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

[Killerflyingbugs]

The old PADI manual I had when I first learned didn't have the 60' "limit" it did have a limit of 135' that was the early '90s. It seems to be another PADI "rule" they made up to sell more AOW. In a few years it will be 30', then 15' and soon enough they will have you get a cert for every ATA you dive.

It also wasn't in my NAUI manual in 2006.

 

[scoobydrew]

I worked in one dive centre that enforced the rule, there was a dive that bottomed out at 70' and they would not take people if only OW certified. Of course this part of the conversation was then followed up with the offer to start their AOW or just do the deep adventure dive under the supervision of an instructor (money).

When I came to the Caribbean to work I noticed a different kind of diver. It is common to find someone who has been diving for decades around the hundred foot mark on an OW cert. I'd love to hear the conversation between an instructor in his 20s telling someone who has been diving for 30 years that they need to sit training prior to diving deeper than 60'

There is a rumour touted around that if an OW diver goes deeper than 60' then his insurace becomes null & void which is also nonesence. DAN don't recognise depth in that way.

 

[mi000ke]

I dive grand cayman most frequently these days, and pretty much all dive ops do a 100' wall first dive followed by a shallower reef dive, and require only OW certification (although I have never actually had to show my card). In fact, when I first visited GC I went looking for an op that did two shallow dives, and finally found one that had only one other diver going out that day, and he was OK with two reef dives. Two other ops told me to just follow along at 60 feet if I was not comfortable going deep - which would essentially make me a solo diver, and I said no thanks to that. I wasn't comfortable having to do my first 100' dive without any prior deep instruction, so I ended up doing my AOW there and got a personal instructor on my first few deep dives (my deep, wreck, and PPB, were all deep). But I did that only for my own comfort. None of the ops require it.

 

[flyingDiver75]

In the Destin Florida area, the typical 2 tank profile is a 80-90 dive on a natural reef followed by a 60-70 dive on a wreck/artificial reef. Talking to my local dive shop, they said they are much more interested in a diver's type and recency of experience than what certs they have beyond OW when determining if a diver needs to dive with a dive master of not. One of the reasons they've resisted going to online booking is the information they can glean just over the phone when people schedule.

I dove with their DM a couple times immediately after finishing my OW and once he was comfortable with my skills they told me it was my choice from then out. At this shop, the divemaster fee is only $25 for a 2-tank trip and I think well worth it for people who haven't dove the area much. A good DM not only reduces a lot of the stress around navigating a new site (gulf vis can be in the 20-30' range sometimes) but also knows where to find all the cool fish on the different reefs. The main downside to the DM group is that it almost always has at least a couple divers on air so no-deco times are limited on the 2nd dive to 25 minutes or so.

 

[KathyV]

...The main downside to the DM group is that it almost always has at least a couple divers on air so no-deco times are limited on the 2nd dive to 25 minutes or so.

Sorry but I don't follow. I dive air and our second dives are often a max of 60 ft and 60 minutes, same as the Nitrox divers. Although we usually spend most of the time in the 30 foot range so that we can enjoy the full 60 minutes.

 

[tcphil]

Regarding insurance, the issue may be for the dive master/boat, not the diver. DAN is great and I have never heard about them fighting support for providing medical coverage for someone that violated some written standard. For Dive Masters/Instructors/Boats etc, their liability insurance may not be the same. While not a legal person at all, I know that if the poop hits the fan, insurance companies often work darn hard to find a way to not cover the loss. Violating a standard is a good way to open that door for insurance companies to reject a claim.

 

[frndrfoe]

If you read this differently, it could be interpreted as your instructor will train you to, and not exceeding 60ft. It says nothing about what depth for which you are certified.

"you will be trained to a maximum depth of 18 meters/60 feet"

 

[dmaziuk]

There's the kind of op where DM says "the bottom at this wreck at at 130' and dep. on the tide and salinity and yadda yadda some of your computers may not like it. Plus of course at that depth: watch your air." And then there's allegedly the "there shall be 60' or AOW" kind. When I run into the latter kind is when I'll start a list of dive ops who'll never get my money.

 

[boulderjohn]

The only diving depth rules that can be enforced by an agency are the ones for the training dives, and an instructor can be punished for violating those limits. No agency has the power to enforce any limits outside of the training environment. A government can make such rules for its jurisdiction. A dive operation can make such rules for its divers. A diving agency, though, has no such authority.

 

[boulderjohn]

BTW, I recently finished a week of diving in Tulamben, Bali. Our group of 3 people was assigned to a specific DM for the week. When we signed up, we all accurately filled out the forms identifying our certification levels. On the first dive, our DM said we would be diving to 20 meters/80 feet. I did not correct him. We dived to 20 meters. I thought, "OK, if that's where the good stuff is on that dive, that's fine." On the next dive he repeated the briefing, and I did correct him this time, telling him that 20 meters is 66 feet. As the week went on, it became pretty clear that he was never going to go below 20 meters, and he never did. On some sites that was just fine, but at other sites it was not. I finally went where I felt like, which concerned him.

After one dive, he said, with near terror in his voice, "You must have gone below 80 feet on that dive!" I told him I had in fact gone to 103 feet. I then reminded him that my two friends were deep diver certified, meaning they had been trained to 40 meters/130 feet. I told him that when I got back in the states, I would be certifying divers to go to 300 feet. (And I just did that yesterday.) None of that mattered. With him leading the dives, we were not going to be led below 66 feet. If we went away from him and descended to depths as dangerous as 80 feet, well, we were doing so at our own peril.