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Before I begin this I wish to make two comments. The first is a request that people at least proof read their messages before sending them. The second is that, as many will remember, I got involved in a long and heated discussion on BSAC about a year ago and nothing in this reply is meant to re-kindle that flame. alan parker writes: > ... I also note that the club with which I dive is 'adventurous' by BSAC > standard ie they dive beyond 25m. We wouldn't describe ourselves as > adventurous, just deeper divers or recreational divers who routinely dive > with decompression stops. IMHO I don't think that BSAC would class dives deeper than 25m as adventurous. This may be a sweeping statement but I would say that dives around 30m are typical in the UK. I would have put the adventurous limit about 40m. The current proposed max depth for UK recreational diving is 50m. In SSAC you are supposed to get National Diving Council permission before going deeper than 40m. We are lucky as we have an NDC member in our branch :-). I also think there is a Health and Safety Executive rule that you must use mixes other than standard air when going deeper than 50m. I am not sure if this only applies to commercial divers or not. Anyone know for sure? > Here I find that ACUC/NAUI are (in one case at least) telling > students that after 99ft.. death is eminent.. its laid on very heavy > handed to 'scrae' them into an exceptible depth range. Yes I got a 'hard > time' when the senior instructor reviewed my log book, because of 60hrs > last year over forty were beneath 100ft.. much only marginally but the > stigma was attached to 'crazy limey divers'. Well this particular crazy > limey had to put a lot of dive time in over a period of time to get to > dive the deeper wrecks in his area. Most of my diving in around Rathlin > Island in Northern Ireland, however we routinely dive on the Cumberland, > Laurentic and Rown, which are elsewhere. BSAC as an organisation has > tables listed to 52m. Thus the '50m' comment from the previous poster. > Would any one like to show me an organisation which routinely allows its > membership to dive in access of 170ft... I think this is a local misunderstanding of UK diving. I have done about 40 dives (~30 hrs underwater) in the last 6 months and about 35 are deeper than 30m. There is nothing exceptional or macho in this. It is typical of most of the divers I know. You have to dive to where the scenery is. In the Florida Keys you may only need to go to 15m - it is simply a different local environment. IMHO this is one of the reasons that PADI/NAUI/etc have not taken off in the UK. Their diving practices are aimed at the Florida Keys type diving. The basic courses simply do not cater for UK situations. However, a good instructor will simply add all the extra bits required. > ... but for air diving I'm quite happy to do it > the BSAC way. My ascent will be no faster than 15m a minute until the > last 6m which will also take a minute.. since my Aladin is slower I'll > follow it. I think this "last 6m in 1 minute" is difficult (rising 1m every 10 secs). Maybe on a line it is fine but in free water I am happy not to do it, and from the buoyancy control I see from "holiday" divers - not a chance. > ... but when the NDO tells of meeting a sub one day during a dive you > don't automatically think he was limited to a 52m dive... It doesn't necessarily mean he was deep at all. If you dive the Clyde estuary you have a good chance of meeting a sub since the submarine base is in Loch Long. We see subs going in and out regularly - sometimes on the surface as they pass Largs. Alan -------------------------------------------- awright@gs*.bt*.co*.uk* (Alan Wright) BT, Software Engineering Centre, Glasgow, UK --------------------------------------------
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