Diving beyond cert?

[Kendall Raine]

It's Scuba Board, everything is controversial.

No it isn’t

 

[arew+4]

Well played.

 

[34109411]

dont

Thanks for everyone's input. I'll plan accordingly and be prepared with my buddy to ascend if I start getting uncomfortable. I didn't plan on this being so controversial.

dont venture where you never been take the proper training. there is no rush. don't feel peer pressure.

 

[Wheeler925]

dont
dont venture where you never been take the proper training. there is no rush. don't feel peer pressure.

You can't venture where you've never been before if you never go where you want to be

 

[34109411]

You can't venture where you've never been before if you never go where you want to be

 

[happy-diver]

or something like that, see it's not as simple as that

 

[bletso]

Heck yes, Darwin is in the wings. Seriously, everyone at one time or another has dove beyond their training level to some degree. A little and you gain experience and a bit more confidence. A lot can get you in a spot you may not be able to get out of.

 

[steinbil]

I got OW certified (PADI) in May and have only been on a few dives since. I'd like to go diving again soon, but where I've been invited is generally 60-100' where all the interesting stuff is. I seem pretty comfortable, and am not terribly worried about the depth. I am signed up for AOW next month already. I'm wondering if there's any critical reason I shouldn't do these dives? Dive buddy is really experienced and reassuring, and I'm not above aborting at the first sign of problems or me being uncomfortable. Thoughts please?

I might have a slightly different take on this. If an experienced buddy were to suggest/push me to go beyond my limits, I'd be less inclined to trust their judgement, and not confident they had my best interest in mind. The best divers I've dove with have always adapted to my comfort, experience and limits. Other, less great divers, have been more pushy for me to dive beyond me limits.

However, if you feel ready to slowly expand your comfort zone and you have a very experienced and good buddy that agrees to accompany you, mentor you and make sure you don't go too far too fast, then I don't necessarily mind it. But overall, I think 10 dives is very low to go to 100ft.

 

[GF99/99]

Good reason to have silver plan (?) with Dan. No cert limitations.

DAN basic insurance covers any diver to 40m even with OW certification. So do other agencies.
If you have higher level DAN insurance there is no depth limit. OW is certified to the recreational depth limits. 40m.

I am all for people expanding there skill and exploring deeper if they have the knowledge and skill set to do so. I think a number on a plastic card should not hold people back. I mean that is how diving evolved and got to where it is at, people pushing the limits safely. Heck pretty much every time I go diving I am braking my certification depth.

But the whole insurance thing is a completely different story...

You need to be very careful with this one and fully understand the fine print of your policy. I just recently found out some very interesting things about how DAN insurance works. Knock on wood I have never had to use DAN and I just always thought (based on what people have said) you are covered for all depths. Well about 3 weeks ago my very good friend and dive buddy got bent and needed to go for a ride in the chamber and DAN did not, I will say it once again did NOT cover any of this chamber treatment. We were doing a somewhat deep dive 160m (about 525ft for those that like to work in imperial) and on our last stop with about 15min of deco left he started to get very strong join pain in his arm and shoulder. We attempted some in water recompression, dropped down to 9m at 1.9 po2 20min and 5 min air brakes 2 cycles but do to the nature of a 160m dive we already had very high CNS and made the decision to surface vs. risking underwater convulsions. Once on surface his pain continued DAN was contacted and he was driven the chamber. Once at the chamber DAN finally got back to him and said they will not cover the Table 6 that the doctor wanted to administer. He was told by DAN that they only cover dives up to 130m depth and they basically just said sorry have a nice day.

So in the end he had to pay for the entire treatment. My friend is a diving instructor (and we all know there is know was a diving instructor can afford a chamber treatment) So myself and another friend actually had to lend him quite a bit of money to pay for the treatment.

Now full disclaimer by friend has his policy through DAN EU not DAN US (I have my policy through DAN US) and it seems that DAN EU has a depth limitation and DAN US does not. But........ I called and emailed DAN US to get documentation of me asking to verify that my policy will cover me to unlimited depth regardless of my certification level and they always tried to answer me in a very round about way especially regard my certification level (my plastic card says maximum 100m) and never actually emailed me or gave me anything in writing. All they said is you need to refer the policy handbook and I kept pushing the subject because clearly they don't want to say something there not supposed to. So finally all they would do is read to me the 1 liner from the policy book. But then I proceeded to ask how does this relate to my diving certification depth and all they would do is just repeat word for word what is in the book.

Now I am no lawyer but based on the way DAN was acting and how they would not confirm for me in an email even after asking it does not give me a lot of confidence, especially after seeing what happened to my friend. However were both big boys and we both fully know that big dives like that have risk and we need to own that.

For those that are wondering attached the the DAN US policy info and also below is DAN official response to my question

In the end my friend is fine full mobility and no pain in his arm but we still do not know what caused the hit. We both have dove this depth many many times and there was nothing really out of the ordinary that we can pin point on that day compared to any other day we have dove. But full disclaimer 2 days be for that dive we had done a 200m (656ft) dive so that is the only thing we can think of that might have played a role in his DCI. Maybe some kind of lingering tissue build up??

 

[AsherN]

Appreciate the lengthy reply, and yes, in more extreme cases, you need to look at the fine print. But that is not what was being discussed. DAN will covered a certified diver within the rec limit of 40m. Full stop.

Frankly, I find a lot of certifications are there to make money. I got certified in 1979. The course and requirement for certification was a lot more a combination of OW, AOW and rescue.