when to 100'?

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Crazy Fingers:
We can play what if games with anything. What if your mask gets ripped off at the same time you get tangled in fishing line at the same time your reg takes a dump? Well then I guess you're going to die because God apparently wants you dead. That's the risk you take when you get in the water, and I believe it is a small one and choose to accept it.

That's the exact point.

With some extra training, equipment and a good buddy, the above becomes something to impress your buddies with over a beer after the dive, instead of something that will land here, accompanied by uncomplementary comments.

However as long as somebody is willing to sell you air, you can dive anywhere you want. The remarks here are almost 100% from people who have either lived to tell about their own "Oh s***!" moment or retreived the body of someone who didn't make it.

They're just trying to prevent more of the same.

Terry
 
Hi. I find this thread very interesting. I read the PADI OW diver recommendations to be not to go to 100 feet until you have experience. However...PADI doesn't say what that experience is...is it 5 dives,...50 dives,...etc.
I am an OW diver with 28 dives. I went to 100 feet for a few minutes. I went down slowly, and came up slowly always monitoring my air. These were mostly wall dives...out in the open.
I went to 90-100 feet since I felt comfortable, and was told by the dive shop that the first dives would be to 100 feet.

BTW...I also have the Stuart Cove Shark certification. (which involved reef sharks, nurse sharks, etc).

I think the dive shops and PADI seem to have the depth as 100ft since the narc level increases exponentially when going below that.

Just my .02 cents worth...and I mostly enjoy the 60 foot dives since the marine live is more abundant there.

Michael
PADI OW cert diver.
 
Most all the above post are extremly valid, it is definetly a personal choice but if you really feal the need to ask more then likley you are not ready! experience length varies with the individual, on my 2nd ow cert dive we hit 60ft and on my 3rd we were at 78ft. partially due to a instructor not paying attention to her gauges but rightfully so she didn't have a need to worry due to the fact that me and my buddy were born with a set of gills so diving was not a challenge. Hell on my 8th dive i was down at 108ft at farnsworth seamount, of course i was nitrox certified by that time so being narced wasn't an issue and i always run a slung al20 just for redundancy so it wasnt really a saftey issue. I just want to reiterate that every person is diffrent and every person has different comfort and skill levels as well as different formes of anxiety and panic. I currently blend all my own gasses, run helitrox I try not to go past 150ft but it does happen, all the while only with a ow and andi nitrox card. I fully agree that some people should go threw the different agencies and further their education, but if you have the apptitude alot can safley be learned on your own, this is definetly not for everyone but for me it just didn't make sense to spend oodles of money on information that is free.
 
When to 100'?

When it falls into the limits of your Training and personal limitations. all this other crap is fluff. Note Training is first, get taught the requirements, difficulties, restrictions of going the depth you want, then get there at your pace. Find a buddy that will follow your pace and build your own confidence. Confidence starts with knowledge.

P.S. make sure the buddy you find is confortable beyond your limitations so that you do not endanger your buddy by taking them over their personal limitations.
 
Nitrox doesn't eliminate narcosis,That should have been in one of the first pages of your Nitrox Manual.
 
shark_tamer:
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 !!![/QUO


Guess my wife is dead & gone then........She's 'only OW' from '85 with well over 100 dives deeper than 100 ft.....Let me check her pulse.....lol.......IMO, a piece of paper in your wallet shouldn't tell you how deep you can go, it's what you know & your experience that tells you(9/13 of her 1st dives were 90' or greater, Belize & G.Cayman North Wall- but I'm thinking, by reading this board, this was when diving was taught & not sniffed by you)........
 
shark_tamer:
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 !!!



certs dont mean anything. I have seen DM's that shouldnt ever been in the water. I am "only" an OW diver, i do wrecks, night, deep, deep night, drift, dry, wet, and almost any other kind of diving you can come up with. No cave.... yet...

Its all about how comfortable one is in the water and how much experiance they have in situations. I am not saying certs dont teach you anything because they obiously do, but certs are not what diving is about. Some people are just cert crazy and need a special plastic card to go night diving or deep diving. I have enough plastic in my wallet already.
 
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 anyone’s 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).
 
lazyturtle:
...
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).
...
The conditions might not change much, but you should keep in mind that your own condition will. Youll be narced at 80-90 feet and if you havent been there before, you wont know how much or how it affect you.. Which is why doing your first deep dives with a dedicated instructor (thats not incompetent ofc) is a good idea..
 
Some people maybe narced at 80-90 feet. I didn't understand narcosis until I made a couple of 110 foot dives, even then I really have to concentrate on it to feel it. I agree it does depend on the person, different people have different susceptibilities, but MOST (not all) people can deal. People who are comfortable divers GENERALLY (not always) can, and people who are not GENERALLY cannot.
In warm, clear waters most divers can deal with a 90 foot dive with no problems. Also remember we're talking about a guided dive; there's someone there to keep the guy 'on track' as it were.
 
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