Posted by RaiderKarl on May 07, 2001 at 10:17:37:
In Reply to: While that study may be plausible, here's an account of folks who + posted by mike on May 06, 2001 at 20:24:58:
I think having a buddy around at depths of more than 150 feet on air is what complicates things. At that depth, communication becomes effectively impossible, and trying to get two narked minds to do anything together is virtually futile.
On my my deep dives over 150 ft., my buddy is my ScubaPro S-600 / Mark 20 regulator systems together with a pony bottle. In a perfect world, on such deep air dives, you would wear 3 ScubaPro S-600 regulators, the primary, the backup octo, and on the pony. Thats expensive, but the realms deeper than 150 ft. are not for K-mart shoppers.
Buddy diving has its limits on air. No sense in exceeding those limits. If the main problem is a foolish buddy, just say no. Dont even take one off the boat with you. Hello pony bottle.
I think that covers the article about deep dives on air. But dont try this at home anyway, unless you have the experience and the aptitude to plan it, and make good and sure you dive your plan.
It is also a great idea to get into good standard diving habits, so that when you do get narked, you dont have to think, and good diving becomes natural at that point.
On really deep dives, I monitor my air-turn-around pressure, my depth, my NDL limit (normally 2 mins for extraordinary depths deeper than 150 ft.) very closely knowing that I am narked, and when it becomes time to turn around, I carefully watch my ascent rate, and my stop depths: usually 1/2 max depth, then 1/2 of that, then 40 ft, 30 ft, 20 ft, and 10 ft. Since these are all habits, I dont have to think about it. It happens naturally for me.
I believe that I have better dives when diving with a group, such as off a particular boat, just not assigned to a particular buddy responsibility. Your buddy then becomes your pony bottle. Read: alternate air source.
/s/ RaiderKarl