Altitude?

[Markknight68]

Hi I wonder if you could help?

I will be diving with my son in Australia soon. We will be doing 2 or 3 intro dives on the same day to a max depth of 12 metres.

On the way back to hotel we will be driving to an altitude of 800m. Is this an issue? or will it be ok?

Thanks

Mark

 

[boulderjohn]

The DAN guidelines for flying after diving say that ascending 2,000 feet (600 meters) after diving should be safe.

Here is a thread I created for driving to altitude from a specific location in Colorado, USA. There divers frequently make driving ascents similar to the one you are contemplating. Pay special attention to the second post, which provides links to tables and ascent guidelines. These guidelines tell you how long you have to wait to ascend certain amounts depending upon the dives you did. I of course don't know the lengths of your dives, but I would certainly assume you will finish your dives in a pressure group that will allow you to make that ascent before very long. The length of time it take you to pack up may be all you really need.

What has not been studied is the effect of gradually driving to altitude, which in theory is the same as doing a slow ascent during a dive and even doing decompression stops.

 

[Markknight68]

Thanks John. I have had a look and think I may fall into group I.

If we do 3 x 12m for 35min each dive. I am sure the group will allow minimum surface time between dives..

So driving to 2600ft should be ok after 3.30 hrs. Does this sound about right?

Mark

 

[boulderjohn]

Thanks John. I have had a look and think I may fall into group I.

If we do 3 x 12m for 35min each dive. I am sure the group will allow minimum surface time between dives..

So driving to 2600ft should be ok after 3.30 hrs. Does this sound about right?

Mark

I'm assuming you read the tables correctly. I didn't check, but that sounds reasonable.

 

[boulderjohn]

Just to add, I am sure you noticed this when you did your work, but I just want to make sure that any other readers who try to use those ascent to altitude guidelines know that they have to use the tables provided in the link to compute the dives. The PADI tables will give you a very different pressure group. That is because the PADI tables have twice as many pressure groups in order to minimize the effects of rounding off. As a result, you will get farther along in the alphabet much faster with them.

 

[Markknight68]

Thanks John. I didn't use PADI tables.. I am new to this and I wonder if you could help? Actually I think we would only do 2 x 35 min dives at 12m. Based on this I am sure we will be fine, but would appreciate if you could check?

Thanks

Mark

 

[boulderjohn]

OK, as I read it, you can leave immediately after the second dive.

 

[Markknight68]

Thank you for your time John, I appreciate it

Mark