the correct answer to the question "How deep can an OW diver go?"...is...All the way to the bottom.

 

[jstbecauz]

60FT is what they state. Going down to 100FT is no problem if you feel comfortable, it is the rise that will get ya if you are not educated. I would imagine that is why they have the advanced class for deeper than the recommended 60FT.

 

[oly5050user]

i think it is 60 for padi, however on my first open water dives through padi i went much deeper w/ my instructor, this "rule" is seldom followed after the class. Its really what you feel comfortable doing. the recreational diving limit for all agencies is 130, usually after an advanced class. however i would only suggest breaking the 60' barrier with a buddy who was been deep before and has some experience, not a fellow open water student

recommended limit is 100' with advance and OR experience.......130' with either "deep " training OR experience..as per standards.. During ow training dives 40'..recommended limit after ow 60'..sounds like your instructor violated standards,not very professional..

 

[fisherdvm]

recommended limit is 100' with advance and OR experience.......130' with either "deep " training OR experience..as per standards.. During ow training dives 40'..recommended limit after ow 60'..sounds like your instructor violated standards,not very professional..

I think experience is more than simply "dove the dive". It is about dive planning, air management, review of decompression rules, etc.

If you spent 100 dives following an DM to 100 ft, and went out with your buddy, alone, to 100 ft in unfamiliar setting, you could get yourself in deeper trouble.

I think like others have said, in "similar condition" assuming you have done all the work required prior to the dive.

We forget, as recreational divers, we let the boat captain and DM do the dive planning for us. They get us down to 100 ft, and gradually swim to the shore before they surface.

If we imagine an OW diver, totally unfamiliar with compass and navigation, going the opposite direction, just to see how deep they can dive. Then they think they can surface with just 500 psi like their last dive with a DM?? Not OK. Then they do not have enough air for the standard 3 minute 20 ft stop... Not OK.

Depth is just a reading. Experience and dive planning is what is required to go below 60 ft (or 40 or whatever you should do).

If we don't think of navigation, air management, and dive planning when we push our depth, then the macho thing will get us.

 

[MikeFerrara]

recommended limit is 100' with advance and OR experience.......130' with either "deep " training OR experience..as per standards.. During ow training dives 40'..recommended limit after ow 60'..sounds like your instructor violated standards,not very professional..

In a PADI class the max allowable depth for dives 3 and 4 is 60 ft
The max allowable depth for dives 1 and 2 is 40 ft.

 

[jumpvideo]

A lot of things have been stated in previous responses perhaps need to be clarified.

MAx depth for a recreational air dive are absolutley a personal choice to be made by the individual diver based upon their experience, training, proficiency, skill, knowledge and equipment.

All certification agencies (CA) have training standards that specifiy depths for certain dive training activities. Most of the CA's specify the maximum depth for intitial certification dives is 60'. These means instructors don't take their students deeper than 60' during the certification dives. Many times these training standards also specify a minimum depth so you don't have instructors certifying students in the first accessible puddle they find.

For as long as I've been teaching I, and the shop I teach thru, have recommended novice recreational air divers not exceed 60' until they have gained some openwater experience. Once you have the experience 100' makes a nice reasonable max depth for recreational air scuba. We consider, along with most of the CA's, 130' to be the absolute max depth for recreational air divers.

If you are itching to go deeper than 130' get the proper training. The really nice thing about the dive industry these days is there are plenty of opportunities for specialty training that will provide the core knowledge for you to make informed personal decision about how deep you want to go.

As mentioned in previous posts, there is no scuba cop with a little stop sign sitting at any given depth telling you to turn around. Keep in mind the considerations for going deeper are not limited to air supply and bottom time. Oxygen, even in the 21% concentration we breath in air can kill you at deeper depths. 250' has been offered as a max depth for recreational air but keep in mind you hit 1.6 PO2 for oxygen at around 218'. The 1.6 PO2 is where your O2 can become toxic to you.

Learn more, get the proper training and make your own informed decision.

 

[talonraid]

The World Recreational Scuba Council (WRSTC) develops minimum TRAINING standards for most of the certifying agencies, including PADI, SSI, YSCUBA, PDIC, IDEA, etc.

http://www.wrstc.com/main.php

They state that the TRAINING dives should be carried out between 15 and 60 feet during daylight (page 3, Minimum Course Content for Open Water Scuba Certification). This is where the 60 foot LIMIT comes from and is mistakenly being quoted as the OW recreational depth limit. That is for instruction, not necessarily the post certification limit. Essentially, training or no, you could dive down to 130 feet the day after you get your C-card in 20 feet of open water.

The individual dive shop can and sometimes will tell their students a shallower depth limit in an attempt to limit liability. They can always be more restrictive. Common sense should limit us to dive to our training and capability limits.

Before you flame me, the following is a compilation of the GENERALLY accepted standards. To list each agency, the referenace, and their respective limits was too much effort for me on Sunday morning. The basic OW course of most certifying agencies teaches you to dive safely in the 0-60 foot water column, advanced teaches you to dive safely down to 100 feet. However, the OW recreational limit (whether you've been trained safely or not) is 130 feet. Or as some others like to state you can dive as deep as the bottom will allow.

Cheers.