French exception

[jborg]

For what it's worth, the ops on the mediterranean side of France seem to accept international certs like PADI quite well. I presume this is a practical affordance to the tourism on the riviera. The north side is more FFESSM-oriented, as I understand it, and the ops there will indeed not let you dive with a PADI cert without an instructor. (Maybe they have a more positive relation to BSAC certs, I don't know.)

 

[Angelo Farina]

Deep air was quite normal in CMAS courses in the past century.
My recreational diver and instructor certifications are to max depth 50 meters, with deco on back gas (no accelerated deco with high oxygen mixtures).
In some countries the local CMAS federation was allowing to even larger depth, as the deco limit was PPO2 <= 1.6 bars, which is something as 54 meters.
Definitely deco diving is considered normal and fully recreational in the Mediterranean, as most nice dives are in the range of 40 to 60 meters.
We consider "tech" the usage of different mixtures along the dive and the deco profile, and of rebreathers operating with variable gas composition.
My recreational certification includes pure oxygen CC rebreathers down to 10 meters (ppO2=2 bars).
Things seem to have been changed in this century. Most national federations adhering to CMAS now have a recreational depth limit of just 42m. I have just checked on the FIPSAS web site (Italian federation adhering to CMAS).
Deco procedures require an "advanced" certification (which is somewhat between "full rec" and "technical").
Advanced Nitrox allows for accelerated deco with highly oxygenated mixtures, up to 100% oxygen.
Coming to the OP: also in France many different organizations are active.
If you are interested in technical diving, perhaps it is better to start with an organization specialised in technical diving, not with one specialised in recreational diving, which just provides some "advanced" course as "intro to tech".
If instead you are OK with current "recreational" limit of 42 meters and deco with back gas, any organization adhering to CMAS will provide this easily. I still suggest the "advanced Nitrox" additional certification, it can be useful to use high oxygen mixtures in some diving profiles.
Forget about "deep air" down to 60m, this is in some way a relic of the past, it will be very difficult to find an old instructor still teaching this, which is considered too much dangerous nowadays.
I did dive that way in the eighties, I will never do that again!

 

[Dody]

Deep air was quite normal in CMAS courses in the past century.
My recreational diver and instructor certifications are to max depth 50 meters, with deco on back gas (no accelerated deco with high oxygen mixtures).
In some countries the local CMAS federation was allowing to even larger depth, as the deco limit was PPO2 <= 1.6 bars, which is something as 54 meters.
Definitely deco diving is considered normal and fully recreational in the Mediterranean, as most nice dives are in the range of 40 to 60 meters.
We consider "tech" the usage of different mixtures along the dive and the deco profile, and of rebreathers operating with variable gas composition.
My recreational certification includes pure oxygen CC rebreathers down to 10 meters (ppO2=2 bars).
Things seem to have been changed in this century. Most national federations adhering to CMAS now have a recreational depth limit of just 42m. I have just checked on the FIPSAS web site (Italian federation adhering to CMAS).
Deco procedures require an "advanced" certification (which is somewhat between "full rec" and "technical").
Advanced Nitrox allows for accelerated deco with highly oxygenated mixtures, up to 100% oxygen.
Coming to the OP: also in France many different organizations are active.
If you are interested in technical diving, perhaps it is better to start with an organization specialised in technical diving, not with one specialised in recreational diving, which just provides some "advanced" course as "intro to tech".
If instead you are OK with current "recreational" limit of 42 meters and deco with back gas, any organization adhering to CMAS will provide this easily. I still suggest the "advanced Nitrox" additional certification, it can be useful to use high oxygen mixtures in some diving profiles.
Forget about "deep air" down to 60m, this is in some way a relic of the past, it will be very difficult to find an old instructor still teaching this, which is considered too much dangerous nowadays.
I did dive that way in the eighties, I will never do that again!

Thank you for those information. I am not interested in tech. I just want to avoid to be treated as a newbie if I dive in France. Someone told that with my current level of certification, they will put me with the guys who do discover scuba sessions and are limited to 18 m .

 

[JMBL]

Deep air is around in my home country, even single tank with no pony for deco and you'll still be taught like that.

Why ? Probably becasuse many wrecks and site are located below 40m and because mixed gas diving never really took off around here. Many LDS boast of gaz mixing being available, but once you've checked, it's : only for training purposes, not during summer, not today, out of gaz these days, and let's not talk about the price... To that you can add rather bothersome regulations and the FFESSM being rather suspiscious about what comes from abroad.

Very unpractical to explain this bogus situation in a few linges, but you've got some material here.

 

[BoltSnap]

Deep air is around in my home country, even single tank with no pony for deco and you'll still be taught like that.

Why ? Probably becasuse many wrecks and site are located below 40m and because mixed gas diving never really took off around here. Many LDS boast of gaz mixing being available, but once you've checked, it's : only for training purposes, not during summer, not today, out of gaz these days, and let's not talk about the price... To that you can add rather bothersome regulations and the FFESSM being rather suspiscious about what comes from abroad.

Very unpractical to explain this bogus situation in a few linges, but you've got some material here.

If I were to go diving in France, where is the best "happening" place for that? (I am talking recreational diving for now).

Where do you do most of your diving in France yourself?

 

[Cheizz]

The Côte d'Azur comes to mind. Marseille to the Italian border. Some nice wrecks around 30-40 m near Cavaleire and Fourmique. I have a bucket list ready...

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Oh my god. That movie has the best car chase scene ever. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider... uff, what a classic.

 

[lexvil]

I’m sure glad I didn’t know going to 180+ feet on air was a sure death sentence all of those time I did it.

 

[Vicko]

I’m sure glad I didn’t know going to 180+ feet on air was a sure death sentence all of those time I did it.

I would never have dared taking all those thousands of tourists to some of our wrecks, imagine how lucky I was that nobody died.

 

[BoltSnap]

I’m sure glad I didn’t know going to 180+ feet on air was a sure death sentence all of those time I did it.

I would never have dared taking all those thousands of tourists to some of our wrecks, imagine how lucky I was that nobody died.

Now that you know, you are going to die if you do it again.