Going deeper than 18m

[AussiePro]

I'm after some information on the PADI adventure dives. I'm a commercial diver so I never had to go down this route. However, my wife is learning to dive and once she has a bit of experience I would like to take her to a local dive site which, heaven forbid, is over the mysterious 18m mark that PADI deems is safe. Speaking to the local dive shops, one tells me that without feeding the PADI machine more and doing AOW, she can dive the site but can't go below 18m. This is a waste of time on this site. The other store tells me she can do a deep adventure dive on her first dive on the site with an instructor and thereafter she can go to the bottom without being watched.
So does this adventure dive qualify her to dive deep anywhere or is this something only recognized by the particular shop. I must say that with my dive experience and having dived the location a number of times, it makes me rather cross that they won't let me take her on my own. I get the feeling they are just out to sell more courses.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

They're just covering their butts so that they aren't liable if you guys get in an accident. If you do a the PADI Deep adventure dive, you should be able to go to to 100ft (30m).

Even though you probably have tons of experience as a commercial diver and have likely been that deep multiple times, that doesn't necessarily qualify you to teach your wife the risks of going to 100ft. I'd suggest that she do the Deep Adventure course at a minimum but it'd probably be better if she did the full PADI AOW course. Sure, the shop wants your business, but they also care about diver safety. The instruction is there to make sure the basics are covered and to make your wife feel comfortable with the depth.

To answer your last question, there's no one who is going to limit your depth and diving if you have PADI OW, unless you're diving off a charter (they'll check your certs for liability purposes). There's no such thing as a scuba police that monitors everyone. You can technically dive without proper training; it might be stupid and unsafe, but no one is going to stop you. My view is that your wife should get the training for her own safety, not because someone is going to let her dive or not.

 

[Altamira]

I believe the 18m is a recommended depth. You can go to whatever depth she feels comfortable with, and you both feel she has the experience to deal with a depth greater than 18m. In my opinion, exept for specialized skills such is diving in overhead enviornments where proper training and equipment are critical, experience, buoyancy control, and comfort level at depth are more important to the recreation diver than what C-card you carry.

 

[Simon-]

The deep adventure dive is only applicable whilst she is diving with an instructor. It forms part of the AOW certification. It doesn't mean that subsequent dives to deeper than her certification can be done without supervision.

What you need to understand is that the 18m limit is the recommended depth for her certification level. If someone decides to dive deeper than their certification, there isn't much anyone can do about it.

If you aren't happy with what they tell you, dive elsewhere.

If you are diving with a shop, they are well within their rights to insist on further training to access slightly deeper sights. After all, it will their liability at risk.

 

[AussiePro]

Ok thanks for the replies. I wasn't aware that the 18m is only a recommendation. I'd prefer to spend money on more dives to get her more experience.

 

[Simon-]

It is the depth of her training and unless she is undergoing training to deeper than that, any other training will be limited to that depth.

I use the word recommended carefully. There are no scuba police, so if she dives deeper than 18m, there is no-one there to "catch" her.

 

[supergaijin]

PADI DM's are not 'allowed' to guide OW divers deeper than 18m. Put another way, if an accident happens at that depth, PADI will wash it's hands of the member when it goes to court.

What you do in your own time however, is up to you.

You don't need a license to dive- you need one to get your tanks filled.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Objectively, this is why you do not take beginner/novice open water divers to deep depths beyond 18m:

A Quick Contingency "Rock Bottom" Calculation and Gas Plan Estimate for Open Water. . .

For a single 11 litre tank (AL80), a total of 11 litres/bar metric tank rating and a volume Surface Consumption Rate (SCR) of 22 litres/min -same as a pressure SCR of 2 bar/min*ATA (divide 22 [-]litres[/-]/min by 11 [-]litres[/-]/bar)- using an example NDL air dive to 30m (4 ATA) depth in Open Water.

Emergency Reserve/Rock Bottom pressure calculation, from 30 meters with one minute stops every 3 meters to the surface,
-->Just "tally the ATA's":
4.0
3.7
3.4
3.1
2.8
2.5
2.2
1.9
1.6
1.3

Sum Total: 26.5

Multiplied by 2 bar/min*ATA equals 53 bar Rock Bottom absolute reading remaining on your SPG. --this also happens to be the pressure in bar needed for one person in an emergency contingency to reach the surface with the above minimum decompression ascent profile.

So ideally for a two person buddy team, multiply 53 by 2 which is 106 bar for both to reach the surface (sharing in a buddy Out-ot-Gas contingency).

But realistically, for two experienced divers stressed: 106 bar plus 30% of 106 bar equals 138 bar Rock Bottom SPG reading.

For two novice divers stressed: 106 bar plus 100% of 106 bar equals 212 bar (!!!)
--->obviously then, two novice divers on single 11L tanks should not be diving to 30m for any significant length of time. . .

(Note for my metrically challenged countrymen here in the US: A full AL80 tank is 3000psi which is approximately 200 bar). . .

 

[fire_diver]

It is the depth of her training and unless she is undergoing training to deeper than that, any other training will be limited to that depth.

This is wrong.

No diver is restricted to ANY depth. We are trained to plan our own dives, and dive our plans. Whether we plan to dive to 10M, 20M, 30M, 40M or any depth.

It is best to slowly increase your max depth over a large number of dives. The diving isn't different when deeper, but the pre=dive plannins and response to emergencies can be.

 

[Fatterboy]

If you use DAN, an injury may not be covered out of "recommended" depths should one occur.