Safety stops when monitoring SurGF

[boulderjohn]

Of course not. Safety stops were invented before SurfGF was a thing.

Correct.

So let's compare the SurfGF safety stop question to the same question as would be asked when using tables.

With the PADI tables, you are told that in certain specific cases, an optional safety stop is "required." In all other cases, the safety stop is truly optional, but it is recommended. For example, for the 60 foot dive for 47 minutes cited by Inquisit above, most people would do a safety stop without hesitation. On the other hand, most divers would not bother with a safety stop for a 25 foot dive for 50 minutes.

Where's the dividing line between "Yeah, I'll do a safety stop" and "Nah, I'm not going to bother"?

That's an individual decision, jsut as it is with SurfGF. The nice thing about SurfGF is that you have a number for all dives that you can cite as being your go to value.

 

[boulderjohn]

It may not be mandatory, but anyway you look at it, doing a safety stop will make it 'safer' since you will be offgassing more the longer you stay.
You choose...

Yep, and experiments with saturation divers indicate that if you can get people to feed you the necessary tanks, you will be sure to be safe after three days at 15 feet. That will indeed be safer than a standard safety stop.

A lot of people wou9ld like to get out of the water sooner, and I believe that is the point of the thread. Where is that dividing line?

 

[davehicks]

I thought that required that you enter deco first and then clear before it started. (Thus, wouldn't be shown on an NDL dive.) Admittedly, I switched to a Teric a couple years ago, so could be misremembering.

I use the Clear Counter on both my Petrel (CCR) and Teric (OC Tec). On Petrel, Perdix, Teric it works the same. When you hit 20ft the counter starts, regardless of Deco/No Deco.

 

[davehicks]

Yep, and experiments with saturation divers indicate that if you can get people to feed you the necessary tanks, you will be sure to be safe after three days at 15 feet. That will indeed be safer than a standard safety stop.

A lot of people wou9ld like to get out of the water sooner, and I believe that is the point of the thread. Where is that dividing line?

Frankly, if you want to get out of the water three minutes faster then why did you bother spending the other 57 minutes (or whatever) in the water at all? This is the sort of lazy corner cutting that gets people in trouble.

Yes, of course there are exceptions and scenarios some divers might encounter leading them to skip the stop. You do your thing.

The point is that Most divers should spend at least 3 minutes at 20-10 feet at the end of their dives. I know plenty of people who have had underserved hits, skin bends, and even sore joints on NDL dives. A good, slow safety stop is a very good way to reduce the odds that happens to you.

 

[BlueTrin]

if anyone, in the future, looks for the Perdix setting it’s below, I think I use the Count Up setting myself

 

[stepfen]

Another thing I find quite interesting is the difference between a 20ft/6m safety stop and a 10ft/3m one in GF99. Quite often for my dives (close to NDL or light deco, with GFHi of 80 followed by slow ascents) at 20ft, my GF99 is usually as low as ~2%. At 10ft, GF99 can climb to 20%+ !

When conditions allow, I now do my safety stops close to 10ft instead of 20ft.

 

[Fastmarc]

That was one of the things discussed in this article. Found it quite informative.


Shearwater Dive Computer Settings: Become A GF Power User!

 

[boulderjohn]

Frankly, if you want to get out of the water three minutes faster then why did you bother spending the other 57 minutes (or whatever) in the water at all? This is the sort of lazy corner cutting that gets people in trouble.

Seriously? I mean, seriously?

A year and a half ago, I did a week of diving at a resort in Roatan, and on the DM-led dives, the average depths ridiculously shallow, and 57 minutes was a short bottom time. We usually ended the dives looking at a patch of coral/algae shortly beneath the boat before for mind-numbing eternities before getting the signal to ascend to the safety stop. I usually got there with a SurfGF of less than 50. One dive was so shallow that I carefully monitored my SurfGF throughout, and it never got higher than 19. We did a safety stop after that dive, and I did not buck the system and create a scene by heading straight to the surface.

So if I had skipped the safety stop on that dive, it would have been the sort of lazy corner cutting that gets people in trouble, huh? Well, I'm glad that we have righteous people making sure that the lazy pieces of sh!t like me aren't getting people into trouble. It was a fear of the possible disapproval of the similarly righteous people on that boat that led me to do the full safety stop even though every fiber of my being wanted to be on the surface 10 minutes earlier. I had seen all I really wanted to see of that patch of green algae.

Can you imagine how horrible it would be if all the lazy divers in the world became educated enough to understand what the numbers on their computers mean and then started to think for themselves?

 

[scubadada]

Hi @boulderjohn

So it really matters where you are and the relationship you have with the operator. My wife and I have done several trips to Bonaire and do some boat dives with Dive Friends. I jump at the beginning of the line and descend to the reef. Most of the other divers collect at the end of the tag line a descend with the DM. I get in 5-10 min before anyone comes down, golden. I generally stay with the group, but feel free to take excursions. At the end of the dive I eek out my time in the shallows and generally board right after the last diver. Dive times are limited to 60 min, I routinely get 70-75 min.

These dives are not very challenging but they are quite good, my surfacing GFs are generally below 40%

 

[davehicks]

Seriously? I mean, seriously?

A year and a half ago, I did a week of diving at a resort in Roatan, and on the DM-led dives, the average depths ridiculously shallow, and 57 minutes was a short bottom time. We usually ended the dives looking at a patch of coral/algae shortly beneath the boat before for mind-numbing eternities before getting the signal to ascend to the safety stop. I usually got there with a SurfGF of less than 50. One dive was so shallow that I carefully monitored my SurfGF throughout, and it never got higher than 19. We did a safety stop after that dive, and I did not buck the system and create a scene by heading straight to the surface.

So if I had skipped the safety stop on that dive, it would have been the sort of lazy corner cutting that gets people in trouble, huh? Well, I'm glad that we have righteous people making sure that the lazy pieces of sh!t like me aren't getting people into trouble. It was a fear of the possible disapproval of the similarly righteous people on that boat that led me to do the full safety stop even though every fiber of my being wanted to be on the surface 10 minutes earlier. I had seen all I really wanted to see of that patch of green algae.

Can you imagine how horrible it would be if all the lazy divers in the world became educated enough to understand what the numbers on their computers mean and then started to think for themselves?

No need to go red in the face @boulderjohn. As I said, you do your thing.

My point of emphasis is that a lot of new divers read these posts, and I don't think it serves them to go on about how safety stops are boring and should be skipped if you are not feeling like it. That does not serve the community well.

There may be cases where you did an entire dive at 25 feet, so basically you have a 1-hour stop going on. No need to be didactic on this issue if it is not warranted to do a stop. Now my last dive was Friday last week where I did a one-hour dive on CCR to a max depth of about 55 feet and an average of maybe 40 feet. At the end of the dive, as my OC buddy and I headed back to shore, I looked at my SurGF when we hit 20 feet. It was 25. I did the safety stop with my buddy as we flapped around in some pretty silty current in the eel grass. I didn't die of boredom or anything!