The normalization of dives to 100 meters and beyond

[Hoyden]

'.

OSHA won't be getting involved in recreational diving. They just don't have the jurisdiction to get into it.

OSHA has no interest in your recreational activity. OSHA has jurisdiction and regulatory over site of occupational safety (in this case, diving conducted as a part of your employment). The only place that I could see them having any interest at all in recreational tech diving would be in case of accidents or fatalities involving a Tech instructor while the instructor was conducting training dives for another entity (dive shop). They have covered this in 1910.401. Appendix C to Subpart T of Part 1910 -- Alternative Conditions Under § 1910.401(a)(3) for Recreational Diving Instructors and Diving Guides (Mandatory) has guidelines for use of rebreathers and other issues that apply to technical instructors.

YMMV,

Jackie

 

[rjack321]

When I did my hypoxic cert dives, the last dive included a deep bailout drill from CCR to OC. Gas goes really fast at those depths. You can watch the pressure drop as you take a breath. That's an expensive breath when you're breathing 60% helium. I sincerely doubt 330' will become any kind of norm for the average diver. I'd love to know the stats on how many divers hit 330', I doubt even .1% of divers even approach 200'.

Going to disagree with the original premise and agree with you here. There's a huge dropoff in numbers of dives below about ~200ft in part due to cost and in part due to logistics. The 100m dives get a lot of press and people hype them like crazy - but they aren't that common.

A lot of the setup for deep long dives is not glamorous and not publicized much - like the habitats the WKPP was using long ago or what the KUR guys (and females) in FL are using for 10+ hrs in the water. It probably would be good to show what serious support looks like more so that you can see that some of these big serious dives are taken seriously and have literally a whole team behind them. One of my buddies and I are planning a 365ft wreck dive at some point. Its not something we take lightly. There are years of workup in cold water, soliciting support divers, picking the right season to maximize the thermocline, and setup involved. To say that we're flippantly approaching this like a ho hum recreational dive is totally inaccurate.

 

[Fastmarc]

@rjack321 I hope you do not mind me asking and of course I have no issue with you declining, but do you mind sharing your personal motivation to doing that wreck dive?

 

[rjack321]

@rjack321 I hope you do not mind me asking and of course I have no issue with you declining, but do you mind sharing your personal motivation to doing that wreck dive?

1) Has only been dove once before and those photos are old and low quality
2) ROV footage is not that good as there's too much debris and silt to get very close
3) Is a famous wreck which went down in a storm with loss of life (not just thrown away & scuttled)
4) Has historical significance
5) 365ft is deep but with proper workup, planning and, contingencies it's do-able. My buddy and I have over 15yrs each of trimix experience in similar conditions.

Bottom line, it's worth seeing to me.

 

[MalibuJerry]

What I have not seen here is the fact that these dives are very costly. As rjack321 said, there are a lot of logistics involved and expensive equipment. That means that divers are going to be older on average. In the science of diving, not much data is available to assess the risk associated with aging. 100m dive at age 25 will likely affect the body differently than at age 45 or 50. I suspect the fatality rate for very deep dives is highly correlated with diver age.

 

[AfterDark]

What I have not seen here is the fact that these dives are very costly. As rjack321 said, there are a lot of logistics involved and expensive equipment. That means that divers are going to be older on average. In the science of diving, not much data is available to assess the risk associated with aging. 100m dive at age 25 will likely affect the body differently than at age 45 or 50. I suspect the fatality rate for very deep dives is highly correlated with diver age.

This I believe is correct to a degree. I do believe however older divers that have dived all their lives are conditioned to diving to a degree that an older diver that started diving late in life isn't. The body loves routine and adapts to what it is subjected to regularly. Just my opinion I have no proof at all.

 

[Jcp2]

Physiological conditioning might happen if the older diver went diving 2-3 times a week all year round, but I doubt that’s what most recreational divers do. Insert running, swimming, cycling, or any other physical activity, and it makes more sense. And even then, most of the gains in performance are lost after a layoff of several weeks.

 

[MalibuJerry]

I agree, divers who have been active all their lives, who are in excellent physical condition, and who are well trained all mitigate the risks associated with an aging body, perhaps to a large extent. My point is that 100m diving being normalized has two consequences: 1. more people will do it and on average they are older. We don't have data on the compression/decompression implications of this, and 2. those who want to go where others have not (and I admit to being in this category) are now incentivized to push further than before. It is not just in scuba that we see this. Technology has made 8,000m peak bagging more accessable for example.

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

A few recreational divers completing 100M+ dives and posting about it online does not equal "normalization."

-The vast majority of people that have gotten certified to dive aren't going to hit dive 20 in their lifetime. I literally know more people that have been certified for 5+ years with x < 20 dives than those with 20+.

-A good chunk of the people that even stick around past dive 20 won't hit 100', as they're only going to be doing the occasional warm water vacation reef dive.

It's along the lines of when someone says that "everyone is doing 'x' ." No...not everyone is doing something... someone just happens to know a couple people that are doing something and they are choosing to inflate the actual proportion of people in question.

I'm sure there's more recreational divers diving solo than recreational divers diving to 100M or more...and the former makes up a small percentage of recreational divers.

 

[Fastmarc]

A few recreational divers completing 100M+ dives and posting about it online does not equal "normalization."

I'm not sure if you noticed that this is the Rebreather Diving forum. The question was not for the average recreational divers, but rather of the Rebreather divers which is as you know, very technical and often of deeper dive profiles, even if done for recreation.