No Deco rules - Local Island Diving - Maldives

[Miyaru]

@Jai Bar ......you totally missed the point.
And your explanation about tables and multiple NDLs is incorrect. And offtopic.

 

[cfberry]

yes ... I wonder if there are any stats on local's getting DCS. It seems to me that they are willing to really dive to the limits of the rules ... because the rules are conservative <30m, <1hour, no Deco.

the analogy is like driving a car 20 MPH in a 15 MPH zone

thats a good analogy

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I have just spent a week open circuit diving in the Maldives on a local island.

My question is do the local rules regarding, no deco diving and 1 hour maximum run time, encourage local divers to adopt less safe dive profiles then they would elswhere in the world.?

Because they don't want their computer to go into deco, most of the local divers I dived with, run the least conservative settings, which on a Garmin is a GF 45/95. This is regardless of depth (which in the Maldives is limited to 30m) and regardless of surface interval, (which was typically 1 hour)

I found that after the second dive, particularly, after say two dives to 29 meters and 1 hour surface interval, that there were big differences in the guides dive profile, to what i wanted to do running GF 50/70. The water is warm and often there is a lot of fish life to see at 3-6m, even floating in the blue because vis can be 30 meters (100 feet). Generally I would just get my guide to do the stops, I wanted to do.

But I wonder if there are any stats on local's getting DCS. It seems to me that they are willing to really dive to the limits of the rules i.e, 30m, <1h total run time, no deco and perhaps they may be better served, getting rid of the no deco, < 1hour rules, to encourage more conservative gradient factor/model adoption.

thoughts?

According to Shearwater 45/95 in their computers is very close to the PADI tables. Those tables have been throughly tested with literally millions of dives. If you want to dive more conservatively, you can always do so by not diving right up to the NDL and adding to the safety stop. I prefer to know maximum NDL and adjust accordingly.

 

[Learner Diver]

I have just spent a week open circuit diving in the Maldives on a local island.

Apart from the confusion on your part, was it enjoyable?

 

[Heat Miser]

Apart from the confusion on your part, was it enjoyable?

They were wonderful picture post card dives. Beautiful blue water, colourful deeper soft corals and lots of life on the corners of islands where there are two currents crossing. It's not the cheapest of places to dive, but it certainly is pretty.