Decompression stop for shallow dives?

[DavidPT40]

Went diving yesterday, visibility was horrible. Was diving in a rock quarry a few hours after a heavy rain. Couldn't even see your own legs in the water. My dive partner and I would go down to about 20 or 30 feet, lose sight of each other, and then surface to find one another. Well this makes my dive computer go crazy. Keeps wanting me to stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. This happened 7 or 8 times. Our deepest dive was to 42 feet for about 45 seconds.

So were we endangering ourselves by avoiding the decompression stop? I felt it was more dangerous to lose sight of my buddy. On one occasion my buddies Air 2 came lose and wrapped around his tank (so he had to do a swimming ascent). Our average depth for the dive was probably 20-30 feet.

 

[DandyDon]

Went diving yesterday, visibility was horrible. Was diving in a rock quarry a few hours after a heavy rain. Couldn't even see your own legs in the water. My dive partner and I would go down to about 20 or 30 feet, lose sight of each other, and then surface to find one another. Well this makes my dive computer go crazy. Keeps wanting me to stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. This happened 7 or 8 times. Our deepest dive was to 42 feet for about 45 seconds.

So were we endangering ourselves by avoiding the decompression stop? I felt it was more dangerous to lose sight of my buddy. On one occasion my buddies Air 2 came lose and wrapped around his tank (so he had to do a swimming ascent). Our average depth for the dive was probably 20-30 feet.

Repeat after me: "Lets call this dive." Now, repeat until you can do it on your own...

I don't do safety stops for dives to 42 feet, but then - I don't do repetitive dives afte surfacing like that. I did get into one just like your's once, identical, after driving 200 miles, and I did go in to see how bad it was, but I called it pretty quickly...

 

[gtxl1200]

On one occasion my buddies Air 2 came lose and wrapped around his tank (so he had to do a swimming ascent)..

I wear an AIR 2 and it fits nicely along my shoulder when it is velcroed in. So No pre dive check on buddies was done? Also Did he not learn the reach behind method in Open water Class on how to retrieve it? Plus I never use my inflator to accent usually anyway which is hooked to my Air2 I'm usually using the dump valves to keep my accent slow. Remember Air expands after pressure decreases. Sounds like you two might need to slow down and dive with some more experienced divers. That's just my .02 worth.

 

[Boogie711]

What they said. Why do you need your inflator to ascend?

 

[BlueDevil]

My dive partner and I would go down to about 20 or 30 feet, lose sight of each other, and then surface to find one another. Well this makes my dive computer go crazy. Keeps wanting me to stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes. This happened 7 or 8 times. Our deepest dive was to 42 feet for about 45 seconds.

Multiple ascents on a dive are very BAD. Cases of shallow water (ie 10m or less) decompression illness are often associated with multiple ascents.

So were we endangering ourselves by avoiding the decompression stop? I felt it was more dangerous to lose sight of my buddy. On one occasion my buddies Air 2 came lose and wrapped around his tank (so he had to do a swimming ascent). Our average depth for the dive was probably 20-30 feet.

You were endangering yourselves in two major ways:

1. multiple ascents, as mentioned above

2. diving in ****ful visibility!

Did you actually get any pleasure out of this dive? Or did you have a purpose or task that you absolutely had to complete? If not what the hell were you doing in water that dirty??? If this was a "must do" dive then you should have been using a buddy line to maintain contact. If it wasn't an absolutely essential dive then, as someone else said, call the dive!!!

I don't know what level of certification you and your buddy have, but I would suggest that your skill levels are definitely not adequate for the type of dive you were attempting.

As for safety stops, they are probably not needed in a formal sense for dives of 10m or less, a slow and careful ascent will probably be adequate (but a bit of a pause around 3-5m wouldn't hurt). HOWEVER, given you high risk behaviour of making multiple ascents I would definitely recommend a safety stop and a very slow ascent from 6m to the surface.

Use this as a positive learning experience, discuss the problems you had with your buddy, look for solutions, improve your basic skills etc.

 

[theskull]

If you are going to dive low-viz waters, you must learn to use buddy touch-contact methods or use a tether. If you didn't lose your buddy, you wouldn't have to search for him!

theskull

 

[DiveMaven]

I'm a new diver so bear with me if I say something stupid....just trying to learn here. When I did my OW instruction, my instructor adamantly said to NEVER use your inflator to surface. We were taught from the beginning to swim up, holding our inflator hose over our shoulder, dump open to release bubbles. My certification in through PADI, is there an agency that teaches the use of the inflator hose to surface?? Seems dangerous to me since uncontrolled ascents wouldn't be uncommon I'd think. Help the newbie here.

 

[DandyDon]

I'm a new diver so bear with me if I say something stupid....just trying to learn here. When I did my OW instruction, my instructor adamantly said to NEVER use your inflator to surface. We were taught from the beginning to swim up, holding our inflator hose over our shoulder, dump open to release bubbles. My certification in through PADI, is there an agency that teaches the use of the inflator hose to surface?? Seems dangerous to me since uncontrolled ascents wouldn't be uncommon I'd think. Help the newbie here.

No, you're right. Never use your inflator for ascent. Swim up, letting air out of your BC as needed. I missed that; good on ya'.

David, you're new here. Please don't be discouraged by us here, and keep posting with us. We all take a knock now and then.

And complete your profile, please, so we can have more educated discussions...

thanks

 

[gtxl1200]

I'm a new diver so bear with me if I say something stupid....just trying to learn here. When I did my OW instruction, my instructor adamantly said to NEVER use your inflator to surface. We were taught from the beginning to swim up, holding our inflator hose over our shoulder, dump open to release bubbles. My certification in through PADI, is there an agency that teaches the use of the inflator hose to surface?? Seems dangerous to me since uncontrolled ascents wouldn't be uncommon I'd think. Help the newbie here.

You should be dumping air as you go up not inflating your bc. I have two shoulder dump valves and a hip dump valve I dont even have my inflator hose in my hand when I ascend I'm usually just giving a tug or two on my dump valves I have more control with those then I do with the Air out button on my inflator hose. You are right if your putting air in to go up once the air starts to expand when the pressure decreases then yes your going to shoot to the surface like a missile.

 

[Curt Bowen]

I'm a new diver so bear with me if I say something stupid....just trying to learn here. When I did my OW instruction, my instructor adamantly said to NEVER use your inflator to surface. We were taught from the beginning to swim up, holding our inflator hose over our shoulder, dump open to release bubbles. My certification in through PADI, is there an agency that teaches the use of the inflator hose to surface?? Seems dangerous to me since uncontrolled ascents wouldn't be uncommon I'd think. Help the newbie here.

The training agencies are wrong. Use your power inflator to gain slightly positive buoyancy. Once you start to rise (without kicking) drain the expaded gas out as needed to control your speed.

I can't count the number of times I have watched a new diver pound the crap out of the reef or silt out the dive site with their fins because some instructor told them never to inflate.