History of 18m depth limit?

[Vorlon]

Hi all, does anyone remember what year PADI started the 18m depth limit for Open Water? I got certified in the 1980s and was under the impression that I was certified to 30m. Was there a change in standards at some point? On a recent trip I was shocked when a 22 year old member of the dive team suggested I should not go deeper than 18m! Thanks

 

[NAM001]

I have no idea. when i got my ow in the 60's the qual dive was to 40+ ft after that we had no limits like today. then they split the course up to the multitude of separate courses to get to the same thing but in a progression ,,,,, but with out a progression of depth limits????. then we called it ow oin the 60's now its master diver. Yes we had the full rec depth spectrum available to us. we did not teach cesa in the 60's i think that came about when they broke up the course. Personally I think cesa should go away. its a bad skill to depend on. much like using your CO2 horse collar at 100 ft for a blow and go when you run OOA because of a J valve. cesa is a shallow water last resort effort to get to the surface. Never a deep option. But yet padi ad others teaches it and then like so many pro's out there they will say on completion of OW you are skilled to go to 130 ft. 60 ft is,, they say,, only a recomendation or a training limit and not a certified OW diver limitation. I would never tell any new OW they are skilled to go to 100+. yes many can do it out of their OW class but that is the instructor that is teaching them to be skilled at those depths and not the standard of the OW course. I guess for those folks they are more under papered than under skilled. I dont remember what the limits were in the 80's but in general it is 60 for ow 100 for aow and 130 for deep. like i said in the 60's it was all one course. diving first aid rescue the works. I think in my gut the no limits from the 60's just got locked on to the OW cert and has stayed there even though todays OW is not the OW of yester year.

this is from wiki. Open Water Diver (OWD) is an entry-level autonomous diver certification for recreational scuba diving. and even that will cause much discusion of what entry level means.

The whole thing is really self contradicting. If you take OW and you can go to 130 ft then what is AOW and DEEP for? Then the training limits are what 40 ft for ow and they are not to exceed their training level untill they are experienced to go beyond. but the experience does not require formal training. then again what is AOW and DEEP for. Makes as much sense as a new OW STICKING HIS HEAD IN A CAVE AND CALLING IT EXPERIENCE AND SELF CLEARING HIMSELF TO DO CAVE DIVING.

 

[broncobowsher]

Have no idea. I was in and out of diving at times depending on what was happening in life. Originally in the early 90s you got a set of Navy dive tables and were told to stay out of the mandatory decompression. Later they had special classes if you wanted to go past 100'. Few years later I was with some new fresh divers and was told the limit was 60'. At first I thought it was a personal limit. Then I heard it a few more times from others. That was when I learned the open water had further limited things to 60'. That is less then half of what I was originally allowed. Come to find it is now 2 specialty classes to get to my old standard.

To that I will add I did a refresher about 10 years ago. After a long dry spell. Spent a couple hours getting me up to speed on what is taught now. Those SMBs, never heard of them being used before but are now part of the basic gear. But they don't do blackout masks for pool training anymore.

If you wanted specific dates you would need to find an old instructor. Someone who has been through the evolution of the standards.

 

[JVos]

When I took my open water class in the 80's we had tables to 200'. My instructor gave us cards for PADI, NAUI, YMCA, and we could get a CMAS card for extra. As long as we stayed out of deco, we were good to go. I don't know how you could stay out of deco and hit 200' though. I don't remember exactly, but I seem to think it was 4 minutes at 200'.

 

[northernone]

When I took my open water class in the 80's we had tables to 200'. My instructor gave us cards for PADI, NAUI, YMCA, and we could get a CMAS card for extra. As long as we stayed out of deco, we were good to go. I don't know how you could stay out of deco and hit 200' though. I don't remember exactly, but I seem to think it was 4 minutes at 200'.

Maybe with NDLs similar to these:

 

[emoreira]

This is my personal idea and is open to discussion.
If you consider a standard RMV and you calculate the amount of air you need to do a square dive to a depth of 18 meters + security stop + reserve, you will have the amount of air in a standard 80 cf cylinder.
Diving to a shallower depth you will be limited by the amount of air in the cilinder.
Diving to a deeper depth you will be limited by the NDL.
So, as an OW diver without deep diving training nor experience, it's ok to limit your depth to 18 meters.

 

[Akimbo]

I have no idea. when i got my ow in the 60's the qual dive was to 40+ ft after that we had no limits like today.

My experience was similar. Our instructor led us is to about 120'/37M in very loosely supervised pairs for our final day of class, when weather permitted access to Carmel Bay. That was on the class's 11th open sea Scuba dive -- the first dive of the 6th and final day ocean dives. We knew enough to teach ourselves to progress deeper at our own pace after that. I never heard of depth limits on certifications until starting US Navy Second Class Diving School 8 years later. We understood our limits without them being imposed.

I imagine that limits for recreational divers started before then, but the subject didn't come up in my small circle of divers.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

When I got OW certified in 1998 we learned the PADI RDP tables. I don’t remember any 60’ limit, we were told 130’ was the recreational limit and 140’ was for emergencies only.
On my 5th dive out of open water I did a boat trip to Monterey and they took us to a 95’ wall outside of Pt. Lobos. The captain was fine with us doing the dive as long as we payed attention to our NDL, came up slow, did our 15’ stop, and had 500 psi in our tanks when we got back on the boat. He told us if we could do that for him he’d let us do the next dive, and we did. Maybe the training and mindset is different in a cold water place like Norcal. The boat was filled with locals who were used to it.
When I took AOW the “deep” dive was kind of a joke because I’d already been deeper than we went for our deep dive, only 70’. They said anything past 60’ was considered deep. AFAIK, at that time AOW was supposed to train you to “officially” be qualified to dive to 130’. The AOW 100’ then 130’ with a deep specialty is something new.
I can’t help but think it’s nothing more than a money grab.

 

[NAM001]

When I got OW certified in 1998 we learned the PADI RDP tables. I don’t remember any 60’ limit, we were told 130’ was the recreational limit and 140’ was for emergencies only.
On my 5th dive out of open water I did a boat trip to Monterey and they took us to a 95’ wall outside of Pt. Lobos. The captain was fine with us doing the dive as long as we payed attention to our NDL, came up slow, did our 15’ stop, and had 500 psi in our tanks when we got back on the boat. He told us if we could do that for him he’d let us do the next dive, and we did. Maybe the training and mindset is different in a cold water place like Norcal. The boat was filled with locals who were used to it.
When I took AOW the “deep” dive was kind of a joke because I’d already been deeper than we went for our deep dive, only 70’. They said anything past 60’ was considered deep. AFAIK, at that time AOW was supposed to train you to “officially” be qualified to dive to 130’. The AOW 100’ then 130’ with a deep specialty is something new.
I can’t help but think it’s nothing more than a money grab.

Eric you hit so many good points. the first one was the rec limit was 130 ft and that was true but the training did not support that limit. the dive industry is the only one that does not consider 60 ft a OW limit. Insurance companies take it as a liimt. Your card says OW and you die diving to 100 you exceeded your documented training level . the dive industry ignores it because they loose money if they required divers to have a AOW card to do 80 ft dives. I view it as OW cert is only a portion of the total OW recreational training. Just like plane take off in ideal conditions is only part of the whole pilot training program. You still have to learn how to land in a cross wind. Just like you do not get a solo piolots license and jump behind the stick of a 150 commercial passenger jet.

 

[Jay]

I assumed 18m was selected as it gets you to the surface in 1min at max recommended ascent speed.

Between OW and AOW and official limits it was explained to me by my instructor that the official limit was 140ft. Everything shallower are recommendations - even for OW.

Apart from knowing what PADI officially says (their course manuals read as if it's official but I think are poorly written) @boulderjohn would know that in an instant, it's important for insurance purposes.