40m without deep specialty?

[tgsmith]

My kids completed PADI open water in 2007. CESA depth was about half of what we did in the 70's... but even my 11 year old had zero issues performing a CESA from about 30'.

I can also say from 1st hand experience that in 2007, a Horizon Divers(Key Largo, FL) PADI OW class performed a CESA drill from 50'.

Ooohhhh, the horrors.

You know what, diving is dangerous. We shouldn't put students in the water during their class, they can get hurt......

 

[Tigerman]

You would think that CESA would be one of them.

CESA was part of the ciriculum for me, dont know If they have removed it the past couple of years tho..
Its not really dangerous unless you hold your breath for it..
Of course you could do it as the LAST thing you do on a dive pushing the NDL and go up too fast just to make sure you optimize the chance to get bent tho..

 

[Nylorac]

I have been to over (below) 100m without PADI Deep Specialty and the PADI Police didn't come after me. I guess that is too deep for the PADI Police.

But I have been trained, have the experience and the equipment for those dives.

The point is, don't dive beyond your Training, Experience, Equipment, Conditions and your comfort level. Certification is just a piece of paper. The rest will keep you alive.

Thanks Ron. I have been on some wonderful deep dives in beautiful, warm water. As a PADI certified AOW diver I am not ready to attempt those limits up here in New England yet. An AOW cert does not mean you are an advanced diver - it just means you got the card. The standards differ depending on the conditions. You could not have said it better - forget about the paper. I work on diving within the limits of my experience and comfort level and then keep working towards the next step.

 

[watboy]

Out of curiousity... if something were to go wrong on this dive, would insurance cover it? I believe my dan/padi insurance is only good to 50 meters, I was looking at getting no depth limit insurance, but it stated that beyond 50 (or was it 40) it would only cover if i were breathing appropriate gases.

I do work at a fantastic resort.

We use air for the Over The Wall, which is our 185' dive. It's a follow the leader dive and the divers wait at 20ft for the DM. Once we start descending, we have 5 minutes before we have to begin ascending from 185 back to the top of the wall, which is about 70 feet.

At 185ft there is a wide sandy ledge that we have the divers sit on. There are a couple of toys for them to play with while they are narcing and once the time is up, we cruise a gorgeous section of the wall on the way back up. The total dive time is 18 minutes.

Divers have to build up dives with us before they can go over -- 90 ft, 120 or 140ft and then if they have shown that their comfort level, air consumption and susceptibility to narcosis are acceptable for the dive, we will take them -- no matter if they have a "deep" certification or not.

If you click the link in my signature that leads to Youtube, there are a couple of videos of the dive there.

 

[Granny Scuba]

How deep can you "legally" go with a basic open water certification?
Are there hard fast rules about depth corresponding to your certification?

My basic open water was only for 60', and I have rarely gone much deeper. But I know several folks who only have a basic open water certification and they consistently dive wrecks much much deeper. We have one friend that dove the Oriskany with only his basic OW. Granted he has been diving for about 10 years.

As far as the Dan Insurance question....I was told that even with only a 60' SDI cert that I would be covered on an 85' drift dive in Cozomel.

Out of curosity how deep is PADIs basic cert?

 

[Antarctic-Adventurer]

How deep can you "legally" go with a basic open water certification?
Are there hard fast rules about depth corresponding to your certification?

My basic open water was only for 60', and I have rarely gone much deeper. But I know several folks who only have a basic open water certification and they consistently dive wrecks much much deeper. We have one friend that dove the Oriskany with only his basic OW. Granted he has been diving for about 10 years.

As far as the Dan Insurance question....I was told that even with only a 60' SDI cert that I would be covered on an 85' drift dive in Cozomel.

Out of curosity how deep is PADIs basic cert?

In almost all countries there are no judicial laws requiring a person to be certified at all to dive so you can dive as deep as you wish, licence or no licence. No one is going to do anything about it. Different organisations have different recommendations as to how deep they *recommend* you dive to depending on your cert level, but it is just a recommendation. There are no "hard and fast" rules in PADI as far as I know, just their guidelines. Some diving shops will ask to see AOW on deeper dives, some do not. Hell in Asia most of the time I am never even asked for my cert card.

Out of curosity how deep is PADIs basic cert?

What course are you referring to here? If you mean the PADI Open Water Course, then the *recommended* maximum depth is 18m (60ft). Here in Japan though most people tend to follow rules to the letter and if you dive beyond what your c-card *recommends* they tend to look at you in disbelief as if you are some kind of criminal. :shocked2:

PADI recommended depths:

PADI OW 18m (60ft)
PADI AOW 30m (100ft)
PADI DEEP 40M (130FT)

For the record I am a PADI DM but I have never taken the PADI DEEP speciality. Does that mean I shouldn't dive below 30m? No.

 

[Antarctic-Adventurer]

I have been to over (below) 100m without PADI Deep Specialty and the PADI Police didn't come after me. I guess that is too deep for the PADI Police.

But I have been trained, have the experience and the equipment for those dives.

The point is, don't dive beyond your Training, Experience, Equipment, Conditions and your comfort level. Certification is just a piece of paper. The rest will keep you alive.

Just curious. What gas were you breathing on your 100m dive?

 

[divebunny13]

My DAN covers any depth; my PADI Liability only covers 140ft.

 

[watboy]

My DAN covers any depth; my PADI Liability only covers 140ft.

Maybe i should have gotten DAN america's insurance. DAN Asia pac insurance policy states

"In the event of a dive injury insurance claim for a depth beyond 50m, a Member will be required to demonstrate that he/she held an appropriate certification for the dive and was using appropriate breathing gas mixes and equipment during the covered dive or Repetitive Dive Series."

Which begs the question, a 12 liter cylinder of AIR is appropriate to what depth with regards to insurance claims.

DAN Divers Alert Network Asia-Pacific : Insurance Comparison

 

[cjibber]

For the record I am a PADI DM but I have never taken the PADI DEEP speciality. Does that mean I shouldn't dive below 30m? No.

I am in the same position i.e a DM without doing the Deep Speciality. My insurance states that I am insured to dive as long as I do not exceed the depth that I am certified to dive to. I have been told by many people that this is 40m but can not find anything that confirms this officially. Do I need to do the Deep Speciality to be able to go to 40m and still be covered by my insurance or am I already covered to 40m?