Posted by northcoast diver on March 18, 2005 at 09:57:15:
In Reply to: 144 feet, 38 minutes posted by Elaine on March 16, 2005 at 18:20:46:
According to V-Planner, your NDL on Air to 145 ft is 6 mins. You therefore must have spent a goodly portion of your dive significantly shallower than that. Or else your dive computer would have given you deco stops on the way back up.
The thing to remember about deco stops is that if something goes wrong during your deco stops which forces you to surface, then you are going to have aches and pains, and numbness, if not worse, on the way to the recompression chamber.
If you enjoy diving in the range of 145 ft, there are several better mixes for you than air. One is EAN25. However you would also be better off with twin tanks on your back, for this kind of diving, than only a single tank. Twin 65s should be large enough for you as a woman with a good SCR-RMV probably, to also provide an adequate reserve for a buddy as well, if this is the kind of diving you are thinking of doing in the future.
The best mix that I have found for diving between 100 and 200 ft is TMX 20/40. Your mind is totally clear of any narcosis. But when using helium mixes, you have to be really careful about your buoyancy control, and stick to a rigid decompression schedule.
In other words, 145 ft is beyond the range of single-tank NDL diving these days.
In the olden days of scuba, instructors taught about diving to 250 ft on air with single tanks. No training agency on this earth teaches that way anymore however.