When is it advised to do a decompression stop.

[BanditDJB]

Hi everyone, I was certified for open water last year. The dives for my certification took place off of a beach in about 30ft of water. I have not had a chance to dive again till now. This time I will be diving off of a boat for the first time. A dive master will be present and supposedly we could go as deep as 80ft. should a decompression stop be done? And, What is the depth that one should start planning a decompression stop? I looked around my trainning manuels and it says that divers should always make a precautionary stop at 15ft for 3-5 minutes on every dive. This didn't seem to be an issue in the trainning, do the rest of you guys stop at 15ft on all of your dives?

[fcallagy]

Hi Bandit,
Nearly every agency recomends a safety stop in for 3 mins at 3-6m depth. You are not doing a deco stop it is purely precationary but a good precaution. At 80ft it will depend on long long you spend at that depth and if you are breathing air whether you will actually need a real deco stop. Deco diving is a whole new ball game and please proceed slowly with good training. Contact the dive master before hand and explain your concerns be honest about your ability. Imho deco stops or lack of them are not the main cause or dcs its usually a rapid ascent caused by a panicking diver who has lost/flooded their mask for example and cannot deal with situation or an out of air situation which should not happen if the dive is properly planned and checked during the dive. In the highly unlikely event of equipment failure you should have an octopus or do buddy breathing and a controlled ascent.
I do a safety stop on all dives as a matter of course even if it has been a short shallow dive.
Bear in mind the first obective of every dive is to come back from it.

[Linda]

Originally Posted by BanditDJB

Hi everyone, I was certified for open water last year. The dives for my certification took place off of a beach in about 30ft of water. I have not had a chance to dive again till now. This time I will be diving off of a boat for the first time. A dive master will be present and supposedly we could go as deep as 80ft. should a decompression stop be done? And, What is the depth that one should start planning a decompression stop? I looked around my trainning manuels and it says that divers should always make a precautionary stop at 15ft for 3-5 minutes on every dive. This didn't seem to be an issue in the trainning, do the rest of you guys stop at 15ft on all of your dives?

Hi Bandit!
I almost always do a safty stop for 3 minutes at 3-6 meter. If I have done a deeper and longer dive (say a multilevel dive with maxdeph of 30 and 60 minutes with avarage deph of 14-16 m) I try to do a deepstop also since i experince that it make feel frecher when I come up. But, no deco since that's something diffrent that I'm not quite ready for yet. The only time I might skip it is on my closest divesite where the avarage deph is 6 m

[Deepwater]

A better and safer way would be to half your depth and round down to the nearest 3. Do 1 min every meter and then 2 mins at 6 meters. Take a minute to the surface.

e.g 30m for 20 mins.

1/2 your depth= 15m.

Spend 1 min at 15m
Ascend to 12m-Spend 1min
Ascend to 9m-Spend 1 min
Ascend to 6m-spend 2 mins
Ascend to surface at 1min a meter.

I would keep my ascents to 6m at 30 secs a meter.

You can convert the depths to imperial.

This way you can control any micro bubble formation and you will feel alot less tired after a dive.

Hope this helps.

Ali

[Linda]

Originally Posted by Deepwater

A better and safer way would be to half your depth and round down to the nearest 3. Do 1 min every meter and then 2 mins at 6 meters. Take a minute to the surface.

e.g 30m for 20 mins.

1/2 your depth= 15m.

Spend 1 min at 15m
Ascend to 12m-Spend 1min
Ascend to 9m-Spend 1 min
Ascend to 6m-spend 2 mins
Ascend to surface at 1min a meter.

I would keep my ascents to 6m at 30 secs a meter.

You can convert the depths to imperial.

This way you can control any micro bubble formation and you will feel alot less tired after a dive.

Hope this helps.

Ali

That slow part with shorter stops comes quite natrual when following the bottom in my favorit fjord, always something to look at but thanks for the example! Have to admit that it's the last 2 meters that unfortunally still takes concentration to slow down. Not that is't fast, just not 3 m/min. Well, just practice some more.. :-)

[Jon]

I do mine exactly how Ali described, except I do Imperial depths.

That means a minute at 30', another at 20', and two at 10' for standard recreational dives. For the deep/long stuff there's a lot more added into the mix.

Jon

[Deepwater]

Originally Posted by Jon

I do mine exactly how Ali described, except I do Imperial depths.

That means a minute at 30', another at 20', and two at 10' for standard recreational dives. For the deep/long stuff there's a lot more added into the mix.

Jon

Imperial?? You guys still use those figures

Dive Safe and Plenty.

Ali

[Deepwater]

Originally Posted by Linda

That slow part with shorter stops comes quite natrual when following the bottom in my favorit fjord, always something to look at but thanks for the example! Have to admit that it's the last 2 meters that unfortunally still takes concentration to slow down. Not that is't fast, just not 3 m/min. Well, just practice some more.. :-)

Fjords.....only a dream Would love to see some pics. I want to do the Narvik Wrecks and the Baltic one day with Diva ...lets see if she can tackle the cold.

[Linda]

Originally Posted by Deepwater

Fjords.....only a dream Would love to see some pics. I want to do the Narvik Wrecks and the Baltic one day with Diva ...lets see if she can tackle the cold.

Who doesnt wanna go to Norway.. If just my purse and number of vacationdays could agree with my dreams of places I wanna visit..

But I'll pm you with the adress to a site where a bunch of tallented uw-fotographers, profesionals and amatours, have pics of "my playground".

[Rockbrother]

Most training agencies does not allow for decompression diving esp for open water qualification. You will also see you dive tables does not include deco diving, and all depth and times are non-deco limits.

[Deepwater]

Originally Posted by Rockbrother

Most training agencies does not allow for decompression diving esp for open water qualification. You will also see you dive tables does not include deco diving, and all depth and times are non-deco limits.

Correct, but most Agencies teach you the basics of decompression even though you cannot do the dive.

The NAUI, BSAC , IANTD & as well as the new GUE OW programe, teach you the fundamentals and basics of deco which I think is essential for any diver training program.

AFAIK, the only agency that does not teach deco is PADI, but then again, I could be wrong.

Safe and Lots of diving

Ali

[omega3]

Also account for stress encountered in a dive physical(work) and mental and things like caffeine etc. They all have great effects on the take up of gas in the body and may require that the tables used be ajusted to take this into account. This means always plan for a stop/s as it will be unlikely in the scenario given you will have the facility for surdo2. It is good practice in my opinion for a shallow stop after the deeper dives using NDLimits.
Have a good un!!