Define "conservative" diving on vacation...

[Stoo]

Like most of you, most of my diving requires deco and typically, more than one gas. While my question pertains to recreational, vacation diving, it doesn't pertain to the average diver...

I typically take a trip or two south every year. When I'm there, I would typically do three or four dives in a day. Max depth on these dives would be in the 100' to 130' range. I use a Shearwater, set to 40/85. I'll dive nitrox if it's available, but set my 'pooter to that gas so I'm not getting a "safety factor" using this gas.

We constantly read about how we should dive very conservatively on these multi-dive, multi-day trips. Which got me thinking about how "we" define "conservative". And by "we", I mean someone who doesn't run out of gas, doesn't rocket to the surface, and someone who can hold a stop/depth accurately. Mrs. Stoo (my usual travel buddy) and I practice sharing gas a ton and are very comfy in the water together. In other words, someone who can "dive".

My typical dive week would have most of my dives going into deco on my computer. But if my computer says I need five minutes, I putz around in the shallows (or hang midwater) for 15. If it says I need 10, I do 20. Most of my dives end up being 65-70 minutes. On the occasional "deep" dive, I'll sling an extra 80 for good measure. (I typically carry a stage kit with me... and dive at very tiny resorts where I'm given the freedom to do that.) However, I frequently take an afternoon "off" mid week to clean up a bit. And I always leave more than 24 hours before flying home.

So my question is if you feel that "conservative" must mean no deco. Or can it mean a VERY conservative profile, which includes mandatory deco.

I've been doing this for decades without incident, but as I get older, and at increased risk, I feel I should probably tone it down a few notches, so I'm curious. I know what the literature says, but I also feel it's aimed at recreational divers who are more likely to run short on gas or blow a stop...

And as I prepare to hit "Submit", I am prepared for the sh!tstorm! ;-)

 

[TSandM]

When I went to the Red Sea, we did multiple dives/multiple days, and some of the dives were technical profiles, but not all of them. I did not do more than one mandatory decompression dive in a day. We did do tons of extra deco on most of the dives (why not, when the water is warm and the scenery is beautiful?) and had pretty long surface intervals. We also dove helium mixes.

 

[LiteHedded]

i would start increasing the o2 time and the surface intervals as the trip went on
i'd do the more aggressive stuff early on

 

[Stoo]

Most of these dives are not very deep (by tech standards) and I don't have access to O2 as a deco gas, so we just add buckets of extra time above 20'. It's always at least double what the Shearwater says and as TS&M mentioned, the water is warm and there's lots to see, so why not hang out as long as possible! I just hate surfacing with 1200 psi in my tanks, after dropping $2500 for a dive trip.

In my warped, bubble-addled brain, I AM diving conservatively, but my conservative profile happens to include a lot of extra off gassing.

Nice to to hear that I'm not alone.

 

[PfcAJ]

Imo backing off the high GF is a great way to increase conservatism. Make it like 60 or 70, then get out of the water. You offgas fastest (without oxygen) on the surface.

 

[ajduplessis]

Depends on how much deco you rack up and how often. Extend your SI to at least 3 hours with deco limited to less than 15min per dive. 2 dives a day with no diving every 3rd day, or single NDL.

 

[lv2dive]

Even in my forties and not in the greatest shape I've done 4-5 "min deco" (aka no deco) dives daily for five plus days on liveaboards with no problems. Several of those those dives were in the 80+ft range but I always dive nitrox.

I will say I do pay attention to how I feel... If I'm getting tired, I sit out a dive. Before I started diving Helium, I did one liveaboard in S Fl where all the dives were deeper than 100' and we were diving air. That was the one time I took an afternoon off, I'm pretty sure it was a good thing I did. [emoji1]

At any rate, I think (and you know this already but it's important to say it) YMMV and everyone's experiences are unique to them and can differ day to day. To answer your specific question, personally, I'd be fine doing multiple dives and up to two deco dives per day if I was hanging for a long time in the shallows... High GF 80 or lower depending on the depth/length of the dives. And as litehedded and pfcaj noted, SI is great for offgassing so would factor that in, especially on days I was adding deco dives to the mix. All JMHO of course and I completely acknowledge I may have just been extremely lucky so far!

 

[RJP]

On my recent Truk trip we did what I'd call "conservative" diving:

• 4 dives max per day; three if any were significant depth/deco
• Only one "real" deco dive per day; 80% O2 used on deco.
• Maybe 1-2 what I'd consider "lite" deco dives per day; ~10min or less obligation
• In most (all?) cases the fourth dive of any day was a shallow, short, easy dusk/night dive; typically tooling around the top of a superstructure or kingpost with a camera
• Dive schedule typically allowed for 2-3hr interval
• For context, I'm a 49yr old non-smoker in great physical shape with significant tech/wreck/deep training and experience, I stay hydrated, rest always, and I dive dry (and hooded) at all times

In terms of dive planning, I'd run rough numbers on V-Planner for every dive. On the deeper dives with significant planned deco I'd run a specific schedule on a wrist slate, but for most dives I was comfortable simply flying my Suunto Vytec DS on any dive that I knew was easily doable based on V-Planner.

Of course, as others have pointed out, with any sort of deco discussion there's many factors to consider beyond depth/time. As deep as you can dive in Truk, it's fairly ideal for 'conservative' deep diving:

• warm water
• little/no current
• pretty much every dive allows for "slow and steady" multi-level profiles; many of the wrecks have upwards of 100ft of profile and some come all the way up to safety-stop depth
• super easy dive logistics, esp on luxury liveaboard
• super relaxed non-dive time on a luxury liveaboard
• nightlife consisted of an hour of dive chat after dinner, maybe with 1-2 beers, followed by a pleasant "g'night folks" as everyone drifted off to bed around 9pm

The Truk Siren had a great deco bar setup and their recommended protocol for recreational dives included stops at 30ft, 20ft, and 10ft. (1, 3, and 10min was their recommendation if I recall correctly) and of course to follow your dive plan/computer as appropriate on deco dives. Hang tanks were there if needed. Let's just say that doing a long hang in Truk was much less burdensome that flapping in the breeze in 50F green water in NJ holding on for dear-life to an anchor line that's trying to rip your arm off...

When considering how conservative you're being on vacation - especially in a remote location like Truk - you also need to consider what resources are available if you find yourself bent. There's not a dive site off the coast of New Jersey that is more than a 20-30min helicopter away from the University of Pennsylvania Hyperbaric Medicine Department. Not that I'm exceedingly liberal at home... but the limited availability of help in Truk does keep one in check when it comes to planning/executing deco dives there.

On this last trip I think I did 30 dives in 8.5 days of diving. On my previous trip (2009) I did 57 dives in 13.5 days of diving. In retrospect, I think I was a little more aggressive in 2009 that I should have been. Still not in the "reckless" range, but I was doing all 5 dives daily dives offered on the Odyssey for two weeks and three a day at Blue Lagoon.

 

[Doc Harry]

To me, conservative rec diving to means

-no deco
-conservative profiles
-staying >5 min from NDLs
-if using a computer for drift diving, setting the computer to the most conservative factor
-hanging at 15-20 feet at the end of the dive for as long as possible
-if I really want to be conservative I use Nitrox and Nitrox MOD but use the air NDLs

I still get in plenty of diving and have more than enough fun

I attended one of DAN's hyperbaric medicine seminars where we got to use Doppler ultrasound to check our bubbles after each dive. I noticed quite a reduction in my bubbles after long safety stops.

 

[Stoo]

I'd say we are following similar protocols as most of you... Longer SIs, minimal booze, lots of sleep bla bla bla...

We're heading back to our favorite little place in Belize in a few weeks but will be diving "actually" conservatively. Mrs. Stoo has in the final recovery of a busted leg, so shallower and shorter will be the name of the game. Unless she sits one out...

Thanks for your input everyone.