What is Deep Diving?

Defining Deep Sea Diving

Deep diving generally refers to any dive that exceeds the standard recreational depth limit of 40 meters (130 feet). This type of diving includes technical diving, commercial diving, and exploration dives that often require the use of mixed gas breathing systems, rebreathers, and advanced decompression procedures.

How Deep Can You Go Scuba Diving?

The depth a diver can reach depends on training, equipment, and the breathing gas mixture used.

Recreational scuba diving is typically limited to 40 meters (130 feet) using standard air tanks.

Technical divers using trimix or other specialized gas blends can exceed 100 meters (328 feet).

Commercial and saturation divers, who work on deep-sea structures, often reach depths of 300 meters (984 feet) or more while using advanced diving systems.

The world record for deep diving on an open-circuit scuba system is 332 meters (1,090 feet), achieved by Ahmed Gabr in 2014.

Essential Equipment for Deep Diving

Going beyond recreational depths requires specialized equipment to ensure safety and manage the physiological challenges of deep pressure and gas narcosis. Some essential equipment includes:

Mixed Gas Systems: Deep dives often require breathing gases like helium-oxygen (heliox) or trimix (helium, oxygen, and nitrogen) to prevent nitrogen narcosis and oxygen toxicity. Some divers have been experimenting with using more exotic gases, such as hydrogen as a part of their breathing mixture.

Decompression Computers: These help divers manage complex ascent schedules to avoid decompression sickness (the bends). They do this by using various tissue saturation algorithms, such as the Buhlman model.

Rebreathers: Unlike traditional open-circuit scuba gear, rebreathers recycle exhaled air by removing carbon dioxide and replenishing oxygen, allowing for extended dive times by limiting the gas use to the actual metabolic consumption of the diver.

Deep Diving Suit: A crucial piece of gear for extreme depths, deep sea diving suits, such as atmospheric diving suits (ADS), protect divers from immense pressure and enable them to operate at depths of up to 610 meters (2,000 feet). These suits are, however, only rarely used and are saved for extreme conditions.

Risks and Challenges of Deep Diving

Deep sea diving presents unique risks that require careful preparation and adherence to safety protocols:

Decompression Sickness (DCS): Prolonged exposure to high-pressure environments increases inert gas absorption in the body, which must be safely released during ascent. It is important to be weary of aspects such as cold exposure and dehydration which can greatly affect the off-gassing time

Nitrogen Narcosis: The onset of this effect is highly personal, some divers can start feeling it at depths of 30 meters (100 feet), others start to get “narked” at depths of 50 meters (160 ft). Nitrogen can have an intoxicating effect, impairing judgment, reaction time, and coordination.

Oxygen Toxicity: High partial pressures of oxygen at depth can cause seizures, which is why technical divers use hypoxic gas blends to mitigate this risk. Such blends are not usable in shallower depths, since they do not contain enough oxygen to sustain life at lower pressures.

Equipment Failure: At extreme depths, standard scuba gear may malfunction with higher probability, requiring redundancy and backup systems.

The Future of Deep Diving

Advancements in technology continue to push the limits of how deep humans can explore underwater. Innovations in rebreather technology, diving suits, and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are expanding our ability to explore the depths safely and efficiently. Whether for commercial work, scientific discovery, or personal achievement, deep diving remains one of the most challenging and awe-inspiring pursuits in the diving world.

Author: Adam Prochaska