100' before aow... how and why?

[LakeCountyDiver]

I dove to 84 feet on my 2nd OW checkout dive because my instructor thought I was fine in the water and did not see me as a problem. I never did got to 100ft till my AOW class thou. Since then I may have gone deeper then 130ft by 10-11 feet but who knows for sure.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I dive on Oahu regularly, especially the Sea Tiger, and have yet to see a DM decline to let an OW Cert dive a deep dive. They just tell them to "stay with me.". Makes it hard for newer divers to take the standards seriously. I'm not just referring to one operator either. I've dove with half a dozen or more operators and as far as that goes, they seem to operate the same.

I worked as an Oahu guide for ~4 years, and I know of very few Oahu guides who are not instructors. What's so different in going to 100' guided by an instructor and going to 100' in an AOW course?

I am one of those recreational instructor/guides who's job often includes guiding OW certified divers on 100' deep recreational wreck dives.

In contrast, when I was 10 years old, more than 20 years before I became a certified diver, my dad took me down to 100 ffw to see a sunken dugout canoe in a northern Idaho lake; with me wearing this gear.....

​

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Dive #14 for me was in Molokini crater. Peter and I had our own "DM" (who was actually an instructor, and we were sort of doing a "boat diving" specialty class). He briefed that we would go down to 130 feet and look at some sharks and some garden eels, and work our way back up. I saw nothing wrong with this, since it was a plan advanced by an instructor, who knew my certification level and diving history. Having spent my first nine dives in OW and AOW, I was rather in the habit of doing things I hadn't done before because an instructor told me to do them

You wouldn't be exaggerating just a little, to make a stronger negative point about instructor guided deep diving, would you? Your dive journal, which was composed very shortly after that dive, does not tell the story that way.

Anyway, they assigned me and Peter an instructor (because we were officially doing the "boat dive" specialty course for PADI) and off we went into the water. It was 81 degrees and absolutely clear. From the deepest part of our dive, at 120 feet, you could see the boat on the surface.

And Molokini is, of course, like diving in an aquarium. Hundreds and hundreds of fish of all sizes and shapes. Early on, we saw two white-tipped sharks cruising, a small one and a medium sized one. We saw several morays (I love the juveniles with their black and white speckles) and Peter worked at taking pictures of them. The instructor quickly figured out that we were okay, and took us down to see the garden eels, which are apparently unique to Molokini, and we found them at 120 feet, which is the deepest I have been and I was surprised to realize we were down that far.

 

[Insta-Gator]

You wouldn't be exaggerating just a little, to make a stronger negative point about instructor guided deep diving, would you?

, Never put anything in writing (where others can read it.)

 

[waterpirate]

I guess you're the counter example for the saying "there are old divers, and bold divers, but no old bold divers".

To be lost at 110' on dive #5 and not feel like you got in over your head suggests to me that you must have many stories that would make others terrified.

Osric

Old and bold should not be confused with old and well trained and confident. I like the flying analogy "you start with a bag full of luck, the trick is to get a bagfull of experiance/training prior to your luck bag running out".
Eric

 

[Walter]

I'd value your experiences on this, if you can remember those dives.

I'm not senile yet. I exceeded 60 feet on 17 dives before AOW. All were planned depths, some along a wall, others were to the reef/wreck.

 

[Soggy_Diver]

I was a newly certified diver, with a DM, another rookie, and an "experienced" diver. We were diving on a sloping reef that led down to a wall. The deepest point on the dive was supposed to be 85 feet (the bottom of the slope), then we would ascend up the slope to about 40 feet and continue the dive.

When we got to 85 feet, we saw two eagle rays out past the wall. They were well below us, maybe at 125 feet. The DM signalled to follow them, but maintain our depth. Suddenly, the "experienced" diver went over the wall and straight down. The DM used a shaker to get his attention, but the guy kept swimming downward. The DM chased him down, grabbed his tank valve, swung him around, and wagged a "naughty diver" finger in his face. I would guess at about 140 feet. They started to slowly ascend.

The other rookie and I looked at our gauges, and we were at 100 feet. While we were watching the drama, we had drifted downward, without realizing it. All of us slowly ascended up the slope to about 30 feet and continued the dive. On the safety stop, the "experienced" diver suddenly signalled "out of air." The DM shared air with him and completed the safety stop.

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

You wouldn't be exaggerating just a little, to make a stronger negative point about instructor guided deep diving, would you? Your dive journal, which was composed very shortly after that dive, does not tell the story that way.

Is this what you want to use ScubaBoard for??? Just calling EVERYBODY out on anything they say that is not what you like or think is true??? I never see you post any helpful info without first cutting someone down or calling them on something they wrote. It has gotten real old and I am sick of seeing it. Why the Mods put up with this IDK.

If you see a post it is OK to just post an opinion on the topic and not cyber-attack someone. You are the only one I see do this..... :mooner:

 

[raoulsttexas]

my wife and i did a referral down in cozumel for our ow certs. we did our 4 checkout dives and the next day were out on the boat with everyone else. we happened to be on a vacation with my dive buddy/mentor who has 1,000's of dives.

on dive #1 as a cert'd diver we did palanchar caves and hit 107'.

i would have objected or at least slowed things down if my buddy had not been there. i trusted him more than any dm. since then he's taught me an amazing amount about diving and has turned me into a pretty ok diver.

our instructor for the referral was on that first dive with us, so at least he had seen our diving and knew our skill level.....but that couldn't have been too great at the time.

of course, this isn't optimal and directly breaks the rules, but it also immediately got rid of any anxiety for deep. that is NOT to say i don't have respect for deep diving. I'm since then cert'd AOW and have no problems with depth, and i understand it much better now.

it seems to me that many places, cozumel, caymans etc, have a lot of sites that are around 100' to see everything. i've never seen much hesitation from dive ops going to these depths despite cert level. They'll watch you during that first dive and then kinda "set you free". my wife (who is a very solid diver) is only OW and she has hit 100' in warm water about as many times as i have.

 

[fjpatrum]

I guess by this standard, I have broken my training, but I have not yet exceeded 100'. I plan to break my training, because I honestly don't ever see myself taking an AOW course and I'm sure I'll hit 100' at some point though I doubt I'll bother with anything deeper than that. I'm in no hurry, but it's realistic to believe it will happen eventually.

I have been to 75 fsw as my second dive after OW, though. I was comfortable, I was with a DM and we "planned" the dive as a group "follow me" dive. We were told we'd hit approximately that depth but wouldn't exceed it.

I suspect the only class I will ever take after this is Rescue Diver, though I suppose a Nitrox class may be down the line as a way to be less tired after a dive (according to what I've heard anecdotally) but I have no real interest in mixed gasses.

For reference, I didn't actually vote in the poll because I haven't exceeded 100 feet.