thewalrus
Registered
I agree with your points skills wise. Call it virtual deco stop, call it "out-of-my-hole" stop and make it mandatory. Don't call it safety stop and make it mandatory. It has already been said that members of this forum are above average regarding skills, awareness and learning vigor.
But, out there, there will be someone trained with "mandatory safety stop" that will do as trained and potentially get hurt because of this nonsense, either by staying in water with low gas or by panicking because of missed "mandatory" stop.
I do it too. I don't mind being in water, either watching scenery or practicing buoyancy. And I usually overstay it. Just don't like it being "mandated".
Yeah - I see where you're coming from. And I think in part my comfort with the way the instruction occurred has to do with how abundantly clear the instructors made it that a safety stop in ordinary diving isn't mandatory. It's a 'nice to have' thing. It's something they recommend that you do. But there's no hard and fast medical evidence that it's required to be safe. And, of course, if you need to surface without one - you do it. Air always beats no-air.
They were also pretty clear in the instruction that it was really only for this dive that they required you to conduct it. Certainly take your point - calling it something else would probably have made it even clearer - I kind of like the "simulated deco stop" language. But at the same time, I think they also wanted to stress that they felt that safety stops were a good thing to do, and that you should feel encouraged to use in your every day diving. especially if you're going below 30 - 40 ft.