Devil's Throat - Cozumel

[MMM]

Exit at 130 is acceptable with 32%, a very short exposure at 1.6 is not going to kill you. The standard pO2 exposure used to be 1.6, everything becomes more conservative.

What he said. I have done it on nitrox 32 more than once with a 1.6 setting and have survived with no apparent ill effects.

 

[rgdiver1]

Nitrox is not a deep diving gas. While DCS is survivable, if you tox, you'll probably drown. And oxygen toxicity gives little to no warning. Much better to be conservative on the PO2.

 

[divezonescuba]

Is it possible to get x28 on the island? Maybe leak some 32 out and top off with air?

 

[Streydog]

The one time I did it the deepest I went was 113.3'. I stayed toward the top at the exit. Looking at the dive profile I downloaded I was only below 100' for about 3 minutes. I won't say I will never do it again but I won't go out of my way to do it. A couple days later had the chance to do it again, half the group went through it, me and the other half followed their bubbles. We had two dive masters on that dive.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

It is important to note that Oxygen Toxicity is proven to be time dependent. A few seconds at 118 feet with Nitrox 32 seems to me, to be of little risk.

And yes, since we have our own nitrox Membrane blender, we can make any mix between 21% and 40%, and do so on call.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[mattia_v]

I'll never get the fascination with these steel 120's. I've NEVER been diving with one for the simple reason that I ALWAYS run out of bottom time on my DC before I run out of air on an AL80. For those who like to suck all that air and choo-choo train about or chase this and that everywhere I guess they serve a purpose but that is not proper diving IMHO and I'll go one further... Strenuous exercise at depth increases DCS risk as tissues load nitrogen more quickly. Same goes for strenuous activity post dive as tissues degas more quickly.

Depends on your gas and dive profiles, I suppose. I've never run out of bottom time on the types of dive profiles I do, and I've done several 80 minutes dives on an AL80 on Bonaire (which is where I've done about 1/3 of all my dives). I don't tend to go very deep, average dive profile there is down to maybe 80-90 ft until half tank, then shallow up, turn around, and mosey on back. The closest I got to exceeding my NDL was after spending maybe 20 minutes at almost 100ft (Hilmer Hooker), but I still had 15 on the clock there. I was running out of breathing gas sooner than 'usual' because of the AL80 tank on that dive. If I had 120's, I'd probably be under for 2 hours....

 

[halocline]

My new computer will only allow a PO2 of 1.4 or lower. Wussy computer.....anyhow, I wouldn't mind showing the damn thing who's boss by violating MOD occasionally but I wouldn't make a habit of it. But that's the least of the issues for this dive IMO. Far more important is the idea of sharing a long narrow deep tunnel with unknown divers of possibly questionable abilities. I don't really care how big their tanks are or what's in them. It's still a bit of a cluster **** Then again, I'm not one who generally enjoys crowds.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

My new computer will only allow a PO2 of 1.4 or lower. Wussy computer.....anyhow, I wouldn't mind showing the damn thing who's boss by violating MOD occasionally but I wouldn't make a habit of it. But that's the least of the issues for this dive IMO. Far more important is the idea of sharing a long narrow deep tunnel with unknown divers of possibly questionable abilities. I don't really care how big their tanks are or what's in them. It's still a bit of a cluster **** Then again, I'm not one who generally enjoys crowds.

WE limit the DT dive to those of known skills and ability, and none of our groups at any site are ever larger than 6 divers.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[halocline]

WE limit the DT dive to those of known skills and ability, and none of our groups at any site are ever larger than 6 divers.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Dave, you have a great reputation on this board, and I appreciate your participation in these threads. But of course you must realize that you don't control who else is in the DT, and honestly when you say "known skills..." I don't bet that you subject divers to the kind of buoyancy, propulsion, and problem solving tests that would be typical for overhead environment training. Your divers are recreational divers like most others in Cozumel; I'm sure you do a good job leading them, but still you're not training cavern/cave divers.

And while it's clear that OW divers in groups can safely get through this tunnel (they do every day) to me it's not fun considering the company. That's all I was saying.

 

[ggunn]

And while it's clear that OW divers in groups can safely get through this tunnel (they do every day) to me it's not fun considering the company. That's all I was saying.

As opposed to AOW divers? As we have discussed in here many times, an AOW cert in and of itself doesn't mean much. I only have an OW cert, but I have been diving for over 20 years. I doubt that an AOW class would show me much that I haven't already figured out.