Are Deep Dive and/or Wreck Dive specialties necessary?

[jadairiii]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away......you just went diving, as long as you had some kind of c-card. My first dive on the Hydro Atlantic I dont think the dive boat captain even asked for a c-card.

The short answer is no, prefaced with the idea the diver knows his/her minimum gas requirements for the dive they are doing and if they go deep enough into a wreck....you can get lost and die. There, you now have completed a wreck diver specialty course!

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away......you just went diving, as long as you had some kind of c-card. My first dive on the Hydro Atlantic I dont think the dive boat captain even asked for a c-card.

The short answer is no, prefaced with the idea the diver knows his/her minimum gas requirements for the dive they are doing and if they go deep enough into a wreck....you can get lost and die. There, you now have completed a wreck diver specialty course!

That is still the case around Europe - skippers don’t ask for cards. It’s mostly places that cater to recreational market that go after certifications - for very good reasons to be honest. It’s people’s business, they might make $50 per diver, per day - it’s not worth the hassle to deal with a random diver who waves around a solo card. If you have an accident, you cannot run the boat for days - not good if running a boat is your livelihood.

I did find the wreck speciality very useful. It wasn’t focused on actual penetration but on planning, executing dives and achieving a “job” underwater within NDL limits. Quite nice when you just don’t want to swim around.

Deep speciality - I would just do ANDP or Tec40&45. It’s mostly about liability.

 

[BoltSnap]

I wouldn’t deal with someone who would speak to me like that in the first place.

Nobody is saying that you have to. If you can find other boats that will tolerate you, good luck to you.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I wonder if there have been times in your life when the words or actions of another person, or some random event really bugged the crap out of you. Maybe you were running late for a show and your wife is trying in her 4th dress, or your teenage daughter's new boyfriend shows up at your door and he's a drug addicted jobless loser with more piercings than a pin cushion? Maybe you took a week vacation from work,flew to another state, rented a car and hotel, only to be canceled the night before you were scheduled to dive a world class shipwreck thst you booked a month earlier, because there weren't enough divers to be profitable?

How would you feel if someone said "that shouldn't have bothered you so much"

nice strawman argument. Firstly I don't have any daughters. I just took a nice 10 day vacation, flew business class, had a driver meet me at the airport and had a driver take me back to the airport and followed the instructions of the dive shop I dived with.

When I was in Bali at Padang Bai last January boat trips to see manta's were cancelled due to a lack of divers. Was low season.

I've had dives cancelled because the coast guard cancelled all water activities. Of course you can do all the solo diving deep diving on air and deco you like if you have your own boat or just do shore dives without using a dive shop.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

I'm an AOW/Nitrox/Solo certified diver with 45 years experience, 745 dives to date. I've dived in the cold dark waters of the Atlantic off my own boat, and to depths of 140 feet , and run reels during penetrations in low visibility wrecks. I carry a 2nd bottle as a redundant gas supply and routinely deploy my dsmb from depth at the end of drift dives. On my recent liveaboard in Australia I had to "try out" to prove my skills were adequate enough to solo dive. They had me go through a battery of skills tests, and ultimately gave me the ok. Towards the end of the trip the dive leader told me that many divers try out for the solo diving, often bringing tons of tech gear and they don't make the cut. I was actually one of the few over the past few years that they gave the green light to. I'm not bragging, (although the validation was nice), I'm just making the point that I'm an experienced diver.

I'd think that my credentials are sufficient for any diving within recreational limits but recently I have run into a few dive operators who question the fact that I do not have Deep Dive and Wreck Dive certifications. It has not yet prevented me from doing any dive in particular but it seems to be a trend lately. Those 2 dive operators were in Australia and Thailand.

As I am now retired and living in Europe I'm expanding into other areas on the other side of the world and I'm wondering if this is going to be an issue.

Not really looking to spend the time and the money on two specialties that are not going to teach me anything I don't already know, just to be certain I won't be prohibited from diving a deep wreck because of an overly restrictive dive operator.

In your experience, have you run into this issue, does it seem to be happening more often, and if so, where and with which dive operator? Did it prompt you to get one or both of those specialties?

I am both deep and wreck dive certified.

During the deep certification course I got some level of narcosis. What surprised me was that I didn't realize I was narked. Only the testing performed during the deep class showed my narcosis. That class made me aware of this fact so for me that class was well worth it.

 

[LI-er]

I am both deep and wreck dive certified.

During the deep certification course I got some level of narcosis. What surprised me was that I didn't realize I was narked. Only the testing performed during the deep class showed my narcosis. That class made me aware of this fact so for me that class was well worth it.

You get that experience in the PADI AOW Deep Diver subspecialty. At least if the instructor is legit. You may recall you do a math problem at depth and then again at the surface to see that it's much easier when your brain isn't fogged by narcosis.

That by itself isn't enough to justify the Deep Diver Specialty Course. In fact I don't think anything justifies it, especially at my level of experience but your mileage may vary.

---

---

A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

The personal insults are insulting to everyone participating or reading this thread. Please try to limit the insults and lets have a civil discussion.

---

 

[BoltSnap]

OK, we have had enough. Ceasefire now, please.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Required on boats in my part of Australia where the entire bottom lies in the in the 30m - 40m range.

Queensland? But what about people who just rent tanks and do shore dives or own their own boats?

 

[LI-er]

Queensland? But what about people who just rent tanks and do shore dives or own their own boats?

I just spent 3 weeks in Australia and I can tell you from personal experience and speaking with numerous dive operators that Australia has very restrictive laws about scuba diving.

I don't know about that particular law, but if what that member wrote is correct then just because you "can" get your own boat and/or shore dive, and go as deep as you want on an OW certification, and break the law because no one is looking, it doesn't make it legal.

 

[scubadada]

@LI-er and @BoltSnap

You both sling them pretty well, stop. This as a participant in the thread, as I cannot moderate a thread I am in.