extending a recreational dive into short deco?

[Doby45]

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?

I kinda see more along the lines of where you are going with this. Lets say you are trained for deco and you got doubles and all that good stuff. You have planned to go to the boiler room of a ship and you have YOUR plan. Your friends are more rec and they are just going to the bridge of the ship and they will stay within their NDL. They have their plan. You descend with them and go with them to the bridge to spend time with them and "hang out for a few minutes with them". You then signal or whatever and let them know you are going to head on to the boiler room and you guys wave and will see each other back on the boat. All of THAT is perfectly fine. You both have your own plans, you both did spend time together for a while on the dive and you both did your own thing.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

No Problem - the trouble is if everyone said Go For IT! And you got hurt (read dead) - the first place the lawyers are looking is where did he get permission...

Oh Scubaboard - no problem they are all experts - case closed...

 

[NYCNaiad]

I'm going to preface this with: I'm not a tech diver, nor a solo diver. However, some guy being the 3rd in my buddy group & then going off at some point in the dive makes me a bit uncomfortable. This is true even if it was planned ahead of time. I'm sure there are other rec divers who wouldn't care, but since there are lots of ways to find buddies who want to do similar dives that you do (e.g.,tech classes, Meetup, dive clubs, Scubaboard, Facebook, etc.) why not go that route?

 

[KevinNM]

If you read enough of the books on wreck diving you will see accounts of where people did a dive together and then one had a longer deco then the other because of something. So they got out of the water with their buddy at 20 feet and never saw their buddy alive again. Seems like a bad plan.

 

[doctormike]

I do this all of the time, but it's established ahead of time.

I'm a tech diver who often dives with recreational two person buddy teams (because of logistics). I did the tech training so that I could spend more time at moderate depths, not so that I could go very deep. So I'm frequently in the situation of making a trip out to a local wreck, and rather than sticking to NDLs (giving me two 18 minute dives for a whole day at sea), I'll do some light deco. I generally have a dive plan on a slate, but then fly the computer for the actual ascent profile, since this reflects the actual dive more accurately.

We discuss this ahead of time, when the rec team ascends I wave them off and follow later. The only procedural concern about this is that most agencies (well, mine anyway) don't approve of solo deco. On the other hand, solo deco is pretty common in my area (NYC).

 

[Reku]

It is not a good idea to do a solo dive unless you are prepared. It is not a good idea to do deco unless you have taken an ANDP type course or have the required knowledge.

It is not a good idea to change the dive plan during the dive.

If you had the required knowledge and were prepared you would not be asking this question.

I would advise you to not go into deco on a recreational dive. Once you pass NDL it becomes a technical dive and you have now changed the dive plan during the dive.

you can however do whatever you want and dive however you want. These are just suggestions from personal experience.

If you decide to go into deco and you have an obligation - if something happens that requires your attention. what will you do?

In the event of an emergency where your gas consumption sky rockets - do you have enough gas to get back to the surface after your obligation is up?

If you only had enough gas to get back to the surface and do deco by yourself and another diver comes up to you signals OOA - what would you do?

Would you blow a deco stop in order to save another diver while potentially endangering yourself?

You don't just go into deco no matter how short. It requires planning, it requires contingency plans. You either do a deco dive or you don't.

There is no "Sir I'd like my deco on the side if possible, thank you."

 

[kr2y5]

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 would echo previous posters, IMO there are a few things here:

1. Solo + deco + to 100ft + without training + deviating from plan => that's a pretty powerful combo, too many yellow bulbs lighting up in my head all at once, though. Personally, I wouldn't.

2. IMO, the decision to do any risky dive should be done on the surface, not on the spur of the moment influenced by emotion (found something interesting), potentially by narcotic impairment, etc. With solo, deco, and 100ft, I feel there are enough potential risk factors to want to be making such decisions when your decision-making skills are at their best, and during the dive they likely aren't.

3. When someone decides to split, it impacts my safety, I would want to have a say in that. It's hard to communicate, weigh options, and express your opinion underwater. It happened to me a few times to start solo and join a dive mid-way, or to split during the dive and do the rest solo, but that was always agreed upon beforehand, or after re-surfacing.

Just my 3 cents...

 

[Lorenzoid]

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?

I would think that you need to ensure everyone is on the same page about what "with" means. If you're a solo diver, tagging along with a 2-person buddy team, and they have their own independent plan and you yours, I suppose that's different.

 

[tbone1004]

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?

do I? yes, do I advocate it? No. Very specific about starting that dive solo and that I should not be considered part of the other teams dive plan. It all depends on what you and the other team is comfortable with, and if the location you're diving allows solo dives. You can also do simulated deco with said dive team to practice the actual deco bit if you want, but the actual dive plan shouldn't be deviated like that on a whim

 

[Bigeclipse]

I apologize to everyone above. I will NOT be suddenly doing deco dives.

I should have started with that. I am currently training for intro to tech and then will immediately follow into ANDP in TDI. I regularly dive doubles at the moment also sometimes slinging a 40cf with me just so I can do drills and such at the end of the rec dives I do with my friends. This got me wondering then when I am FINALLY tech certified and VERY comfortable in my training would it be any harm to do some light deco while my other friends do rec dives.

Now I understand more that you really need to have separate dive plans. It sounds like YES you can dive along with each other...but the rec divers have THEIR dive plan and I would have MINE.

I have no idea if I will ever do this. Just asking the questions.