dive after flying

[margeka]

Hello ScubaBoard members. My husband and I are flying from Detroit to Bonaire. We arrive at 6:30 am. How soon can we go diving. Should we wait until the next day to begin our diving. We usually stop our diving 48 hours before flying, because we do alot of dives in a two week vacation. What's the rule here.

 

[Damselfish]

No need to wait to dive as long as you are well hydrated and rested. On Bonaire you generally have to get an orientation and do a checkout shore dive first, no big deal but if you are diving someplace with a fixed schedule for that it may play into what you do.

As far as 48 hours before flying, I guess it never hurts to be really conservative but I personally would be more inclined to take one or two breaks during a 2 week trip, either skip a day or maybe part of a day, like just do a couple dives in the morning then play tourist until the next day.

(How many dives do you mean by "alot" - your profile says you've been diving on vacation every year for 9 years and have 50-100 dives. Unless that's wrong or you've greatly upped your dive frequency lately, it doesn't sound like you're soaking up that much nitrogen.)

 

[1RUSTYRIG]

You can dive as soon as you step off the plane if you like... My wife doesn't travel well so we usually skip the first day. When we go to Belize we dive 3 or 4 times a day.

 

[Diesel298]

as fast as you can get a rental car or cab from the airport to the ocean.
have fun

 

[Thalassamania]

You can dive right away. Conventional wisdom is no diving within 24 hrs before flying. A more agressive guideline is no flying if greater than Navy Group C.

Personally, and I'm not recommending this to you, when I must fly sooner after diving I spent at least a half hour at 20' on pure O2 at the end of the last dive followed by 2 hrs of surface breathing O2. That's nore than enough to take you from Navy-N to Navy-A.

 

[diversteve]

On Bonaire you need to go through the orientation and buy your official Bonaire Marine Park tag($25) before you can "legally" dive. Orientation is usually held around 9am. After that most of the diveops will ask you to go through an orientation/weight check dive, or some will just turn you loose. So you'll probably be in the water after 10am, we were around 10:30. I'm not sure if any diveop will let you have a tank prior to going through orientation unless you've already been there this year and have a valid BMP tag.

 

[Thalassamania]

Thanks Steve, I guess the correct answer is that the laws of physics will let you dive right away, but the laws of man may have other ideas.