Maximum depth for recreational divers

[The Logic Theorist]

What difference does it make? Are you going to change your answer if I say Nitrox? All I'm saying is 130' can be dove on both without a problem.


As far as having to be right? I could care less what you actually do.

No, I just think you're doing uneccessary nitpicking. All I said was I assumed you were asking based on having air in the tanks. You could have said, "Yes, that's what I meant." and then none of this nonsense would have been neccessary.

I'm genuinely curious though: Did you start this thread because you wanted to know what the concensus for max depth for rec divers was? Or becuase you think your last answer is correct and wanted a spring board to jump off and tell us why?

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

No, I just think you're doing uneccessary nitpicking. All I said was I assumed you were asking based on having air in the tanks. You could have said, "Yes, that's what I meant." and then none of this nonsense would have been neccessary.

I'm genuinely curious though: Did you start this thread because you wanted to know what the concensus for max depth for rec divers was? Or becuase you think your last answer is correct and wanted a spring board to jump off and tell us why?

I understand what you are asking, all I'm saying is it does not matter. Air or EANx both can be dove to WHATEVER DEPTH you believe is an acceptable limit for no decompression diving. The question was and remains, "What is the Maximum depth for recreational divers."

No I have no spring board to launch anything. In another thread we were discussing if there was in fact an industry norm for recreational limits. I posted a poll to see what everyone else thought. You will notice the last option in the voting pole is what another user stated as his answer so I found it fitting to include it as an answer.

 

[Walter]

There's no hard and fast limit. What is my limit may be where another diver with different skills, experience and goals is just getting started. OTOH, some may not want to go near my limits. Think outside the box.

Yeah, but once you're doing staged decompression diving you are no longer, by definition, diving recreationally.

I disagree.

rec·re·a·tion –noun 1. refreshment by means of some pastime, agreeable exercise, or the like.
2. a pastime, diversion, exercise, or other resource affording relaxation and enjoyment.

Unless you are diving for pay, you are diving for recreation.

 

[BDSC]

There's no hard and fast limit. What is my limit may be where another diver with different skills, experience and goals is just getting started. OTOH, some may not want to go near my limits. Think outside the box.



I disagree.

rec·re·a·tion –noun 1. refreshment by means of some pastime, agreeable exercise, or the like.
2. a pastime, diversion, exercise, or other resource affording relaxation and enjoyment.

Unless you are diving for pay, you are diving for recreation.

That may be the definition for the word "recreation" but it's not the definition of "recreational diving". But I thought people would find the following definition interesting. It is from a book published in 1997.

HOW DOES RECREATIONAL SCUBA DIVING DIFFER FROM OTHER FORMS OF SCUBA DIVING?

Diving was revolutionized by the development of a workable demand regulator, co-invented in 1943 by Jacques Cousteau and Emil Gagnan. The "sport" of scuba diving did not catch on for another 10 years. Today the greatest use of scuba equipment is for recreational diving. Recreational scuba diving, as taught by national certifying agencies, is defined as diving that:

Uses only compressed air as the breathing mixture.
Is never done solo.
Does not exceed a depth of 130 feet.
Has a depth-time profile not requiring a decompression stop; if necessary one can ascend to the surface without stopping.
Does not require specialized training beyond the basic open water course.

BDSC

 

[The Logic Theorist]

I disagree.

rec·re·a·tion –noun 1. refreshment by means of some pastime, agreeable exercise, or the like.
2. a pastime, diversion, exercise, or other resource affording relaxation and enjoyment.

Unless you are diving for pay, you are diving for recreation.

You can disagree all you want, but the certification agencies do not consider staged deco diving to be recreational diving. There is a very well defined, very well understood and very commonly accepted line between recreational diving and technical diving, and NDL limits are a huge part of that.

You're making a disctinction between diving for fun and diving for pay, which does also exist. But that doesn't negate or take the place of the standard disctinction between rec and tech diving.

 

[Randy43068]

Many recreational divers that I've seen aren't safe at 30 feet let alone a hundred!!

Until the popular training agencies start teaching gas planning at least to a minimum level I believe the depth limit should be 60 feet!!

 

[Tomeck]

I think 130 feet. 130 feet is not problem for no decompression diving.

 

[Walter]

I thought people would find the following definition interesting. It is from a book published in 1997.

What book? It's not much of a reference without at least knowing what it is.

There is a very well defined, very well understood and very commonly accepted line between recreational diving and technical diving, and NDL limits are a huge part of that.

Actually, different agencies have different definitions, so it's far from "very well defined." Furthermore, there's no need for a distinction between recreational and technical diving. The distinction is silly at best and egotistical at it's ugliest.

 

[The Logic Theorist]

Actually, different agencies have different definitions, so it's far from "very well defined." Furthermore, there's no need for a distinction between recreational and technical diving. The distinction is silly at best and egotistical at it's ugliest.

But there -is- a distinction between recreational and technical diving. You may disagree with it, but it -is- there. Clearly plenty of people found a need for that distinction, or it wouldn't exist. NDL limits are a big part of where that line is drawn. I do not know of any certifying agency that defines staged decompression diving as recreational diving, but you are welcome to point me to a statement from any that does.

And I'm not a mindreader, but I'm guessing the OP was not including things like staged decompression diving and other things that are commonly accepted by most people to fall under the umbrella of technical diving in his definition of recreational diving and recreational diving gear when posting this thread.

 

[ClayJar]

Okay, here's a little interesting bit of information. Below is a table of depth (in feet of salt water) vs. SAC (in cubic feet per minute) at or below which you will hit NDL (from the NAUI tables) before you exhaust all the air from an AL80, assuming no descent/ascent time and no reserve. (This is from a table with SACs in 0.05 cfm increments.)

Depth|SAC
40|0.25
50|0.35
60|0.45
70|0.50
80|0.60
90|0.80
100|0.85
110|1.15
120|1.30
130|1.80

While very few brand new divers will have low enough air consumption to hit NDL at 40 feet, once you're getting past 100 feet, all but the most extreme breathers could end up hitting NDL before they go OOA.

If a diver's been doing "shallow" dives (let's say, less than 60 feet), they may mistakenly assume that they need only to watch their air and they'll be fine (since they've always been well within their tables). On a "deep" dive (say, over 100'), if they follow their SPG as they had been, they may end up with a deco obligation. Coupled with the already longer ascents and greater gas consumption at depth, and you can easily see someone wandering unawares into a very bad situation (and that's not even factoring mental factors such as narcosis).

Perhaps there is logic in observing a *personal* depth limit until you are confident in and experienced with your ability to monitor gas consumption, time limits, depth, buoyancy, and so on, as is necessary on "deeper" dives.