Do you care who sets the limits?

[SoggyFox]

Originally Posted by Arthur Gerla

The downside was that two divers went into unplanned deco on single 11 liter tanks and had to spend a very long time dangling from the safety tank at three meters.

just trying to wrap my head round a very long deco hang with only using 11lt tanks, how deep did they go?

but it does kind of make the point about limits being imposed, if someone had said 30m then hopefully they would of been thinking about depths and times and not head in Moomin land.

[KyushuKim]

At the end of the day I think Scubee is correct and listed the considerations that a liveaboard has to have very well.

I suppose I just wonder then why they offer large - 15 liter as opposed to 12 - nitrox tanks, but then restrict their use.

That said, I think Mark also made an accurate observation about reaching an "understanding" with the guides.

To be fair I did manage that with the tour leader who let me know that if I dropped down to get a picture it would be OK as long as it wasn't for too long, or too often. In Thailand it seems to depend a bit which boat you are on, and actually who the tour leader is as they get pretty much carte blanche to run the diving as they see fit. That's fair enough as it's them who's going to catch it if they get their customers bent. Phuket dive ops don't like bent customers!!

But yeah...... maybe I'm a bit picky but if I pay for a large tank full of Nitrox it's nice to put it to full use!

I knew a lot of you guys dived the Red Sea and other places though, so I was curious if it was the same. A friend of mine just came back from Indonesia...... Bali, Komodo etc - no restrictions at all where he and his wife went. Bob's a very experienced instructor with thousands of dives though....maybe that makes a difference I don't know.

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by KyushuKim

I suppose I just wonder then why they offer large - 15 liter as opposed to 12 - nitrox tanks, but then restrict their use.

erm... not everyone has a low breathing rate and will happily go through a 15l in 45 minutes. Many people use a larger cylinder to match avaiable gas to their buddy.

[finbar.taylor]

Originally Posted by SoggyFox

just trying to wrap my head round a very long deco hang with only using 11lt tanks, how deep did they go?

but it does kind of make the point about limits being imposed, if someone had said 30m then hopefully they would of been thinking about depths and times and not head in Moomin land.

did not mention how many tanks though!

I was on a liveaboard a few years a go when one of the customers decided to take a closer look at a hammer head.

5th dive of the day all previouse one in the region of 25-30m and this guy decided to drop to 65 to get his closer look, he was on an 11ltr and drained that and 2 drop tanks on the boat and half the DM's

I have to agree with most of the post above about if you want a deeper trip then book as such, likewise after the first day I've never had a problem doing my own thing as long as you act responcibly and prove your not a liability and respect the guides wishes you should be allowed to extend the limits.

Fin

[PeeBee]

Originally Posted by Scubee

erm... not everyone has a low breathing rate and will happily go through a 15l in 45 minutes. Many people use a larger cylinder to match avaiable gas to their buddy.

That's exactly what I have done in the past, on my first liveaboard I'd only just reached 50 dives so as a complete newby my SAC was even higher than it is now so I used a 15 because it was the best way I could think of to not impact my buddy who would have otherwise had a far shorter dive than normal.

[KyushuKim]

Originally Posted by Scubee

erm... not everyone has a low breathing rate and will happily go through a 15l in 45 minutes. Many people use a larger cylinder to match avaiable gas to their buddy.

True, but I'm not sure if they would normally then use Nitrox.

3 years ago when I first went to Phuket I was actually told it was to give the diver the benefit of the extra bottom time. On that boat it was made clear that if you were paying the extra $6/tank for the fill, they thought it reasonable if you got a decent chance to use it. It's just a difference of approach I suppose. It's nothing that you can't check out before hand though, if you're aware that the differences are there. This was my third time there, but the first time that I encountered this situation. I suppose it's a bit more of a surprise if you think you know what to expect....but you don't!

[nigelH]

In warm water the interesting stuff tends to be shallow and the lights better.

If that's 60 minutes then we serve lunch I'll be there.

I seem to remember doing well over 90 minutes on a Sea liveaboard once but we were on a three dive a day schedule. For an old gas guzzler like me that was good for an ali 12 with a hot fill.

[purple vonny]

I think, as someone above said, if you want a longer dive, get ready first, in the water first and get out last. You should get 90 minutes then because there are uaually faffers on board.

[KyushuKim]

Originally Posted by nigelH

If that's 60 minutes then we serve lunch I'll be there.

LOL. Both boats I've been on in Phuket just stick a load of food on a buffet table....you help yourself. That part isn't very formal.......

[Daz217]

Originally Posted by KyushuKim

True, but I'm not sure if they would normally then use Nitrox.

3 years ago when I first went to Phuket I was actually told it was to give the diver the benefit of the extra bottom time. On that boat it was made clear that if you were paying the extra $6/tank for the fill, they thought it reasonable if you got a decent chance to use it. It's just a difference of approach I suppose. It's nothing that you can't check out before hand though, if you're aware that the differences are there. This was my third time there, but the first time that I encountered this situation. I suppose it's a bit more of a surprise if you think you know what to expect....but you don't!

I guzzle the gas and use a 15L for exactly the reasons stated (i.e to match my Buddy in terms of available gas)
To be fair i will usually be heading up due to gas constraints rather than having hit the time limit for no deco obligations.
I would however despite all of this still consider having Nitrox especially on a liveaboard trip. It's benefits are obvious for multi day multi dive trips.
Best i have ever done out of a 15L cylinder was a 61 Min (i wanted to break the hour barrier) Dive at Abu Dabab gentle slope down to 30M turnaround and come back but did spend a long long time in the 5M region. I envy all of you fishies with gills that don't seem to breathe and would exit the same dive with 231 Bar.