Aluminum 80s versus larger steel tanks

[Midge907]

"The name Midge is of Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Persian origins and means 'child of light', pearl', 'jewel' or 'who is like God' irrespectively. This name is a pet form of the name Margaret. And is also the name of a type of gnat."

Hum, I didn't know that, now I think I need to go change my last name. LOL. Last name is Midgley, have been called Midge from my old friends from child hood for a long time. I think Ill go with "Gnat" for $1000 Alex!!!

 

[Mike]

Why when you say it does it seem less insulting to everyone? And less argumentative too. Reasonable even.

Glad to see you've finally come around, 12 days, 10 pages, and 20 slung insults later. Welcome aboard reality again.

 

[boulderjohn]

So really I am that good? And those others are fabulous? I never knew we were THAT good. Those numbers just seem low?

On this thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/65982-sac-rate-what-normal.html almost 45% report better than .5 SAC, so it makes me wonder. Are half the people in the basic scuba board discussion liars or expert divers? Seems unlikely.

Of course if I am wrong, where can I get my expert patch for the old BC?

When determining what is considered to be average, expert, etc., a poll on ScubaBoard is not exactly the best source of information. A similar poll will indicate that 50% of all divers wear back plates and wings. Furthermore, you are citing a thread that can only be responded to by people who have measured their SAC rates. The majority of divers probably don't even know what SAC rate means let alone know what their actual rate is. I would expect that the overwhelming majority of divers who have actually measured their SAC rates to be at the expert level--I am frankly shocked that those results are so low.

Measuring SAC rates is something I do with all AOW students, all deep dive students, and all students in a couple of Distinctive Specialties I teach. I find that with not too much coaching, it is not all that hard to get a full sized adult male to the 0.5 range. I would fully expect someone who dives as much as you do to be in that area. It is much harder, though, to get much lower than that.

Some divers are significantly worse than that. I once had an AOW student measure at well over 1.5, and he did not improve all that much with the limits of the time I had to coach him. I told him that if there was anything he learned from the course, it was that he should not be doing deep dives without a whole lot of gas. Another student I had was an exceedingling fit adult male with an expert SAC rate when we did dives above 100 feet. When we did a dive to 130 feet in very dark conditions, though, he leaped to well over 1.0 because he suddenly got anxious about the depth and darkness.

Some people are good right away, with very little coaching. I certified two old friends earlier this year, and later did their AOW and dived with them in Australia a couple of weeks ago. The husband was not far from 0.5 when he did his OW dives, and the wife (who is fit and petite) was well below 0.5 from her first OW dive on.

My own rate varies. I am a big guy with pretty a pretty decent rate, but lots of people my size do much better. When I dive the Yucatan caves, meaning I have to swim continually while wearing a wet suit and double AL 80s, I am at about 0.55, which is pretty good but nothing to brag about. When I dive Florida caves while wearing a dry suit and heavy steel doubles, I jump over 0.7. Again, that is nothing to brag about at all--very experienced cave divers do much better than that.

 

[Mike]

SAC rates certainly can be deceiving. A friend of mine who is well over 400 lbs, is amazing on air. You'd think if you judged him by looks that he would be a hoover, however I believe his low SAC rate has something to do that he grew up as a kid in Grand Cayman and his father ran a dive operation there, so he's been diving since he was 8 or 9 years old, under what PADI now has as a minimum age limit, and the guy is basically a fish. Quite the eye-opener the first time I went diving with him and we were doing air checks under water! I kept looking at him with raised eye-brows and he just smiled and shook his head in acknowledgement like "Yep, believe it."

 

[mikeycanuk]

This is all too stupid.

ScubaBoard is not exactly the best source of information.

About sums up another Coz thread eh?

 

[cvchief]

Glad to see you've finally come around, 12 days, 10 pages, and 20 slung insults later. Welcome aboard reality again.

And on cue, my point is proven. Thanks for playing. Tip your waitress, I will be here all week.

 

[nimoh]

It's OK. A true Canadian would be too polite to point that out.

I am Canadian (says so on my passport)...and I did point that out

 

[cvchief]

When determining what is considered to be average, expert, etc., a poll on ScubaBoard is not exactly the best source of information. A similar poll will indicate that 50% of all divers wear back plates and wings. Furthermore, you are citing a thread that can only be responded to by people who have measured their SAC rates. The majority of divers probably don't even know what SAC rate means let alone know what their actual rate is. I would expect that the overwhelming majority of divers who have actually measured their SAC rates to be at the expert level--I am frankly shocked that those results are so low.

Well, it is a poll in basic scuba; it's better than a blanket statement absent support. *cough*mike*cough* Still though, if not indicative of the general population, it still shows nearly half of the respondents are in what you refer to as better than expert. Isn't it reasonable to question the .5 SAC as being a 'expert' level? I might even argue people taking about air usage are often hoovers. Heck I was WAY more concerned about air usage until I sort of magically got better.

When I dive the Yucatan caves, meaning I have to swim continually while wearing a wet suit and double AL 80s, I am at about 0.55, which is pretty good but nothing to brag about. When I dive Florida caves while wearing a dry suit and heavy steel doubles, I jump over 0.7. Again, that is nothing to brag about at all--very experienced cave divers do much better than that.

Well and there is another factor: What about drift diving? Do you figure drift divers on the whole have a better than average SAC as the ocean does alot of the swimming for you?

---------- Post added May 13th, 2014 at 02:52 PM ----------

I am Canadian (says so on my passport)...and I did point that out

Ah, French Canadian?

 

[Ron Lee]

Ah, French Canadian?

So after discussing comparative SAC rates during the beach surface interval (everyone does that don't they), a male should not say to a female from Quebec "Voulez vous.................eh?"

 

[nimoh]

Ah, French Canadian?

Non, je suis de Winnipeg (mais pas de Saint-Boniface)