Oh, look - another girl with a skin bends issue...

[vetdiver]

only question is have you done 4 dives in a day as you previously had?

I have not been on vacation since this happened - which is mainly when I do 4 dives a day. However, I have done 3 dives a day on most of the dive days. I have a mini-liveaboard to the Channel Islands coming up next month and will likely do 4 or more dives a day then. Thanks for the info!!! I do have a newer Suunto with the deep stop microbubble setting......

 

[pickens_46929]

I have not been on vacation since this happened - which is mainly when I do 4 dives a day. However, I have done 3 dives a day on most of the dive days. I have a mini-liveaboard to the Channel Islands coming up next month and will likely do 4 or more dives a day then. Thanks for the info!!! I do have a newer Suunto with the deep stop microbubble setting......

All this is good news to hear! Best wishes for seeing all the wonderful fishes!

 

[Rick Murchison]

Several issues in this thread that are interesting... a couple of observations:
So far, (knocking on wood) I've not taken a DCS hit; I'm still diving trimix & caves & toting doubles etc, but, I'm 60 now,

AGE!!!!!! hmmmmmmmm

and I have changed a few things in the way I dive.
(1) To the extent possible, I avoid overt exertion, and take it easy a couple of hours either side of a dive, especially if it is a deco dive. I try to avoid situations where I'll have to work hard under water. My envelope for currents and the size of fish I'm willing to shoot & fight have both seen a considerable reduction in the "max acceptable." I make sure my buddy isn't in a hurry, even if he/she's 18.

and this time, I hydrated well

(2) Hydration. No more hangovers! (of course, the fact that they hurt a lot more than they used to helps me remember this one too). I still have my coffee, but overpower it with at least two cups water for every one cup coffee consumed; I make it a point to "power drink" - both water and gatoraide - between dives.

I make a point of taking at least a minute or two to surface after my last deco stop is complete

(3) Ascent profiles. This one's probably the most important. When I learned to dive it was 60/60/60... 60 feet for 60 minutes with a 60 fpm rate of ascent directly to the surface... those Navy tables worked well for a couple of decades. I started slowing my ascents and adding a safety stop when the Lovely Young Kat started diving ~'90. I added Pyle stops when I read Dr. Pyle's article in '96, because intuitively it just made sense. About that time I started an informal study of my own, timing divers' ascents from their safety stop to the surface, because it seemed to me that divers were essentially ending the dive at the safety stop and not really paying any attention to that last 15'. Indeed, the average time from the safety stop to the surface that I observed over several hundred dives was 7 seconds, or a bit over 120fpm!
My ascent profile now is:
No more than 60fpm below 120 ft; no more than 30fpm between 120 and 30 ft; no more than 15fpm above 30 ft; 10fpm from 10 ft. On "big" dives I use V-planner and use its deep stops; I add time to the shallow stops (how much depends on lots of things, from temp to how I feel about it on the day). I try to make a surface stop that's as long as my last deco stop before hauling out, but sometimes that's just not feasible. I take it slow & easy getting out, and I never turn down help from young backs. On rec profiles I do 1 minute "half" stops, tend to extend the safety stop to at least five minutes, and try to take at least two minutes from the safety stop to the surface.

Rick