Doing the safest profile, and one that gets you back to the surface fastest, are competing goals. Staying well away from NDLs if you are no decompression diving, or doing long hangs between 30 fsw and the surface, for deco dives, may be safe but not not time efficient.
Richard Pyle reported substantially less fatigue after adding deep stops to deep air dives. And he is not the only one. Why not go out and try it for yourself and note the differences?
To paraphrase Luis H, in God I trust, but anyone else better have data. I have had enough people make me do crazy things in the military, and I still have all my fingers and toes. I never dive a profile that is not in accordance with some established standard. That standard could be the Navy air tables, NAUI RGBM tables, NASDS tables, PADI's DSAT tables, or Vplanner. I do not just want to start throwing off my run times and randomly extending my stops because Vplanner specifically says to not do that. I have no desire to bend myself. There's a bunch of information out there from reputable people, but a lot of it conflicts. Vplanner specifically says not to add any deep stops other than the ones that it prescribes, and to not change your run times (
http://www.hhssoftware.com/vplanner/faqhelp.html#interest ). NAUI has put out information advocating an ad hoc rules of halves with reference to deep stops (reference this thread
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...w-naui-standards-deep-stops-safety-stops.html ). DAN's presentation mentions that incidences of DCS increase in certain dive profiles with deep stops as compared to the 2008 Navy tables. What I am really after is a good rule of thumb.
Currently, I use Vplanner for most of my more serious dives. During a series of three boat dives here, my last dive may net me a small decompression obligation in the form of a 5-7 minute stop at 15 feet with Vplanner. That is about where I am with my diving. I am just trying to make sense out of what is out there as far as the benefits and drawbacks of deep stops because you can go on DAN's site and find one article that tells you that deep stops are awesome, then go read another one on DAN's site that says that they are not as effective as as shallower deco stops. To paraphrase Conrad I am really just looking for someone in the know to enlarge my mind on this subject.
Bear in mind that I am not a caver, or a crazy 300 foot deep mix diver. I am just a regular old diver who plans, prepares, and executes a profile that requires a 5-10 minute deco obligation on air after some 70-80 foot dives once in a while. I am smart enough to gas plan, bring a redundant gas supply, and dive within my limits. It is just that some of the science behind this stuff is confusing for me, even though I have spent 8 years in college. I am sure other people are probably equally confused. Talking about it here provides an open forum to clarify this type of stuff, and affords others the chance to read it and enhance their knowledge as well. If that means that we have to learn out of explaining stuff that is a little over my head, then I am okay with that.
Here is my point, for the sake of clarification. Some articles mention that deep stops increase incidences of getting bent (or at least as I understand them, and I may be wrong). DAN's online seminar on "Optimal Path" seems to me to be one of them. A lot of my reference materials here at the office, and the intro to tec course that I have taken have advocated deep stops in all diving deeper than 60 feet. Some sources have advocated inserting deep or Pyle stops in while diving tables or computers for all recreational diving. What do you use, and why? What data supports that?
