How deep can you Scuba Dive?
Scuba diving can be a fun-filled activity or an adventurous sport that enables you to go underwater and observe the surroundings. In this article, we will discuss how deep you can Scuba dive, the risks of Scuba diving you should be aware of, and what are the best ways to Scuba dive.
How Deep Can a Scuba Diver go?
Scuba diving is done for different purposes, such as observing underwater deep holes, mountain ranges, or sunken ships. However, how deep can a Scuba diver go? A recreational diver can go as far as 130 feet underwater.
The experience, type of diving, and training of the diver, eventually decide how deep that person can go. In technical deep diving, a dive deeper than 200 feet (60 meters) is called a deep dive.
Difference between Technical and Recreational Diving?
Divers that do recreational diving can explore underwater locations that non-drivers will never get to see. On the other hand, technical divers can also go to all the underwater locations recreational divers visit, but they can stay longer underwater and go deeper.
Technical divers also have more gear and breathing gasses than recreational divers. This could be why technical diving spots are often limited for logistical reasons. However, whether you are a technical or recreational diver, both will need a certification.
Recreational divers can choose specialties such as wreck diving or fish identification. For technical divers, the path includes sidemount, rebreather, and trimix. While every driver needs proper Scuba gear before deep diving, technical drivers use more gear than recreational divers.
Since technical divers need more gear, the gear cost is high for them. Lastly, technical divers do riskier dives than technical divers because they dive deeper underwater.
Is Deep Diving Risky?
Deep Diving is safe as long you follow procedures and rules. That being said, it is essential to know the potential risks of deep diving:
The Bends (Decompression Sickness)
When you go for a dive, you take in air that consists of nitrogen, oxygen, and other types of gases. While the body uses oxygen, it releases nitrogen since it doesn’t need it. When the pressure decreases, the nitrogen gas within the body develops into bubbles and expands.
These bubbles typically get trapped within the joints and cause excruciating pain to the diver. A person suffering from The Bend is given hyperbaric oxygen therapy within a recompression chamber.
Rapid Consumption of Air
Due to the increased pressure underwater, the air you breathe becomes denser. This means you take in more air than usual while diving, especially in shallow waters. It is recommended that you observe your pressure gauge constantly. You can also bring an extra pony bottle or cylinder while diving.
Nitrogen Narcosis
When you take in too much nitrogen, you will have a narcosis effect, and the first symptoms you will experience are disorientation, dizziness, and tingling in the fingers. The narcosis effect can also affect eyesight and cause tunnel vision, making reading instruments and gauges almost impossible. The deeper you dive, the higher the chances of nitrogen narcosis happening.
How to Do Deep Diving Safely?
Here is what you should do while deep diving:
- Plan your diving beforehand, and establish a bottom line or a maximum depth.
- Before you go for a deep dive, perform a safety check.
- Frequently monitor the pressure gauge and depth.
- Before you deep dive, ensure that there is plenty of air in the tank.
Things you should not do while deep diving:
- Don’t plan the dive so that it exceeds the no-decompression limits of the dive table.
- Never go alone for a deep dive; always have someone with you, most likely an experienced diver.
- Never exceed your bottom time or exceed your planned depth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Diving Physiology?
The depth you can dive is not always influenced by physiology. The human body is not meant to go underwater; however, that doesn’t mean the body will be crushed underwater. That being said, our fluid balance and renal and circulatory systems are affected by the hydrostatic pressure of diving since we are diving against the internal hydrostatic pressure of our blood.
This is why the blood is sent to the brain and heart, and it is necessary to keep the core warm during deep diving. Fluid loss in the body can also happen due to diving physiology. You might want to feel like peeing sometimes underwater; immersion diuresis happens when the body experiences a blood pressure increase which leads to urination.
Undoubtedly, diving affects our body’s physiology; these systems are unlikely to prevent you from a deep dive.
What is Diving Physics?
How deep you can dive typically depends on your physics, and one of the reasons why we can only dive to a certain depth is the nitrogen we absorb. As we go deeper underwater, every 33 feet, the pressure increases, and the partial pressure of different gases also rises. These gases can accumulate in our bodies and stay there until we get out of the water.
The only exception, in this case, is oxygen, which is completely absorbed by the body and is used by our metabolism. Nitrogen absorption, though, can be problematic for our bodies, and one way to reduce our nitrogen intake underwater is by eliminating a large quantity of nitrogen from the gas tank. When we eliminate the nitrogen, we can add more oxygen to the tank and enrich the air. However, even when the air is enriched, you must be careful because oxygen toxicity can occur.
The recreational diving tables were created to help divers understand how long they can stay at some depths and how deep they can go underwater. As long as divers are within the safety limit, the chances of falling sick from nitrogen are low.
Conclusion
This article discusses how deep a Scuba diver can go. We also discussed the main differences between technical and recreational divers and the risks of deep diving. If you follow the rules and stay within your limits, you should not have any issues deep diving.
