Old time scuba divers

[NorCalDM]

I applaud PADI's use of the word "must" in "After Certification - Must dive with a parent/guardian or PADI Professional to 12 meters/40 feet maximum depth." However, the same question remains as with the "recommended limits" for adult divers: what is the consequence for breaking this limit? Are there scuba police for 10-11 year-olds but not for adults? Of course not.

Maybe I think I've seen a few at our local training site! Oh those were just new instructors sorry my bad.

 

[DogDiver]

I started diving in 1966. No certification needed then. When we bought our gear as there was no such thing as rental gear then. The dive shop owner said: breathe normal and don’t hold your breath. Have fun. Didn’t get certified until 1972 with YMCA. Again. Don’t dove too deep or you’ll run out of air.

 

[Pressurehead]

I started diving in 1966.

Beat me by 2 years.
As for depth "recommended limits", [ I can't remember what I had for breakfast ] ?
Dives to 45m were common on air [twin cylinders], and we survived.

 

[tridacna]

1976 NAUI. Pink ribbon as a depth gauge. Whatever gear we could manufacture. I was in South Africa. Stuff was hard to come by.

 

[Barefoot_Lawyer]

I applaud PADI's use of the word "must" in "After Certification - Must dive with a parent/guardian or PADI Professional to 12 meters/40 feet maximum depth." However, the same question remains as with the "recommended limits" for adult divers: what is the consequence for breaking this limit? Are there scuba police for 10-11 year-olds but not for adults? Of course not.

There are real police that would want to talk with you about child endangerment. They might not find out unless your kid needs medical treatment - medical professionals are mandated reporters.

 

[Lorenzoid]

There are real police that would want to talk with you about child endangerment. They might not find out unless your kid needs medical treatment - medical professionals are mandated reporters.

I'm sure if your kid gets hurt at a shallower depth than the 40 feet PADI says "must" be imposed as a limit, there could still be an investigation, just as there could be if an adult diver were hurt at less than 130 feet under the care of a divemaster. Yet PADI says "must" when the limit applies to 10-11 year old divers, but only "recommends" limits for adult divers.

 

[jonhall]

I think the depth limits get misinterpreted by many instructors and then that gets passed on to the students. The depth limits PADI imposes are for training dives and are standards for the instructor to follow.

Exactly. There are a slew of scuba diving websites (not sure how to describe them) that promote and write about scuba. They perpetuate the myth that there are depth limits for different certification levels - I would even say some dive op websites do the same thing. It can be confusing. I took a couple of minutes and went to a few different websites to see the wording - posted a few below -different color, different website.

But in general, recreation diving can only be done to a certain depth. The diving institution has set some basic depth levels depending on the training and expertise of a diver.

• 12 meters – for adults who haven’t received any training can go as deep as 40 feet. The same limit has been set for children even if they have diving certification.
• 18 meters – adults who have received a basic open water certification can go as deep as 60 feet.
• 21 meters – teenagers with an advanced certification in diving as permitted to go as deep as 70 feet.
• 40 meters – for adults who are advanced diver training can go as deep as 130 feet.

Certified Adult Diver​

Open Water Divers have limits of 18m (60 feet) while Advanced Open Water are to 30m (95 feet) or 40m (130 feet) if they take any deep dive specialty courses.

• The maximum depth for an SDI (Scuba Diving International) Open Water Scuba Diver is 18 meters (60 feet).

So after your Open Water course, your option for going deeper is taking the next certification course.

As a new diver you learned a certain skill set to enable you to dive safely. Your certification allows a maximum depth of 60 ft, there are actually good reasons for this:

 

[Stoo]

Was anyone been certified that long ago?

Oh Child... ;-)
I'd been an Instructor/Guide and Instructor Course Director and briefly, a commercial diver by the time you got certified.

But you're nnot wrong. Courses then were much more extensive and you actually learned how to dive in one comprehensive course.

Then PADI was born (mid-70s?) and proceeded to turn one or two comprehensive course into about 14 little snippets. All well and good of course, as long as the new diver has the will and the ways to take those 14 courses...

 

[Bob DBF]

I learned to SCUBA dive from the man who owned the gear and "The New Science of Skin and SCUBA Diving" in 1962. The book was the basis for all OW training since. My book training was to NDL at 190', physical training was solo to 30' or so, except for exercises in buddy breathing.

Why 40 metres/130 feet? There’s a bit of physics and physiology involved in a full explanation, but the short answer is: 40 metres/130 feet is the deepest you can dive without having to perform decompression stops on your way back to the surface. This depth limit is often referred to as the “no-decompression limit,” “NDL,” or “no-stop limit.” It’s also the depth at which most divers begin to feel the effects of gas narcosis (aka nitrogen narcosis). [emphasis in original]

Before the recreational "standard" of 120 to 132 feet, depending on who you talk to, the training and tables went to 190' for NDL, which they remain to this day on US Navy dive tables.

After 18 years of diving, including staged decompression, in 1980 I took an OW class, as getting fills out of my area without a card was unpredictable. My class was NAUI/PADI and I was informed that my passing the course had nothing to do with my diving, but my demeanor and my ability to to be an example of a seasoned diver should act. I was to be a good example of a diver or fail, it was a harder than you might think.

The recreational limit was 130', the plastic tables went to 140' in case one wandered past 130' for whatever reason. In the back of the PADI book are the Navy tables to 190', the NDL depth limit.

 

[greeniguana]

1986. PADI Junior OW, age 12.

I don't remember anyone ever telling me what the depth limits were. I did some crazy diving in high school and college.

I survived, and it was a blast.