Wow, there soo much clutter on this post I though I wanted to go back to the OP and address it.
jon m:
hey all-
just wondering about depth(for me) i know others have been MUCH deeper, but i haven't seen 100' yet, so it's deep for me.
for instance- while in hawaii, we (2) were going to dive to about 80-90' at a spot (with DM, and 2others) we're only OW with 10 dives at that point. i felt comfortable, wife was worried. it was the whole " we can't go deeper than 70' because we're only OW" more than the depth that made her worried. anyway, we didn't do the dive because another boat was on the spot and ended up at 65' for 2 awsome dives..
If you have the skill level to dive to 65 feet in Hawaii, you're not going to experience terribly different conditions at 80-90 (again in Hawaii, if you went to Alaska it'd be a differnt story altogether). Personally I've observed most divers having more difficulties (especially with buoyancy) on shallow dives than deep dives.
Doing a guided dive you have a experienced rescue diver close at hand, someone who dives daily (here in Hawaii dms and instructors generally work 5-7 days a week). Most dms are competent, despite what you may read in some posts here. Interestingly enough I've seen more than 1 post extolling a particular guide or shop that I consider to be dangerously incompetent...I suppose it's all in the eye of the beholder. If you're with a guide I'd say that increasing depth from 65 to 90 is no problem.
When I got certified (it was NAUI, then PADI) there was no 60' recommended limit. My 3rd open water dive was to 110 feet, without problems. I never considered further classes until I decided to become an instructor. I had about 200 dives at that time, with a wide variety of experiences (night, deep, no vis, etc). I got experienced by going on dives, whatever dives were available. You don't need further training to go deeper, you need experience (which can be gotten through training).
That is not to say that you should run out and do a deep dive. You need to be comfortable with all of your dive skills. It also not just you who has to be comfortable. You have a buddy (in this case your wife) who also needs to feel comfortable. Going outside of anyones abilities or comfort levels is a bad idea. Basically you shouldn't have any skills you cannot or don't like to do (especially mask clearing, buoyancy control and gas management) you need more experience. Running out of air is a consideration, but really if you think you might run out of air you're not ready for deep diving. There's simply no good reason to run out of air ever. While it is possible to have gear failure, it's extremely unlikely. So you should be able to do OOA skills comfortably. BTW you can always get a bigger tank..
Speaking of comfort I've seen a number of posts negatively commenting on comfort level. They state you could die by inattentiveness due to comfort. I suppose on some level this is true, but this could apply to everything in life. Too comfortable driving? You could die in an car accident. You're not very likely to get injured while diving, however dive injuries tend to be serious. Being comfortable on a dive (to me) means you are confident in your diving skills. While problems may occur, you should be able to deal with them.
I also think that if you obsess about running out of air, you're not ready to be on deep dives. By obsessed I don't mean checking regularly, that's prudent.
jon m:
i'm, however, not one who wants to "break records" , just wondering if it came up again- wouldn't it be o-k , if with a DM ( couldn't it go to AOW - deep dive?)
thoughts?
This is a good attitude. Diving deep for the sake of going deep is stupid. If there's something you want to see at a certain depth, then there's a reason to go. If you just want to go deep to tell people how deep you've been, you are a silly and childish person.
The depth limit on your card is a good recommendation to start with. Before going deeper I'd say that you should have done at least 10 dives past certification under varying conditions (currents, swell, different clarity, etc). Make sure you're comparing your experience to comprable dives. If you've done lots of dives in a quarry and get in the ocean it's going to be very different and you should take this into consideration. After that slowly increase the depth as you see fit. It's really up to you and you're wife (or other dive buddy).
