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After about 30 dives I've fallen in love with diving and want to pursue the hobby more actively. Unfortunately, I'm a worrying personality, risk averse, and despite being a decent swimmer and a triathlete, I'm not a natural when it comes to diving and buoyancy control. I want to find ways to enjoy the sport more safely, especially as it relates to DCS risk.
DAN vignettes, ScubaBoard (especially advanced scuba), and talks like Pollock's and Marroni's have been invaluable in my safety pursuit. Most recommendations are fairly straightforward and applicable on all/most dives. As I read through the forums and research articles, however, I come to the conclusion that using conservative gradient factors with multiple stops instead of the popular 3 minute safety stop at 5m (15ft) is a good idea for minimizing risk. But is it practical to do, especially for an inexperienced diver without a regular dive buddy?
So here we go:
Do the safety benefits of multiple safety or deco stops (and diving with conservative gradient factors) outweigh the awkwardness and inconvenience of having to do them on recreational dives? Is it practical?
The pros:
The cons:
DAN vignettes, ScubaBoard (especially advanced scuba), and talks like Pollock's and Marroni's have been invaluable in my safety pursuit. Most recommendations are fairly straightforward and applicable on all/most dives. As I read through the forums and research articles, however, I come to the conclusion that using conservative gradient factors with multiple stops instead of the popular 3 minute safety stop at 5m (15ft) is a good idea for minimizing risk. But is it practical to do, especially for an inexperienced diver without a regular dive buddy?
So here we go:
Do the safety benefits of multiple safety or deco stops (and diving with conservative gradient factors) outweigh the awkwardness and inconvenience of having to do them on recreational dives? Is it practical?
The pros:
- safety - deeper than 5m stops seem to reduce bubble and DCS risk in recreational dives (somewhat significantly).
FWIW, I don't want the discussion to get mired in whether deep stops are good or bad, but my reading of the journals is that while "too deep" is not good, some deeper than 5m stops are good for reducing bubbling in recreational divers. FWIW, for most recreational dives these seem to be at the deepest in the 12 to 9 meter (40-30ft) range depending on the dive profile and gradient factors chosen.
The cons:
- Different (i.e. more conservative) safety / decompression protocol that (almost) everyone else in a real life recreational dive group
- stops different that the 5m / 3 min safety stop - both deeper and shallower stops
- longer total stops time
- (with conservative factors) high likelihood of decompression time while everyone else is in NDL
- (with conservative factors) lack of clarity how to handle emergencies while having deco time while others are in NDL
- Having to convince the group to follow a different more conservative protocol - not very likely or practical
- Separating from the group by a few meters for a stop - I guess this is an outright bad idea for a new diver, a diver without a regular buddy, might be against the manual, and I don't expect it would be tolerated by many dive masters
- A more expensive dive computer
- Complexity