Exceeding the NDL during recreation diving

[LI-er]

I am not tech certified but I do carry a 19 or 30 cf pony bottle, many or even most of my dives are solo.

I often exceed NDL limits and incur anywhere from a 1 to 10 minute DECO obligation, most of which is offgassed before I even get to the required stop depth which is always 10' for a minute or two.

In fact when I dived Truk Lagoon last year, I found that it's commonplace for recreational divers to go into DECO on almost every dive, due to the large steel tanks and depth of the wrecks and the numerous dives per day. The practice is certainly not discouraged by the dive charter we used for a week long liveaboard trip.

Whether you allow yourself to go into DECO or avoid it, and thus shorten virtually every single dive you ever do is completely up to you and your level of risk tolerance. Of course you need to have good gas management. You don't want to be in a situation where you've got a 5 minute DECO obligation but only 500 psi in your only tank.

Sure, dive charters will say "if you go into DECO you're done for the day" but as long as you clear your computer before you surface, they aren't going to know. Unless you're diving with an over zealous intrusive dive guide in which case you might have to dive more conservatively.

There's no PADI police down there.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Sure, dive charters will say "if you go into DECO you're done for the day" but as long as you clear your computer before you surface, they aren't going to know.

I have always interpreted that warning during the briefing as meaning "if you go into deco and don't clear it." In other words, if you surface with an omitted deco obligation. Which makes sense.

 

[LI-er]

I have always interpreted that warning during the briefing as meaning "if you go into deco and don't clear it."

I like it! If I ever get "caught" that's exactly what I'm gonna say.

 

[steinbil]

I am not tech certified but I do carry a 19 or 30 cf pony bottle, many or even most of my dives are solo.

I often exceed NDL limits and incur anywhere from a 1 to 10 minute DECO obligation, most of which is offgassed before I even get to the required stop depth which is always 10' for a minute or two.

In fact when I dived Truk Lagoon last year, I found that it's commonplace for recreational divers to go into DECO on almost every dive, due to the large steel tanks and depth of the wrecks and the numerous dives per day. The practice is certainly not discouraged by the dive charter we used for a week long liveaboard trip.

Whether you allow yourself to go into DECO or avoid it, and thus shorten virtually every single dive you ever do is completely up to you and your level of risk tolerance. Of course you need to have good gas management. You don't want to be in a situation where you've got a 5 minute DECO obligation but only 500 psi in your only tank.

Sure, dive charters will say "if you go into DECO you're done for the day" but as long as you clear your computer before you surface, they aren't going to know. Unless you're diving with an over zealous intrusive dive guide in which case you might have to dive more conservatively.

There's no PADI police down there.

Textbook example of normalization of deviance.

 

[tursiops]

I like it! If I ever get "caught" that's exactly what I'm gonna say.

Good luck with that.

 

[Miyaru]

Somehow this makes me shiver:

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.

• You've got an AOW certification.
• You've got less than 50 dives.
• And you're already trying to push the limits as much as you can. Trusting a computer's settings, looking for a way to squeeze even more time into your dive.

It's the complete opposite of what you would learn during a course that teaches diving beyond recreational limits.
As @johndiver999 said, "the line between deco and no deco is blurry" - it is a grey area that varies from dive to dive. Bold divers venture as far into that grey area as they can, and old divers always stayed a little bit away from that grey area.
Going beyond the NDL requires two things:

1. Mindset
2. Knowledge

Let's assume that you are taking 1% risk on each dive (wrong mindset), pushing the limits (due to a lack of knowledge).
Statistically, your number will up before you do your 100th dive.

• You're diving in Bali. If you surface with DCS, what is the total time required from surfacing to actually being recompressed in a hyperbaric facility? That should be a consideration when you are "going beyond the NDL limits but ascending slowly".

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

SSI offers a tec-lite course, as do some of the club agencies - e.g. BSAC Sports diver recreational course includes some backgas deco, same for CMAS. That might be a good starting point before pushing limits of the training.

The line between recreational and technical diving is blurry not just on the computer / deco side but also on the training side.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I like it! If I ever get "caught" that's exactly what I'm gonna say.

I don’t think an interpretation that would require observing you underwater makes sense. It can’t be what they really mean.

 

[LI-er]

I don’t think an interpretation that would require observing you underwater makes sense. It can’t be what they really mean.

Well it seems pretty straightforward "stay out of DECO or you're done diving for the day". Lots of laws and rules are unenforceable.

 

[LI-er]

Textbook example of normalization of deviance.

Textbook example of gaining knowledge and experience and applying it to enhance the experience.