The depth shall be 60, 60 shall the depth be, 61 is right out unless your AOW certified????

[Bob DBF]

Just what is the reason that DM's learn to buddy breathe if only DM's know how? Not that it is a hard drill to learn or do but your post would seem to indicate the it is. So what is the purpose of A DM learning the drill? When would it be used and with whom another DM?

Probably more of a team building, confidence exercise like exchanging kits mid water and so on. Like some of the pool exercises that were used back in the day in OW classes.


Bob

 

[AfterDark]

Probably more of a team building, confidence exercise like exchanging kits mid water and so on. Like some of the pool exercises that were used back in the day in OW classes.


Bob

A few beers together would be more fun and probably more effective team building IMO.

 

[tursiops]

A few beers together would be more fun and probably more effective team building IMO.

Having done both, I'll go with the in-water team-building.

 

[Storker]

Having done both, I'll go with the in-water team-building.

The in-water thing before the beers, I hope?

 

[AfterDark]

Well, having learned to buddy breathe on a double hose regulator, and doing it for real with a single hose regulator, I find drinking beer much more fun and bonding.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Newbie question from an old timer. I was certified in 1973 and I guess either I missed the line about not exceeding 60 ft or I forgot it. Has this limitation always been in place? I am AOW certified but my wife isn't. She has over 400+ dives and we often (usually exceed 60 ft) max depth. We dive the Carribean if that matters. It has never stopped us from a dive, never stopped us from diving deeper within our comfort level and never been questioned about our depth upon returning from a dive. Has this limitation always been around? I would hate for the SCUBA police to come haul her off. Thanks Bill and DeeDee ( old timers who are just curious )

Gee, back then I thought everyone was certified to go diving. The recommended maximum sport dive limit was, as I recall, either 130' or 120'. According to my infallible memory it was 130' and then changed to 120'. Some depth gauges from that era have a "Red Zone" at about 130' which I interpret as meaning that is the maximum "sport" diving depth, but since they go to at least 150' I assume they figured some people might go deeper. I have no idea what PADI was teaching at the time but I got my certification from NAUI. We were taught about "No Decompression Limits" and we were also taught how to use the Dive Tables. If we were planning on going past the No Decompression Limits we used the Decompression Tables to plan a dive and have air available to use to decompress. I don't recall anyone every telling me not to do a decompression dive, just make damn sure you knew what you were doing. I was under the impression that the more limited certification levels came later but I wasn't really paying attention. From what I have seen, if they are taking her out on a dive boat for dives that exceed 60' then she must have checked "Advanced" or "Intermediate" on the release form otherwise they would probably put her on the "Beginner" boat. I think the PADI AOW certification is for 120'. Once or twice someone may have actually looked at my C-Card but generally they just want me to write down the number. So far I always write down my more current, updated number but now you have me curious--what if I put down my original NAUI number? Is is simply 84410. Recently a dive op in Costa Rica (who looked me up before they let me dive) said my old certification was on file which was a surprise because NAUI said their records only went back to 1970.

As for the SCUBA Police, they made me attach an octopus second stage to my regulator recently in Playa del Carmen because they don't teach buddy breathing with the PADI OW course and I was accompanying some people who were on their checkout dives and Discover Scuba dives. That is just as well because I would be reluctant to hand my mouthpiece over to someone who hasn't been taught how to buddy breathe.

 

[JamesBon92007]

The problem is that with the proliferation of available certs, there is a growing number of certs needed to get reliable access to dive sites. OW + AOW + Deep + Nitrox + Solo.

"Solo" is actually a certification level? And I thought all I had to do to achieve that was have no dive buddy.

 

[NAM001]

Newbie question from an old timer. I was certified in 1973 and I guess either I missed the line about not exceeding 60 ft or I forgot it. Has this limitation always been in place? I am AOW certified but my wife isn't. She has over 400+ dives and we often (usually exceed 60 ft) max depth. We dive the Carribean if that matters. It has never stopped us from a dive, never stopped us from diving deeper within our comfort level and never been questioned about our depth upon returning from a dive. Has this limitation always been around? I would hate for the SCUBA police to come haul her off. Thanks Bill and DeeDee ( old timers who are just curious )

Back in those days it was one course. finish and there was nothing more unless you went into deco diving or rebreathers. Classed were 8 weeks or so with pool and open water and covered everything to what we call today as the master diver. As the sport gained popularity it was broke up into parts and now we have ow,aow.deep.first aid.rescue, nav as its replacement.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I don't know the history very well, but some people who were certified in the very early years talk about practicing CESAs multiple times from depth during training.

I'm not sure what qualifies as "early" but in my 1969 course we did a free ascent from about 35'. I did one on my own from about 50' just so I would know that I could do it.

 

[admikar]

So my question is whether pool harassment is still being conducted, and whether you have seen the equivalent of a buddy team having to work their way out from under a gill net in your experience as an instructor?

I had no net experience, thankfully, but on my pool checkout dive I was told to go down and make myself comfortable before we start with the skills part. As soon as I descended to the bottom at 15 ft, fat dumb and happy, my mask and regulator are ripped off. Retrieve regulator, put on and clear mask, and regulator is ripped off again, to show second method of regulator retrieval. After that, doff ALL of your equipment, swim on the bottom across the pool and surface. After signal, I got down, to find my valve closed. Open the valve, don you equipment, and then we went on more mundane stuff, like buoyancy and sharing air. Some divers,I spoke to, think this was harassment, to me, it looks like realistic training, nothing more, nothing less.