extending a recreational dive into short deco?

[Bigeclipse]

All,
I hope this isn't a stupid question and maybe I will learn it in my Deco procedures class (I am currently enrolled in Intro to Tec for TDI), but I was wondering if any of you ever extend a recreational dive into some short deco. For example, lets say you are with a 2 buddies who are only recreational divers. You plan a dive to 100ft. Lets say your NDL time is somewhere between 16-20 min on air depending on your computer. Your buddies are wearing 100s but you are wearing your doubles (for whatever reason). Now lets say we all will follow 20min as our NDL time. It approaches 20 minutes so your buddies want to ascend but you found something interesting. So you tell them to ascend without you. You have plenty of air because you are wearing doubles. So have any of you hung around a few extra minutes maybe racking up a few minutes of deco?

 

[Patoux01]

"It depends".

It depends with who I'm doing this:
- the buddies
- the op
- the region (some regions do not allow deco diving from what I understood?)

etc.

But usually I would say "no, don't do it", because I don't want to do deco while the others don't due to issues that could arise (if they're in trouble, you can't necessarily ascend with them).


A few minutes deco is no big deal when things go alright, but they can bring up quite some stress when things go wrong imo.

 

[tbone1004]

that situation should never happen because if that is the case then you are no longer diving as a buddy team and things like that should be communicated prior to the dive. That is very much against my personal views on safety. If you are planning on doing that, you communicate before the dive that the other two guys are a dive team, and you are solo diving and following them around, and will ascend and meet them at the surface for beer later.

 

[Bigeclipse]

that situation should never happen because if that is the case then you are no longer diving as a buddy team and things like that should be communicated prior to the dive. That is very much against my personal views on safety. If you are planning on doing that, you communicate before the dive that the other two guys are a dive team, and you are solo diving and following them around, and will ascend and meet them at the surface for beer later.

thanks Tbone. So then to ask another question. Do you ever make Solo dive plans like what I just described above. Maybe the buddy team above stays for the recreational limits of 20min but you plan a little more time? If you come up in the NDL time then no big deal but you plan some extra time because you can and you are not 100% sure if you will see something more of interest?

 

[rivers]

It depends on the situation and the people involved. With my usual pool of buddies, our dive plan for a 30m dive is generally "Jump in, swim around, and come back up again. Bottom time will be somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes depending on conditions/thermal considerations/boredom. Deco will be somewhere between min deco and 15 minutes depending on the bottom time. X is doing the blob, Y is deco captain. Z gets to look pretty".
In the situation you describe: nope. I don't do solo. Team sticks together.
Deco in the recreational ranges is pretty much par for the course in the UK, and if anyone is doing any serious amount of 30m+ sea diving, they are usually in a twinset/sidemount/rebreather.

 

[kensuf]

The way I read this, what you're really asking is "Do you ever deviate from your dive plan?"

Like many things in life, the answer is going to be "it depends".

Let's use your scenario about diving with the recreational buddies. Chances are that unless the "interesting thing" is a pot of gold, if I'm diving with two strictly recreational divers as part of a three man team, I'm not going to deviate from the dive plan. If anything, I'm likely to call the dive shorter and not try to push the NDL's in that situation.

 

[kensuf]

BTW, several posts came in while I was typing my reply. Tbone hit the nail on the head.

As per your follow-up, yes I've made dive plans where I'm tagging along with a buddy team with the knowledge that we may eventually go our separate ways. That's communicated before we ever hit the water though.

 

[Bigeclipse]

Thank you all for your insight on this. I should have realized that DUH you should try to not deviate from the Dive plan and also never leave your buddies. The reason I am asking is All my dive buddies locally are recreational divers, most of which have no desire for deco/tec diving. 95% of my diving will be with them (until I meet more tec divers that is) so I was curious if I will just be making recreational dives or if some of you actually do some short deco alone. That of course brings a whole new challenge to the game of being a solo diver at the end of the dive while your friends (the buddy pair in the scenario above) are now ascending to the surface.

 

[Diver0001]

All,
I hope this isn't a stupid question and maybe I will learn it in my Deco procedures class (I am currently enrolled in Intro to Tec for TDI), but I was wondering if any of you ever extend a recreational dive into some short deco. For example, lets say you are with a 2 buddies who are only recreational divers. You plan a dive to 100ft. Lets say your NDL time is somewhere between 16-20 min on air depending on your computer. Your buddies are wearing 100s but you are wearing your doubles (for whatever reason). Now lets say we all will follow 20min as our NDL time. It approaches 20 minutes so your buddies want to ascend but you found something interesting. So you tell them to ascend without you. You have plenty of air because you are wearing doubles. So have any of you hung around a few extra minutes maybe racking up a few minutes of deco?

I'm strict asl hell about this. If we are diving together then we are diving together. End of discussion.

If you don't want to do that then do the dive solo but don't encumber your dive buddies with this.

R..

 

[Bigeclipse]

I'm strict asl hell about this. If we are diving together then we are diving together. End of discussion.

If you don't want to do that then do the dive solo but don't encumber your dive buddies with this.

R..

That is kind of what I figured but thought id ask.