Doing 'Light Deco' as a recreational diver

[MikeFerrara]

I don't believe the question is if the average diver should be sitting down at 100 fsw on an Al80 with less than 500 psi with a mandatory deco ceiling showing on their computer and thinking everything is just peachy...

Esentially I think that's what the question was and I think that's probably a good description of most of the divers in the story.

 

[do it easy]

So, is this kind of "decompression lite" acceptable in technically-minded divers who are not yet techncial divers? That is the question the way that I interpret it.

I think the answer to this question boils down to "do you (and your team ) feel comfortable with it?" Has it been done before? Yes. Is it considered best practice? Probably not, although it starts to get into that grey area around the difference between training, experience, and card collecting.

You won't catch me doing this- my bottom timer doesn't have deco information.

 

[lamont]

Esentially I think that's what the question was and I think that's probably a good description of most of the divers in the story.

I guess I read something else into jeckyll's post where he seemed to not be questioning so much if the divers in post #1 in this thread were being safe, but if it could be done safely...

Its also just not very interesting to talk about people being obviously stupid, so I may be attempting to hijack this thread...

 

[jeckyll]

Lamont: I certainly started along the lines that Mike answered, i.e. based on what I saw other diver do.

I'm doing the kind of diving that you are describing, so I really don't mind the thread taking a tangent, that is very interesting to me.

To go a step further, I am comfortable hitting stops in blue water, but for the dives in question both myself and my buddy had smbs that we are comfortable launching deeper (yes, we practiced) in case we got blown off the wreck and had to have the boat pick us up. I had also discussed that contingency with the crew that was left on the boat, they were comfortable with it.

So in short, I think there are 2 distinct aspects to it. 1) The people that don't seem to plan either their air or their stops. 2) Folks that actually plan the dive, including stops, carrying extra gas with contingency plans for making an ascent away from the upline. And who practice the skills required.

I hadn't planned on seeing my computer in deco. I was ignoring my computer as I'd planned my dives with the Peter Steinhoffs tables. My computer happened to enter deco status, but we left the bottom with almost 10 minutes of additional time remaining (according to the tables). It's the first time I've seen my computer go into deco mode.

That's what got me thinking about the whole thing.

 

[in_cavediver]

I think the answer to this question boils down to "do you (and your team ) feel comfortable with it?" Has it been done before? Yes. Is it considered best practice? Probably not, although it starts to get into that grey area around the difference between training, experience, and card collecting.

You won't catch me doing this- my bottom timer doesn't have deco information.

This 'grey' area is a very interesting area to discuss. For instance, is it OK for each of the following:

OW level - dive to 80ft
AOW level - dive to 135ft, in NDL
Advanced Nitrox - dive to 165ft or dive with 20 minutes deco
normoxic mix - dive to 225ft
advanced mix - dive to 325ft

Rec-no deco training - dive with say 5 minutes of deco
OW type of cert - Dive into a cave

All of the above dives are outside the 'limits' of thier training. Now, what kind of an arguement can be made for each case about extending limit's based on expierence rather than formal training. The top five are really quite easy. The procedures for each are already known, its just extending them. The bottom two, well they delve into areas not formally covered in the top 5-6. That extension, while still possible given the right types of mentoring and expierence, is in my opinion much more fraught with danger.

Deco obligations that are anything but planned or consequences of contigencies, should not happen. There isn't an excuse for any rec diver in this regard. Doc and M Ferrara are right. If you want to stay longer than your training allows, get more training and learn how to do it right. I do know deco models vary etc etc but still, you are entrusting yourself to a model for deco planning, shouldn't you stick to it?

And lastly on computers, I have a couple. One of them, a genesis, uses the RDP model for calculations and happily reads in the manual that although the model was extrapolated to provide deco information, it is purely theoretical. It also states that the model used was modified specifically for no stop diving and is not appropriate for intentional decompression diving. With that, if you go into deco, you should wait 24hrs to dive. (similar to the RDP rules as well). My other computer is happy with deco (VR3)