Why not go to 100' ?

[Doby45]

I will say I was just recently down in Pompano Beach, FL and was down to 132fsw in nice 85* water and it was more "relaxing" than 65ffw in my local cold quarry. It really depends on where you have already gotten experience diving.

And the dives in Pompano were on straight air and I was managing the dive flag and the compass for our bearing.

 

[northernone]

Yet another voice on the thread along with the great posts already:

Two contrasts.

1. Dive within your limits. If you're self aware, cautious and feeling comfortable careful progression is normal.

2. There's no dark magic about a 100ft down in warm comfortable waters. Thousands (unjustified rough estimate) with less experience and awareness than you do those depths safely every day.

Just a reminder problems cascade exponentially faster the deeper you go.

Enjoy your vacation!
Cameron

 

[CuzzA]

I recall reading on here when I first joined and started diving something that has stuck with me. I don't recall who said it, but they used the analogy of something to the effect of a comfort cone and staying inside it. The cone being rather large at the top representing shallow water and as you gradually get deeper the cone gets smaller and smaller. It becomes more and more important to stay within this comfort cone and the margin for error gets tighter and tighter the smaller(deeper) the cone is. The moment you are completely out of the cone is when bad things happen, especially for those who do not know how to quickly get back inside the cone.

 

[BoltSnap]

Without the proper and sufficient experience and appropriate equipment, you should NOT go below your training depth. If you don't know what your SAC Rate is (air consumption rate) and how to use it to plan your dive and account for the time when the manure hits the fan, you shouldn't go deeper than your training depth (in addition to the rest of requirements).

 

[TMHeimer]

CuzzA, Yeah, I remember that post about the cone as well-who said that? It was a long while ago. A great way to describe how you can get into more trouble the deeper you go.

 

[pasley]

I’m going to be in the Caribbean next month ... first dive to about 100 fsw,..

Terrific, some good SCUBA diving in the warm waters of the Caribbean.

...and a second shallow dive.

Note an expert, but in my limited experience of 2 trips to the Caribbean that 2nd shallower dive is often 80+ feet. A lot depends on where you are going.

...I have only the basic OW certification and have avoided doing dives much deeper than 60’ on all of my 25 previous dives,..

Good for you staying within the limits of your training and experience while gaining comfort and experience with your basic open water skills.

I’ve actually been to a bit over 70’ on a couple of dives, and really did not notice any difference.

80 feet is where Nitrogen Narcosus usally kicks in with most feeling it at 100 FSW.

...Dive ops ...said I could stay up at 60’ while they are down at 100, but I will be diving as a single and usually buddy with the DM. Being 40’ more shallow would make me essentially a solo, and I won’t do that.

Yep, you would be a solo diver sitting at 40 feet above them. There is also a reason the others are 40 feet deeper, the dive site is at 100 feet and there may not even be a reef top at 60 feet. Could be looking at nothing but the bubbles of the others deeper than you.

...But other than faster air consumption, shorter NDL, and possibly some narcosis (I don’t know how I’d be affected having not gone that deep yet, but feel nothing at 60’) why not go to 100’ with the DM?

Um... Other than narcosis, faster consumption and shorter NDL.... I don't know, those sound like pretty major items. 100 feet is not the place to run out of air, or to not be able to totally control your buoyancy.

First things first, in the Caribbean you are NOT in the USA. Obvious, but it bears thinking about. Once outside the USA you will find many countries do not support the lawsuit happy system that we have here in the USA. The operator may not even ask to see your certification card. The DM is a guide leading all the other divers. You may even find yourself going into a bit of DECO as the DM may stay a bit deep longer than they should. What are you going to do about it? Sue in their court system after flying back there and paying hotel bills for the trial? Nope, So do not plan on the DM being a safety net unless you contract for a private guide.

What to do?....Take the Advance Course which includes Deep Diving before you go would be a good start. As a solo diver you may want to hire a guide. Instabuddy in the Caribbean can be challenging as many only dive once a year in the warm waters on vacation.

 

[spectrum]

You are right diving to 100 feet is hardly different than 60. Physics says you will consume air faster and absorb gas faster but you can manage that with your instruments. You will suffer some narcosis whether it's debilitating, happy or terror is a crap shoot. Anytime you dive you absorb gas your brain function slowly morphs, that accounts for some of the blissful relaxation we come to crave. With this paragraph in mind consider dealing with the unexpected.

Go ahead and rewind to Open Water certification. If you are comfortable in the water diving is easy. Most challenged new divers are overcoming discomfort, not scuba diving skills. Once upon a time there were no agencies or certification and the sport did become established. So now think back to your Open Water training, most of the skills and drills centered around disaster mitigation. You were trained to deal with the unexpected Oh $hit moments in the context of 60 feet. That CESA you may have trained on is a slim chance from 100' for instance. As you go deeper the resources to surface and to do so with a buddy in need become significant and you need to know when your time has expired. If you flub up and overstay your bottom time you need to understand how to work though a deco requirement and so on.

Diving to 100 is no challenge. Training is to stack the odds that you and your buddy return in good form. Maybe it's the difference between 99% and 99.9 % certainty, how lucky are you feeling?

Pete

 

[noj3333]

OP, what island are you going to? people on this forum may be able to guide you to a shop that may be better suited for you experience.

 

[mi000ke]

Thanks for all the replies. Just to put it in context, I'll be diving in Grand Cayman, as a couple of you mentioned, and with one of the top rated dive ops - so temps, visibility, and safety should be OK. And I always discuss my experience level with any of the outfits I dive with. But I I think you've convinced me that taking a deep dive course or at least personally guided deep dives makes sense. I know my SAC down to 60' but no experience below that. I've never undergone narcosis. It can't hurt to be cautious, and a couple of instructional deep dives will allow me to calibrate my performance at 100' .

 

[KeithG]

I suggest the OP goes back to the dive ops to seek further clarification before anybody panics too much.

I claim what they will discover is that the generic plan is a first dive to a MAXIMUM of 100 feet (regardless of your certification) and then the second dive will be shallower (harking back to the old days of your first dive MUST be deeper). This is normal vacation diver cattle boat SOP formula.

Depending upon the actual dive site and the mix of divers, the OP may find that the first dive often only goes down to 70 feet. or 80. But they have rules of maximum depth is 100 feet, second dive is shallower. This does not mean the first dive WILL be 100 feet.

We recently finished a week of diving at CoCoView and our first dive of each day were never deeper than 80 feet. We were often wall diving and you could do the wall at what ever depth you pleased.

Now if you are doing something very specific like a wreck that is at 100 feet, then the story may be different. But most natural dive sites in the caribbean do not have a single specific mandatory depth.

Question to the OP: where in the Caribbean and which dive ops?