Blue Hole: Not for beginners!

[Papa_Bear]

The last time I did the Dive it was a 45min dive to 171ft on a 80cft and I came on board with almost elven hundred psi! The DMs on the dive were about the same, so if someone had a problem air would not be one of then! We did a 5 to 7 min SS and from 60ft up we lingered in a slow accent! Well planned and the Belizian DM's are great!

 

[Tomeck]

Nice report!

 

[laurendell]

I have to agree with Caroln on this one. I did this dive as I think my 8th dive after being certified? I found it to be a very easy dive, as dives go. As has been said, there's no current or tight swim throughs or things to get caught on or anything that usually causes issues. You go down, you look around for a few minutes, you come back up. I stuck close to the divemaster since I was new and had no problems. I guess someone could have problems if they were uncomfortable in the water, but honestly the dive is so hyped up (in terms of being 'advanced'), that I don't think anyone who didn't feel comfortable in the water would want to do it anyway, because they'd be afraid to.

I think the reason the shop probably told the boat to ignore their computer is that for more conservative computers, they were going to max out and sound alarms (since you are at almost 140ft), and with the echo down there, it's quite loud. You could hear several computer alarms going off and with all the hype and the depth you might get pretty nervous about it.

The dive shop I went with did take me on a local dive the day before to see how I was in the water, and they said that I would be fine. 100+ dives later I don't regret it or think it was irresponsible of me.

Bottom line, I think it would actually be unfortunate to put a cap on who could do it and who couldn't by number of dives because all it would mean is that a lot of people who were perfectly capable of doing it and know their own abilities wouldn't be able to.

 

[peterbj7]

Not all of the Belize dive ops take unsuitable divers to the BH - in fact, there are few operators who go. I actively discourage anyone I feel isn't (yet) up to it.

I haven't seen many "head stand" divers, but you've left out a major category - the "rock climbing" diver. Swimming in a near vertical stance, finning constantly to stay up, and hands clawing uselessly at the water in the belief that it helps.

 

[tiggrr]

When we did the Blue Hole I had a little over 100 dives and I was still a little nervous. Or cautious. Didn't take my camera so I could pay attention to the dive itself. It was my first dive that deep. It turned out to be a very easy dive for me and I don't care if its bragging but, came up with 1500. We did have 1 or 2 do their own thing and go too deep. Also had at least 1 run Out of air. I didn't really pay too much attention to all of that though. Just paid attention to my buddies and my own a$$. Wasn't too bad of a view either.

Everyone keeps referring to 140 ft. Isn't 130 the recreational limit?

To be honest, the high point of the Blue Hole was the 2 dives after. AMAZING!!!! Best dives EVER!

 

[wreckchick]

The last time I did the Dive it was a 45min dive to 171ft on a 80cft and I came on board with almost elven hundred psi! The DMs on the dive were about the same, so if someone had a problem air would not be one of then! We did a 5 to 7 min SS and from 60ft up we lingered in a slow accent! Well planned and the Belizian DM's are great!

I beg to differ, no dive made to 170'+ on a single AL80 is a well-planned dive. I'd love to hear what the exact profile was if you care to share.

Rachel

 

[peterbj7]

no dive made to 170'+ on a single AL80 is a well-planned dive

I disagree. No dive made solo on such a single tank is wise, but if you're diving with others you can use group procedures as part of your redundancy. The poster did say he was with others, and even referred to air redundancy.

 

[Web Monkey]

I beg to differ, no dive made to 170'+ on a single AL80 is a well-planned dive. I'd love to hear what the exact profile was if you care to share.

Rachel

It must have been one of those magic 80's.

Terry

V-Planner 3.84 by Ross Hemingway,
VPM code by Erik C. Baker.

Decompression model: VPM - B

DIVE PLAN
Surface interval = 1 day 0 hr 0 min.
Elevation = 0ft
Conservatism = + 2

Dec to 171ft (3) Air 50ft/min descent.
Level 171ft 41:35 (45) Air 1.27 ppO2, 171ft ead
Asc to 110ft (47) Air -30ft/min ascent.
Stop at 110ft 0:58 (48) Air 0.89 ppO2, 110ft ead
Stop at 100ft 1:00 (49) Air 0.83 ppO2, 100ft ead
Stop at 90ft 3:00 (52) Air 0.77 ppO2, 90ft ead
Stop at 80ft 4:00 (56) Air 0.71 ppO2, 80ft ead
Stop at 70ft 5:00 (61) Air 0.64 ppO2, 70ft ead
Stop at 60ft 7:00 (68) Air 0.58 ppO2, 60ft ead
Stop at 50ft 9:00 (77) Air 0.52 ppO2, 50ft ead
Stop at 40ft 13:00 (90) Air 0.46 ppO2, 40ft ead
Stop at 30ft 19:00 (109) Air 0.40 ppO2, 30ft ead
Stop at 20ft 30:00 (139) Air 0.33 ppO2, 20ft ead
Stop at 10ft 51:00 (190) Air 0.27 ppO2, 10ft ead
Surface (190) Air -30ft/min ascent.

Off gassing starts at 127.8ft

OTU's this dive: 74
CNS Total: 28.1%

366.1 cu ft Air
366.1 cu ft TOTAL

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I'm pretty sure he is referring to 45 minutes as the total run time of the dive with maybe 1-2 minutes on a bounce to 171 ft.

A dive to 171 feet with a fast descent and a 1 or 2 minute time at that depth followed by a steady ascent to 60 feet and very slow gradual ascent to the surface over 35-40 minutes with an average depth of about 30 feet is possible on an AL 80 and with a SAC around .6 you'd still have around 1000 psi left.

But sorry, any dive that potentially puts you in a deco situation and/or 170 ft under water on a single tank is patently STUPID!

Relying on a group of buddies for redundancy is very poor planning. For example if you have a reg failure or freeflow at 170' lose access to your gas, you may have problems getting your narc'd on air buddies to understand the problem. Then you'd have to share gas (probably on a short hose) and have to either ascend sooner or switch buddies a couple times to ensure you get the gas you need without cutting any of your buddies short. And two buddies may not be enough as sharing gas on a short hose is going to burn more gas than would normally be the case. The potential result is a single OOA situation with a cascade effect where everyone in the group ends up short on gas with a faster than planned ascent and a no existant or far shorter safety stop.

I anyone is going to dive deep they need to be properly configured with adequate gas and redundancy to deal with proper contingency planning to address the number of things that may go wrong.

Doing it single tank can work but ONLY if everything goes off as planned as there is no margin for error. Doing it that way is essentially playing russian roulette and sooner or later someone is going to get bent or end up dead.

 

[peterbj7]

Come on! Papa Bear didn't say he was at 171 feet for the whole dive. I've done dives there with similar profiles to his, and I've rarely surfaced with my tank less than half full. On the standard quasi-recreational dive to 150' I generally use about 1/3 of my tank.