Bill,
On Nov 13, 2008, at 16:38 PM, NSURIT@xxxxxxx wrote:
> In a message dated 11/12/2008 8:18:46 P.M. Central Standard Time,
> om3ti@xxxxxxxx writes:
>
> I actually had some problems after 4 dives and had to stop. 130-150
> foot dives are easy to come by, but my body had a hard time adapting
> and I had to stop after the 4th dive in 3 days.
>
> Anyone who thinks they might have an interest in diving needs to
> take a
> SCUBA certification course, before they leave home, from one of the
> major
> certification providers. Your life depends on it. PADI, NAUI,
> SSI are good places
> to start.
> If you want to take a resort course or go diving without much or
> any instruction, make sure your life insurance and disability
> premiums are
> paid. You might also have your next of kin check to see what it
> cost to ship a
> body back from some exotic location.
As a (the?) resident scuba instructor, I can only second what you say
here to the fullest. Learn at home, it's a waste to spend a vacation
in some classroom or in a pool when there's an ocean to explore --
and as a consequence, many resort-dive-"schools" cut corners.
I don't recommend cutting corners when it comes to health, well-being
and -- worst case -- your life.
Also, we don't want Charles' to have too much work on his table now,
do we? ;)
Diving *IS* incredibly safe and *IS* incredibly easy -- and is
incredibly FUN too. All this, of course, provided that one is well
trained and prepared, dives within the limits of ones training and
has well-maintained equipment.
But with everything there's a learning-process. Like riding a
bicycle: it's easy to do, but you start out in the back yard getting
the balance and mechanics right, before you add the complications of
traffic-rules, reckless drivers and such.
> I have both basic and advanced certifications and if I go diving
> again, I'll
> take a re-certification class as it has been a number of years
> since I've
> done any diving.
Very wise!
> I was first certified in 1978 and the deepest I've ever been
> was about 110 ft and that was by accident. I has intended to come
> out of a
> crevice in Roatan at 100 ft and went a bit deeper. There is
> little reason to
> go any deeper than 50 or 60 feet, IMHO.
We each have different motives for doing the diving that we do, and I
respect all of those. Some wrecks are at such depths, some cave
explorations bring you deep, some sea-life is at those depths etc.
There're reasons why some go to hundreds of ft and beyond, but
there're also risks and tremendous precautions to take. I've been
doing some very very deep depths as part of planned dives, with the
keyword being "planned" -- as in, a team of individuals planning,
training and practicing together for such a dive for months in
advance, and preparing for all contingencies. Such stuff doesn't
improvise itself, is expensive and -- frankly -- hard work.
I agree that "seeking depth just for bragging-rights" is beyond me --
and doing so without proper training, preparation, team-support,
experience and equipment is just .... well, there are no words strong
enough....
> As a sport diver, I have a little
> trouble understanding why one would do four decompression dives in
> three days
> or really why you would do any. I've decompressed before however
> it has
> primarily been done as a safety precaution after a number of multi-
> dive days.
In my opinion, all dives are by definition decompression dives (we
breath and absorb inert gasses as soon as we stick our head under
water with a regulator in our mouth) and I dive all my dives -- even
those at 50-60ft as planned decompression dives, regardless of duration.
As you say, it adds a sensible measure of precaution when doing multi-
day-dives, it means less post-dive-fatigue and it's almost no extra
effort to hold a "deep-stop" (1/2 of max depth) for a few minutes,
and ascend slowly with regular stops. For a regular 60ft dive
(falling within the usually ill-termed "no deco limits"), I'd still
make a deep-stop and one additional stop, before the usual "safety
stop". And, spend 3-4 min from the "safety stop" to the surface.
I impart the details of that on those divers that I train as well,
even very beginners. I take pride in the fact that if I am with a
group of students on a boat with other dive-groups, my group is also
full of life and energy post-dive, while the others go lie down and
doze of post-dive-fatigue.
> The bottom line, for me, is know what you are doing and be
> careful. You
> only get one chance to screw up.
>
+1
> The soap box has now been safely stored away with my dive gear.
Get the dive gear out, and let's go get wet some time, Bill? An
Underwater OMeeting is something that I do not think has been done
before...
Thomas
>
> Bill Barber
>
>
>
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