Safety Stops

[slackercruster]

Some of my recreational dives are adding 3 min safety stops. We are not diving that deep, 50 to 70 feet.

Will safety stops become the norm soon on recreational dives ? Is it overkill, really needed or just liability insurance?

Thanks

 

[OldNSalty]

Not needed if you come up slowly but I always do it. If for no other reason then to hang out and stay down as long as possible. It is a good place to just relax after the dive or practice.

Thalassanamia (sp) has a good explanation as to why the safety stops were originally put into the OW course and I think the summarized-uneducated version is 'to slow you down'

 

[gfyrasng]

Safety stops have been around for quite a while now, not really anything new. In my OW in '99 we were taught to do safety stops even at the depths you're talking about.

 

[a22shady]

I think in some cases may not be nessecary but is good practice to do them. I always do my 15' 3min safety stop regardless of depth weather it's to 30 or 60'. No harm in doing it. adding the safety margin in is never a bad thing

 

[Walter]

Will safety stops become the norm soon on recreational dives ?

No, they will not become the norm soon on recreational dives. They've been the norm on recreational dives for over 20 years.

Is it overkill, really needed or just liability insurance?

It all depends on your definition of "need." Most dives within NDL limits with slow ascents can be conducted without safety stops without getting decompression sickness. A small percentage of folks will get bent. Adding safety stops decreases the number of people getting bent. I recommend them.

 

[Sunset_House]

We definitely recommend them... You never know what you will see on a safety stop. As in the group that had a baby whale shark swim not only once, but twice by them during that three minutes!

 

[vladimir]

We definitely recommend them... You never know what you will see on a safety stop. As in the group that had a baby whale shark swim not only once, but twice by them during that three minutes!

And there's no reason you can't make it a 5-minute safety stop and hope for a third pass.

I have seen a lot of cool stuff on safety stops, including a whaleshark, a sailfish, and a black marlin (!), and mantas, dolphins, and lots of sharks on multiple occasions. It makes me wonder how much cool stuff I'm missing while I have my head in the reef.

 

[diver 85]

cheap(quick) insurance

 

[likestodive]

Consider the fact that a dive to 70 feet at the maximum time limit will actually cause you to absorb MORE nitrogen than a dive to 100 feet for the maximum time limit (ie. you will be more saturated with nitrogen according to the tables). Depth over about 40 ft (because it is unlikely you can stay down long enough to get saturated above 40 ft) has little to do with the need for safety stop IMO. Absorbtion of nitrogen does. If you are close to the limits then it seems foolish to me not to do a safety stop. If you are not, then they are just added insurance. I've seen divemasters 'demand' 3 minute safety stops from 30 foot dives. To me, the whole dive seemed like a safety stop.

 

[Mike Boswell]

Another good reason to do safety stops is to practice things that you might not want to do during the actual dive. My wife and I often use the time to work on buoyancy and trim, air sharing, back kicks, or shooting our SMBs.