WOW! I had no idea what I started here. This scubaboard is all new to me. I don't dive to 150' four times in a day. Infact... I can count the number of times I've been to 150' ON ONE HAND! (I start to narc at around 135' so the only reason I would EVER go beyond is, 1: if visibility permits it, and 2: if I SEE SOMETHING to shoot that is beyond. These two things RARELY are in place.)
Im sorry, DIR, but in spearfishing, a "dive plan" simply CAN NOT be followed. You are there to find a nice fish and shoot him. He may be at 40 feet and you come back to the boat 10 minutes later with 1900 pounds of air. Or he may be at 140' feet and you are only minutes away from going into "deco" in order to get him up to shallower depths after the shot. So it's "reactionary" diving where you watch your SPG and your divecomputer like a hawk. There are a couple "rules of thumb" I apply as do most of my "spearfishing mentors". We go "deep" right off the bat... let the air out of the BC and drop straight down as quickly as possible on a "full tank" If you've got a shot at say 150'... you will have it immediately (either he's THERE or he's NOT) You take the shot. If you hit him, you got minutes to drag him up to say 120' and still not come close to going into deco. If you MISS... well... the time it took me to get there, see him, take the shot, and miss, I've used up my time... I've burned at least a minute and half there...I don't have another 45 seconds to reload my gun and try again. I just come back up. Period.
It is not DIR diving. The more I learn about diving.. the more I realize how risky this spearfishing sport REALLY IS. For example...how many people diving have ever contemplated that fact that at 5bar... a 1st stage regulator failure = "empty tank in about 12 seconds." I didn't know a 1st stage even COULD fail!
So I am beginning the journey of becoming a TEC diver starting this very up and coming week. My double AL80's are built. My DIN is installed. Leak checked in the bathtub. Everything is a "go." I'm "test driving" them in the training pool THIS VERY AFTERNOON (excited) and spending three whole days (Thurs thru Sun coming up) of diving in Marianna, FL with a cave instructor to do cavern and intro cave, back to back. (We'll be staying in Ed's trailer. Come out an visit us.
And finally...am listening CLOSELY to people like Perrone and others who are pointing out ALL SORTS of stuff I was unaware of. "Ignorance is bliss" I guess. Now I am realizing MANY things. My goal is to become a VERY proficient, safe, highly redundant techinical diver so that I may CONTINUE to do what I do on the oil rigs off the shore of Louisiana...only safer. I think the "cave divers" I have met are the best trained, safest, and most technically proficient divers I've ever spoken to. So I want to learn from them an apply it to "my kind" of diving.