when to 100'?

[MXGratefulDiver]

Here is your answer:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=2414627&postcount=1

Actually not ... I asked about experience level, not certification level. FWIW - I know some excellent divers who never went beyond OW certification. But they grew through experience and good mentors.

This was not meant to be a malicious question ... our experiences always impact how we look at things. There's another common saying in scuba diving ... We don't know what we don't know. On the surface it may seem nonsensical, but the fact is that it is very common for people with a handful of dives to assume they understand more than they actually do, and take risks that they will not take after they've put a few hundred more dives under their belt and start to realize just how underprepared they were for the risks they were taking.

I was once like that too ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ianr33]

. Although I bet there are quite a few reading this thread and agreeing with me, even if they don't say anything.

Trad climbing is dangerous as hell. Alpine and Ice climbing are dangerous as hell. Scuba... not really

I am reading this thread and disagreeing with pretty much everything you have said.

I spent about 30 years of my life Trad climbing. I dont think that it is "dangerous as hell" rather the risks are more obvious. It is easy to see what the consequences will be if you screw up 100 feet of the ground with no running belays in.

The problem with Scuba is that the risks are more subtle. Unlike climbing diving is really easy,until something goes wrong.

I know I could do 200 feet on an Al80,nothing to it really,drop down,swim around a bit,come up when the air gets to say 1500,so why do I not do that? Because I know that that is so far out on a limb that one small problem is likely to kill me.
Or maybe I am just old enough to feel my mortality.

Edit. You were asking about cavediving in another thread. That scares me.

 

[paulwall]

Only OW certfied and went 100' ....:no

:huh: I say OW divers shouldn't go deeper than 20 meters ( 45' feet ?? ).

What's on the agenda for your next dives ... wrecks and caves !!! :shakehead

Sorry but I'm pretty stiff on yhis matter !!!

I'm only OW, and I've been to 135'. It's a state of readiness, not a Certification!

My first OW dive after cert was to 130', of course that was in 1988.

IIRC, the 'Golden Rule' is to not dive outside your abilities/comfort zone. If he were comfortable doing it, he could do it and call the dive at any point. She was uncomfortable and should not be persuaded/goaded into doing it.

As a practical rule, it is better to work up to those deeper depths, so that you can more closely calculate your air consumption/ascent profiles.

Shark-tamer: take your 'stiffness' somewhere else

 

[boat sju]

paulwall,

Better start running now. I hear the scuba police after you already.

 

[TSandM]

"Comfortable." It's certainly not a good idea to do a dive if you are very UNcomfortable doing it, but being comfortable, in my opinion, means nothing. Being comfortable can mean being ignorant of the reasons why you should be uncomfortable, or discounting them, or relying on assurances from bad advisors.

 

[paulwall]

"Comfortable." It's certainly not a good idea to do a dive if you are very UNcomfortable doing it, but being comfortable, in my opinion, means nothing. Being comfortable can mean being ignorant of the reasons why you should be uncomfortable, or discounting them, or relying on assurances from bad advisors.

Which is why we have a basis in self-reliance in scuba. A diver can call a 100' dive at any point for any reason (or a 17' dive, for that matter). No instructor, mentor, or board can tell one when one is ready to dive beyond 1atm. It is purely self-evaluation.

 

[Tigerman]

Which is why we have a basis in self-reliance in scuba. A diver can call a 100' dive at any point for any reason (or a 17' dive, for that matter). No instructor, mentor, or board can tell one when one is ready to dive beyond 1atm. It is purely self-evaluation.

Id say that an instructor that have been your buddy for the last 20 dives and have 15 years of diving experience in most cases are far better to evaluate wether you are or are not ready to deeper and it should also be an instructor that give you the training to go deeper..
Sure, altho an instructor is of the opinion that you are ready, you can still be uncomfortable with it and in that case, you should of course NOT do it, something a good instructor should be stressing..

 

[paulwall]

Id say that an instructor that have been your buddy for the last 20 dives and have 15 years of diving experience in most cases are far better to evaluate wether you are or are not ready to deeper and it should also be an instructor that give you the training to go deeper..
Sure, altho an instructor is of the opinion that you are ready, you can still be uncomfortable with it and in that case, you should of course NOT do it, something a good instructor should be stressing..

A) Assumes the instructor is competent (not all are, even after 15 years)
B) Completely agree with the second paragraph.

 

[boulderjohn]

There was a thread a few months ago that include the story of an experienced diver who, while drinking (heavily) with friends one night, offered the opinion that going to 400 feet (or was it 300--I can't remember) and "bouncing" back to the surface was no big deal. He was quite comfortable with that opinion.

The next day he and the friends set out to prove it. As I recall, the friends got uncomfortable at about 200 feet and aborted the dive. He continued his descent, looking quite comfortable.

That was the last anyone ever saw of him.

 

[paulwall]

There was a thread a few months ago that include the story of an experienced diver who, while drinking (heavily) with friends one night, offered the opinion that going to 400 feet (or was it 300--I can't remember) and "bouncing" back to the surface was no big deal. He was quite comfortable with that opinion.

The next day he and the friends set out to prove it. As I recall, the friends got uncomfortable at about 200 feet and aborted the dive. He continued his descent, looking quite comfortable.

That was the last anyone ever saw of him.

And your point?