Posted on 05/21/2021 12:41:09 PM PDT by karpov
Scuba diving ought to be very dangerous. Recreational diving involves submerging to depths of up to 60 feet. If something goes wrong at that depth, a quick return to the surface is not an option. Ascending to the surface too quickly will cause decompression sickness, which can be deadly. The diver needs to solve any problems beneath the surface, where human beings are out of their element.
Yet scuba diving is actually quite a safe sport. Divers have a fatal accident about as often as joggers. The reason is that everyone who goes scuba diving must be certified, and certification requires completing a three-day course.
The certification process couldn’t be more different from traditional higher ed. When a life is on the line, the material must be accessible and memorable. Not so for a college class.
In a typical college class, students do readings and homework, then show up to a lecture hall (or Zoom meeting) and listen to a professor drone on for an hour at a time. If a student doesn’t understand the material, the class moves on and the hapless student must teach themselves or fall behind. At the end of the semester, students spend late nights in the library cramming, then regurgitate everything they’ve “learned” out again on a final exam that may count for 80 percent of their grades.
After the course is over, the knowledge may fall out of students’ heads before they leave for summer vacation. The problem is that, unlike scuba certification, traditional higher education doesn’t prioritize a teaching method that ensures students will retain information.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
“Scuba diving ought to be very dangerous.”
Why? Did the author even read what the moron wrote??
I learned to SCUBA dive from a Navy Dive Master back in the late 1960’s. Yes, I learned on a two hose Aqua Lung regulator and yes, I owned a set of twin steel 72 cu ft tanks (AKA Sea Hunt, Mike Nelson). The general rule for twin 72’s back in the day was that as long as you didn't go much below 62 feet you could stay there until you ran out of air in both tanks and surface without stops. Most people I dove with had a single tank reserve switch.
If you dived deeper, generally limited to under 100 feet, you used air much more quickly. If you stayed mostly under 60 feet, did a quick dive to less than 100 feet and didn't linger for more than a brief moment, decompression stops were not generally required although most of us did a stop at between 25 and 30 feet just to make sure that there was nothing on the surface of the water where we were planning to come up.
I know that the modern, lighter tanks have higher pressures and regulator gear has changed a lot, but but there are lots of arm mounted dive computers on depth/decompression.
Bruce Willis Ruins Action Films
That’s the dive check acronym I remember.
Resort courses are different and three days is not enough to be a competent diver. There is no “scuba police” and you can go as deep as common sense, training and experience dictates. Many of us who are avid underwater photographers go much deeper than 60’ on a regular basis and dive without buddies....
Some organizations (like PADI) have you pay to get your next ‘merit badge’, and charge you another $200 to go below 60 ft.
NAUII/PADI instructor (now emeritus) since 1979....
What you say is true. There aren’t any scuba police and I’ve watched DM’s lead dives to depths that exceed certification levels of some of their boat passengers. But one thing that is pretty standard these days is that the first boat dive of a trip is pretty much devoted to “prove to us that you aren’t going to kill yourself or your buddy.”
The other thing is that Dive Tables are probably going the way of the Dodo. I expect everybody will train with a computer before too long. Progress, I guess.
“60 for 60”
So easy, even a caveman can remember it.
My new Citizen dive watch has it printed in miniature on my band strap, but in metric, from 12meters/200minutes to 45/5. (Too bad I now need reading glasses to read it.)
In metric, the old 60 for 60 is given as 18/60.
In my world, deeper than 60 feet is not a typical rec dive, it’s a working dive, with full decom planning in effect, including decom stops and safety divers ready, “just in case.”
Same reason you sky dive with a reserve. Shit goes wrong sometimes, best laid plans etc.
To me, the color is mostly gone past 60 feet, shit gets pretty serious, and small errors or anomalies can compound into major malfunctions, injuries and death.
Folks who get casual with no decom preps on dives much past 60’ occasionally get punished by the fickle finger of fate.
Get inside of wrecks or caves below 60, and you are dancing with the devil, if you don’t have a support team of pros around you.
IMHO.
Please see above.
Please see 26, for your thoughts.
I also learned on steel twin 72s with two-hose regulator, in BUD/S in 1979.
Where I dove, 45-60 ft was a coral head. Everything else was at least 75’. A 100’ or 175’ dive for a penetrating wreck dive was common. Night dives were half the dive counts, too.
We usually maintained PADI numbers but used the Navy tables when needed. Decompression dives were not common as they ruined follow-on dives, but with hanging tanks a normal procedure in case. I probably did maybe 50 decompression dives, but they suck just hanging there for 30 minutes or more. I have no patience for that. I prefer multiple dives in a day so I tried to avoid going past PADI bottom times. Of course, we had the Navy tables in our BC pockets and we had M2 dive computers when they came out, but we all knew the numbers by heart.
I still have my original PADI Dive Planner wheel on my shelf, the PADI training book, and even my dive checkout card. We had to have a local divemaster on 3 50’ dives and one 100’ dive. Buzz Teeter and Fabrizio were my DMs. Memories.
We learned safe penetration diving practices, and we were good at it since only 2 people ever died in the decades of countless dives at the place. The two that died did something really stupid on the Prinz Eugen. Most divers stopped logging dives after a few hundred. It got old and repetitive.
Yes, the dive tables are fine for students to learn decompression theory, but practically, the only way to dive is with a computer (I use two of them). As far as the 60/60 that is fine if you are using the tables, but modern computers and the use of Nitrox has made the “tables” an anachronism for avid divers. Some have said that below 60’ there isn’t much light, but that depends where you dive. Go out to Papua New Guinea or the Solomon Islands, you find a lot of light at 100’. Yes, Tallguy, the Dodo has flown....Cheers...
“A 100’ or 175’ dive for a penetrating wreck dive was common. Night dives were half the dive counts, too.”
When we were young and bold!
Somewhat. I went with a bunch of old guys too and I think having a good dive buddy who is level headed helps greatly. I only dove with guys that were panic proof and the checkouts would show if they were, like taking a guy in shark infested waters on a shallow night dive and see if he loses his nerve. There were some guys I would not dive with. We did have fairly stringent check out requirements and anyone with bad habits was passed around as someone to not go near diving. I still do ‘bold’ things, but definitely less physically punishing, sort of.
It sure helps to dive with known, quality folks, that takes out most of the wild card factors.
Stop, drop, flare, there.
Don’t pass your bubbles.
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