safety stop?

[Scubakevdm]

P.S. Simbrooks, drop by if you're drift diving in Palm Beach County. - Kev

 

[midwestdvr]

Thanks for all the helpful tips. I sure wish that I lived somewhere else where diving is more accesible. This cold weather is making me wish that I was living in florida instead. Once again, many thanks.

midwestdvr

 

[Bretagne]

We had similar troubles on our first ocean drift dives in midwater. Couldnt see the bottom, had no other references to judge depth by apart from guages.

You are at about 10 - 13 ft when the surface seen from below looks like a mirror. I do not know if it works with a lot of waves, but visibility does not need to be perfect.

 

[simbrooks]

That was one trouble with the whole thing, there was a 2 foot swell and that was also moving us around a bit. I guess the big thing was lack of any fixed point of reference. We have pretty good buoyancy when on the bottom or with something to refer to, its that middle of the water, nothing much to guage by (except the floating stuff) that is tougher to get right. Like i said, more practice needed!!

I understand the internal reflection, waves may however chop that up a bit, due to change of angle, but like i said, i understand the theory.

We are planning on more salt dives real soon, well end of the month hopefully! So i will let you know if we decide on a trip down to Boynton.

 

[sea nmf]

Now I want to interject some reality. When diving off of "cattle boats" or anywear where you have more than you and your buddy, and you are using the anchor line because there might be some current, it is difficult to come up slowly.

You usually have a bunch of folks behind you and they may not like to do slow ascents. I actually tried this once with about 6 people behind me (current was present) and I had people wondering if I was okay because I was going so slow.

While you shouldn't be pressured to go fast because other people are (I actually had two people pass me), it does cause somewhat of a traffic jam.

I think I'll see if my buddy and I can be the LAST ones off the boat from now on. We will have a better chance of being the last ones up that way.

 

[sharkmasterbc]

To me that last comment ...


"You usually have a bunch of folks behind you and they may not like to do slow ascents. I actually tried this once with about 6 people behind me (current was present) and I had people wondering if I was okay because I was going so slow. "


...translates into, I like to increase my risk of DCS by trying to ascend too fast...besides most of us would rather be in the water than on the surface unless of course there is nothing left to breathe. I've never run into this problem before and if I did, I think that would be the last time I went out with that paticular dive operation. It's not fun being on a boat with someone who is frothing nitrogen bubbles and blood from their mouth !!! and contrary to popular belif CPR is not fun...

 

[SIR VEYOR]

Thanks for all the helpful tips. I sure wish that I lived somewhere else where diving is more accesible. midwestdvr

Hey midwestdvr,

Do you live near St. Louis? The Bonne-Terre mine is supposed to be awesome and you can dive it with just OW cert. I'm hoping to get out there soon and dive it myself. I thought the water temps looked fine for diving. Can someone who's been there comment on it?
Here's a link talking about it:

http://www.2dive.com/

Thanks,
Sir Veyor

 

[Gary D.]

I ran into a SCUBA, I bought a C-card, idiot a couple of years ago that just didn't have a clue about anything. What he saw was black and white with NO gray areas at all.

He was so dead set on doing a safety stop on EVERY dive, nomatter what depth or for how long, he was hyperventlating when I disagreed with him. I came close to putting his head in the Safeway rescue bag but he recovered on his own.

He just kept on me when he found out we don't do them when we are in "Rescue Mode". He couldn't get a clue when I said if we have a saveable victim we are not doing a safety stop because that 3 or so minutes might just make the difference on their survival. NOPE, YOU HAVE TO DO THEM AT 15' EVERY DIVE!

He really went off when I said a good persentage of our dives are only 20' or less, for less than 5 minutes and there is no reason for one. YES THERE IS AND YOU ARE JUST PUTTING YOURSELF AT RISK!!!!

So, here is where the bag almost came out, I said so if I dive to 10' for 2 minutes, I have to do a 3 minute safety stop at 15'? YES IT'S FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY!!!!! I tell him the water wasn't that deep and what do I get from the idiot. YOU HAVE TO GO BACK AND MAKE A 15' SAFETY STOP AND THATS ALL THERE IS TO IT!

I think this guy has looked at the wrong end of a flash bulb way to many times. He's either going to be a boat anchor or a mooring buoy some day.

Gary D.

 

[dc4bs]

I've met one or two like that and one or two just the opposit... Safety stop? What's that? Oh. I don't do decompression diving so they are a waste of time. I'd rather spend more time on the dive itself.

Opposit ends of the spectrum but similer destinations I think.

Life is a circle and these guys will most lilkely find out where it ends first...

 

[dive-ssi-w-me]

What type of equipment do you use when you dive? Namely, do you use an analog console or computer? I have a bottom of the line Oceanic (Veo 100) and this does a safety stop countdown for me once I ascend to 20'. I also saw in one of the postings above that some dive boats have the 15' marking on the ascent line. I have seen that some times, not all the time, though. Becoming comfortable with your bouyancy is definitely a must. I find that diving with my own equipment aids in this comfort level. It takes a while when you have to rent your equipement from the dive shop. You are never sure what the condition of the BC will be.

Thanks for listening,

dive-ssi-w-me