100 feet below

[wombat201]

I'd echo what other posters have said. For me, the big thing would be to minimise the number of things that are new to you at any one time, and thus your task loading. You'd expect this not to be too much of a problem in a class setting, but my 1st deep dive (as part of my AOW) also happened to be my 3rd ever drysuit dive in an ill-fitting rental suit, in a lake I'd never dove before, with the worst conditions I'd ever been in at the time (5 - 10ft vis), at altitude, and me trying to deal with using a light for the 1st time. Any one (or ever 2) of these things wouldn't have been such a big deal, but all at once wasn't a great idea, and the end result was not comfortable or pretty! I've since dove the same site many times with a very patient buddy who took me back in small steps, and now feel at ease there and love it. It wasn't the depth in particular that made me lose it - it was too any new things at once!

Take it slowly, and take the time to let yourself get used to and comfortable with any new pieces of equipment, and any kind of different conditions. And enjoy yourself!

 

[ShakaZulu]

Measure the circumference of your head before the dive, and again after, it will be at least 1inch smaller due to the pressure.......

 

[DaFishy]

lol i'm scared of deep water i will never dive at 100f.t because so many thing's can go wrong with just 1 mess up

 

[Mako Mark]

100 ft feels like ten ft,...... wet. that is the only difference.

You will descend faster as you go deeper and ascend faster as you come up. Keep a good eye on your bouyancy control.

Be eagle eyed on your SPG and time, and cross check with your buddy. Two brains are better than one.

Go down, do what you have to do and get out of there.

To counter the effects of narcosis, do everything at half the speed you normally do, especially things like checking your time, depth and air supply, make sure you are registering the information, not just looking at it.

Listen very carefully to your breathing rate. It tells you a lot about how things are going.

sit down with your buddy beforehand and visualise the entire dive in real time. It sounds a little silly, but it works.

If in any doubt that there is something wrong, check everything, then if you still have the spooks, call the dive and head for home.

Anyone can call the dive at anytime for any reason and getting the spooks is a good enough reason. (it sould be that you have unconciously noticed something wrong, but havent conciously pinned down exactly what it is), and you can always blame your ears, no one will ever know.

Relax and enjoy.

 

[BigTuna]

I haven't read all the replies, but I'd add this to the "watch your gas" advice. It is to do your own gas planning calculations before your dive, then stick to the plan. Especially important is knowing what your minimum gas requirement is for starting an ascent (hint: it's greater than 500 psi). And don't forget to account for a safety stop.

If you don't know how, I'd take that as a sign to learn before you do much more diving. Ask an instructor or a tech friend how. You can also look up "rock bottom" discussions on the board and teach yourself.

Another suggestion is to get a deep diving specialty book from your LDS and read and absorb it, then discuss it with somebody. Indeed, why not go for a "Deep" specialty?

Finally, ask a more experienced diver to be your coach and buddy as you go deeper. S/he could give you a narc test besides helping to make sure you dive your plan.

Be safe!

 

[Melicertes]

lol i'm scared of deep water i will never dive at 100f.t because so many thing's can go wrong with just 1 mess up

So many things can go wrong with just one mess up on shallower dives too.

 

[Melicertes]

To counter the effects of narcosis, do everything at half the speed you normally do, especially things like checking your time, depth and air supply, make sure you are registering the information, not just looking at it.

Are you refering to managing the effects of narcosis once it's been identified by a diver or preventing to onset of narcosis by slowing down and focussing on simple tasks?

 

[lifeisfullofgooddives]

Just have fun & remember that confidence comes once you practice it over and over again...

personally I didn't become super confident with that depth until my 5 or 6th deep dive...as well as when I met my current dive buddy, My confidence in his skills as well as our teamwork together allow me to have more fun on the deep dives....I won't dive that deep with anyone I haven't dove with before...

just trust you intsrtuctor and your training....

oh and check the spg alot....and breathe nice and slow!

 

[SwimJim]

Okay, I'll bite. Plan your dive, dive your plan. Gas consumption, bouyancy, they are as important whether your going down fifty feet or one hundred. You'll have to pay more attention to your time spent at depth. Unless you are an air hog, at one hundred feet you'll time out before you run out of air. Don't bother diving deep unless there is a reason to do it. If your tooling around in a quarry one ledge looks like another. One the other hand, if your diving off of Sheboygan Wisconsin and you want to see the schooner Hetty Taylor, your going to have to plan on spending some time at one hundred feet. If my rusty memory serves me correct, you'll have about ten minutes and then its time to head for your saftey stop. Most divers finish with bettween 1000 to 1200 psi in an AL80. Plenty of gas. This ain't Coz. Bottom temp year round doesen't usually get above the low forties. Viz is anywhere bettween 15 and 150 feet depending on conditions.
I see you have about twenty dives in. I'll tell you the real secret to better diving. Okay, are you ready??? Dive as much as you can. Experience is the best teacher bar none. This is coming from a guy who has been diving for almost thirty years and gets about 60 - 70 dives in a season. There will come a point if you keep diving that you will do things automaticly. If your good you will always plan, you will always learn, you will always have good situational awareness. Slowly but surely you will begin to dive and you will become one with your environment. So have fun with it. Do it at YOUR pace and keep on Divin'

Jim

 

[shoupart]

Not sure if anybody's mentioned this already, but I didn't see it in my cursory glance, but I'd add this: Stay Warm!

I don't know where you're diving, but here in California, I get pretty narced around 100, and even faster when I'm cold, which is often around here. I noticed one thing that reduced my narc'ing was, when about to do a deep dive to a cold wreck, I doubled up on wetsuits and wore a 3mil under my usual 7mil. It made a world of difference- I stayed warmer, clearer headed, and felt much more in control and comfortable during the dive.