Reverse Profile Diving Question

[keyskindagirl]

I know that reverse profile diving is not highly recommend, nor is it something I will want to do on any kind of regular basis.

Yesterday afternoon my dive buddy and I did the following dive:

1st dive - max 34 ft for 59 minutes

Interval - Computer said that their was a 1hr and 23 minutes between dives

2nd dive - max 119ft for 30 minutes….17min bottom 3 minute deco at 20ft and 10 min deco at 10 ft.

My dive computer recommended the two decos. My buddy's computer only recommend the first one, with no second stop at 10 ft being needed. We did the second stop anyway.

My question(s) is - does it seem like the second stop was needed, or does it seem excessively long? Why would there be such a huge difference between the two computers?

 

[bradshsi]

My dive computer recommended the two decos. My buddy's computer only recommend the first one, with no second stop at 10 ft being needed. We did the second stop anyway.

My question(s) is - does it seem like the second stop was needed, or does it seem excessively long? Why would there be such a huge difference between the two computers?

Without knowing anything about your setup (what computers you used etc). The simple answer is that different computers can have very different algorithms and such differences are not unusual. In addition the following are contributing factors:

Your depth profile may have been deeper than your buddies
Your computer may be more conservative in deco than your buddies

Normally I'd also suggest that going into deco on a recreational dive computer is not a good thing, but I won't. Instead I'll suggest that you fill out your profile so we know a bit more about about you More information on your diving setup will also help others in further answering your question.

Oh and welcome to SB

 

[drbill]

I dive reverse profiles quite often since my maximum depth depends on the site chosen rather than which dive of the day it is. I dive a fairly conservative computer and do my stops even more conservatively than recommended by it. For example on a recent dive to 150 ft (third dive of the day after two previous dives > 100 ft), I incurred a 19 min deco obligation. Instead I did a nearly 40 min "stop" (with short deep stops as well). The same weekend I had a day where my dives had max depths to 50, 100 and 150 ft in that order. All dives involved long periods of time in the shallows after descending to my maximum depth.

 

[TSandM]

A lot of discussion about different computer algorithms (and how different they are) is here