Deco without deco training

[NeedABiggerBoat]

Just curious about peoples thoughts on doing dives that involved decompression, using a computer for guidance, without having the appropriate certification. By no means am I advocating or encouraging anyone to do this, so don't flame me. Just wanted to know if anyone did this either on purpose, or by accident (lost track of time staring at mermaids or whatever).

 

[Blackwood]

Formal certifications are just that: formal certifications.

What really matters is if you are qualified, and there are multiple ways to achieve qualification.

 

[Rhone Man]

I'd subdivide it into 'planned decompression' and 'inadvertent decompression'.

I think you are asking about planned decompression (your reference to relying upon the computer). As Blackwood says, you really to learn about what you are getting into one way or another. Knowing how long to stop at 10' or 20' is a small part of planning decompression dives. Making sure you adequately plan your gas requirements and have appropriate equipment redundancy to account for the fact that going to the surface may not be an option is the bigger thing to get an adequate handle on.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Formal certifications are just that: formal certifications.

What really matters is if you are qualified, and there are multiple ways to achieve qualification.

1+.

I'm guilty of performing deco dives in the 70's, sans formal training (I had good mentors). At that time it was air as back gas and deco gas, USN tables..... these were planned deep dives.

I had a basic OW certification at the time.

Best wishes.

 

[Wookie]

More importantly are the equipment and procedures to make deco safe. Certification is only to prove to an operator that someone somewhere thinks you're qualified. Knowing how to deco safely is important too.

 

[BabyDuck]

staying at a certain depth for the stops is not the issue in my opinion. you certainly don't need any specific cert to hold a stop. the issue isn't really the time underwater, except that time is gas.

the issue is the gas planning. it isn't rocket science, but planning your gas use for all the planned depths and planned stops plus lost gas scenarios and planning for 10 feet deeper & 10 minutes longer & carrying 1 1/2 the amount of deco gas or more *and sticking to these plans* takes a bit of discipline & seriousness that 'following the computer' doesn't convey.

so can it be done by someone with a basic ow cert? yes. safely? yes. by everyone, or even most? no. so, to protect the masses that can't do it without formal education, i think the formal education is a good idea.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Just curious about peoples thoughts on doing dives that involved decompression, using a computer for guidance, without having the appropriate certification. By no means am I advocating or encouraging anyone to do this, so don't flame me. Just wanted to know if anyone did this either on purpose, or by accident (lost track of time staring at mermaids or whatever).

If you are asking about going over the NDL's shown on your computer and acquiring a few minutes of deco obligation then yes ... I did that many times before taking my first deco class.

Most times it was by only a couple minutes, and by the time I got back up to 30 fsw or so the computer was all cleared. Keep in mind that if it's less than 3 minutes, it's basically just a safety stop anyway ... but one you really shouldn't skip.

No, I am NOT advocating it. But what I want to emphasize is that this isn't something you should stress over. It happens. Deal with it calmly, make an orderly ascent, and understand what your computer is telling you.

For more on the subject, see this article ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[AfterDark]

Can't say I have We had deco training as part of my NASDS scuba course. So I've had formal training. I've done some deco dives when it was required to dive where / what I wanted to dive. These days seems every dive is deco, they call it a safety stop(s). I guess the big difference is today the use of O2 is common for deco but in the 70' and 80's it wasn't at least among the people I was diving with. Also tri-mix was only for commerical and navy use back then it was very expense and hard to get. Deco isn't magic or voodo it isn't complex, good dive and gas planning is the key.

 

[DCBC]

Just curious about peoples thoughts on doing dives that involved decompression, using a computer for guidance, without having the appropriate certification. By no means am I advocating or encouraging anyone to do this, so don't flame me. Just wanted to know if anyone did this either on purpose, or by accident (lost track of time staring at mermaids or whatever).

I think that it's more important to have adequate training than it is certification. My best decompression instructors were with the Navy and they didn't hand-out certifications. It's more important to gain the skill-sets required than it is the card. Even after certification (similar to basic diver or OW certification), it takes experience to internalize what has been learned.

The greatest amount of my diving is decompression diving, so yes I do it on purpose. I also teach decompression diving and believe: to not solely depend upon your computer, plan on using more gas than you expect to use, add a safety factor into your decompression schedule, be well rested & hydrated before the dive and get well-trained.

 

[Crowley]

Agree with NWGratefulDiver - If your question was about busting your No Decompression Limit by a few minutes (less than 5) then most recreational dive-type computers will take this into account and give you mandatory "deco" stops and will default into error mode should you skip them. The computer's manual should have advice as to what to do next - ie get onto the O2, how long not to dive for, whatever. Most recreational computers are super conservative anyway and a few minutes here and there is no sweat, although of course I stress that recreational divers should make every effort to not break their computer limits.

Caveat: This is a statement of fact, not an advocation that it is okay to break your computer's NDLs, even if the diver thinks they know better!

Computers such as those made by Suunto will give you a certain amount of leeway if you are over by a few minutes but they will punish you quite severely if you get past about 5 minutes - and rightly so!

As the experts above have already said - full on decompression diving is an entirely different activity than recreational diving and requires vastly more training.

Cheers

C.