What is the Safest Depth to Scuba Dive?

The safest depth to dive depends on your experience and capabilities. Shallow dives, usually anything less than 40 feet or 12 meters, are safest, but they can be just as dangerous to an inexperienced diver as a deeper dive.

In this article we explore how deep you can dive as a beginner and which depths are safer. We touch on related issues, including how deep Navy Seals dive and how deep you can dive without decompression.

Contents hide

1 How Deep Can You Scuba Dive as a Beginner?

1.1 Risks at Beginner Diving Depths

2 What is the Safest Depth to Dive?

2.1 Hazards With Deep Dives

3 How Deep are Most Recreational Dives?

3.1 Recreational Dives vs. Technical Dives

4 At What Depth Would a Human be Crushed?

4.1 Pressure Suit

5 How Deep Can Master Divers Go?

6 How Deep to Navy Seals Dive?

7 How Deep Can You Dive Without Decompression?

8 References

How Deep Can You Scuba Dive as a Beginner?

A beginner scuba diver with a PADI Scuba Diver certification or equivalent can dive to depths of 40 feet (12 meters) under direct supervision. Those who opt for Open Water Diver certification (or an equivalent) can dive up to 60 feet (18 meters) on their own (still with a dive buddy).

These beginning depths allow you to get a taste of scuba diving without running into the risks tied into a deeper dive.

There is still plenty to witness with shallower dives. Most of your marine life stays around this depth, and fish will be more vibrant the closer to the surface they are. While you should not touch them, marine life may be more social at this depth, allowing for a more immersive experience.

Risks at Beginner Diving Depths

Your risks at beginner diving depths are mostly tied to a lack of experience or inadequate responses to emergencies. You won’t be under as much pressure, but diving without the proper experience can cause:

Failure or inability to communicate
Inadequate situational awareness
Divers to skip decompression stops (when needed)
Harmful ascent speeds

The ramifications vary from minor to severe, and a shallow dive does not necessarily protect you from diving-related fatalities. You also run the risk of injuring someone else with your lack of experience.

Dive shops and centers require certification to accompany them on a dive for these reasons.

What is the Safest Depth to Dive?

Shallower dives, usually 40 feet (12 meters) or less, are the safest. This limits depth-related issues such as:

Nitrogen narcosis (leading to impaired judgment)
Decompression sickness (and related responsibilities)
Less time to respond to threats/accidents

While these depths are safe, they don’t excuse improper procedures or a lack of experience. Responding poorly to a problem is just as dangerous at 30 feet as it is at 100 feet.

Hazards With Deep Dives

The depth-related issues above ‌increase the risk when diving deeper.

Nitrogen narcosis occurs when your body holds on to too much nitrogen. Breathing at the surface doesn’t have the same risks as breathing using a tank at depth, and your body accumulates much more nitrogen the deeper you go.

You can use different gas mixtures to limit your nitrogen and hopefully avoid this issue, but it’s still important to look out for symptoms such as:

Tingling in your fingers
Dizziness
Disorientation
Tunnel vision

In certain cases, your dive buddy will notice these problems well before you do.

Decompression sickness, also known as the bends, is also related to nitrogen consumption. When the pressure drops as you ascend, the nitrogen gas expands and forms bubbles. These get trapped in your joints and muscles and can cause severe pain.

Your dive computer lets you know how deep you can go without needing to take a decompression stop, but it will also plan any you might need.

Rapid air consumption occurs the deeper you dive. The density of the air you breathe increases, and you consume more of it the further down you go. Because this is not easily remedied, it’s especially important to monitor your pressure gauge the further you go.

How Deep are Most Recreational Dives?

Most recreational dives occur at a depth less than 60 feet (18 meters). This encompasses divers of the three basic certification levels:

Recreational dives focus on the typical scuba diving experience, and you find most of what you are looking for at this depth. It may not suffice for certain technical applications, but you experience the majesty of the ocean at a depth that is easier to manage.

Recreational Dives vs. Technical Dives

Recreational dives work well for anyone who simply wants to explore the ocean without digging too deep. Technical dives, which usually require more intensive certifications, let you go beyond these limits.

Technical certifications let you dive for longer at a shallow depth, but they also open up deeper water for you to explore. The associated courses focus on expanding your skills so you can:

Dive deeper (even beyond 130 feet (40 meters))
Use different, specialized gas mixes and decompression procedures
Dive in new environments, such as caves or shipwrecks
Use specialized equipment, like rebreathers

These dives usually have a purpose beyond entertainment, such as photography or exploration.

At What Depth Would a Human be Crushed?

You would need to dive 22.1 miles (35.5 km) to achieve water pressure suitable for crushing human bone. This is roughly 3 times as deep as the deepest part of our ocean, so the likelihood of a human being crushed completely by water alone is null.

Humans are made up of so much more than bone, including:

Water
Issue
Air compartments

Your air compartments, including your middle ear, sinuses, and lungs, would be the first crushed on a deep dive. This is why there is such a focus on equalizing while diving, as this prevents the pressure from causing damage to these areas.

Equalizing works to compensate for static water pressure by adding an equal gas pressure into your air space in proportion to the atmospheric pressure increases while you dive. In short, proper equalization using your gear is what prevents these “pockets” of air from collapsing.

This is why, theoretically, we could go as deep as we like as long as we had a way to equalize our air space. No water is deep enough to exert sufficient pressure to crush us by solidifying the water in our body, compressing components of our biological makeup, or crushing bone.

Pressure Suit

You use a variety of pressure suits when diving to handle pressure-related issues.

Without a pressure suit, your body comes in contact with the water all around, and you would only need to equalize your own air space. A skin suit or wetsuit doesn’t change this, and the only way you could be crushed is if the water in your body solidified somehow.

A pressure suit allows you to dive deeper, but you must ensure the gas pressure inside the suit is equal to the water pressure on the outside. Dry divers learn to add gas to their suits the further they descend.

A drop in suit pressure causes the gas volume inside to decrease, and that could crush the diver. External pressure that is too high would crush the diver, but imbalance resulting in lower external pressure can cause the lungs to collapse.

An atmospheric suit is a hard suit designed to withstand external pressure on its own. It holds 1 bar of pressure (same as atmospheric) and a rigid frame that prevents water from crushing the diver.

These suits are limited to depths of 700 meters, and they have the potential to crush the diver if the suit fails in the slightest way.

How Deep Can Master Divers Go?

Master Scuba Diver certification allows divers to go as deep as 100 feet (30 meters).

If you want to dive any deeper than this, you need a Deep Diver specialty that allows scuba diving to depths of 130 feet (40 meters).

While this allows you to dive deeper, the course focuses on the tools you need to do this safely. This includes:

Planning your dives effectively
Managing your gas supply
Identifying and managing narcosis

While you can take this specialty as part of your mastery course, it is not built in.

How Deep to Navy Seals Dive?

Navy SEALS dive as deep as they need to, usually without exceeding depths of 100 to 130 feet. While they’re likely to be certified for this depth (or deeper with special certifications), the majority of their work is accomplished at shallower depths.

How Deep Can You Dive Without Decompression?

Dive computers and dive tables tell you how deep you can dive without decompression. This is determined based on your depth and the amount of time you’re spending at that depth.

No-Decompression Limits (NDLs) are very strict. If you go even one foot over the limit, you’ll need to make a decompression top.

Depth	No-Decompression Limit
35 feet (10.67 meters)	205 minutes
40 feet (12.19 meters)	140 minutes
50 feet (15.54 meters)	80 minutes
60 feet (18.29 meters)	55 minutes
70 feet (21.34 meters)	40 minutes

This information comes from the PADI Recreational Dive Planner, and you can use it to plan how deep you can dive for how long without decompression.