Shallow dive DCS question

[YoDadio]

Long story short, is there any real chance of getting bentfrom “diving” in a 12 foot deep pool for maybe 20 minutes at an elevation of1,000 feet (assuming “average” physical condition and no material altitudechanges in the last 24 hours)?

 

[HowardE]

No...

Not even a fake chance.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

Sure you can embolize from 12 feet. That is DCI and not DCS. DCI is gas getting pushed from your lungs into your circulation, where DCS is gas dissolved in your tissues coming out of solution in the form of bubbles. For a short shallow dive less than a few hundred milliliters of gas will come out of solution which is not enough to worry about. But DCI is getting bent, and is more common for recreational dives. Of course it is caused by breath holding during ascent.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Ditto Mr. C and Howard... decompression sickness is not possible on that dive, but arterial gas embolism due to air trapping on ascent definitely is. You didn't list any specific symptoms, but I'm guessing that if you're able to use your fingers and think well enough type a coherent sentence, you don't have the neurological symptoms that would be associated with AGE. Feel free to elaborate on your problem here if you have any more questions.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[YoDadio]

This weekend I took my daughters to our local dive shop for their free discover scuba program to give them a little taste. The DM was gracious enough to allow me in the water with the girls.
Looking back it was probably poor form for me to watch my kids underwater (3’ shallow end, near my kids) throughout much of this time they were doing their reg recovery, mask clearing, etc. Once the preliminaries were completed we all went into the deep end (12’ by my dive computer) to “play” briefly before being herded out for the next group. As I was drying off I was scolded by the DM for my rapid ascent.
Unless I am mistaken, even after adjusting for altitude my deepest dive profile was pretty much at the depth of a NDL stop, that combined with a very limited bottom time it never occurred to me that short of some sort of dolphin like back flipping breach onto the pool deck I could be in any sort of danger.
Granted one can never be too safe and that the DM thought he was doing me a favor. Perhaps he did, I am sure this incident will stick with me on my next (real) dive. It’s just the punk teenager inside of me that is saying WTF?
Now you know… the rest of the story!
Thanks all for your quick responses.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Ah, so you basically had an asymptomatic rapid ascent from 12 feet. No chance of getting bent, but maybe not such a good thing for young people to watch a certified diver exceed the recommended ascent rate, depth notwithstanding.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[TSandM]

The DM has probably seen a great many divers do what you did in open water -- do their safety stop, and then exceed recommended ascent rate to the surface afterward. It's pretty common! He may feel that building good habits begins in the pool, something with which I would tend to agree.