Hello, I am a recreational diver with an AOW license and I use a Garmin Descent 3. I can't understand the difference between using a medium conservatism profile, going beyond the NDL limits but ascending slowly, following the computer's instructions—in essence, the decompression happens during the ascent since we always ascend very slowly—and using an aggressive conservatism profile without exceeding the NDL. Essentially, this seems like self-deception, and with the aggressive profile, we don't see deco diving on the graph. Could you please tell me if I can continue using the medium conservatism profile and follow the computer's instructions for decompression? To clarify, for me, this simply means continuing the dive, and the decompression will occur.
Many thanks
Your bolded comment make me suspect that you are approaching this situation from a very theoretical perspective. When you are "playing" with the health and function of your brain, spinal cord and who knows what else, you want to also view things from a simplistic and practical manner.
As others have said; the line between deco and no deco is blurry. It also moves around depending on your health, your exertion level, temperature and probably a number of other variables as well.
In my opinion, the difference between going right up to the limit of deco or going a tiny bit past it, is not that big in the terms of actual risk.
However, once you are used to seeing the computer go "a little into the red" you become accustomed to it and it is very easy to progressively push things a little further (progressively extend your dive). Each time you do this, it becomes easier and less stressful from a psychological point, but the actual danger is increasing as your nitrogen loads become more significant.
In my opinion, if you are going to risk aggressive exposures that are close to (either side) of the blurry line, then you should have some redundancy with respect to gas supply. Going up with a little deco and hanging for a few minutes is not generally difficult if you have decent skills, but what if you have some sort of serious equipment failure (or your buddy does and needs air}? Now you really have a "situation".
I've been bent a few times from "non-deco" dives and a little bent from short deco ones, all of which I followed a computers recommended or required stops. Once you are in deco, you ability to safely help a buddy or extricate yourself from some problems is severely compromised.
Go slow and think about "the games you are playing".
