high altitude activities in Maui

[cyjeffries]

We will be visiting Maui this June with several non-divers. Some of the planned activities are high altitude activities. Any advice on balancing three days of diving with three days of helicopter rides, haleakala sunrises, zipline tours and hana highway cruises? We arrive 9:30am Sat. and leave 12:15pm the following Sat.

mahalo,
Cyndi

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Do all the high stuff first.

I have called the 800 number and been told above 2000ft is considered going to elevation. The current DAN recommendations;

The following guidelines are the consensus of attendees at the 2002 Flying After Diving Workshop. They apply to air dives followed by flights at cabin altitudes of 2,000 to 8,000 feet (610 to 2,438 meters) for divers who do not have symptoms of decompression sickness (DCS). The recommended preflight surface intervals do not guarantee avoidance of DCS. Longer surface intervals will reduce DCS risk further.

For a single no-decompression dive, a minimum preflight surface interval of 12 hours is suggested.
For multiple dives per day or multiple days of diving, a minimum preflight surface interval of 18 hours is suggested.
For dives requiring decompression stops, there is little evidence on which to base a recommendation and a preflight surface interval substantially longer than 18 hours appears prudent.

 

[Charlie99]

Do the truly high altitude activity -- Haleakala, on the first morning you are in Maui. You'll be waking up on mainland time anyway, so that first morning on Maui is the best day to make the early morning run to the summit.

I wouldn't be too concerned about doing the Hana Hwy after doing a bunch of diving the morning of the previous day. I don't now the exact altitudes, but they are relatively low -- 1000 or 2000 foot sort of things.

Do the afternoon helicopter ride, and you'll be more than 18 hours away from the dives of the day before.

One suggestion unrelated to fly-after-dive -- you might consider the combined helo ride and hana van ride. Blue Hawaiian, and probably others, do a combo trip where there's a van tour of the Hana Highway going one way, and a helo ride the other direction. By the time most people get to Hana, they have seen enough winding road and waterfalls and are ready to take a helo trip back.

 

[DiveMaven]

We have friends who regularly accompany us to Maui. The husband dives, the wife doesn't, so they plan all their high altitude land activities for the first few days of the trip, then the husband dives with me and my husband at the end of the trip. That leaves afternoons available after diving to do other land activities, just not altitude ones.

 

[Divedoggie]

Living in Colorado, I have to plan for altitude diving with every dive!
Planning conservative dives, using Nitrox, and not pushing NDLs are critical, as well as slow ascent rates and long safety stops.
There is always a consideration of surface time before we drive over a pass to get back home after a dive.

It is certainly easier and more conservative with overall dive planning to do the non-diving altitude activities first. But that may not work with your overall vacation plan.

The helicopter tour and Halealkala are the biggest concerns.
If you dive after either of those activities, wait 6 hours before you dive.

Or, count 2 pressure groups for each 1000 feet descended, for your starting pressure group. So, after descending from Haleakala, you would be a V diver!
Probably easiest to wait 6 hours!

If you do either of those activities after doing multiple dives, wait 18 hours after you dive.

You can map out your activities and your desired dives, and then plan your dives. You could dive early the first morning, then play on the beach, shop, etc.
Enough surface time would pass by the next morning to do a helicopter tour or Haleakala.
The next day would be fine for diving, and so on.

Just be conservative.

 

[mchiapetto]

The helicopter tour and Halealkala are the biggest concerns.
If you dive after either of those activities, wait 6 hours before you dive.

Or, count 2 pressure groups for each 1000 feet descended, for your starting pressure group. So, after descending from Haleakala, you would be a V diver!
Probably easiest to wait 6 hours!
QUOTE]

What are you talking about. The concerns for altitude are about going to altitude after a dive. Not about diving after coming from altitude. You can fly somehwere, get off a plane, and head directly to a dive. You don't have to wait after being at altitude before you dive.

We are heading to Ohau, Maui, and the Big Island in July. On each Island we are doing the altitude stuff the first day, then diving. And we leave enough time after the last dive before flying to be very safe.

 

[KrisB]

I think Divedoggie has confused diving at sea level after flying with diving at altitude after travelling to altitude.

If there was a place to dive in Haleakala crater, then you'd want to travel up there, wait six hours, then you could dive that body of water safely (not having any residual Nitrogen).

mchiapetto is correct in that diving immediately after being at altitude is not considered a significant risk in itself, though you may consider that airline travel often causes fatigue, dehydration and other risk factors for DCS.