extending a recreational dive into short deco?

[Doby45]

Deco should not be considered "recreational" anyway, even short hops into deco. Deco implies a glass ceiling and to me is no different than people sneaking into a cave "just a little bit". Lots of people do it, both the tiny trip into "caves" and some recreational "deco" but when things go pear shaped and you are under that glass ceiling with no deco training and without the proper equipment, the end is very similar to someone almost making it out of that cave. I hope you get the spirit that I intend in this post and not some deco nazi jerk. You may be perfectly find doing a little recreational 5min of deco, but someone else may read this and think it is no different than them doing the samething, minus the doubles.

 

[Bigeclipse]

Deco should not be considered "recreational" anyway, even short hops into deco. Deco implies a glass ceiling and to me is no different than people sneaking into a cave "just a little bit". Lots of people do it, both the tiny trip into "caves" and some recreational "deco" but when things go pear shaped and you are under that glass ceiling with no deco training and without the proper equipment, the end is very similar to someone almost making it out of that cave. I hope you get the spirit that I intend in this post and not some deco nazi jerk. You may be perfectly find doing a little recreational 5min of deco, but someone else may read this and think it is no different than them doing the samething, minus the doubles.

I definitely understand. I guess I should change my original post. What I am getting at is all of my dive buddies are currently not tech certified nor do they want to be. Until I find dive buddies who are, I was wondering if anyone does these solo type "short deco plans"? Another example could be diving on a wreck where say the bow is at 130 feet but the bottom 145. Your friends who pair up together are doing a recreational dive plan to the 130 foot mark. Is there any harm in you doing a shortish solo deco dive say to 145feet again assuming you are well trained and take all of the normal precautions and keeping the deco short and WELL within your gas limits OR do most tec divers avoid this?

 

[Edward3c]

Stupid question? No.

Potentially dangerous practise? Yes.

I take it you were taught to ‘plan the dive and dive the plan’ if not you will need to get used to it when doing ‘tech’ courses.

I’ve pretty much stopped diving with twin-set divers, too many have got complacent and don’t plan their dives. I’ll explain the dive profile to be: 35m for 10 minutes, 20m for 15 minutes, then up to 10m for 30 minutes. Rarely will a twin-set diver calculate their gas requirements on such a dive, all they see is my single cylinder (they don’t even hear the 300bar). Then they don’t have enough gas for a second dive. I only wish this was a one-off, but too many wear twin-sets because its macho not because the dive requires them.

 

[KenGordon]

Deco should not be considered "recreational" anyway, even short hops into deco. Deco implies a glass ceiling and to me is no different than people sneaking into a cave "just a little bit". Lots of people do it, both the tiny trip into "caves" and some recreational "deco" but when things go pear shaped and you are under that glass ceiling with no deco training and without the proper equipment, the end is very similar to someone almost making it out of that cave. I hope you get the spirit that I intend in this post and not some deco nazi jerk. You may be perfectly find doing a little recreational 5min of deco, but someone else may read this and think it is no different than them doing the samething, minus the doubles.

So running out of gas with 5 minutes of stops due is the same as running out with a five minute swim to exit a cave?

Really?

Probability of death in one case 1.0, in the other less than 1.0

 

[Lorenzoid]

In my book, if you start the dive as a 3-person team, you end the dive as a 3-person team. You're either part of a 3-person team or you're solo--no gray area. To me, this has nothing to do with tec versus rec. Whether one team member has the capability to stay down longer than other team members is irrelevant. Call me a GUE nerd, but diving as a team is a core concept in that agency's philosophy, and it makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[IDS_Bill]

There is also a courtesy aspect in addition to the risks. If you are diving off of a dive boat with other divers, you need to let the operator know about this (and they will usually not like it) because if there is an accident and they need to recall people, they don't want to have to wait for you to finish your deco before pulling up the anchor line.

 

[Bigeclipse]

In my book, if you start the dive as a 3-person team, you end the dive as a 3-person team. You're either part of a 3-person team or you're solo--no gray area. To me, this has nothing to do with tec versus rec. Whether one team member has the capability to stay down longer than other team members is irrelevant. Call me a GUE nerd, but diving as a team is a core concept in that agency's philosophy, and it makes a lot of sense to me.

I now agree with all of this, but now I am wondering what about if you have a similar scenario above where you have 2 friends not tec certified. You all plan a dive at the same place. They will be buddies, you will be solo. You plan to dive "with" them for the first part of the dive until they need to ascend and then go on your own of course making sure you preplaned a little deco ahead of time. Do tech divers ever do this or is this frowned upon?

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

This reminds me of a lot of Solo Discussions - if you need to ask - the obvious answer should be - No.

If you had the training or the experience you would not ask. I am not sure why you asked in the first place. FWIW - stay safe

 

[Doby45]

So running out of gas with 5 minutes of stops due is the same as running out with a five minute swim to exit a cave?

Really?

Probability of death in one case 1.0, in the other less than 1.0

I see @Bigeclipse took it in the nature it was intended and you on the other hand did not. No one ever said 5min of deco was the same as 5min from a cave entrance. You implied that in a desire to be argumentative. Short answer to your "Really?" question is; Yes, missed deco can be just as deadly as not being able to make it to the surface in a cave. If you deny that, then you are a truly special individual.

 

[Bigeclipse]

This reminds me of a lot of Solo Discussions - if you need to ask - the obvious answer should be - No.

If you had the training or the experience you would not ask. I am not sure why you asked in the first place. FWIW - stay safe

understood and I would NOT be doing any of this until I had the training. I was just asking is all. Currently I am not even tec certified (I just started my TDI intro to tech course) I would have asked my tec instructor this but he is not around for the next few weeks so I figured I would come here.