Max. depth on Air

[showboat]

I love a great deep dive on compressed air, But I do prefer less then 100 ft so I can get more bottom time in on a good reef and to take more pictures.

The Longer I stay under, the happier I love to dive

 

[DIZZY]

I'm wondering what the DIR depth limit of air is, before you get into mix.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Solo diving opens up a whole new can of worms.

I dive once or twice a week at fairly shallow depths. I know lots have strong opinions against this practice, but I do it myself.

There are times I feel people place too much dependence on their buddy and haven't thought out what to do if they find themselves alone in an emergency. If your buddy is 50 or so feet away most likey he won't do you a lot of good anyway.

I know many tech divers go deep and go alone. But they are equipped with tons of backups. At the very least having a spare air bottle is important. My wife and I own just such a thing for our solo dives.

 

[Popeye]

DIZZY once bubbled...
What depth would you dive to on Air ? Why?

To clarify: Not as a one time depth due to utter stupidity, just what you think your comfortable with.

The limit would vary from dive to dive.

I'd do Hole-in-the-wall in Jupiter (140fsw) on air, or the Grove (147fsw), but not a dark, cold quarry.

I've been to 205 on air, and would consider some dives to 180 on air, but that doesn't mean any and every dive.

 

[Braunbehrens]

DIZZY once bubbled...
I'm wondering what the DIR depth limit of air is, before you get into mix.

Air is not DIR. I would say that for very shallow dives it's ok, but anything below 60 fsw I would take a nitrox class or rec triox.

 

[Scuba Scott]

JohnCollins once bubbled...
I dove to 148 (yeah, I know) because we were going to see three sunken Sherman battle tanks from WWII off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines for the deep dive in the AOW course. Nine minutes, and a nice longer than "needed" decompression stop for safety's sake.

HEY!

I dove those! I'll bet we both even dove it with the same guy. (You weren't supposed to say it was for AOW though).

The locals warned us not to dive those because there was electricity on them. Seems one of the local scrappers dove one with a hooka and came up jerkin & twitchin--never recovered. We told them we were experienced electricians and would be OK.

I told the instructor who was with me that I had never been narced before and he said he would show me what it was like on this dive. Didn't work--I completed every task & puzzle with no problem. I was thinking I was immune but a few months later in some cold fresh water at only 80 feet I got narced out of my mind for the first time ever. Had just enough sense to abort the dive--especially since I couldn't figure out how to read my computer or read how much air I had left. I did remember to take a good long hang at 15ft and got my senses back about me before surfacing. Guess you never know when it will hit.

BTW-- There are more tanks a little deeper if you want a real challenge. They actually are below my limit for air though.

 

[RichLockyer]

DIZZY once bubbled...
I'm wondering what the DIR depth limit of air is, before you get into mix.

Zilch.
0-100, EAN32
80-120, 30/30 trimix
100-150, 21/35 trimix
150-190, 18/45 trimix
etc...

Keep the PO2 down and keep the END no deeper than 100ft.

 

[Jonathan]

on the conditions - water temp & vis. Also depends on the buddy and equipment available.

Warm waters, with good vis - happy to go to 55m especially if there is surface fed deco, i.e. somewhere like Bikini....

Jonathan

 

[scubaman63]

I dove down to 182ft on Santa Rosa Wall and I could look up and see the surface. My previous max was 137ft and I just wanted to see the animal life at that depth. I saw a couple nurse sharks and the wall was beautiful. Anyway, I will never do that again!! I think 130ft should take care of all my needs. BTW, on my second dive, my regulator started leaking a lot of air. I am not sure if it was caused by my first dive to 182ft :wacko: but chances are it was.

 

[DIZZY]

I know safety shouldn't have a price on it, but that must get really expensive doing mix on every dive !