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Reason No. 1: Believing the myths There are people who believe the myths about Deep Air Diving, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. And these people convince their friends, students, and diving buddies that it is all OK. Once these new "Deep Air Divers" have formed the habit to dive deep on air, they pass on this "knowledge" to other divers. Natural selection is a slow process. Reason No. 2: Economic reasons Mixed gas diving is a big investment. To do it the right way you need new equipment, and practice to get used to this new equipment. Then you need additional courses for mixed gas diving. And on top of that the gas-fills for every dive you do after this course. Most divers do not want to make this kind of commitment, but they still want to make the deep dives, smell the roses down there. They choose "money first" instead of "safety first". And sometimes they pay the ultimate price for this decision. Reason No. 3: Following the crowd At the moment there is a big boom in deep air diving courses. Twin-sets filled with air are the trend, and "extended range" and "technical deep air" courses are sold by the dozens. Twin-sets look cool and it is not difficult for the industry to sell these courses to the ill-informed diver, together with the myths about the safety of Deep Air Diving. It is a shame, because in the information age we have the opportunity to develop our own critical judgement, instead of just following the crowd. Reason No. 4: The absence of a helium infrastructure This should stop nobody from looking for ways to organize a helium infrastructure. At every diving location in the world where there is a trimix filling station, there once was only air for sale. Until people took the initiative to do something about it. These pioneers are responsible for all the progress that is made in the diving world. If there is no infrastructure where you dive, you will have to become a pioneer yourself. Reason No. 5: Some people just like to get narced, that is their motivation for diving In the past I have been guilty of this kind of behavior. I dived between 40 and 60 meters on air, because here in Dahab most people consider that to be OK, and because I enjoyed the feeling of being narced. When I realized my dubious motivation, and the risks I was taking, I stopped doing it. With my current knowledge I limit myself to 30 msw/100 fsw maximum depth. I now choose jogging in the mornings for getting "runners-high" as an alternative for diving deep to get narced...:-) I advise everybody who likes to get narced to make the same choice. Reason No. 6: The diving industry actively promotes Deep Air Diving Ever since technical diving and twin-sets are the hype, every professional diving association has its own technical diving department. Research makes it crystal clear that the risks are high. But there is a lot of money to be made for those associations who promote deep air diving in the 40-66 MSW / 133-218 FSW range. A money-motivated industry has decided to promote this type of diving, and nobody want to be left behind and lose a part of their market share.
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