Howdy y'all! I'm a newbie to diving, but really excited to grow. To date, I have 12 dives with a SAC rate of 0.75 cu. feet / min. I'm looking forward to sharing my underwater adventures and growth with everyone here.
Hello from Atlanta, GA
- Thread starter mattfish
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Impi@dventures
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Impi@dventures
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OP
I’m about 5 miles away from the aquarium and diving there is absolutely on my to-do list. I want to get a smidge better with my buoyancy and consumption before I get in the big tank though.
drrich2
Contributor
Welcome to ScubaBoard! Your SAC rate will probably come down gradually over time. I've had to work on mine. In the meantime, a couple of pointers that might've helped me at that stage:
1.) My impression of the 'typical' mainstream touristy dive destination guide-led group dive is a roughly 45-minute dive, ending back under the boat, where people who are good on air may mill around a bit before re-boarding. The target time (if restricted) might be around 50-minutes, with some 'first in, last out' types managing an hour. Times may run a little longer when there's a group of seasoned divers with good SAC rates and the guide knows this.
2.) You may run low on air earlier than most. Odds are good the guide will have you signal when you're at a half-tank, so it's unlikely you'll be running out of air during the dive! But you may feel a little stress.
3.) Some destinations have 100-cf AL tanks. These have a rated fill pressure of 3,300 PSI, not 3,000 PSI. At 3,000 (which is what some areas tend to fill them to, as though they were 80-cf AL tanks), you're looking at more around 90-cf. Still a nice boost.
There's more, but that's a decent opener.
Richard.
1.) My impression of the 'typical' mainstream touristy dive destination guide-led group dive is a roughly 45-minute dive, ending back under the boat, where people who are good on air may mill around a bit before re-boarding. The target time (if restricted) might be around 50-minutes, with some 'first in, last out' types managing an hour. Times may run a little longer when there's a group of seasoned divers with good SAC rates and the guide knows this.
2.) You may run low on air earlier than most. Odds are good the guide will have you signal when you're at a half-tank, so it's unlikely you'll be running out of air during the dive! But you may feel a little stress.
3.) Some destinations have 100-cf AL tanks. These have a rated fill pressure of 3,300 PSI, not 3,000 PSI. At 3,000 (which is what some areas tend to fill them to, as though they were 80-cf AL tanks), you're looking at more around 90-cf. Still a nice boost.
There's more, but that's a decent opener.
Richard.
OP
Yeah, I noticed on my recent dive trip at the beginning of this month that the guides always mentioned that they were aiming for a 45-50 minute dive time on the briefings. Right now, I'm using up an 80-cf AL tank in about 40 mins, so that wasn't an issue. Long term I'd like my NDLs be the dive time limit rather than my remaining tank pressure.
OP
Yeah, it's not cheap, that's for sure. I think it can be a smidge cheaper doing it through a LDS like Divers Supply or Seaventures. I believe they also require a medical checkout done at Hyox which is over $100 too.
stretchthepenn
Contributor
Howdy, howdy. Welcome to SB. Just as a suggestion, if you're on FB, you might want to check out the "Georgia Dive Buddy Finder" page. It's a non-shop-affiliated group and generally centered around diving local-area quarries.
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