Deep diving as a goal - the stigma.

[divin'dog]

I think DevonDiver says it all really well. When the goal is to see how deep you can dive (which is about pushing your capabilities), then the focus of safety becomes compromised. Sort of like seeing how fast you can go on a motorcycle... The thrill of going faster and faster... and if something goes wrong, it goes wrong really fast! The consequences can be severe.

Of course, doing either is a personal decision. Divers and riders will constantly push their personal limits. Human nature. Once you've done 150 mph, it's easy to say that you're going to try for 160 mph next time, just pushing it a liiittle further. I've seen divers push their limits on my week long vacation... going from 150' to 175' to 200' on bounce dives. Then continually do a bounce to 200' during the week because they made it back just fine. I was asked to join them but declined. It's the addiction to keep going deeper/to keep doing 200' until something goes wrong and when you play the odds, it will go wrong that one time. And these are divers that know better. I know them all. I just didn't join them. And it's not like I don't want to push my own capabilities, just not that way.

When you keep pushing the limits for your capabilities, you'll eventually find them! And you may not like what you find if you survive.

 

[Token]

OP -- I'm at the same stage of experience as you [sounds like, anyway]. In my view, depth for its own sake seems kinda pointless. Of course if you know there is something worth seeing at the very edge of recreational depths or beyond, with proper preparation I'd say go for it. But wanting to go deep for the sake of racking up a number....meh. Given that deep diving has some definite risks, I'd examine my motivations very closely before I took the plunge...so to speak.

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

There are many reasons that someone may want to go deep. Deep also is relative, to a recreational diver 130ft is deep. I have some diving buddies that are busy mapping out a cave system at 360 ft. What I will say is that deep can be done with many (but not all) of the risks mitigated. To do so and to train yourself takes years. Going from 25 dives to 300 ft could possibly be done in 2 years, but you need to think about diving almost every day and certainly every weekend.

Going from 25 dives to the deepest in the world, that could take 10 years and you still have a very good chance of 15 minutes of fame in the Accidents and Incidents forum.

In any event, deep costs big $$$ for training, equipment and gas. And as Devon pointed out you don't really want to skimp.

I would add that when I was OW and a lot younger I thought I was bullet proof. A few years of wisdom & experience later and I have been to depths that have scared me. Seeing how fast your gas is used and knowing you have a good deal of deco ahead suddenly made depth real for me. I suspect that I have achieved my personal depth "record" and the rest is now just for fun at depths where I am more comfortable.

To the OP, you ask what is wrong with setting depth targets as a reason for diving. Well the issue is that setting targets brings out a competitiveness to what you are trying to achieve. Competing with yourself and pushing for depth kills. I have only spoken to two people who have been below 800 ft. Both were adamant that a dive to 800 ft starts with training dives to 60 ft. One openly says that competing for depth is down right dangerous.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I think the problem with it is that deep diving is dangerous. People that are just starting out in a sport and are attracted to the most dangerous aspects of a sport are well...thrill seekers....They are much more likely to be killed or injured.

Most experienced divers pursue diving for fun, for relaxation, for a challenge, for an escape from the real world, but not that many divers are truely seeking "thrilling" dives. I myself would rather have a fun and maybe challenging and sucessful dive, but I really don't want to be sticking the reg in my mouth and having serious questions about coming back up.

I think if you polled experienced divers and asked them what their "best dive" was, few would be talking about their deepest dive, but rather the coolest thing they say, the best photo they took, the school of 50 sharks that swam by one day.... etc...They may not even recall the actual depth of the dive with any accuracy.

Most experienced and mature divers would be a little confused if you asked them what their "personal best" dive was....(although they probably do know their deepest dive).

The difference between scuba diving and running or weight lifting or tennis is that those sports have a way to keep score. if you pursue scuba as a competititive sport (with yourself or others) and view depth as a metric to "keep score"... you are pursuing a very dangerous game, with dreadfully high stakes for failure..

Nothing wrong with that, but if you are just starting out in the sport, you literally have no idea how many little things can go wrong that have the potential to become BIG problems.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Doing deep dives just to set a personal best is something I was also attracted to early on. Then reality set in and I saw what diving deep and doing it properly entailed. It has not discouraged me from doing it. Just approaching it in a more conservative manner. The practice of bounce dives has been mentioned and that is one way that people try to set personal bests. It is also a way for them to kill themselves and even worse, because stupidity should be painful to the stupid, risk others lives in trying to save or recover them.

Frankly I'd like to see this approached more like extreme climbers do and just leave the body where it is as a reminder and heads up to those undertaking stuff like this. In addition when someone gets hurt doing a deep dive just to do a deep dive they take away resources from someone who may have been injured that was not taking a stupid risk. And to make matters worse they do this with no thought of how am I going to pay for the treatments or how will my family be affected.

If you plan to do deep just to do deep then it's a good idea to make arrangements for the what ifs and to give family members final instructions. I'd also suggest making sure that no one will be risking their life if you screw up to save or tend to you. I'd also suggest you not try to talk a buddy into doing this with you. That means solo so that if you die only you die. There are so many things to consider when doing stuff like this and the effects it can have on others. Not taking that into consideration is incredibly selfish.

 

[Kevrumbo]

First: a couple of thoughts, second: a couple of caveats, third: my question.
First: Yes, I am pretty new to diving. As you can see, I have less than 25 logged dives. Also, I don't plan to move into tech or deep diving anytime soon, but it is in my future.
Second: I realize that deep diving requires many things: training, skills, equipment, planning, experience (in no particular order). I am not asking how to go deeper or whether i should.
Third: I know this might draw a heated discussion, but please be civil. I am not trying to do something crazy and I love scuba diving for all of the same reasons that many of us do.
Third: My Question - I have seen time and time again, on this forum and in the many scuba books that I have read, that deep diving (i.e. deeper than rec limits, 200, 300 fsw, etc.), should be a means to an end, not an end to a means. But, what is wrong with wanting to dive deeper to meet person best records? In every sport/activity there are goals. If you run, you usually want to lose weight, run longer, or run faster. If you hike, you either want to climb higher or hike farther. I'm not trying to set a new world deep diving record and I'm certainly not advocating unsafe diving. But if your passion is to dive deeper as a goal, within your skills, training, equipment, and planning experience; what is so wrong with diving deeper for the sake of setting personal records? Every recreational runner knows that they are probably not the next Prefontaine or Usain Bolt, but they keep trying.

Yes. . . you just keep on trying within a risk/reward paradigm in this instance. You just may be extending beyond your training & experience so always plan for, be aware and have certitude of your own and your buddy's safety margin especially when it comes to gas consumption and narcosis level.

Objectively compare & consult with others who are doing similar deep dives for tips, mistakes and lessons learned --and never ever use for bragging, one-upmanship rights or stigmatizing "I told you so" snap judgments in schadenfreude . . .

 

[Davemohio]

I am w/Mr Lapenta on this.

As a newer diver it appealed to me as well. Not so much anymore.

Risks much higher. And there is alot to see at 60-80 feet. Or far less. I have seen enough critters on a 20 foot night shore dive in Coz to fiil a logbook.

I have done alot of reading on dive accidents. Risks multiply.

If this is your desire, follow your heart/gut. But get the training and practice and equipment, of course.

There are many who LOVE deep diving and tec. I appreciate their passion for the technical side of diving.

But there are folks out there with hundreds or thousands of dives who are happy as hell w/ the recreational limits.

 

[Centrals]

Set my personal deepest trimix dive about 10yrs ago to around 72m. I know I can go deeper but just do not have the inclination since then. What is the point? I ask myself.
How deep is deep? If you are chasing number then it will be the next deeper one!

 

[eponym]

In every sport/activity there are goals. If you run, you usually want to lose weight, run longer, or run faster. If you hike, you either want to climb higher or hike farther. I'm not trying to set a new world deep diving record and I'm certainly not advocating unsafe diving. But if your passion is to dive deeper as a goal, within your skills, training, equipment, and planning experience; what is so wrong with diving deeper for the sake of setting personal records? Every recreational runner knows that they are probably not the next Prefontaine or Usain Bolt, but they keep trying.

I won't argue with your logic. I was thrilled to get my first 100-foot dive. In retrospect, the free-flow at 50 feet (which I solved) should have stopped me. But I survived.

On a tangent . . .

I will tell you that almost a thousand dives later my most prized dive memories are of dives where everything went according to plan and nothing required any effort at all. These days my personal goal is to experience the dive I planned and visualized on the surface.

On my most recent dive in San Diego on the Yukon I could have hit 100+ but held up above 90 to have a longer dive. After forty minutes I started my ascent. It was the ascent that stays with me. Sometimes everything comes together, you hover horizontal without finning, in sight of the upline. Your breath alone is enough to moderate your ascent, with occasional vents from the bladder. You take your time, admire the bubble shafts from other divers still on the wreck, pause to contemplate jellies and schools. You are in control.

Control is the new deep.

 

[~ dry]

Control is the new deep.

I get it. And I like it. So would my instructor. He was all about self-control, diving as a martial art, staying on the path.

I don't suppose that's anything new to most of you, but it gave me as a brand-new diver a solid base to work from, and a focus on what's more important.

But I also suppose that I too learned that there is a stigma to going deep too soon. What is meant by "too soon" is I guess open to interpretation!