Things you are (almost but not really) ashamed of doing while diving

[Scraps]

He is talking about the deep dive specialty, which allows a deeper dive than the AOW deep dive.

I am PADI, not SSI, so I don;t know their rules, but PADI does not require those precautions on the AOW deep dive.

No, it's not a standard.

However, at the local site we use for our AOW deep dives (platform at 100 feet in total darkness after the first few feet), every instructor I've seen, regardless of their agency affiliation, makes some provision for extra gas on that dive, either staging it or carrying it, because the dive can be very discomfiting to students. I'd classify having extra air on this dive as a best practice whose potential benefit I want available for my students--and a practice I never want to be in the position of having to explain why I didn't follow it.

 

[boulderjohn]

No, it's not a standard.

However, at the local site we use for our AOW deep dives (platform at 100 feet in total darkness after the first few feet), every instructor I've seen, regardless of their agency affiliation, makes some provision for extra gas on that dive, either staging it or carrying it, because the dive can be very discomfiting to students. I'd classify having extra air on this dive as a best practice whose potential benefit I want available for my students--and a practice I never want to be in the position of having to explain why I didn't employ it.

Meanwhile, I have never seen it done anywhere for the AOW deep dive.

 

[Scraps]

Meanwhile, I have never seen it done anywhere for the AOW deep dive.

Interesting. Would the darkness change your opinion?

I'm curious, because you're a contributor who has taught me a lot and whose opinion I respect and want to understand.

 

[SlugLife]

I think there might have been air staged at the safety-stop of my AOW for the deep-dive portion, however I didn't see it myself (visibility was garbage). I don't know enough to say whether that was the instructor taking initiative, or required by the agency. It might vary from one agency to the next.

If I was instructing an AOW class, I'd probably carry a pony and/or stage air at the safety stop myself regardless of whether it's required.

 

[Dody]

I think there might have been air staged at the safety-stop of my AOW for the deep-dive portion, however I didn't see it myself (visibility was garbage). I don't know enough to say whether that was the instructor taking initiative, or required by the agency. It might vary from one agency to the next.

If I was instructing an AOW class, I'd probably carry a pony and/or stage air at the safety stop myself regardless of whether it's required.

I just checked the thread that I started at my first 40 m dive (dec 23rd) and I confirm that there were cylinders at 5 meters. However, I don’t recall having seen any at my 30 m AOW training dive (dec 22nd). I might buy a pony someday. As we say in French, belt and suspenders.

 

[Blackcrusader]

He is talking about the deep dive specialty, which allows a deeper dive than the AOW deep dive. I am PADI, not SSI, so I don;t know their rules, but PADI does not require those precautions on the AOW deep dive.

My instructor did not bring a pony when we did the deep dive as part as Padi AOW. We did bring a writing tab to see if I could finish some math calculation. I did not finish it but I did signal to ascend once we got to 2 mins to NDL and that is what my instructor wanted to see, that I would pay attention to NDL and not drift deeper than 40m when trying to complete some math questions.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Well, you certainly know that you can have a 3 minutes NDL at 40 meters and that very NDL becomes 13 minutes once you go up to 25 meters, right?

Dody this is not true for all divers. It depends on their DC settings and how quickly they got to 40m depth. NDL time is not the same across all DC's. It also would depend if this was a dive on multiple dives on multiple days or the first dive on a trip. If you dove to 40m on every dive you did ( 2 - 4 dives a day ) your NDL times will not be the same.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I just checked the thread that I started at my first 40 m dive (dec 23rd) and I confirm that there were cylinders at 5 meters. However, I don’t recall having seen any at my 30 m AOW training dive (dec 22nd). I might buy a pony someday. As we say in French, belt and suspenders.

The cylinder at 5m was nowhere near you and could not be used for an emergency at depth. So although you might have a cylinder at 5m depth it's pretty useless being away from you.

 

[DeltaWardog]

This entire thread is Dody explaining away questionable choices and ignoring warnings from more experienced divers. Is it too early to prepare the A&I thread?

Dody, I urge you to take a fresh look at what people are telling you here and try to divorce your ego from the analysis. Especially after your realization that your stubbornness with your underweighting incident almost got you in a heap of trouble! People aren't telling you these practices are questionable because they want to take some trophy from you or proclaim themselves better divers. They are giving the advice because they've seen what happens all too often to other divers with your mindset. You're betting that nothing unexpected or challenging will happen to you on every 40m dive, where there is little room for error, and which you seem to consider routine. When it does eventually go sideways, it might cost you more than you want to pay.

 

[Blackcrusader]

This entire thread is Dody explaining away questionable choices and ignoring warnings from more experienced divers. Is it too early to prepare the A&I thread?

Dody, I urge you to take a fresh look at what people are telling you here and try to divorce your ego from the analysis.

What concerns me is that Dody often talks about his dive buddy which is his wife. It seems he plans dives and she follows along. We do not read Dody writing that his wife ever refused to do a dive with him. As we know Dody has already said he is her macho man and he likes to be that to her. Dody is now her DM but he does not have the experience or skills from what we can see from his posts that his certificate of DM means much. Zero to Hero comes to mind. It's great we all want to learn more.

When I plan a 40m dive I don't plan it so my dive buddy is at 30m while I dive to 40m. Buddies generally stay closer to each other. Dody you claim you don't want to be a technical diver. OK Deco is not technical diving. Maybe you could do the TDI Advanced nitrox and Deco course with your wife. Then you could both buddy each other to some of your 40m deep dives. There are plenty of things such as eagle rays and other creatures at those depths. Someone at 30m looking down to another diver at 40m won't be able to assist immediately in an emergency. I also like to do deep dives to 40m but I do that with a dive buddy who comes with me.