Belize's wonderland

[blueeyz78]

Great trip report!

Also, the Aquarium is still my favorite dive to date.

The Aquarium was a fantastic dive. I agree with you 100%!!

 

[blueeyz78]

The recreational depth limit for both open water and advanced open water is the same (130 ft). Neither the AOW or deep certifications mean absolutely anything, other than a way for the dive organizations to charge money along the path to getting DM certifications, etc...

You need to go back to and re-read your instructions manuals if this is what you think. The depths are not the same and they do mean something.

This comment scares me and I hope one day your NOT the one diver we are reading about on the incidents and accidents forum.

 

[robint]

You need to go back to and re-read your instructions manuals if this is what you think. The depths are not the same and they do mean something.

This comment scares me and I hope one day your NOT the one diver we are reading about on the incidents and accidents forum.

very true however there are no Scuba Police out there and rarely do ANY dive ops restrict a paying customer from doing a dive. I have been on many dives where the dive op said it was ADV and they would check your log book to make sure all divers are qualified, none ever did. I hope everyone dives to their skill level, but I know that isn't always the case. I have been diving awhile in lots of different types of situations, cold water and warm water, drysuit and swimsuit, heavy current and zero vis, and in all those dives I have seen some divers do stupid things but I have not seen any deaths or even serious accidents. I have seen people get a reality check though.

Everyone assumes the risk for their own life in scuba diving, so if they have a lapse in judgment.... they pay the price.

 

[bwilcove]

It is a recommended limit, not a mandate. Maximum rec limit is 130 ft for OW, AOW, deep diver, blah blah blah (all the same, no matter what certification you have). You want to go deeper, you get tec certified.

So, let's be clear to everyone on the board ... any standard certification will allow you to dive to 130 feet. If you want to go deeper, you get technical certifications that all you to use tri-mix, etc...

Again, it is a ploy to get people to buy the AOW certification.

 

[peterbj7]

any standard certification will allow you to dive to 130 feet

I'm not quite sure what you're saying. There are (in most places) no laws that say you need any certification at all to dive. If you have enough money you can buy all the equipment including compressor and do whatever you want. The scuba industry has designed a training structure to inject some safety into what was otherwise a dangerous activity, but in the absence of legal provision you can ignore that if you're in a position to. Is this what you're advocating?

It is therefore both misleading and wrong to say what you did above. Most training agencies agree that there is an absolute limit of 130ft for recreational no-stop diving, not that any of their certifications are regarded as sufficient to go there. Why do you single out "tec diving" as requiring special training? - there's nothing to stop you strapping on whatever gear you want and going as deep as you want. Actually I rather wish you would, instead of making misleading posts here.

But I'm sure you know this - you're just trying to provoke a response, right?

 

[georoc01]

I think its up to each dive op to decide what level of certification they are going to require for any given dive. Saying that they require AOW does more than just cause more training. It may be as much for liability issues, but it also causes the diver to realize that this may be a more difficult dive than they expected.

I know for a trip I did to North Carolina, they wanted AOW and at least 40 dives under your belt. Dives were to a 100 feet in moderate vis, current, flat profiles. Not conditions you want to put a newbie diver into.

 

[bwilcove]

Well, I guess we are going to go round and round on this one ...

The reason I point out tec diving is oxygen toxicity. Recreational scuba divers adhering to the dive tables have no significant risk of oxygen toxicity. At 35 feet, where RSD tables allow the diver to spend well over two hours on a non-repetitive dive, the PAO2 is the same as from breathing 43% oxygen at sea level, i.e., non-toxic. At the maximum RSD depth of 130 feet, the PAO2 from breathing compressed air is about the same as from breathing 100% oxygen at sea level. This level of oxygen would only begin to cause trouble if inhaled for at least an hour. The few minutes of bottom time that the tables allow at 130 fsw is simply not long enough to pose a significant risk from oxygen toxicity. Thus, if you want to go deeper, you need to dive mixed gas. If you want to go to 130 feet, you can, as you say, strap on any old gear and go for it (without any advanced training or other certifications).

 

[peterbj7]

That may well be so, but it's nothing to do with certification and what you're permitted to do.....

 

[altaskier]

To be somewhat orthogonal to the above: I dove with Peter's outfit and also did my nitrox certification with Peter, where he went way beyond the PADI book.

Also, my wife (who at that point had only about 15 dives in her log) and I chose to do the long day trip to Turneffe Elbow rather than the long day trip to the Blue Hole, and I was very happy with that choice! Spectacular fishy views, not so deep (though I did keep pretty close to my wife during her first drift dive with its deco stop in the blue void...)

 

[ktomlinson]

I dive NAUI tables and they dont show this as a deco dive. The fact that the divemaster did a 15 minute saftey stop at 20' is just a precaution, not a requirment. NAUI does reccomend that you do a saftey stop at 15' though. If you didnt feel comfortable with the dive, its good that you didnt get pressured into doing it.