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... and that's exactly the reason why I think people should NOT go directly from OW to AOW ... especially with a lengthy period of non-diving in between. Sure it lets you go to 130' ... but it doesn't do much to prepare you for diving that deep. It's all well and good unless something goes wrong ... in which case you're ill prepared to deal with it, in which case you'll either be relying on someone else to get you to the surface safely or we'll be reading about you in the Incidents and Accidents forum.
It's the RARE individual who's mentally ... much less physically ... prepared to go to 130' on their fifth dive ever ... especially after a 10-month interval between dives 4 and 5.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Sounds like someone needs a similar bumper sticker on their scuba tank. Anyone can go below 60'- the question is will you get back up? Will your buddy? Having 'no problems with buoyancy' is only a small part of surfacing safely after a dive to significant depth. They say "ignorance is bliss"...
I agree that this is not the standard and certainly not something that anyone should do.
But in my case, I knew exactly what I was doing. I was fully aware of my physical and mental abilities as was in control of what i needed to do.
I judged the current when I was going down and was always aware of my positioning and what I should do in case of emergency.
If you survive after driving a car at 100mph does that make you 'in control' of the car? There is an oft-quoted line about diving: You don't know what you don't know... and before you've spent at least 100hrs underwater, there's simply not enough time to be "fully aware".
Jumping in without reading and merely considering the topic....
Kind if ironic, considering you were the first to reply!