Dive planning for older divers 70+

[dmaziuk]

otherwise, one time after reaching 34 meters, it was funny:
- Leonardo stopped us at "half depth, 17m",
- Mares stopped "roughly at 2/3 , 12m",
- then Suunto also asked for his personal stop "somewhere in between or above"
...that before stopping normally at 6, then at 3 meters.

34 metres is ~4.4 atm. Half of that: 2.2 atm, is about 12 msw so Mares is doing "half pressure" stop. Which I think makes more sense than "half depth" stop, but not everyone agrees. For the undecided ones: Suunto to the rescue with "somewhere in between".

Either way these should(*) be 1..2 minutes that won't make much difference in the "Buhlmann" scheme of things(**) and they're mostly intended to slow down your ascent. Edit: they are not to be confused with NEDU "deep stops" and some vendors even went as far as renaming them to "PDIS": profile-dependent intermediate stop. To avoid any confusion with "deep" stops.

*) I turned it off on my Leo before I got it wet so I don't have the 1st-hand experience.

**) where the fastest tissue compartment's halftime is 4 or 5 minutes so the stop is less than "quarter time" of the fastest TC.

HTH

 

[Nemrod]

I imagine the Navy and DAN et al have some data. And I bet it shows a higher DCS incidence correlation for older divers. Just as a wild a-- guess, that would be my obvious bet. I do not think it is actually related to age but all of the "conditions" that come with age. By that I mean majority overweight and even obesity, lack of fitness, low muscle vs fat %, too much fun and not enough effort and as much as anything that "I am not as good as I used to be but I can be as good as I was was once" kind of thinking. Sort of like when a teen-twenty yo says "watch this", the elder equivalent thereof.

Staying conservative, understanding GF and educating oneself about DCS, not playing games with your computer and maintaining weight and fitness levels appropriate for potentially rigorous circumstances goes a long way towards not getting bent.

 

[Ukmc]

There are very specific changes that occur with physiology of aging that effect cardiovascular and respiratory system even in fit persons. I suspect, that is the reason for age being an independent risk factor for DCS.

 

[ofg-1]

It probably doesn't affect nitrogen loading per se, but there's evidence to suggest that DCS risk increases with age:

In general, doesn't the risk of anything from sudden cardiac death to a bad case of the sharts increase with age?

 

[boulderjohn]

In general, doesn't the risk of anything from sudden cardiac death to a bad case of the sharts increase with age?

Yes, and that sort of thing can explain the undeniable fact that the older people are more likely to die on a dive than younger people. The question raised in this thread that is more problematic is the question of whether DCS is more likely to occur in older people.

DCS is a cause of death in only a very small percentage of fatalities.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

In general, doesn't the risk of anything from sudden cardiac death to a bad case of the sharts increase with age?

Yeah, but the title of the thread isn't sharts

 

[scrane]

I am an older diver, and have never had any indication of systemic DCS, but regularly fall victim to "skin bends". I suspect I have PFO.
I do not get skin bends when diving nitrox with an "air" profile.
Please don't tell me I'm going to die. At 76 that's becoming generally apparent.

 

[drewh1]

Please don't tell me I'm going to die. At 76 that's becoming generally apparent.

Yes, as the OP, death is not a concern. I am not even concerned about getting bent as I won't be doing the whole 5 dives a day thing anymore. I was really more curious about the physiology. Thanks to those of you who provided thoughtful responses with some useful information.

 

[gamon]

Please don't tell me I'm going to die.

We're all going to die. You're in good company.

 

[dmaziuk]

Yes, as the OP, death is not a concern. I am not even concerned about getting bent as I won't be doing the whole 5 dives a day thing anymore. I was really more curious about the physiology. Thanks to those of you who provided thoughtful responses with some useful information.

Cells generally get worse at "bouncing back"as we age so one would expect the symptoms to be worse and last longer if one gets bent. The model itself does not care, but the M-values are statistical. So you have to wonder what the average age of the sample was: the farther you're from it, the less representative of you the statistics is.