Flying after Lobstering...?

[RonFrank]

I wanna go lobster diving on Sunday night. A mighty 20' max for like an hour or so.

I'm flying out to Atlanta Monday morning.

That gives me an "out of water" before flying of about 11 hours or so.

But I was rooting around at 15 - 20 feet... think there'll be a problem?

---
Ken

12 hours before fly time. IMO that's a VERY loose rule as Saturation will vary, so I'm *guessing* that is worst case?

Living where I do, I basically break the no dive/fly rule EVERY time I dive locally. I don't push NDL's and have never had an issue. I live at 9000', so my house is 1000 less than the 8000' cabin pressure.

IMO, have fun on the dive, and don't worry about the flying. If you are less comfortable, don't push your NDL's, so no 3 hour dives!

 

[discrepancy]

Almost certainly both right Dr Deco and mpenner - nerves fretting over every little itch and tingle, and maybe compounded by a mild common-or-garden-variety bug.

I suppose what the experience brought home to me was how little solid advice there was to be had about flying after diving.

Is there anything authoritative out there?

 

[Dr Deco]

Hello discrepancy:

There is a fair amount of research on flying-after-diving, but it does not cover all of the situations about which divers enquire.

• There are straightforward tables linking pressure groups and ascent altitudes, and the duration to wait before the ascent. Divers, however, sometimes want to vary their pressure during the sea level interval.
• Decompression characteristics differ among divers. This reflects tissue perfusion, tendency to form tissue micronuclei and the lifetimes of these nuclei. Divers will hear stories about “wet hair” divers and want to know why these folks can fly with such short surface intervals.
• All dive, surface interval, and exercise scenarios cannot be covered in laboratory tests. Many questions will remain.

Dr Deco :doctor:

 

[discrepancy]

Thanks for that.