How Deep on Air

[Pavao]

Like in caves, there should be a warning sign for every deep air dive, "there is nothing this deep worth diving air to see"

All my single tanks are filled with nitrox, it's always full, my OW doubles are filled with trimix, starting at 21/35, my cave doubles are filled with 32%, if I need trimix on it, there's no hesitation to dump it and re-fill it.

All my tanks are always full, singles, doubles and deco bottles gets filled right after it's used, I may have one stage where I wait based on the dive.

 

[Stoo]

Deep air is not a diving specialty, its a suicide club.

Respectfully, that's a ridiculous statement... especially coming from someone who claims he's done 100-199 dives. "Deeper air" was the only way to dive up until a few years ago. Nitrox was a rare commodity and trimix was unheard of for the most part.

The people I dive with regularly dive 160 - 190 on air... every weekend, in frigid water in the Great Lakes. We function just fine, have been doing it for decades wthout incident (perhaps the odd freeze-up back when regs weren't so "cold-water friendly"). I use a complex camera system at those depths.

It's not for everyone, and by all means dive mix. But a blanket statement that deep air is suicidal is simply not true.

 

[Pavao]

Uneventful dives are so easy to do.

 

[t4e]

Deep air is not a diving specialty, its a suicide club.

Ive been to 160' under a controlled environment with support divers on trimix to learn that being really Narced is dangerous.

I went back on a 17/40 mix and man what a difference a bit of helium makes.

T.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

John Chatterton, Richie Kohler, Kevin Brennan...do those names ring a bell?

 

[PfcAJ]

Shall we list the dead ones, while we're at it?

 

[tomfcrist]

Can we refrain from bickering about if deep air is dangerous or not?
The reality is that some of us used to do it all the time, and others haven't been around long enough to remember those days.
Some people were taught from the start that trimix is the answer for everything below a certain depth, and others decided to make the transition from deep air to trimix. Even with as nice as trimix is for deep dives, there are some that are unwilling to pay for helium, and others that will dive air because it's what they have always done.

 

[Pavao]

Yeah, in the past there was no anesthesia, so next time you need a root canal done, ask you dentist to not use anesthesia, because that's how it was done in the past.

---------- Post added February 26th, 2014 at 10:30 PM ----------

You know, English isn't first language, I had to look up definition of "bickering"

bick·er
ˈbikər/
verb
[COLOR=#878787 !important]gerund or present participle: bickering[/COLOR]

• 1.
  argue about petty and trivial matters.
  
  
  
  

I guess that sums it up how people see deep dive on air, trivial matter. Time for me to unsubscribe from this one.

 

[tomfcrist]

Pavao, it's trivial because no amount of discussion will change the opinion of either side of the argument. Look at agency tec standards. TDI has a specific course to teach deep air(extended range), and their Deco class certifies to 150 on air. In contrast NAUI teaches deco and advanced nitrox together, with a depth limit of 130.... Anything deeper requires helium as per course standards. Different strokes for different folks man.

 

[ajduplessis]

John Chatterton, Richie Kohler, Kevin Brennan...do those names ring a bell?

Yes these names ring a bell and from your reply so do you, or at least the story. So please take the time and ask John if he will do any form of deep air diving. The anwser will be NO and NOOO!!! Because John undestand the dangers of deep air and the value of trimix. That is why he started using it at great expense, risk and little data for the dives he planned.

So when you through names around please use the full story and not the bits that support your view!! Your are norrow minded and missed the entire point of his "adventures". John helped change this industry and made it a safer place. Stop dragging the name an effort around the dangers of deep air through the mud!!!

John contributed and unfortunately I am not allowed to use the word I want to describe your contribution.

 

[drbill]

I did 180-200 a couple of times as part of my trimix course. It required 100% focus to keep on-task and accomplish all the skills.

Agree. I did a 151 fsw dive about a year after I stopped doing my routine deep dives and I was as narced as I've ever been. Today I could not do such deep dives without being an idiot.

However, when I had acclimated my body to deep air diving with 2-3 months of increasing depth, I could dive to 200 fsw without any serious narcosis. I judged that because I was able to search fairly wide areas (vis was good down there) to locate subjects, properly frame the subjects and follow them as they moved. If I were to drop down to 200 fsw today, that would be impossible as my maximum depth over the last year or so has probably been no deeper than 120 fsw.