In SCUBA diving what is the max. safe depth when breathing air? Also what is meant by Bottom Time.?

Question

In SCUBA diving what is the max. safe depth when breathing air? Also what is meant by Bottom Time.?

Answer 1

Safe depth ? It depends on who you talk to. A PADI instructor will advise you that 130 feet is your deepest. A Technical diving instructor will advise you that it depends on the conditions and your training. It's possible to do a dive on air to 250 feet. Is it safe? Define safe.

Bottom time is the time spent at depth, not the time it's taken to get there. If you've planned a dive to 90 feet and it's taken 5 minutes to get there, your bottom time starts the second you hit your maximum depth. The amount of bottom time you are allowed before you incur any decompression obligations will vary with a few factors such as if this is a second dive, your surface interval between your previous dive(s) and this one and water temperature.