Unlocking the Deep: Why the SSI Deep Diving Specialty is a Must-Have for Arizona Divers
You’re on that dream dive trip you’ve been planning for a year. The divemaster gives the briefing: “Alright everyone, we’re on a stunning vertical wall. The top of the reef is at 50 feet, but the most beautiful sea fans and a small swim-through are at 90. Those with deep diving certification, we’ll drop down… everyone else, please enjoy the top of the reef.”
It’s a moment of frustration every Open Water diver eventually experiences. You’re limited to 60 feet (18 meters), and it suddenly feels like you’re on the outside looking in. The ocean’s most dramatic, exciting, and historic sites often lie just beyond this limit.
Wrecks like the HMCS Yukon in San Diego or the legendary SS Thistlegorm in the Red Sea… Sheer, breathtaking walls in Fiji or the Galapagos… Unique marine life encounters…
They all have one thing in common: they’re in deep water. As divers based in the Arizona desert, we train for a world of adventure. The SSI Deep Diving specialty is your official, certified key to unlocking that world.
What is the Deep Diving Specialty?
The SSI Deep Diving program is designed to give you the skills, knowledge, and confidence to safely plan and execute dives to the recreational limit of 130 feet (40 meters).
This is not a “daredevil” course. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. It’s a “safety and planning” course. It teaches you that going deep isn’t about being fearless; it’s about being prepared. It is arguably one of the most important courses you can take to expand your diving horizons and become a more self-reliant, capable diver.
What You Will Learn (And Why It’s Critical)
The Deep Diving specialty focuses on the unique challenges and procedures of diving at greater depths. The knowledge you gain is invaluable:
1. Mastering Gas Management (Your Air)
The most immediate change you’ll notice at 100 feet is how fast you consume your breathing gas. Due to pressure, you use air four times faster at 100 feet than you do at the surface.
- What you learn: The course teaches you how to calculate your air consumption rate, plan your dive based on that rate, and manage your gas supply meticulously. You’ll learn the importance of “turn pressure” and “rock bottom” reserves, ensuring you always end your dive with a safe margin of air.
2. Understanding Nitrogen Narcosis (The “Martini Effect”)
As you go deeper, the increased nitrogen in your breathing gas can have an intoxicating effect, often called “the rapture of the deep” or “nitrogen narcosis.” It can impair judgment, slow reaction time, and cause a feeling of euphoria or anxiety.
- What you learn: This course teaches you to recognize the subtle signs of narcosis in yourself and your buddy. You’ll practice tasks at depth to understand its effects in a controlled environment. Most importantly, you learn how to manage it—often by simply ascending a few feet into shallower water—so that it’s a manageable phenomenon, not a source of panic.
3. Respecting Your No-Decompression Limits (Your Time)
Your “no-decompression limit” (NDL) is the amount of time you can stay at a specific depth without needing to make mandatory decompression stops on your way up. At 60 feet, your NDL might be 50+ minutes. At 110 feet, it could be less than 15.
- What you learn: You’ll master the art of dive planning with your personal dive computer. The course emphasizes the importance of watching your NDL, ending your dive well within the limits, and why it’s so critical at depth.
4. Perfecting Your Safety Procedures
Everything about a deep dive is more serious, including the ascent. A slow, controlled ascent and a proper safety stop are non-negotiable.
- What you learn: The course reinforces the procedures for managing a safe ascent and a proper safety stop. You’ll also learn about the specialized equipment considerations for deep diving, such as redundant air sources (like a pony bottle) or a deployable surface marker buoy (DSMB), which are essential for safety on open-ocean drift dives.
Your Ticket to the World’s Best Dives
Once you have your Deep Diving certification, your entire dive travel logbook opens up. You will no longer be the diver who has to stay on top of the reef. You’ll be the confident, certified diver who can safely explore:
- The World’s Great Wrecks: From San Carlos to the South Pacific, the biggest and most intact wrecks are almost always deeper than 60 feet.
- Dramatic Walls and Canyons: The most stunning underwater geology is found where the reef drops off into the deep blue.
- Specific Marine Life: Some animals, like certain species of sharks and groupers, prefer the cooler, deeper water.
As a 72 Aquatics diver, you are a traveler. You are investing in skills here in Tucson that you will use in the most amazing waters on the planet. The SSI Deep Diving specialty is one of the most valuable, practical, and exciting certifications you can earn. It gives you the key to a door you’ve been staring at, and it gives you the knowledge to open it safely.
Ready to see what’s in the deep? Stop by the shop, give us a call, or sign up for the next SSI Deep Diving specialty course. The other half of the ocean is waiting.
