What's this 60' foot depth limit for an OW certified diver I keep hearing about? Hell, I've dove to over 120 feet with Florida operators on wreck dives and dives on Cozumel with no problems and that's what my C-card says. I thought that the OW depth limit was 130 feet.
60 feet
- Thread starter Garrobo
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1_T_Submariner
Contributor
That is what they taught in my OW course. Maybe it is an agency thing. My course was padi.
Shawley
Contributor
130 ft is your rec diving limits. 60 ft is what your certified to
It varies by agency but "deep" diving below 60 ft is either a specialty course or part of an AOW certification. Some agencys have discreet AOW courses, while others use an accumulation of dive experience and specialty courses to determine your AOW status.
That said many divers get there via an experiential route and may or may not ever get around to getting an official AOW cert. After over a decade of diving, and about 750 logged dives, I had to get the card to move on to more advanced training. Not surprisingly I learned absolutely nothing in the process.
That said many divers get there via an experiential route and may or may not ever get around to getting an official AOW cert. After over a decade of diving, and about 750 logged dives, I had to get the card to move on to more advanced training. Not surprisingly I learned absolutely nothing in the process.
Barracuda2
Contributor
Ditto--I got my AOW only because "they" are and will continue to close out certain dive sites to those without one; probably because of insurance reasons.
Spectrum, about the cold Ohio quarries and 60'---you got that right!
bythesea
Contributor
It's quite simple, actually. Once you're past 60', you're past the grim reaper sign, and you're leaving the cavern zone for the cave zone, and new OW divers *definitely* don't belong in the cave zone. Oh, wait... that was Vortex Spring in Florida.
Okay, then. Once you're past 60', you've gone through the mouth of the funnel into the lower cavern room, where you shouldn't be without at least a little experience and perhaps some post-OW gear choices. Hmm... I guess that was just at Morrison Spring in Florida.
Well, let's see... In order to pass about 60' or so, you have to have a shovel, and digging the hole will seriously impact the visibility (not to mention your air consumption). At least, that's how it is on Stage II off Panama City Beach, Florida.
Er... um... okay, how about this: At 60' or shallower, most OW divers will run low on air in their AL80s well before they hit any NDL, so they can be inattentive, lazy, and apathetic and still stand a decent chance of not being seriously injured or killed. Of course, if they do a second dive, that assumption's out the window, so perhaps we should tell them they can only make one dive a day, too, unless they're with a DM or higher. :biggrin:
Seriously, though, it's a decent *recommendation* (at least according to the agency with which I was certified) to stay shallower until you're more experienced, but just what "shallower" and "experienced" mean... I wouldn't want to take someone to 100' if I didn't *know* they had developed firm control over their flight response, but at the same time, it doesn't bother me in the least to take an OW diver to 72' at the bottom of a bridge span (although I'll certainly watch them more intently than my NAUI MSD buddy).
It makes sense not to go deeper until you've learned and practiced the skills required to safely expand your envelope, but I know AOW divers who lend no thought to gas planning (except for some "ascend at X psi" number that may or may not be valid). I also know OW divers who drew up rock-bottom tables and could follow them better than most DMs I've met.
Okay, then. Once you're past 60', you've gone through the mouth of the funnel into the lower cavern room, where you shouldn't be without at least a little experience and perhaps some post-OW gear choices. Hmm... I guess that was just at Morrison Spring in Florida.
Well, let's see... In order to pass about 60' or so, you have to have a shovel, and digging the hole will seriously impact the visibility (not to mention your air consumption). At least, that's how it is on Stage II off Panama City Beach, Florida.
Er... um... okay, how about this: At 60' or shallower, most OW divers will run low on air in their AL80s well before they hit any NDL, so they can be inattentive, lazy, and apathetic and still stand a decent chance of not being seriously injured or killed. Of course, if they do a second dive, that assumption's out the window, so perhaps we should tell them they can only make one dive a day, too, unless they're with a DM or higher. :biggrin:
Seriously, though, it's a decent *recommendation* (at least according to the agency with which I was certified) to stay shallower until you're more experienced, but just what "shallower" and "experienced" mean... I wouldn't want to take someone to 100' if I didn't *know* they had developed firm control over their flight response, but at the same time, it doesn't bother me in the least to take an OW diver to 72' at the bottom of a bridge span (although I'll certainly watch them more intently than my NAUI MSD buddy).
It makes sense not to go deeper until you've learned and practiced the skills required to safely expand your envelope, but I know AOW divers who lend no thought to gas planning (except for some "ascend at X psi" number that may or may not be valid). I also know OW divers who drew up rock-bottom tables and could follow them better than most DMs I've met.
So by the same logic your car beginner drivers license lets you jump into an 18 wheeler flatbed with 120,000 pounds of concrete on the back and you can hit the road during peak rush hour in a blizzard...
Your OW qualification says you have a grasp of the basic SCUBA skills and theory. If you want to push past the limits of that training then that is your choice. If you don't want to be mindful of your own safety then how about thinking about the Rescue or higher qualified divers who will eventually put themselves in harms way to help you out when the odds finally catch up and you do have problems.
At the very least, do me a favor and tow an SMB on the surface to aid in body recovery.
LarryHinDC
Contributor
I got certified in college about 20 years ago (PADI OW). Within the first 3 dives post-cert I was doing a wreck dive at 100 fsw with the DM that trained me. I don't recall anything special as far as training, etc., for that dive, but then again it was 20 years ago, so I guess the thinking has changed since then. Safety is a good thing.
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