Joebar
Contributor
No problem diving with helmet 
'Maximum' dive depth based on certification
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Joebar
Contributor
DAN Insurance and depth depends on your (home) location and insurance level
I have absolutely nothing against additional training if that's what an individual wants. I get that this is a worldwide audience and some of you guys/gals dive in some places that require additional skills and local knowledge, but what is driving this push for depth limits? Is there really an uptick in accidents & incidents considering the number of dives performed daily these days. Lots of these dives are in warm water, benign conditions. Why should someone after having their OW training have to get additional certs to go to 80 ft. in of all places the Caymans? What are they really going to learn in an additional AOW class that is going to benefit them in that situation that they can't learn through diving experience? How to rig and use the additional gear...a new breathing technique...a new propulsion technique...there is nothing that isn't covered in the OW standards that a diver needs to know. Sure it's nice to go there once with an instructor and see that gas goes faster or that you might encounter a narc, but those things were discussed in my OW (it wasn't that long ago) and there is no reason a reasonable person can't progress through experience to recreational depths.
I thoroughly enjoyed my AOW. I had a great instructor and those dives helped me progress as a diver given it was time spent with an instructor after I had dived enough that the process had "slowed down." I could better appreciate his input, but it in no way imparted any additional info applicable to diving between 60 ' and 130' that wasn't included in my OW training beyond documenting I had been below 60 ft. at least once. I get that this, if for no other reason, is why dive ops like AOW for advanced dives. Hopefully it also shows an additional interest in the sport/hobby and maybe they'll be less likely to have "drama" on the water, but none of that is a given. There needs to be easy work-a-rounds whether it's checkout dives, further discussion with the diver in question, vouching by other known divers etc.. I'm not saying divers should be able to walk-in off the street and demand an advanced dived (even if they have an AOW) without some level of vetting, but just going below 60 ft. in benign conditions doesn't make for an advanced dive and making an experienced OW diver jump through an additional hoop for just this reason is, IMHO, silly.
Why is mandating additional training due to depth limits for recreational diving (ndl less than 130 ft.) necessary? Is it truly for safety? Is it due to a litigious environment? Does it make life easier for a dive op to say these are agency limitations as opposed to there own imposed limits (their right, their boat, their rules) that can be negated by divers voting with their fins? Is it that some folks can't deal with other divers not diving like them (DM guided dives only at some mandated depth because that is what they are comfortable with)? Some divers not wanting the masses to enjoy the underwater environment because that somehow diminishes their own achievement? An entire segment of the diving industry that makes a living selling additional training (I don't really want to go there because, IMHO additional training is a good thing and should be available for any diver that wants it, but for progressing from 60 ft. to 130 ft.? C'mon....really???).
Sorry for the rant... but I guess I do think there are situations "where it's too much to ask." I dive with OW divers who have hundreds if not thousands of dives where mandating it is "too much to ask."All IMHO, YMMV.
This all makes sense if you say that even if todays diving course is broke up into modules the thought is that you are taking one mod after another with the intent of completing all mods. That just does not happen and there lies the problem. not with the experienced decades old divers but the new ones that do one mod and then over load themselves. As teh issue of accidents and incidents goes. I routinely have incidents of tanks falling out at depth on new divers and their buddy, having no clue as what to do. That is a severe case of in experience that can only be gained through repetition and time which once again doing one mod after the other can yeild that where doing one mod would be less likely to get to that material safety level.
Joebar
Contributor
Don't know about bikes but many studies on skiers cite a near-100% acceptance of helmets with the corresponding near-0% reduction in accident rate. (Some claim reduced severity of head trauma, there is that.)
Not sure how a helmet would prevent an accident; seems it's just about damage control in any situation.
Thanks all for the responses to my insurance coverage question. I thought there was a provision that you're only covered up to your level of training, and I'm seeing a lot of passing references to that kind of policy, but it doesn't seem to be what mine is. So I guess I can do an idiotic bounce dive to a depth 3x what I'm qualified for and only worry about dying or being maimed for life, not about being denied coverage and bankrupted. I feel so un-American!
Thanks all for the responses to my insurance coverage question. I thought there was a provision that you're only covered up to your level of training, and I'm seeing a lot of passing references to that kind of policy, but it doesn't seem to be what mine is. So I guess I can do an idiotic bounce dive to a depth 3x what I'm qualified for and only worry about dying or being maimed for life, not about being denied coverage and bankrupted. I feel so un-American!
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Helmets for Skin abd SCUBA divers was a component of NASDS in the 1960s to the 1970s
Suggest that you examine the very fine well illustrated NASDS magazines Aquarius and DIVE ! of that era and you will see advertisements and pictures of divers with BIUs and helmets.
They were not popular I only saw one or two of them and that was on a California dive boat.
It would seem appropriate with today's divers who apparently purchase every dive gadget possible and appear as a well decorated Christmas tree when the enter the water that there is once again a market for a dive helmet made with modern technology and containing 2019 gadgets be promoted as the latest in safety equipment...
SDM
Suggest that you examine the very fine well illustrated NASDS magazines Aquarius and DIVE ! of that era and you will see advertisements and pictures of divers with BIUs and helmets.
They were not popular I only saw one or two of them and that was on a California dive boat.
It would seem appropriate with today's divers who apparently purchase every dive gadget possible and appear as a well decorated Christmas tree when the enter the water that there is once again a market for a dive helmet made with modern technology and containing 2019 gadgets be promoted as the latest in safety equipment...
SDM
Personally I wouldn't be opposed to a FFM with built-in HUD and comms... well, for 2-3 hundred bucks anyway. I'm sure having all your instrument readouts in front of your eyes at all times and being able to talk to your buddy is a huge improvement in marketing safety too.
I dive so so one can talk to me. Last thing I want is comms!!
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