Decompression issues

[LowDrag]

Per the other divers question, he is diving close to sea level (less than 100' difference).

It's good to hear that you are having second thoughts about diving and that your friend is reconsidering such an aggressive diving schedule. Sorry about being so gruff in my earlier post.

 

[pasley]

I.... I tend to bend rules as I know that charts tend to be conservative....

So with your long experience of SCUBA diving you have elected to ingnore (or bend as you put it) the rules of diving. The rules that were developed based on experinece, deaths, paralyzis, analysis of accidents, scientific study etc. Yes they are conservative and with your vast experinece and scientific study and training you know exactly how much the are conservative by and how far to push them....Oh wait, you don't! They are conservative becasue every person is different and every day is different. Two people diving the same dive toghther, joined at the hip as it were and yet one gets bent, the other does not. Same diver dives the same dive day after day with no problems and one day he gets bent. Point is, the conservativism is built in for your safety.

Question for you. Have you ever met a person who has spent the last 20 years in a wheelchair because of a dive accident? I have. What you need to keep in mind is the following, the rules are there for your safety. Even if you follow the rules, you can still get bent or dead because stuff happens. But by following the rules you keep yourself on the less likely side of the numbers to get hurt. Bottom line is this, is the risk (DCS, permanent paralysis, death) worth the reward (an extra few minutes in the water)?

Susgestion - go buy the book Diver Down. This should be required reading for evey new diver AFTER they get certified and every diver should review it every few years to remind them that complaciency kills.Diver Down: Real-World SCUBA Accidents and How to Avoid Them by Michael R. Ange (Sep 27, 2005)

Read the book paying attention to the recurring themes.

1. Every single accident involves someone breaking the rules or"bending" the rules.
2. The person most often hurt is not the idiot who "bent the rules"or outright broke them. Usually it is their dive buddy or a dive professional(DM or Instructor) who has to rescue them.
3. In most of the cases someone dies, in a few they are only paralyzed.
You don't know what you don't know. That is a very profound and true statement. You have been taught how to SCUBA dive but you have not been taught all of the science behind the training. You probably were unaware of fast and slow compartments or that even at 30 feet you are absorbing nitrogen. There is a whole world or stuff about scuba you don't know. I teach scuba and I know nothing about cave or wreck diving, so I don't do that type of diving.

Example of "you don't know what you don't know" Genaric rookie diver certified as Basic Open Water SCUBA diver - certified to dive to 60 feet. Fine, but since I know how to dive to 60 feet, what is the big deal if I go to 100 feet or 200 feet? It is still SCUBA and still in the same water, just deeper that's all so what's the big deal? (do you right now know why this is a bad idea?) So I will bend the rules, becasue I don't know what I don't know and go deeper. OK, so now I am at 230 feet depth on my AL 80 (or steel 130) filled with 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen 1% other stuff plain of everyday air. Hmmm, I think I now I know what I don't know. I know I don't know about partial pressures, oxygen toxicity, nitrogen narcosis, gas management and planning, decompression diving and how to plan my ascent and a whole range of other stuff. But that does not matter because I probably will not survive the dive between the seizures, rapture of the deep, getting bent and running out of air. But what the hey, lets just bend the rules.

Bending the rules is the equivelent of saying "Hold my beer and watch this".

 

[DevonDiver]

Here's the best advice for your friend... it's something he already knows....

"Dive conservatively and within the limits of your training and experience"

* Dive Conservatively - Is he?

* Within the limits of his training and experience - If he has to ask......