Ana
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Yesterday after reading this thread,
I'm glad you opened this new thread. I read most of the posts on the thread you're referring to. Every other post made me wonder what's happened to the people in ScubaBoard. And to be fair it wasn't just this thread with the 108', anything written here that involves crossing the magical 60 foot line unless you have 10 tons of gear with redundancy to absolutely everything, makes you believe the dragons are gonna get you.
Most of the responses could be narrowed to:
"I did it 20-30-40 years ago, but I know better now"
Seriously? You know better now?
Ooor Is it that you were in your 20's or 30's back then, and now your old behind is not up to the challenge, because you're hedging your bets?
I'm not advocating to learn to dive today and tomorrow go 150' on a couple of spare-airs . But do not impose your way in other's either. Specially when your way says that it is unsafe to do what people normally do round the world thousand of times before lunchtime without a problem. Oh and that is no problem to the average vacation diver, not the average SB diver... spare me the survival bias, normalization of whatever and all that jazz. Taking a shower is dangerous, driving I-95 in South Florida is not exactly safe, cutting vegetables with dull knives may lead to blood events. Living is risky and will surely end in death.
Even with the nitrox mixes people are getting carried away. What happened to 99' MOD for 40% ? That's what I followed when I started, not just me but all the people around me did the same. You went out for a 2 tank trip and the mixes were 36 and 40. The dives were 1st around 110' 120' 130 and 2nd to 40-60' none of them were exactly to X' on the 60' reef sometimes you saw something off to the sand and you may end up in 70 for a bit, or whatever, was well within the 99' limit for the 40%. I didn't stay at the edge back then (at least not regularly) and that's pretty much the way I will continue.
Don't waste time calling me reckless because you "feel" it is safer to keep 40% shallower. I have adjusted my diving to match my aging process and my laziness levels but the level of safety remains pretty much the same. What is reasonable for me today is not the same as for my son in his 30's, but not because I'm safer than him, he's stronger and more motivated. Just because I've already been there doesn't make it unsafe for others.
It gets old to read how much you guys did back in the day but not today... Oh no, now you take enough gas to circumvent the planet in order to go to 61' solo. You guys take the kitchen sink but of course no knife, only an overpriced envelope opener of some sort.
Do your dive as safe as you want, but don't justify your ways by calling other divers not-safe or reckless, just because they handle risk differently.
Ok I'll stand down from my soap box.