PADI Deep Diver course- gas management

[Centrals]

I can easily believe that you never learned anything about gas management in your Deep class in 1998.

LOL.
Of course not because it was NOT taught.
Completely different story in IANTD Adv. Nitrox course. SAC etc etc and not to mention the twin set and a small deco bottle to swim around.

 

[tursiops]

LOL.
Of course not because it was NOT taught.

Yes, I believe you think it was not taught.

 

[Centrals]

Yes, I believe you think it was not taught.

LOL.
Were you there?

 

[MarkA]

The wink was because "leave the bottom at 800psi" is very common in DM briefings for warm water vacation diving.

Whether it would work for a deep class would depend on whether it was a multi-level dive. I would guess they usually are as doing a square profile to 40m is likely going to run you out of NDL time before you run out of gas.

The last 40m dives I had in warm water were multi-level as you say, with a quick dip down to 40m and stay well clear of the NDL on the computer on the way up. Makes the gas required to get 2 divers to the surface less with reducing depth and reducing cylinder pressure.

The diving in the UK I did at these depths were broken up wrecks and were square profile. Light deco and the gas planning made sense. Noted that this is outside the deep diver course.

 

[Para Goon]

I don't have any experience with PADI concerning gas planning. I went through the process of teaching myself early on in my diving education and creating spreadsheets. A few years ago I found several papers on the subjects and Kosta Koeman (a.k.a., @wetb4igetinthewater) has some great material regarding gas planning that would be an excellent starting point for those wanting to expand their knowledge. Links to his documents are in his signature.

 

[jadairiii]

Interesting to read the comments regarding what is taught in the Deep Diving class. Not to pull the GUE card, but my daughter, in REC 1, was taught minimum gas, right from the beginning, before the class ever got wet.

And I get, some instructors teach it and some dont, but what a shame that your scuba education is based on luck of the draw.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I don't have any experience with PADI concerning gas planning. I went through the process of teaching myself early on in my diving education and creating spreadsheets. A few years ago I found several papers on the subjects and Kosta Koeman (a.k.a., @wetb4igetinthewater) has some great material regarding gas planning that would be an excellent starting point for those wanting to expand their knowledge. Links to his documents are in his signature.

Thanks for the mention. The dive planning doc that covers gas management is here (and in my signature).

 

[SwimAway]

At the risk of wading into a discussion that maybe I missed the point of:
I've got the PADI open water dive manual and the PADI advanced manuals here, and they both cover gas management for recreational diving.

The focus here seems to be on what the instructor specifically teaches at the site, but you are also supposed to read the books, complete the tests at the end, etc. For the open water part you even have to do a written exam in the classroom.

During part one of open water we also went over everything in the books, and did talk about gas management, as it is covered in the open water book.

I don't think my instructors talked much about gas management calculations on the actual dives, but they did ensure I had read the books and filled out the exercise questions, which to me was ensuring I had covered those parts.

I'm just a recreational diver though, so I don't know what to compare this to. For the diving I do, which is the diving I feel PADI prepared me for, the instruction on gas management feels adequate. I'm definitely never going to run out of air if I follow the instruction I received from the books.

That said, I feel that one thing the PADI manuals impressed upon me was to not assume I know something until I've done it under instruction, and that what you don't know can kill you, so don't go into a situation for the first time without guidance. They talk about that a lot in the books. I know what I learned from the books, and I know what I worked with the instructors on, hence what I feel comfortable planning and doing.

 

[happy-diver]

That said, I feel that one thing the PADI manuals impressed upon me was to not assume I know something until I've done it under instruction, and that what you don't know can kill you, so don't go into a situation for the first time without guidance. They talk about that a lot in the books.

If I gave a piece of my mind over to all that would say that to me to excuse their existence I would have none

 

[Cthippo]

That said, I feel that one thing the PADI manuals impressed upon me was to not assume I know something until I've done it under instruction, and that what you don't know can kill you, so don't go into a situation for the first time without guidance. They talk about that a lot in the books. I know what I learned from the books, and I know what I worked with the instructors on, hence what I feel comfortable planning and doing.

That.. Philosophy... I guess is one of the things I find most frustrating about diving. I'm a huge believer in "research it, figure out what works for you, anf go try it".