there are a lot of members on here, who are assuming a lot of information when they make their comments.
first, correct me if i'm wrong, but i saw nothing in the quote about the divers paying the guide. i also saw nothing about ratings, certifications or experience.
so i think the significance, of rather what they did was proper or safe, comes down to the divers ratings, certifications, abilities and experience.
i have worked in a place where we dived to 180 - 220 regularly, and with single 80's. with the proper training, certifications and experience, this is not a crazy thing. i recently did a multilevel dive on the st croix wall, where we hit the 190' depth, and didn't rush up from that depth. we used deep stops on our computers, and spent a nice amount of time at each stop, on the wall. all of us were using 80's, and we were not in a rush. of course all of us are active instructors, who dive every single day, so our air conservation is really good. but, my point is, that this isn't a situation that i would think would raise this much of a reaction. padi doesn't have a problem with this, unless you are taking sport divers down, and breaking the sport diving depth of 130'. but with higher ratings and experience this isn't a big deal.
deco diving is very popular in the south pacific, but seems to be a cardinal sin in and around america. but unfortunately, the american region lags way behind the south pacific in dive technique. i'm not trying to talk smack, but that is my experience.
that being said, you should never dive deep, if you don't have a higher rating than advanced open water, don't have deep diving experience and are not with buddies with deep diving experience. there are more than a few facets to consider here.
