What is SSI's "Decompression Diver" course?

[KenGordon]

Does this make sense? Are you going to get 10 or 15 minutes of required deco, diving on a SINGLE tank in around 80 feet of water with 40% (83 feet depth is around 1.4 pp oxygen with 40%, I think).

Probably hard to do for a student to have that kind of gas consumption rate on an initial dive with sufficient reserves. Still not seeing the logic of 40% for doing 10 minutes of deco?

TBC I can’t see myself ever using 40% as either backgas or as a single deco gas. I do use 40% as a deeper deco gas along with 70 or 80% shallow deco gas.

However… courses have parameters and if the basically Nitrox is up to 40% and this is a backgas/pony deco course then it makes sense that the deco gas can be 40% too.

it is easy to get into deco with air, it is easy to get into deco with repeat dives, it is easy to get into deco taking a load of gas along, like with a twinset. This qualification seems to be for people who expect to get into some, shortish, deco.

While it is fair to say that getting into deco with a single cylinder is not going to be a load of deco, when I go back and look at my logbook I find many cases where I got into short (less than 5 minutes) deco on a single 15 (and pony typically - although that did for my shoulder last year).

 

[johndiver999]

TBC I can’t see myself ever using 40% as either backgas or as a single deco gas. I do use 40% as a deeper deco gas along with 70 or 80% shallow deco gas.

However… courses have parameters and if the basically Nitrox is up to 40% and this is a backgas/pony deco course then it makes sense that the deco gas can be 40% too.

it is easy to get into deco with air, it is easy to get into deco with repeat dives, it is easy to get into deco taking a load of gas along, like with a twinset. This qualification seems to be for people who expect to get into some, shortish, deco.

While it is fair to say that getting into deco with a single cylinder is not going to be a load of deco, when I go back and look at my logbook I find many cases where I got into short (less than 5 minutes) deco on a single 15 (and pony typically - although that did for my shoulder last year).

lets be serious. Of course you (or I) can go into deco on a single tank, but how does someone do that on 40% at 80 feet?

 

[berndo]

The club based training is dying in general and is only surviving in VERY limited locations in Europe. No instructor here is going to volunteer their time in a club to certify others for free. It just isn't worth it for anyone.

It's quite common in Germany and I think in the UK too. People dive and help train other people as a hobby. Students and a lot of young people couldn't dive otherwise probably.

Who is going to safe keep and maintain this equipment? The club based model is a failure in this time and age for all practical reasons.

The gear in my dive club is in better shape than the rental gear in many dive shops I've seen. We have a rip boat that's in great shape, compressor is getting looked after. Just last week a few guys build a new deck and build a patio area in front of the club house, than they hung out and had a couple of beers.
If you have a community where nobody wants to move a finger unless they get paid it sounds kinda sad.

 

[BoltSnap]

It's quite common in Germany and I think in the UK too. People dive and help train other people as a hobby. Students and a lot of young people couldn't dive otherwise probably.

The gear in my dive club is in better shape than the rental gear in many dive shops I've seen. We have a rip boat that's in great shape, compressor is getting looked after. Just last week a few guys build a new deck and build a patio area in front of the club house, than they hung out and had a couple of beers.
If you have a community where nobody wants to move a finger unless they get paid it sounds kinda sad.

As I said, the club model may work in Europe, that includes Germany and UK AFAIK, but it isn't working in other places. Even in the UK, it appears to me that there are MANY more PADI/RAID/SSI/NAUI dive centers than BSAC clubs. If the club model was a good model, BSAC would have kept its dominance in the UK and not given the chance to the private for-profit agencies to take hold of the market there.

The club model is practically disappearing from the world. I was a BSAC club member in the UAE and it was the worst experience. People just don't have the time to go to the club once or twice a week to fill tanks, do maintenance and, the worst, teach courses and finish them in a reasonable time. The club didn't have their own equipment, just dive boats that eventually failed and never brought back to service.

BTW, I am talking about the European definition of a dive clube, BSAC/CMAS, not the American version. There are many dive clubs in the US but they are run differently from the BSAC/CMAS way of doing things.

 

[berndo]

People just don't have the time to go to the club once or twice a week to fill tanks, do maintenance and, the worst, teach courses and finish them in a reasonable time.

What do you mean? The volunteers in my club have full time jobs and families too. Every member has a key to the club house and can go fill 24/7 for 2 Euros per tank.
Everybody pays an anual fee and a 'fine' if they don't help out a few hours a year and a class cost a smallish fee, that's how it's financed.
Classes will take longer compared to a commercial dive shop.

 

[BoltSnap]

Every member has a key to the club house and can go fill 24/7 for 2 Euros per tank.

Clubs I know and was associated with, only few designated people can fill tanks and only during designate days of the week.

Classes will take longer compared to a commercial dive shop.

Yes, almost a year to finish because the "volunteer" instructors have to get on with their busy lives and earn a living and the students gets passed from one instructor to another based on availability.

At the end, the club model may work for some people but it will be a declining number of people. This appears to be the reality of how it is today.

 

[berndo]

Yes, almost a year to finish because the "volunteer" instructors have to get on with their busy lives and earn a living and the students gets passed from one instructor to another based on availability.

Yeah, you need a bunch of people who wanna do it. If it's just a hand full of people it wont work.
I guess Germany has a club culture. There are clubs for all kinds of stuff. Whatever hobby can think of, likely you'd find a club for it here.

 

[Sebs]

My Cmas *** certification is fully recreational, but allows me to dive down to 50m max, with deco, in air.

Maybe it's just me but I wouldn't call anything involving Deco a recreational dive but then again I guess it begs the question: what is the difference between a technical and recreational dive?

 

[tursiops]

lets be serious. Of course you (or I) can go into deco on a single tank, but how does someone do that on 40% at 80 feet?

You are not required to use 40%, and you are allowed to go to 130 ft. Your strawman is irrelevant.

 

[brsnow]

Maybe it's just me but I wouldn't call anything involving Deco a recreational dive but then again I guess it begs the question: what is the difference between a technical and recreational dive?

Trimix seems more technical