Your safety

RULES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON DEPTH LIMITS FOR SCUBA DIVING

Observe depth limits – adhering to depth limits increases your safety and reduces the risk of an accident

Depth limits result from and are determined by a number of factors. Like other physiological factors, they cannot be assigned a fixed factor to ensure complete safety. In most cases, they are recommendations based on the best possible knowledge and years of experience. The existence of depth limits, and even adherence to them, does not relieve the diver of responsibility for himself. Acquiring, developing and applying knowledge of depth limits is a good way to increase your own safety in diving. Depth limits for and risks associated with exceeding them are discussed in detail during diving courses. If you have any doubts, we encourage you to refer to the diving organizations’ training materials and consult with your instructor.

Depth limits have been introduced by individual organizations as a training standard for each level of training. Their intention is to minimize the situation of exposing the diver to risks or dangerous situations that he has not had the opportunity to experience during training, where he is under the proper supervision of a qualified instructor. In most cases, the limits correspond to the knowledge and skills imparted at each level of diving education. The depth limit is usually the maximum depth that can be reached during a given course, not the depth to which a diver is authorized. However, coupled with the guideline that a diver should not exceed the maximum depths reached during the course without proper supervision, most people in the diving industry equate the course depth limit with the entitlement implied by a given certification. Therefore, it is advisable to take a conservative approach to the application of limits and to expand them judiciously. In the absence of other guidelines and regulations in this area, they are often treated as “binding law” in the diving industry.

The factors that go into setting an individual depth limit are:

Your level of certification and training – the generally accepted limits in most training organizations are

– 4 – 5 meters – junior diver aged 8-9 years

– 12 meters – Scuba Diver – diver requiring supervision or junior diver aged 10 – 11 years old

– 18 to 20 meters – Open Water Diver / P1 – basic level independent diver

– 30 meters – Advanced Open Water Diver.

– 40 meters – P2 / Deep Diver – expansion of knowledge and skills for diving deeper than 30 meters for an advanced diver is often done through additional specializations.

– deeper than 40 meters – various types of technical degrees (e.g., Tec45, Extended Range, Technical Diver), which, in addition to extending the depth limit, teach the principles of formal decompression, which is necessary because of the very short no-decompression times when exceeding a depth of 40 meters

A depth of 40 meters is recognized in the diving industry as the limit of recreational diving. For dives deeper than 40 meters, we most often talk about technical dives. Most of the risk in technical diving is associated with the inability to reach the surface directly in an emergency (e.g., due to the need for decompression or the cave ceiling). Therefore, this type of diving requires knowledge of special procedures and duplication of equipment, and this goes beyond the scope of recreational diving courses.

Your diving experience

As you gain experience in different diving conditions, you will be able to better assess the situation and diving conditions and, as a result, estimate safety for specific depths. In addition, the more dives a diver has made, the easier it will be in most cases for him to return to a high level of skill after a break

Self-perception of a given diving day

This is an often underestimated risk factor for divers. However, clinical experience has shown that factors such as dehydration, exhaustion or weakness due to illness contribute significantly to diving injuries even when “limits” are observed

Time interval since last dive

– in short-term terms means the interval since the last dive and the saturation level with nitrogen or other inert gas. The smaller the break since the last dive, the more conservative we should be about the planned depth of the next dive. A generally accepted rule and the basis for creating many dive models is not to exceed the depth of the previous dive on a repeat dive

– in the long term, it is about the break since the last dive – the longer it is, the more conservatively you should plan your maximum dive depth. In case of a break of several months or more, it is advisable to make the first dives under the supervision of a more experienced diver

Used diving equipment

– The size of the cylinder used will have a direct bearing on the maximum depth of the dive

– Deep dives, especially decompression dives, require the duplication of critical pieces of equipment (e.g., automatic cylinders, computers, masks)

The capabilities of your dive partner / team

– All of the above rules also apply to a partner or partners within a diving group

– A generally accepted rule of thumb is to adjust the depth limit for a group/pair to the diver who has the most conservative limit

Failure to comply with depth limits risks:

– Decompression sickness

– Gas narcosis

– Lack of gas – this can result in emergency ascent or unconsciousness underwater

– The occurrence of other unforeseen physiological and psychological reactions that may result in a threat to health or life