How would you prepare a new OW diver for 80' and drift dives?

[lamont]

I am assuming you havnt dove in tropical waters yet, it really is a whole different kind of diving to itself. With 100ft vis everything is much more relaxed (warm water helps) that the PNW. The free accents is what i would actually make sure you can deal with. I didnt think about them at first, but when i have done drift dives in Maui with a group, they tell you to let the DM know what you are at 1000 and 500psi, then at 500 he tells you to surface. Meaning go up do your saftey stop in mid water w/ current. (sometimes over 100 feet from the othere people and possibly out of vis range) and then when your done with your stop find the boat. This didnt bother me but ic an see how it may bother some to do a saftey stop alone.

You should be surfacing with 500 psi or more, not ascending with 500 psi. You really shouldn't be starting to ascend from 100 fsw with only 500 psi. With an Al80 you should be reserving about 1300 psi to get up from 100 fsw.

You have to plan for an emergency at depth at the worst possible time. Right when you hit 1300 psi you may have another diver who dropped earlier or with a higher SAC rate (possibly not even your buddy) go OOA and grab your reg out of your mouth and knock your mask off. You need to be able to recover from that, get your backup mask on (you have on right?) and ascend with both you and the OOA diver and complete all your stops. And don't rely on the DM to save you, when you need the DM the most, Murphy dictates that the DM will be off task loaded and distracted with some other divers having problems...

 

[Bretagus]

As most of the others have posted, its a tough call, but I'd say 80ft is fine if you're calm in the water and have your basic skills down.

My first dive after cert was an 80ft drift dive off Grand Cayman. At the time I was fine... just stayed with the group, etc. Looking back on it, however, it seems like I was a bit cavalier, to say the least! Had much of anything gone wrong, I am not certain I would have known how to handle it.

Talk to the dive operator before you go out there; if you are diving a few days with them, they will often make your first day shallower to check you out and give you time to adjust before you tackle the riskier stuff.

 

[ZenSquirrel]

The # of dives that you have logged does not matter.
Your lifetime bottom time does not matter.
You lifetime max depth does not matter.

Diving is not magic. You get a certification in diving so that you have been educated about the main risks in diving and how to avoid them. Everybody gets a drivers license for the same reason.

Here is how you figure out if you should go on a dive.
"Do you have a good understanding of the skills that you will need for this dive?"
"Do you think you can do those skills?"
"Does it sound like fun?"

If the answer to those questions is "Yes" then you are probably good to go.

If you don't think that you can come up with a list of skills that you need then you don't yet know enough to do it yourself. Dive more more experienced divers.

There are plenty of people that tell you that you need 20 or 30 or 50 dives before you can try something new. This is just a rule of thumb. In their experience most people need about that much practice at diving before they start to get comfortable with it. Some need more, some need less.

 

[UWSojourner]

You have plenty of time to prepare. And preparation is your friend.

First, if you are diving once a week, then concentrate on buoyancy control. You should be able maintain your position in the water column without bumping everything in site and performing a fin sweep over the bottom.

If that's under control, then go on a boat dive where you know you'll ascend on a line. Do it, perform a couple of stops on the way up including your safety stop. The more you do, the better you'll get.

Finally, there is drift diving near you. Contact Bandito charters. Book it, enjoy it, and get used to it. If you don't fight it it's easy. If you book it with a local shop tell them you'd like to "tag along" with more experienced divers who aren't going deep. If you want an instructor that's fine.

My experience only ... no flames necessary ... but if I had to do it over again I would not consider doing the other common certifications (AOW, Deep Diver, etc.). I WOULD start preparing for and enroll as soon as possible in the DIR-Fundamentals class . I think they have the emphasis in about the right place (and FWIW I'm not DIR). It is the skillset needed if you want to continue diving and gain confidence in the water ... it would be a great learning experience.

May is a long way off and if you prepare your skills accordingly it shouldn't be a problem. Good luck.

 

[Web Monkey]

Here is how you figure out if you should go on a dive.
"Do you have a good understanding of the skills that you will need for this dive?"
"Do you think you can do those skills?"
"Does it sound like fun?"

If the answer to those questions is "Yes" then you are probably good to go.

#1 is a loaded question.

How many new OW divers even know that a BC can fail, or that there can be a downcurrent coming over the edge of a wall or are prepared to have a complete stranger come up from their blind side and mug them for their primary?

The reason new divers are recommended to stay shallow is that if the **** hits the fan and they follow their primary instinct of bolting to the surface, they'll probably live.

Every foot of additional depth reduces the time available to handle emergencies, makes the diver more narced and makes a bolt to the surface less likely to be sucessful.

Terry

 

[lamont]

Here is how you figure out if you should go on a dive.
"Do you have a good understanding of the skills that you will need for this dive?"
"Do you think you can do those skills?"
"Does it sound like fun?"

When I was doing 100 fsw dives back around dive #50 all the answers to those questions were "yes", but on later reflection the answer to the first two questions were probably "no". And I at least knew the basics of gas management back then.

 

[TSandM]

Yeah, I remember talking to a woman on our Indonesia trip. We'd just finished doing drift diving on walls that fell off to 600 feet. I was describing having to do mask remove/replace while hovering during Fundies, and she said, "Oh, I'm sure I couldn't do THAT." And I looked at her curiously and asked, "What would you have done if somebody had kicked your mask off while you were on those walls today?" And she said, "Oh, I'm always very careful when I see another diver near me." Somehow, that answer wasn't very satisfying to me.

 

[Ocean One]

I think I'l'l add one more piece to this post:
If you have dive insurance and you exceed your certification limits the insurance provider may not cover you at all, if anything happens.
If you have poersonal health insurance and the chamber ride or other medical aide you get is not an in-plan provider you will be stuck with the balance of the bill...

I am talking thousands of dollars and if you are in Mexico you can't leave the country until the bill is paid in FULL!:11:

I would suggest either get the AOW card and deep certification or stay with in your certification limits. Those that suggest other wise or blow off certification cards like to play Russian Roullette too!:light:

 

[bubba105]

You're going to have a blast. I dove a couple of days on the Playa side while in Cozumel. Our dive op brought us over to dive with big turtles and tarpon. The contour is a lot flatter than Cozumel but the drift is South to North like Cozumel. Always check to make sure of the direction of the drift but if it's S to N, land is to the left in Playa. No need for a compass, just go with the drift and swim a little to the left and it'll get shallower. Things like that will help you become more comfortable. The more comfortable you become, the less gas you'll use. Also, the water being so clear, you don't have to go to 100 feet. You'll see everything from 60 or 70 feet. The deeper divers will drift in the same direction as you. Remember, if you need to surface, look & listen for boats, that could hurt. Have fun.

 

[fire_diver]

I would suggest either get the AOW card and deep certification or stay with in your certification limits. Those that suggest other wise or blow off certification cards like to play Russian Roullette too!:light:

you *DO* realize that the depth limit to basic open water cert is either 120 or 130 feet depending on the agency right? That 60 foot limit is a suggestion. It's suggested for a reason, but there's no reason a diver can't progress thier own limits slowly and comfortably as they dive.

There are many divers who "blow off" the 30 or so follow up C-cards put out by the agencies because they don't mean much. Finding a mentor and learning how to dive right is a hell of a lot better than paying for card after card, and never really doing a single dive on your own.

Experience and practice beat out a piece of plastic any day.

you can even figure 99% of the stuff out on your own if want to study the materials, ask questions and just try new things out for your self.

Comrade Stroke