Adventure and Advanced diving

[nunsbythebundle]

I took the advanced diving course back in june and am a bit confused on how the certifications work. My card says advanced open water but one of the topics i chose was deep diving. Does this mean i can do a deep dive even though deep diving is under the adventure certification?

 

[spc751]

To get your PADI advanced open water (AOW) card you must do five adventure dives. Deep and navigation adventure dives are mandatory, you get to pick which adventure dives you want for the other three dives. PADI says that the AOW is good to 100 feet, if you want to go deeper you have to take a Deep Driver course. Four dives are required by PADI for the deep diver course (SSI only requires two dives with their deep driver course).

 

[nunsbythebundle]

So the aow course let me go to 100' but isnt that the limit before tec diving?

 

[drrich2]

How deep you go should be determined by your competence level and the conditions you dive under, and your comfort level, more so than by an artificial measure like a cert. level beyond OW.

The recommendations often given for the cert. levels you see are:

OW 60 feet, AOW 100 feet, Deep 130 feet, if memory serves. Maximum depths, and not always appropriate. I've dove 130 feet at Oil Slick Leap in Bonaire, warm, tropical water with great viz. & little to no current. I've dove 90 feet in our local quarry, temp.s down around 50 degrees, wet suit/hood/gloves, quite cold, decent viz. but not nearly as good. I'd put the latter dive as more advanced (assuming one allows for air consumption rate and nitrogen narcosis impact isn't substantial for the diver), though I suppose it could go either way.

The recreational depth limit recommended is 130 feet. Tec. training isn't required for that. I do recommend getting not only the Deep Diver cert. training, but work your way deeper gradually. Especially be mindful how fast you tend to go through a tank of air, and how cool/level-headed you tend to be if something goes wrong. Unexpectedly running out of air, or the 2'nd stage disconnecting from your regulator hose at 100 feet deep, could be deadly if you don't react properly.

Richard.

 

[DevonDiver]

I took the advanced diving course back in june and am a bit confused on how the certifications work. My card says advanced open water but one of the topics i chose was deep diving. Does this mean i can do a deep dive even though deep diving is under the adventure certification?

First, be aware that Advanced Open Water is not 'advanced diving'. It is an advancement of your open-water training - an 'experiential' additive that introduces you to a variety of diving activities. It does not, however, develop further diving skills beyond open water level.

Second, PADI advise (just advise..) that "newly certified Open Water divers" limit their dives to a maximum depth of 18m/60ft. AOW training is normally acknowledged to take a diver beyond the "newly certified" experience bracket. With that experience, it is possible to dive to the depth of 30m/130ft. To dive beyond 30m/100ft... to a maximum recreational diving depth of 40m/130ft, PADI advise specific Deep Diver certification. However, all depth/conditions related advise from PADI also comes with the caveat that divers should set their "own personal depth limit" based upon their training, experience and confidence, amongst other factors...

Lastly... "can you do a deep dive"? I don't know... can you? The answer has little to do with the plastic card in your wallet...and everything to do with your competency and confidence as a scuba diver...