fins wake
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??? :11:padiscubapro:I agree they have no authority per se but the way the EU regulations are written it basically limits helium based gases strictly to commercial divers,
Not in the strict legal sense, as Jonny indicated earlier. It is however true that the British HSE regulations have inspired some other EU countries' regulations (particularly Scandinavian legislation), and thus in some way indirectly may have influenced EU legislation as a whole. European divers still follow their own national laws, however (which nowadays all are founded in common EU legislation or should be ...).padiscubapro:and the regulations that most follow are that of the HSE.
This seems a bit odd, because commercial diving is very highly regulated in the EU, much more so than recreational diving. In Britain or Sweden, for example, it is precisely the "commercial" nature of professional dive instruction that leads to its very stringent regulation. As a private diver, one is very often "allowed" to do things which a dive instructor or a commercial diver is not. For example, a private diver in Sweden does not really face any depth limits (other than self-imposed agency recommendations) but a dive instructor or commercial diver does actually have to contend with specific nationally imposed regulation specifically limiting maximum depth. This leads to some very interesting conflicts for technical instructors in Sweden, particularly those running deep air courses.padiscubapro:He personally will still be able to train since he is a commercial diver trainer, but it doesn;t help the rest of us.
I'm not quite sure what Joe is referring to in his specific example (helium mixes and EU legislation), though, so I'm not arguing against him, just wondering aloud, that's all.