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On Fri, 8 Jul 1994, William E. Sadler wrote: > Question, folks: > > I've seen several references to diving to 200', some to 300', and some to > 400'+ - what is the deepest that 'technical' diving is done to with some level > of normalcy. I'm not sure what you mean by "level of normalcy" exactly, and I don't know what you mean in your scope of "technical divers", but I will hazard some guesses: Dives deeper than 500': Probably less than 100 total by "technical divers", perhaps less than 50 Dives 400-500': Probably about 200 or so. Dives 300-400': I'd guess more than 1500, perhaps more than 2000 Dives 200-300': Probably tens of thousands I have no real numbers to back this up: it's based on my gut feeling from my own dives & from people in the "technical" community and what sorts of dives they're doing. I'd be willing to bet that other people have better numbers. > > Can one dive to 500' for 20 minutes on mix? How long and how much decom. time > w/ such a dive? I read the account of the guy (Sheckley?) who tried to make > 1000'. Yes, a 20 minute dive to 500' can, and probably has, been done (on more than one occasion). Sheck Exley was attempting to reach 1000' when he was killed. In the opinion of many (my self included), he was the best diver in the world. As for deco. time from such a dive, if I were doing it on open circuit, with the mixes I'd use & the decompression software I follow, the total dive time would be about 6 hours (i.e., 5:40 for ascent) > I'm just curious, what depths are considered easily obtainable. Are 300' > wreck penetrations doable? 400'? 500'? IMHO, no dive below 100' is easy. However, I don't think that's the answer you were looking for. Also, depth is by NO means the only parameter - there are many other environmental conditions to consider. But, as a generalized answer: I'd say that most ADEQUATELY TRAINED trimix divers could reach as deep as about 300 feet without an exhorbitant amount of preparation & surface support (ALL technical dives, of course, require a LOT more preparation & planning than a typical "recreational dive"; that's a given. By "exhorbitant" I mean weeks or even months of preparation for a SINGLE DIVE, with more support crew than divers) The 300-400' range requires (generally) much more preparation - probably less than 50 people have made more than 20 dives to such depths. Below 400' is very extreme diving that is generally conducted on a dive-by-dive basis, and is not "easily obtainable" by any definition of "easy". Aloha, Rich
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