Rodale's pushing deep air.

[Tracy]

Deep air never went away, you guys just stopped associating with the people who do it.
A lot of small scale commercial divers all over the world, be it fish, inshore construction or farming, use air exclusively and they go well beyond 50m and do deco on it without getting killed due to their gas choice.

Commercial diving and scuba have nothing in common beyond being underwater.

 

[Celt]

Commercial diving and scuba have nothing in common beyond being underwater.

Scuba is used commercially in aquaculture.

Commercial Scuba Diving Operations – BIM

Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM)'s Commercial Scuba Diving programme

bim.ie

 

[boulderjohn]

I gave this thread more that a scan than you might expect. It's from barely a few weeks before I started on ScubaBoard. None of the names in it are active now. It was interesting, though, to see a few names that used to be very active before disappearing quite a few years ago.

It was even more interesting to compare the points of view from two decades ago to what you would see if a similar thread were to be started today. One of the problems of today that is not mentioned in this thread is the fact that it is becoming harder and harder to get helium. That is one of the reasons I stopped teaching. For several months I could not get any at all, and it is very hard to teach trimix when you don't have any helium for yourself and your students. It is hard to do trimix dives when you don't have any helium.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I gave this thread more that a scan than you might expect. It's from barely a few weeks before I started on ScubaBoard. None of the names in it are active now. It was interesting, though, to see a few names that used to be very active before disappearing quite a few years ago.

It was even more interesting to compare the points of view from two decades ago to what you would see if a similar thread were to be started today. One of the problems of today that is not mentioned in this thread is the fact that it is becoming harder and harder to get helium. That is one of the reasons I stopped teaching. For several months I could not get any at all, and it is very hard to teach trimix when you don't have any helium for yourself and your students. It is hard to do trimix dives when you don't have any helium.

“It’s hard to do trimix dives with no helium”, you think?
What about GUE divers going beyond 100’ now if they don’t have any helium? Don’t they only use normoxic trimix past 100’?

 

[Angelo Farina]

There is also a gray area, at least here in Italy: coral hunters ("corallari").
These guys had their glory days in 60's ans 70's.
At the time they were diving down to 100+ meters in air and were considered the best scuba divers, a role model for all of us.
The most famous one was Raimondo Bucher.
Calling them commercial divers is inappropriate. Most of them became coral hunters for reasons unrelated from the money gained selling the red coral.
See here: Raimondo Bucher - Wikipedia

And here (possibly using Google Translate):

Il sommozzatore corallaro, un mestiere unico al mondo | Storie di Alghero

Per millenni il corallo rosso del Mediterraneo occidentale è stato pescato da arabi, catalani, provenzali,…con semplici attrezzi.

www.storiedialghero.it

 

[Vicko]

Commercial diving and scuba have nothing in common beyond being underwater.

3/4 of my inshore work are on scuba. I don't want to make it a discussion because surface supply is safer and more effective but on most of my jobs I can't afford to get another 2 divers and a support crew.

 

[Celt]

There is also a gray area, at least here in Italy: coral hunters ("corallari").
These guys had their glory days in 60's ans 70's.
At the time they were diving down to 100+ meters in air and were considered the best scuba divers, a role model for all of us.
The most famous one was Raimondo Bucher.
Calling them commercial divers is inappropriate. Most of them became coral hunters for reasons unrelated from the money gained selling the red coral.
See here: Raimondo Bucher - Wikipedia

And here (possibly using Google Translate):

Il sommozzatore corallaro, un mestiere unico al mondo | Storie di Alghero

Per millenni il corallo rosso del Mediterraneo occidentale è stato pescato da arabi, catalani, provenzali,…con semplici attrezzi.

www.storiedialghero.it

Some very good footage here,

 

[Tracy]

3/4 of my inshore work are on scuba. I don't want to make it a discussion because surface supply is safer and more effective but on most of my jobs I can't afford to get another 2 divers and a support crew.

And you are doing that at 50+ meters on air?
I get it, most of my commercial work is on scuba, I really only have one customer that I use a hat and a team, it is required for that contract.
But it is all shallow and isn't recreational diving. If it was deep, I would do it on SS.

 

[scubaozy]

If you were born in the Philippines, you would be breathing air from a bare hose without second stage for 2 dollars a day. You would not be able to choose between a hat or jj. I travel quite a bit, deep air is still there it is because that is what people can afford. Trend is slowly changing as the equipment and training is becoming more available and accessible to everyone.

 

[Marie13]

“It’s hard to do trimix dives with no helium”, you think?
What about GUE divers going beyond 100’ now if they don’t have any helium? Don’t they only use normoxic trimix past 100’?

I asked that question at least a year ago - would GUE consider rethinking the trimix past 100’ rule if helium wasn’t available? The other poster just danced around the question.