Dive Skills · 28 Sep 2017
Is deep diving for everyone? It depends what you mean by “deep.” Nineteen metres counts as deep for an Open Water diver, while an Advanced diver can go to 30 metres — but depth on its own isn't really the point.
Deep diving has really little to do with depth, and a lot more to do with buoyancy, air consumption, the environment, and — without a doubt — your comfort levels.
A 30-metre dive in flat, clear conditions is a completely different experience to the same depth with poor visibility, a strong current, cold water and a swell running. Those factors are what turn a manageable dive into a genuinely hazardous one.
Deep diving is absolutely viable — if, and only if, it's backed by proper training from people who know what they're doing, and only once a diver feels comfortable, confident and competent enough to be there.
After twenty years of instructing, one thing still frustrates: competent divers who dismiss the Advanced course as unnecessary. Some naturally gifted divers do find the course a little boring — but less confident Open Water divers hear that opinion too, and quietly go deeper than their training allows without ever speaking up.
A good instructor is watching constantly — air consumption, comfort, body language — ready to step in immediately if needed. An untrained buddy simply doesn't carry that same responsibility.
So the real question is this: why would anyone chasing deeper dives ever want to cut corners on something with life-or-death consequences?