Three dives in one day against the rules?

[mislav]

So, outside of my usual diving habits I have joined a local diving club. They're all CMAS divers and their belief in CMAS almighty puts any DIR cult talk to shame. They despise anything PADI, and lo and behold - I am carrying a PADI badge.

Anyway, this weekend I went diving with these guys. We made one dive to 22 meters (72 ft) in the morning and made plans for the second dive to split the groups into less & more experienced ones. Less experienced divers were supposed to dive the afternoon dive (18 meters - 59 ft) and us, more experienced were to go for a night dive that evening (11 meters - 36 ft). All dives were to last for about 35-40 minutes.

At that moment I said: "Hey, I'll join you guys in the afternoon AND do my night dive later "

They replied: "CMAS and our club strictly forbids to go for three dives in one day!"

To cut the long story short, I did have it my way in the end, made three dives in one day (as I've done on several occasions before, to much bigger depths too) and survived to tell the story. But, I've never heard of this rule before ever! Need I say it makes no sense to me that such a rule would exist anyway? Does it exist? In CMAS? Anywhere else? Anyone heard of it?

 

[Blackwood]

That's ridiculous. There can be no hard-and-fast rule as to how many dives one may safely complete in a given time period.

 

[GrandpaScuba]

I recommend finding a different club.

They have the right to make whatever rules their club wants. Though I believe that their rules are bourne out of an extream averstion to liability. So, find a club that has divers that think like you do.

As far as that being a CMAS rule, it's possible. But I wonder if they are misinterpreting the rule book. I'm an SSI instructor. Our standards restrict us to, no more than, 3 training dives in a day. But once a student is certified it's up to the now-certified-diver as to how many dives they want to make any day. They've been trained, they can make their own decisions.

 

[NSDiver]

Egh... never heard of that rule before. Of course, I'm probably less experienced than you, but it doesn't really seem to make sense. Depending on the depth and length of the dives (and the quality of off-gassing during the dive), I see no reason why someone couldn't make three or more dives in a day.

-Nick

 

[Walter]

I agree, one should never make 3 dives in one day, there should always be a minimum of 4.

 

[almitywife]

almity1 just rang me from the philipines.... yesterday was 4 dives and he lives

3 dives should be a breeze for you

cheers

 

[GatorKev]

As long as you have proper surface time it shouldn't really matter...

 

[xiSkiGuy]

Hmmm. I wonder what these CMAS types do if they vacation in Bonaire or Roatan?

 

[ReefHound]

Tell them to go pound water.

 

[mislav]

LOL, thanks guys. I'd still like to hear from someone who is a CMAS instructor whether such a rule really exists.

I'm an SSI instructor. Our standards restrict us to, no more than, 3 training dives in a day. But once a student is certified it's up to the now-certified-diver as to how many dives they want to make any day.

Do SSI standards restrict instructor or a student to no more than 3 dives a day?

I can see some logic in both - a student shouldn't have three classes in one day in order to remember something from his training, and an instructor probably doesn't want DCS from doing too many CESA drills in one day...