Do I need yearly DC Chamber visit?

[icliao]

People in my dive club are urging me to decompress in the chamber yearly to prevent "problems" after years of diving.
At first I laugh it off but more are telling me the same.
I do not find such suggestion during my rescue diver course or in any books.
Is it just a rumor?

 

[ScottB]

I'm not a doctor and haven't been diving that long, but from what I understand...

That is untrue.. But I am POSITIVE someone more educated than myself will chime in.

When you are ascending from the bottom of your dive, you are decompressing..

Gas reserve permitting, one of the safest ways to accomplish this is to make slower controlled ascents with planned stop..

What my instructor has taught me is when doing a non decompression dive is to perform a 1 minute stop at 1/2 my maximum depth, repeat that 1 minute stop at 1/2 of that depth, and repeat this trend until you get to your normal safety stop..

What I have learned on this board, is that it is even more wise to slow the final ~30 feet/10 meters and take about 10 minutes to do that... giving you time to off gas more reliably.

Take care, and good diving to you
Scott

 

[WarrenZ]

I have never heard of this but it would seem to me that the nitrogen you pick up on the way as you dive will off gas naturally.

The main reason (that I am aware of) for non DCI related chamber treatments is to help with healing wounds not as a "preventitive maintenance" type treatment for divers. Talk it over with a doctor I think he or she will agree with me if that does not clear it up for you give DAN a call they have experts on Dive Medicine.

Spend the money on another trip it will probally be better spent.

 

[fishb0y]

What!?! .

 

[mirrocraft]

lol sound like crap because your blood cycles something like 2 or 3 times a min. after a year of diving it doesnt matter it you dive for a year or a day oafter a few days everything is out of your system

 

[SparticleBrane]

They're shoveling loads of BS.
Go find some other smarter, more knowledgeable people to dive with.

 

[amascuba]

So basically they are telling you that to be safe you have to dive. The only difference is that the dive is in a chamber rather than in the water. Does that make sense to you?

 

[bwerb]

Follow the money.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

They almost had you "fished in, fished in". A recompression chamber is designed for recompression. Unless you have decompression sickness, it makes no sense for you to need recompression to correct the issue.

The body naturally off gasses. When the body exceeds the point of natural off gassing, they need a trip to the chamber.

Basically, if you are not showing signs of sickness, you don't need to visit a chamber

 

[waterbearer]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this...but I noticed when I was diving every single day that my joints, mainly the ones in my arms (shoulders, elbows, wrists) would ache. Not an intolerable ache, but an ache nonetheless. I'm not saying that this was DCI in any way. It could simply have been from lifting tanks and more exercise than my body was used to. BUT, I did wonder even though I had no other symptoms. After reading The Last Dive I thought about it a bit more. The author, Bernie Chowdhury mentioned at one point in the book that himself and others that dived deep and dived a lot had these same kind of maladies. But I think your body adapts after time. I don't think that having a yearly chamber "ride" holds any merit at all. I think it's better to know your limits, follow your computer/tables and put your pride on the backburner.