certification limits and how they are considered now days....

[DiveHewi]

I have no idea.

To be honest, I doubt they are very high. They typically send a group down with a DM in front and a DM behind. They do a check at the rim to make sure everyone is equalized and ready to go, then they drop down to the half cave, swim by the speleothems for a couple minutes, and head for the surface. I would guess most people reach the surface with half the air left in their AL 80s.

I personally consider that specific dive a waste of time, but the trip is worth it because the next two dives on Half Moon Cay are great, as is the bird observation platform there. I led a group trip to Ambergris Cay a while ago, and the after trip survey showed that almost everyone thought the Blue Hole dive was the high point of the trip. Go figure.

Just couldn't agree more with Blue Hole being a waste of time, with the next two dives being fantastic. I would say to dive BH once just to log it and get it off your bucket list!

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I would say to dive BH once just to log it and get it off your bucket list!

But it has never been on my bucket list. It might be unique, but that doesn't make it interesting (for me). But I'm a pretty fish diver or a historical shipwreck diver.

 

[drrich2]

Any rule of thumb for Caribbean LOBs?

Not really. To me, the rule of thumb approach is for people fairly new to the hobby who wonder just how much training and certification they actually need to do the diving they want.

The liveaboard crowd seem to be a fit farther along. How far varies wildly, but enough they tend to be better qualified to make an informed choice, in my opinion.

Richard.

 

[Island23]

Same here. When I certified, I certified to 130 ft & tables, before all these new specialties & eLearnings even existed, before CPU became a requirement. Currently, OW is 60 ft & deep is 100 ft, unless you go SDI or NAUI. If you go SDI or NAUI, deep will be to 130 ft but you have to take it, with an instructor, who takes you there.

Experience comes from your dives but my understanding is, rec deep specialty is just to get your feet wet. That's irrelevant to me, I dive Navy & use Navy tables. I'm on the professional side but still went through 130 ft deep & then back-tracked to 100 ft, with another agency, went backwards to get the specialty card. All in all, I had to go backwards twice in rec deep diving, to meet the lower rec requirements.

 

[Bob DBF]

It's interesting that the WRSTC has almost scrubbed the 40m certification limit from their site. Note there is no depth limit given in the Open Water diver standard.

The OW training was made to train divers for NDL buddy diving. When I first trained to dive, there was no 130' limit, although it was recommended one extend their depth limits gradually, as depth is not ones friend in an emergency. I was trained with the ability to plan a 190' dive, and why it was not a good idea and the trouble I could get into while making one.

By the time I made it to 190' I trained on deco diving, as that was the usual problem at that depth on tables. I have no idea when the 120' limit was instituted, other than it was between 1962 and 1980, if anyone knows I'm interested.

 

[tursiops]

Same here. When I certified, I certified to 130 ft & tables, before all these new specialties & eLearnings even existed, before CPU became a requirement. Currently, OW is 60 ft & deep is 100 ft, unless you go SDI or NAUI. If you go SDI or NAUI, deep will be to 130 ft but you have to take it, with an instructor, who takes you there.

Experience comes from your dives but my understanding is, rec deep specialty is just to get your feet wet. That's irrelevant to me, I dive Navy & use Navy tables. I'm on the professional side but still went through 130 ft deep & then back-tracked to 100 ft, with another agency, went backwards to get the specialty card. All in all, I had to go backwards twice in rec deep diving, to meet the lower rec requirements.

I'm sorry, i cannot understand your post. Can you try and explain less cryptically your sequencing?

 

[boulderjohn]

Same here. When I certified, I certified to 130 ft & tables, before all these new specialties & eLearnings even existed, before CPU became a requirement. Currently, OW is 60 ft & deep is 100 ft, unless you go SDI or NAUI. If you go SDI or NAUI, deep will be to 130 ft but you have to take it, with an instructor, who takes you there.

Experience comes from your dives but my understanding is, rec deep specialty is just to get your feet wet. That's irrelevant to me, I dive Navy & use Navy tables. I'm on the professional side but still went through 130 ft deep & then back-tracked to 100 ft, with another agency, went backwards to get the specialty card. All in all, I had to go backwards twice in rec deep diving, to meet the lower rec requirements.

I'm sorry, i cannot understand your post. Can you try and explain less cryptically your sequencing?

Same here. I need a new explanation.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

I have no idea.

To be honest, I doubt they are very high. They typically send a group down with a DM in front and a DM behind. They do a check at the rim to make sure everyone is equalized and ready to go, then they drop down to the half cave, swim by the speleothems for a couple minutes, and head for the surface. I would guess most people reach the surface with half the air left in their AL 80s.

I personally consider that specific dive a waste of time, but the trip is worth it because the next two dives on Half Moon Cay are great, as is the bird observation platform there. I led a group trip to Ambergris Cay a while ago, and the after trip survey showed that almost everyone thought the Blue Hole dive was the high point of the trip. Go figure.

Wife and I will be visiting some of her family on San Pedro in a few weeks and will be doing those 3 dives. I’m excited for the 3 dives..I know there’s not much to see at the blue hole but it’s still the blue hole so we can check that off our “list”…I am looking forward to half moon cay and the aquarium more I think though…

 

[Blackcrusader]

PADI certs are:
Ow 18m
Aow 30m
Deep 40m

From PADI themselves, recreational limit even for OW is 40 metres.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Subsurface gives 3 minutes on ZH-L+GF75/85. IIRC there is a French agency that certifies to 60 msw based on just under 1.5 PPO2... that's the calculated numbers, as the above says IRL you don't get much time for anything down there. Likely none at all on Al80.

Doesn't that depend on the diver? I only used slightly less than 20bar on an AL80 to get to 45m with 6 minutes dive time to retrieve a dropped camera rig. OK

I think you mean you don't get much time before you are in a deco dive?