Bent in Cozumel

[gj62]

Tim,

I also have a Oceanic VEO 200. You mentioned that it does not have the capacity to print out a dive profile. My computer is about a year old and has a female jack on the left side of the computer. Yesterday at the local dive shop, I saw the cable and software that can be purchased to go with the computer to print out the profile. It prints out in blue, every time you go up, and every time you go down. It even prints the line in red each time you exceed an upward movement of 30' per minute. I saw a sample printout at the shop and considered buying it. I did not check the price. Does your VEO 200 not have this connection on the side of it. I'm wondering if it's a new option that I just got lucky to have on mine.

It fits most of the Oceanic models, including the Veo - order from Oceanic for $99, I got mine from LeisurePro for $80. http://www.oceanicworldwide.com/2004/p_computers_oceanlog.html

 

[Natasha]

Would it be better to make it sticky in the New 2 Scuba, or Accidents and Incidents forums? While this happened in Coz, it certainly isn't specific to only that area. I know I'm being a pain - sorry...

It's up to Tim if he wants me to move it to another forum, I will. If someone feels strongly about a forum missing it, and Tim wants to keep it here..you can start a thread in the forum you want it in..simply saying..check out this thread..and give this link.
Fair?

 

[gj62]

It's up to Tim if he wants me to move it to another forum, I will. If someone feels strongly about a forum missing it, and Tim wants to keep it here..you can start a thread in the forum you want it in..simply saying..check out this thread..and give this link.
Fair?

Great idea - thanks!

 

[Drewpy]

This really hits home, being an Aldora diver myself, and having been known to enjoy a few of those coz margaritas as well!
Very informative and thought provoking!
Thanks again and a speedy recovery to you Tim! Glad it wasnt worse!
Be safe everyone!

 

[getwet2]

Tim,
Thanks for sharing your misadventure with everyone.

 

[Charlie99]

Is a larger air supply a possible contributor to the possibility of a recreational diver getting bent? Is there a down side to the extended bottom times extolled by the proponents of diving with larger tanks?

Of course it's a possible contributor.

Soapbox alert!

Others on this board have used the term "riding the NDL" to describe the process of going deep until close to NDL; moving up a bit and staying until approaching NDL again; and then perhaps repeating the cycle a couple more times.

Multi-level diving is great, but when diving air with large tanks and/or low SAC , multi-level diving can easily turn into "riding the NDL".

If you run some "riding the NDL" profiles through a deco program or dive computer simulator, it's obvious that with air, once (Cu ft/SAC) gets up over 200 minutes it is really easy to have the 40 or 60 minute compartments become the controlling compartment (as opposed to a more normal situation where the controlling compartments are the 10 or 20 minute compartments).

In some ways, this is more dangerous than dropping to, say 100', and staying until you are a few minutes into deco. The difference is in how long it takes to offgass so that you have a good margin of safety.

In the square profile 100' profile, you can rather quickly get a good safety margin by offgassing your faster tissues with an appropriate ascent, deep stops, and safety stop/final deco stop. The mid-speed tissues still have a good safety margin since they never ongassed closed to the limits ("M-value if you choose to use Haldane-based terms).

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Repetitive diving aggravates this sort of problem. Since you have loaded up the slower compartments, you need very longer than normal surface intervals to get back to where you have decent amount of NDL.

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I used to more or less dive to NDL, move up 20 or 30' and continue until close to NDL, then do an ascent and 15' hang. One nice feature of the Oceanic/Pelagic hockey puck computers is that they show you a bargraph display of N2 tissue loading. As my SAC dropped, I found that I could no longer get my computer N2 bargraphs back into the green (more or less equivalent to ZHL16 GF 0.85) in a reasonable time frame. This has led me to modify my multi-level profiles.

5 minutes NDL at 80' or 100' is a reasonable margin. 5 minute NDL at 45' means that you have a very heavy N2 load and it will take a long time to get much safety margin via a safety stop at 15' on air.


Disclaimer -- The above comments are neither an attack on Aldora's large tank policy, nor criticism of Tim's profiles.

 

[gj62]

Of course it's a possible contributor.

Soapbox alert!

Others on this board have used the term "riding the NDL" to describe the process of going deep until close to NDL; moving up a bit and staying until approaching NDL again; and then perhaps repeating the cycle a couple more times...

Excellent advice - in this instance, I would say that computers have contributed to an unsafe practice (not that the computers themselves are unsafe). I knew this, and didn't do it, but couldn't articulate as well as you.

Thanks.

 

[Otter]

Isn't there a fee usually added to dives in Coz that supports the chamber? I am guessing just because you pay it, doesn't mean you get free use?

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

It's been 15 months since my last chamber ride... :11:

Thanks for making me laugh. I look forward to getting back in the water. I have already begun planning my next trip to Coz - for January, 2005. I wish I could get right back on the horse but that can't happen.

Update on symptoms. I now am losing the flu symptoms. The pain in my elbow and wrist is abating. I now forget about it entirely for hours at a time. I'm glad I don't have to get on an airplane anytime soon!

Lastly I wanted to emphasize that I dove the same profile as four other people on each day. You can't say it was any one thing that caused the hit. It was obviously a lot of things coming together. Stop trying to analyze the profile and simply be more careful in the future. If you talk to someone who has been through the experience they will tell you that hydration is now a religion for them. If someone learns that from this thread then I am happy. We all learn about profiles and computers but the hydration seems to get glossed over in the courses and never mentioned again.

 

[Christi]

Hi Tim, welcome. We have weekly "BDA" (Bent Divers Anonymous) meetings on the island, you're welcome to join us.

You are absolutely right Tim. It is almost never just ONE thing that causes a diver to get bent. I should have made that more clear.

As I said in my case, mine was a combination of dehydration, stress, not being well rested, and repetitive dives over several days and I'm sure we could find other contributing factors as well.

My best to you Tim! The time will fly by, I promise. You'll start feeling better and better everyday, but be prepared to have a bad day of symptoms every now and then...they can recur if you push yourself.

Best wishes for a speedy and painless recovery! Sounds like you are already on stp 7 or 8...just don't get stuck on step 10...haha!

Your "BDA" buddy,
Christi