diving and volcanoes in the same day?

[howard4113]

Upon further thinking, it looks to me like it may be quite possible if we treat our dives as if they were being done at altitude. For example, if the top of the road is at 4000 ft. We would just plan our depths as being deeper than they actually are in regards to nitrogen absorbtion. This would make a 90 ft dive at 4000 ft elevation equal to a 104 ft dive at sea level. Right? Also, isn't it only a problem with regards to traveling higher than 6000 ft anyway?

FWIW, I'm basing this off of these links:
The Ten Foot Stop
Altitude Dive Table

Thanks,

Matt

Actually Matt no. The altitude tables assume that you've been at a certain altitude long enough to become in equilibrium and that you have a nitrogen loading OF THAT ALTITUDE prior to the dive. The article does not take into consideration (that I can see) that the base nitrogen loading at sea level is not the same as the base nitrogen loading at altitude. For example, if you plan on driving to 5000' - and you plan the dive for 5000' (even though it's a sea level dive) then you discount the fact that you are NOT starting at a pressure of .850 bar but at 1 bar - which is an 18% difference. It's the same as planning a recreational dive where you plan to emerge at the surface - but you start your dive from a submerged room where you've spent the past few days absorbing nitrogen. The reality is that this is a minor difference - but it can make the difference in saturating a tissue group that you would assume is not a problem. I've read articles before that mention this problem - driving to a higher altitude and then diving there without acclimating first.

Mark

 

[cuddlefish]

The latest recommendation is to wait a minimum of 12 hours after diving before ascending to an altitude over 2000. If you are doing more than one dive, the recommendation is to wait a minimum of 18 hours. Plus, what the others said is true...it is way too much to do in one day anyway. If you visit Volcano park and drive down chain of craters road to hike in hopes of seeing lava...this is typically a tiring full day. If you absolutely must do both, do a very early morning drive to the volcano then hop on a night dive to see the mantas. Just don't forget to wait long enough before flying, of course.

 

[scubacalifornia]

I just returned from a nine day vacation in Kona during which I put nearly 900 miles on the rental car and I have a first-hand appreciation of just how big this wonderful island really is. We drove to Volcano and spent the night - not even close to enough time to take in the majesty of this awesome national park. If you leave late in the day after diving, you may hit a huge amount of southbound traffic leaving Kona and it's a crawl for quite a ways. Sunset is about 7:00pm right now, so figure you'll be there in the dark. You'll probably want to pick one thing to do and consider it a late night (assuming you figure out the altitude/diving issue, which may preclude you from making the trip since the altitude in the park area peaks around 4,000-4,500'). My suggestion would be to skip the volcano and take a late day trip down to the Place of Refuge national monument. Great history, fun to walk around, and not a horribly long drive. We're coming back to the Big Island next summer maybe for two weeks....so much more to see and do. By the way, we found the only black sand beach on the Kona side of the island via 4WD over the lava flows just north of the airport. That was a real trip.
Kevin

 

[mjcoussens]

Thanks, for all the input on this. Also, thanks to GO! making cheap flights possible for the remainder of the year we're going to skip the diving this trip and try to come back later on the make it up.

Thanks again,

Matt