Backing off from technical diving

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm heading out tomorrow at 5 am from my house to go dive the Gorgonian Coral in the Agamemnon Channel. I understood Gorgonian Coral was pretty unique to our waters...

Carrying:

• Double LP108's with 21/35
• 1 Al80 with 50%
• 1 Al40 with 100%
• 1 Al80 with 32% (for a second dive on Captain's Island)
• 1 Al13 with air for suit inflation

Have fun ... Agammemnon Wall is awesome! Better known for the gigantic cloud sponges than the gorgonians, although Kal tells me they're there. I've only been down to about 120 on the wall ... not deep enough to see the gorgonians. Mine were seen on the other side of the island, at Mozino Point (Nootka Sound) ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added August 16th, 2013 at 01:48 PM ----------

I'm finding it ironic and humorous that you love cave diving so much that you wouldn't classify it as tech diving, yet cave diving is definitely tech!

Cave diving in Mexico is mostly shallow ... and although it's overhead diving it doesn't require deco bottles. In fact, it usually only requires a couple oversize beer cans with air in 'em ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[shoredivr]

Yeah, some Mexican caves are shallow, some are deep (Zacaton), it's just the image of being so comfortable and happy in a (shallow) cave in Mexico that it ceases to be entering the realm of tech diving in one's head...Lol

 

[AfterDark]

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend yesterday. He was telling me about a recent trip he did, where he did a bunch of wreck diving, all at technical depths. He had had the interesting insight that the diving, although it was actually quite good, just didn't light his fire, especially not enough to justify the horrendous cost of the gases to do it.

I told him I really haven't had the urge to do any tech diving for the last year or so. The things I love most just don't require it, and the sites we have where there is interesting critter finding to do at depth are boat dives, that I don't get to very often.

Both of us agreed that we will probably not do much tech diving in the future, and both of us are considering selling some gear.

I wondered how many other people are out there who got the training, did some dives, and decided it just wasn't worth the effort or the expense.

(BTW, I will keep a set of doubles and a deco bottle, just in case, and also because I need to stay current on skills for cave diving, which I emphatically intend to continue to do!)

From my perspective here in the NE the best and most things to see and be able to be seen w ambient light are above 80FSW. Below that on the brightest sunny day and the best vis a light is needed because it is dark. So here we have a handful of wrecks in the tech range including the Doria. Some have spend the money to take the training just to do the Doria. The abundance of wrecks here are, above, at or 5-10' below 130FSW. So unless someone has the money to "blow" to dive the deeper wrecks and just wants to do it where is the incentive? With Deco certification longer stays on the shallow wrecks is something to be considered. Not all tech diving is depth related duration also gets into tech range.
These days I'm happy to dive in the sunny littorals at least around here. However, I try not to refuse an invite when friends take their private boats out to the U853 or one of the other wrecks on the 130 edge! This season I've already missed several opportunities to dive the sub, in fact one is going out this AM! Can't dive until my arm in healed and rehabbed I'm going snorkeling with my wife today, and I will enjoy it!

 

[johnnyblackau]

question - is it unreasonable to sit on the edges of technical diving, by this i mean diving depths 25 - 40m on air/ nitrox yet still exceed the NDL? In Brisbane we have no easily accessible caves, wrecks that are at any depth more than 40m and helium like most places isn't the cheapest commodity. I seem to cop a bit of stick from my usual dive buddies saying that by wanting to stay down at those depths longer i'm wasting my time and tech is too full on. Thoughts? I'm happy to look into the TDI Adv. nitrox / Deco proceedures and leave it at that. further thoughts?

 

[Quero]

What you're proposing is indeed reasonable, IMO. This is still technical diving given that planning decompression dives and the resultant stops, whether you use higher nitrox blends or not, is beyond the range of what is covered in any recreational diving course. When you do those TDI courses, you may be told that this is "intro" to technical diving or some such, but you still need the meticulous mindset and careful planning and execution of any technical dive. It doesn't have to be a "big" dive to be a technical dive.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

question - is it unreasonable to sit on the edges of technical diving, by this i mean diving depths 25 - 40m on air/ nitrox yet still exceed the NDL? In Brisbane we have no easily accessible caves, wrecks that are at any depth more than 40m and helium like most places isn't the cheapest commodity. I seem to cop a bit of stick from my usual dive buddies saying that by wanting to stay down at those depths longer i'm wasting my time and tech is too full on. Thoughts? I'm happy to look into the TDI Adv. nitrox / Deco proceedures and leave it at that. further thoughts?

Absolutely reasonable ... it's how I do most of my planned deco diving these days. I won't go below recreational depths ... but I might stay at 25-30 meters for an hour or more, then ascend gradually up a slope, doing my "deco stops" by swimming at specific shallower depths poking my head into nooks and crannies to see who's home. If you're going to dive this way, make sure you're carrying adequate gas to honor whatever deco obligation you accrue ... and I'd absolutely recommend some sort of redundancy, since you no longer have the option of a direct ascent to the surface should something unexpected happen ... I prefer doing these dives using two 100 cf cylinders in a sidemount configuration. Depending on the dive, I might also take a 40 cf bottle of oxygen with me to breathe above 6 meters. If you're going to do that however, the Advanced Nitrox/Deco class is a really good idea ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[manni-yunk]

Im in the opposite position from most of the people in this thread. I said for a few years that I had no desire to do any tech diving - then I did a few dives and was amazed at what we had available at deeper depths in NJ. I went and got a significant amount of additional training - and now I daydream about some of our wrecks. I am bored very easily - so I hate the hang. If I get to a point that the dives stop to completely "wow" me - I can see backing off, since I hate the hang. But at this point Im hitting some truely amazing spots that are: 1) historic 2) loaded with lobster and scallops 3) loaded with cool artifacts 4) beautiful.

I replay the dive in my mind during the hang. Once I no longer want to replay the dive, Ill give it up.

Also - since 90% of my diving is in NJ and on my boat (sunk cost) and only cost fuel, or a friends boat (fuel) - and I have a compressor and fill station (sunk cost), I have all the gear I need (sunk cost) and I am getting He and O2 Very reasonably now - it really isnt that expensive any more.



Im also the type of person that loves to spend 12 hours on a boat no matter what we are doing. I find that it is the only time in my stressful life that I am not thinking about work!

 

[Doppler]

(BTW, I will keep a set of doubles and a deco bottle, just in case, and also because I need to stay current on skills for cave diving, which I emphatically intend to continue to do!)

Does this mean we can actually do a cave dive together at some point!?

 

[TSandM]

If you ever get your butt down to MX, it does!

 

[Slamfire]

What you're proposing is indeed reasonable, IMO. This is still technical diving given that planning decompression dives and the resultant stops, whether you use higher nitrox blends or not, is beyond the range of what is covered in any recreational diving course. When you do those TDI courses, you may be told that this is "intro" to technical diving or some such, but you still need the meticulous mindset and careful planning and execution of any technical dive. It doesn't have to be a "big" dive to be a technical dive.

I keep experimenting this distaste for the artificial line in the sand that is used to create the terms technical and recreational. While I wholeheartedly agree with what Quero is saying, I think it should be universally applicable. ie All dives are decompression dives, all dives should have proper gas planning, all dives should be executed with a healthy ascent behavior.

Different dives have a continuum of different risk levels and you prepare accordingly. But proper preparation should always be a universal requirement. When I came out of my OW certification I was disappointed at the amount of crucial information that was absent in the course. The books from the 60s and the guidance that my father provided me before he allowed me to wear a tank emphasized panic management. He also taught me how to use ndl tables AND decompression tables in spite of us never doing any mandatory deco dives. At least you knew what was coming if you ever broke ndl limits. OW by contrast only said do 3 mins at 15ft if you behaved, 5 mins if you misbehaved a little bit, and 8 if you misbehaved a little more. What if I misbehaved a lot? Should I just stay at 15 and patiently wait for death...?