Out of air incident.

[BRT]

Which one is not true?

It is not true that you cannot breath below 150 lb tank pressure. Easy to prove. Turn your valve off and breathe on your reg.

 

[tursiops]

A diver with a PADI Open Water cert is supposed to be limited to a max depth of 60 feet. So the fact that you were going 25 feet beyond that depth and that he had just a few logged dives should have been a red flags for both you AND your buddy! Thankfully you were level headed and handled the situation allowing the dive to end without becoming a major incident.

No, the OW cert is valid to 130 ft. The recommendation is to dive to 60 ft, unless you have furter training/experience. I concur with the rest of your post. Good job, OP.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

No, the OW cert is valid to 130 ft. The recommendation is to dive to 60 ft, unless you have furter training/experience. I concur with the rest of your post. Good job, OP.

I don't agree with this. I was OW certified in December and they told us, and I also read this during the KR portion, that the limit for OW divers is 60' or the max depth at which you were trained. AOW is when you are certified to dive to the rec limit of 130'.

 

[Dan]

It is not true that you cannot breath below 150 lb tank pressure. Easy to prove. Turn your valve off and breathe on your reg.

OK, let me do a simple math that you can prove me wrong. Let's say I'm in 60' deep, ~ 30 psig or 2 barg or 3 bar absolute (bara) ambient pressure. The SPG is showing 150 psig or 10 barg or 13 bara pressure. I have 30" long hose of each low pressure hoses for the 2nd stage primary regulator + octopus + BCD inflator (total 90" long) with 1/4" (6.5mm) ID hoses, which sum of the volume comes up to 76mL x 13 bara hose pressure / 3 bara ambient pressure = 328 mL ambient air volume. My lung has about 6000mL volume. 328/6000 x 100% = 5% of my lung volume. I call that OOA.

 

[Jason]

I don't agree with this. I was OW certified in December and they told us, and I also read this during the KR portion, that the limit for OW divers is 60' or the max depth at which you were trained. AOW is when you are certified to dive to the rec limit of 130'.

Almost all major certifying agencies use the depths that you outlined as recommended limits. Everybody is free to make their own decisions. That said, you generally need to hire somebody to get you there and they'll start asking questions.

Think about it a different way. My newly certified wife went on a dive with me in Jamaica and her max depth was 62 ft. Who is going to "bust" her for doing that? There are no enforcement bodies patroling, writing tickets or pulling cards for violations. It's up to the diver, the DM, the operator and common sense to keep divers alive and safe.

 

[tursiops]

I don't agree with this. I was OW certified in December and they told us, and I also read this during the KR portion, that the limit for OW divers is 60' or the max depth at which you were trained. AOW is when you are certified to dive to the rec limit of 130'.

Even if you were right, the AOW depth would be 100, not 130.
In fact, the actual OW certification is to 130. It is only recommended to stay at 60 with OW and 100 with AOW.

P.S.
You are referring to the maximum "training" depth, 60 ft for OW and 100 ft for AOW. The recommendation is you not dive beyond your training depth. I am referring to the "certification" depth; the OW card is good to 130 ft.

 

[halocline]

Even if you were right, the AOW depth would be 100, not 130.
In fact, the actual OW certification is to 130. It is only recommended to stay at 60 with OW and 100 with AOW.

P.S.
You are referring to the maximum "training" depth, 60 ft for OW and 100 ft for AOW. The recommendation is you not dive beyond your training depth. I am referring to the "certification" depth; the OW card is good to 130 ft.

I'm sure you're correct about the policy, but it sure sends mixed messages, doesn't it? It's easy to understand why a new diver might be confused about what is an appropriate depth. Adding to the confusion is the fact that 60ft in warm clear water is a lot different than 60ft in poor visibility, currents, cold temps, entanglement hazards, etc.....

It's not an easy thing determining a "safe" maximum depth, and that's probably why PADI doesn't do a good job of providing a clear simple policy. Personally I don't know if there's a possible improvement or even how important it is.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

I'm sure you're correct about the policy, but it sure sends mixed messages, doesn't it? It's easy to understand why a new diver might be confused about what is an appropriate depth. Adding to the confusion is the fact that 60ft in warm clear water is a lot different than 60ft in poor visibility, currents, cold temps, entanglement hazards, etc.....

It's not an easy thing determining a "safe" maximum depth, and that's probably why PADI doesn't do a good job of providing a clear simple policy. Personally I don't know if there's a possible improvement or even how important it is.

I agree that it can be confusing if in fact there is a difference between training (recommended) depth and certification depth.

If I was at home I would pull out my OW book and see what it states there but I did find this from the PADI website:

"Beginning scuba divers stay shallower than about 18 metres/60 feet"

 

[Rapid Star]

here are no enforcement bodies patroling, writing tickets or pulling cards for violations. It's up to the diver, the DM, the operator and common sense to keep divers alive and safe.

Poor uneducated decisions are one of the reasons why divers get into trouble and sometimes die. It is up to the individual diver not anyone else to make the right choice when it comes to how they dive. If we want to go deep, explore a wreck or enter a cave then we have to get the proper education and training first!

 

[BRT]

OK, let me do a simple math that you can prove me wrong. Let's say I'm in 60' deep, ~ 30 psig or 2 barg or 3 bar absolute (bara) ambient pressure. The SPG is showing 150 psig or 10 barg or 13 bara pressure. I have 30" long hose of each low pressure hoses for the 2nd stage primary regulator + octopus + BCD inflator (total 90" long) with 1/4" (6.5mm) ID hoses, which sum of the volume comes up to 76mL x 13 bara hose pressure / 3 bara ambient pressure = 328 mL ambient air volume. My lung has about 6000mL volume. 328/6000 x 100% = 5% of my lung volume. I call that OOA.

Dan, I learned to dive by building a hookah. I had no money but I salvaged a 2 stroke lawn mower engine, found 2 very used second stages for cheap at a scuba shop, and splurged on a brand new oil-less compressor and 2 harnesses with one way valves to mount the regs. Built the floats out of big PVC and used them for air storage. Yeah, the air smelled like glue for awhile. It put out about 50 psi. I had two 25 foot air hoses and sometimes I connected them together and went down until the hoses wouldn't let me go anymore. At that point I had to breathe slow and steady, but I could breathe.

Hook up your reg, turn the tank on and off and breath while you watch the spg. You can breathe it to zero. At 60 feet you could only breathe it to 26 psi.