Currently, (at least with PADI certs) the Open Water cert is for up to 60 feet and the Advanced Open Water cert is for down to 130, but you only have to log a dive to 80 feet to earn it. I logged two dives in Lake Placid for that purpose. Somebody in one of the nearby houses liked to hit golf balls off his deck, and I still have one around here somewhere that I recovered during the dive. The funny part was that I'd already been to 80 feet diving on the Montana in Lake Huron. Basically, the depth limits were attached to the certs to set clear boundaries for the newbies, and I seem to recall the Advanced cert limit is where it is because almost nobody gets narced at 130 ft. It might also have something to do with the likelihood of an emergency ascent working out. The current recreational tables are pretty conservative and really, really accurate, but they also are calculated without any compression stops, so those willing to do decomp can get much longer bottom times. I haven't done anything in that area yet...I think you still have to use Navy tables for it.
I remember that I passed on a wreck dive off Catalina at 132 feet because I haden't been deeper than 80-90 feet yet. Do you guys remember the J-valve?
Not only do I remember the J valve, I nearly got killed by one. My dive buddy and I bought two used rigs from a sergeant on the base, and they still had J valves on the tanks. On the first dive with the new equipment, I went to take a breath and got nothing. I somehow managed to avoid panicking and found I could get a tiny amount of air if I pulled as hard as I could. I signalled to my buddy that I was out of air and ascending, and took off for the surface. Luckily, we were only at about 35 feet, but if I had panicked I would have drowned.
You know that spring that closes off the valve when you get to your reserve, so you know to switch over? Well, that spring broke on my rig and closed off my air, but because it was broken my lung power could budge it just slightly.
So what did I learn?
1. Keep it simple, and never be cheap. If I'd shelled out the money for a replacement K valve, I wouldn't have been in that fix.
2. If you buy used equipment, have it inspected before you dive with it.
3. If a guy offers to sell you gear without an octopus on it, RUN! Especially if his dive partner is his wife and her rig doesn't have an octopus either! This guy was too cheap to make sure he had an alternate air source for the mother of his children, so why should he be worried about my safety?
I started diving with an old school diver who would not get an Octopus. He wanted to "Buddy Breath." There are three of us and when we all got Octopusses we told him that he HAD to get one, as we weren't there to save HIM when he had nothing for US.
I agree with your entire post. The only thing used I have is my F/LX 50/50 DUI Dry Suit and I had to pay 550$ to get it ship shape. I got it for 250$ so it was a steal.
www.leisurepro.com is an awesome site for gear and they ship quick. We use Computers so decomp is not a big deal. All of us have them so the chance of all three going bad is slim. We don't really go deeper then 100', anyway.
We do have an "Equiptment Pool" worth about 20 grand. You can find used stuff cheap when guys are married and the wife wants it "out of the house". The pool is for other divers that want to go with us or if some of our gear breaks down. My primary rig is all new except the Dry Suit. One of those costs about 2000$ new so you can see why I went used.
Oh, and good on you for not panicking. Some people have it and some people don't. You obviously have it. The problem is the people who don't who insist on diving, LOL!
Arioch7 out.