Quickest path to deco diving?

[broncobowsher]

Deep air, not great. But a rebreather is great for the deep stuff. An expensive way to be frugile.

To the OP, take the AN/DP classes. Enjoy the new found ground. Not as far as your final plan, but a good start. Just getting to 150' will get you into the deco game. See how you like it. How easy is it for you to be narced? Maybe you can do 150' dives just fine on air. Maybe you will never get there without Helium. You will be the only one that it matters to. I've done the math and puzzle games and do pretty well. I have seen others who can't go below 120' and remember they were there. That is why you take classes and learn about this stuff, have someone watch over you and make sure you are not a total nut case in the deep. You may have no choice but go for the Helium.

 

[rx7diver]

[Quickest path to deco diving] ... I am never going to do cave diving, but would like to do some of the very deep wreck dives beyond 130 but less than 180.

@scoobert,

IANTD used to offer a "Deep Air" certification (a single high-oxygen-content deco gas), and an "Advanced Deep Air" certification (two high-oxygen-content deco gases), with both of these certifications using air as a bottom gas.

And either TDI or IANTD used to offer a "Technical Nitrox" certification, with "lean" EAN as a bottom gas and two high-oxygen-content deco gases.

I don't know if these types of certification are offered any longer by any certification agency.

All three of these types of certification are "accelerated deco" certifications; the high-oxygen-content deco gas(es) get you out of deco faster, relatively safely, and "cleaner."

Now, what if you wanted to do these deco dives, but without "accelerating" your deco schedule? That is, what if you wanted to do these deco dives using bottom gas (air or "lean" EAN) for deco? Is there a certification agency that offers a certification for this? I don't know. But, you might use the U.S. Navy (air) tables to compute a couple of short-bottom-time profiles/schedules (say, bottom times of 20 min, 25 min, and 30 min) for these deco dives to (say) 130 fsw, 140 fsw, and 150 fsw--to give you some idea about the gas requirements if you were to do this type of deco diving.

rx7diver

 

[rx7diver]

@DandyDon is gonna be posting your death on here if you wanna be diving that deep on air and rushing into deep tech diving. Yes you can do it. Yes people have done it for years, but there’s a reason it’s so frowned upon and why deep air dives are going the way of the dodo. Find a reputable instructor and ask what you need to do.

@Robert H. Diver,

In 2000, I did a "deep air" dive in Grand Cayman, diving with DiveTech. IIRC, the dive was planned for 165 fsw for 25 min bottom time, using air as a bottom gas, and EAN80 for deco. This was my first (and only) warm water "extended range" dive.

This was a relatively easy deco dive (for me), since I was using (for the first time) a 2/3 mm wetsuit jumpsuit and manifolded Al 80's (and an Al 40) for a "tech dive." (I had been doing deeper "deep air" dives on Great Lakes shipwrecks for several years before that CI dive, using a drysuit and manifolded HP100 and HP120 cylinders.)

I enjoyed that dive on the CI wall, immensely. To my mind, there is no reason why others, properly trained and sufficiently experienced, can't enjoy such a dive, too--if their sensitivity to narcosis allows it, that is.

Many newer divers have been led to believe this type of diving is foolhardy and/or obsolete. I don't agree.

rx7diver

 

[jadairiii]

IANTD used to offer a "Deep Air" certification ...and an "Advanced Deep Air" certification .... "Technical Nitrox" certification,

rx7diver

All IANTD. IANTD also had a Technical Deep Air course (I have both Tech Nitrox and Tech Deep Air, "earned" in the early 90's) Structure of the Tech Deep Air class when I took it was "you survived, here is your card..."

 

[jadairiii]

for many there is no problem with air at 150.

Some of the most fun you will every have on a trimix dive is watching all the deep air divers perform at depth that claim to be good on air deep. Then asking them specific questions about what they were doing down there, afterward on the boat.

 

[rx7diver]

All IANTD. IANTD also had a Technical Deep Air course (I have both Tech Nitrox and Tech Deep Air, "earned" in the early 90's) ...

Interesting. I think IANTD was not offering (no longer offering) a "Tech Deep Air" cert when I was training in the mid-1990's.

 

[Marie13]

@Robert H. Diver,

In 2000, I did a "deep air" dive in Grand Cayman, diving with DiveTech. IIRC, the dive was planned for 165 fsw for 25 min bottom time, using air as a bottom gas, and EAN80 for deco. This was my first (and only) warm water "extended range" dive.

This was a relatively easy deco dive (for me), since I was using (for the first time) a 2/3 mm wetsuit jumpsuit and manifolded Al 80's (and an Al 40) for a "tech dive." (I had been doing deeper "deep air" dives on Great Lakes shipwrecks for several years before that CI dive, using a drysuit and manifolded HP100 and HP120 cylinders.)

I enjoyed that dive on the CI wall, immensely. To my mind, there is no reason why others, properly trained and sufficiently experienced, can't enjoy such a dive, too--if their sensitivity to narcosis allows it, that is.

Many newer divers have been led to believe this type of diving is foolhardy and/or obsolete. I don't agree.

rx7diver

2000

22 years ago. Just because something was a good idea back then doesn’t mean it’s a good idea now.

“Sonny, back in my day…”

 

[rx7diver]

Some of the most fun you will every have on a trimix dive is watching all the deep air divers perform at depth that claim to be good on air deep. Then asking them specific questions about what they were doing down there, afterward on the boat.

Yes, I've described here, before, a couple of my very deep deep air dives! Different experience entirely for me, though, when I was air diving to "only" 165 fsw/50 m.

rx7diver

 

[Vicko]

I'm not the most safety conscious diver on here. About half of my dives are in the 40-50m range air dives with back gass deco. I don't like using helium if I don't have to and for my conditions of good visibility, warm temperatures, simple wreck penetration and very little gear encumbrance I don't feel the need to use it at those depths.

That said I got to this stage of diving step by step in about 15 years and hundreds of dives a year.
Deco diving is easy, even multiple stage dives, heck using a eccr is easy, that is it's easy until everything works as it should. And once poop hits the fan it suddenly and sometimes violently stops being easy.


The only way to be clear headed and survive those situations is by experience, and that takes time, so no matter what you do take your time and enjoy diving before you start adding in factors that reduce the enjoyment.

 

[jadairiii]

Interesting. I think IANTD was not offering (no longer offering) a "Tech Deep Air" cert when I was training in the mid-1990's.

Received bot Tech Nitrox and Tec Deep Air in 1995....may have been one of the last?