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@billmosel: It's really not a question of logic. There are no laws that state it is illegal for divers to have some alcohol in their system while diving. The dive community has no hard-and-fast rules about this, either. The dive tables and deco algorithms used by dive computers don't take into consideration the possibility of having any alcohol in the diver's system. It appears as though liveaboard ops are the ones mandating this as a precautionary measure (out of a concern for liability). I would think that you should take up this issue with them.Yes, anything can happen on any dive and you should be able to handle all situations but as was someone stated earlier in this thread, driving a vehicle in say, NJ where I live, can be one of the most dangerous things you can do.. sober. In the State of NJ you can operate a vehicle with a BAC of .07 but, you can't dive with a BAC of .01?
LOGIC somewhere is missing. Whether it is within the lawmakers (which seems to be always a given) or within the dive community. So far no one has given me any studies which states that having 1 beer and diving 3 hours later is going to have any effect on me whether it is DCS or getting DCS because of dehydration.
I don't know why you want to make it so complicated... if consuming alcohol <24 hours before a dive had a significant impact on DCS incidence, then the bend rate at Puerto Galera, Cozumel & etc would be double or triple that of LOBs or the Red Sea or wherever else alcohol intake is restricted
I lost my Dad and brother to alcohol abuse, and two other brothers have ruined their lives because of it.
ONCE AGAIN... This thread has gotten way off topic. 1 beer with lunch... A lot of water between dives... with a 3 HOUR SI..? Nothing but RECREATIONAL diving, no heavy lifting, no strong currents, no work because that's not rec diving, just plain ole take it easy, have fun, WATCH YOUR COMPUTER diving.
As a practical matter, it would be difficult to enforce, say, a one-hour-per-beer waiting period, even if that was a generally accepted safe threshold. The no-diving-after-drinking rule on liveaboards works well: it discourages early drinking--which probably curtails excessive drinking (as I recall from college); it's a clear rule that doesn't leave much room for interpretation or negotiation; and it seems to have emerged as an industry standard, in my experience.It appears as though liveaboard ops are the ones mandating this as a precautionary measure (out of a concern for liability). I would think that you should take up this issue with them.
Sharm is the main diving hub on the Red Sea, followed by Hurghada. If you think there's any problem in locating convenient and copious alcoholic beverages in these venues, you either haven't been to them or had your eyes closed when you visited. They have scads of restaurants that serve alcohol, plentiful bars (some of which stay open almost all night) and a more than adequate number of liquor shops
It is somewhat frustrating that you continue to fail to understand what it is that I am talking about... I doubt that there is mouch problem with having one beer at dinner and then making a physiologically easy dive the next day... It is quiet [sic] possible to plan to make a physiologically easy dive yet have it turn into a cold, deep and arduous because something goes wrong
FYI when I said the Red Sea I was thinking of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia - somewhere I have been & dived....
....if consuming alcohol <24 hours before a dive had a significant impact on DCS incidence, then the bend rate at Puerto Galera, Cozumel & etc would be double or triple that of LOBs or the Red Sea or wherever else alcohol intake is restricted