Tortuga68...... what exactly made you opt to take this course.... when you also had the option of Extended Range and/or Trimix?
The PSAI
course doesn't seem that novel, as depth, air, time awareness should be hammered home to students at each stage of a regular tech training program anyway.
Using the 'drunk' analogy. This is like coaching a drunk to pass a sobriety test. Eventually anyone could down a bottle of whisky and walk a straight line, stand on one foot whilst touching their nose. They are still drunk though...still incapacitated...and still a danger to themselves and others if they attempted to drive an automobile.
I am strongly against level 5 (240') of this course on principle. At the risk of being a hypocrite, however, I would reflect on numerous deep air dives I have done in the 70-80m range. I conducted some quite hazardous wreck penetrations at those depths and, I believe now, that it was only good luck that brought me up safely on every occasion. With hindsight, I realize that I would have been completely incapable of dealing with any sort of major problem.
I certainly developed sufficient mental focus to
cut through the fog, and I could run a perfect dive at those depths whilst impaired....but I also learnt that my brain was like mush whenever I had to attempt anything non-routine or unplanned.
As stated by the OP and the PSAI website.... their course teaches motor skills. Well.... motorskills and routines are fine...they allow the conduct of a dive, even whilst severely impaired. However, they cannot teach you to quickly and accurately problem solve whilst impaired.... and that is the biggest issue.
It is possible to routinely dive deep air...and gain a degree of confidence in doing so....as long as nothing unanticipated happens. If it does, you can flip a coin on your chances of getting back unscathed.
Setting aside the (serious) issues of exceeding safe ppo2, this course seems like nothing more than a series of poorly planned (
instructor not on trimix, 100% O2 deco left on the line etc)
bounce dives, where the only learning element is something that every developing tech diver should be recieving as routine anyway.
