Who's using 100% O2 for deco?

[Cave Diver]

I will use whatever my team wants to use without giving it a second thought.

I find this comment a bit out of character. It sounds like you're advocating letting someone else make the decision on the dive plan and you're just going to follow along?

 

[Tortuga68]

I would have guessed that as 80% is getting you out of the water faster with VPM, VPM is saying that 80% is the more optimal deco strategy for that dive (taking into account bubble tension and all the other inputs that I don't understand)?

Shortest deco time isn't a good method for determining the optimal deco strategy

 

[Jax]

Shortest deco time isn't a good method for determining the optimal deco strategy

I agree with that from a common sense perspective as I haven't the experience . . .

Do you then consider the optimal deco strategy as that which best fits yourself? Assuming learned from experience?


In my itsy bitsy experience, I am prone to sub-clinical DCS symptoms. Therefore, I am quick to go on richer gas, to begin off-gassing earlier, but do not try to take the shortest deco time.

 

[boulderjohn]

I find this comment a bit out of character. It sounds like you're advocating letting someone else make the decision on the dive plan and you're just going to follow along?

Let me explain further.

I have planned dives and followed the plan using O2 for final deco. It works just fine. In fact, I prefer it.

I have planned dives and followed the plan using 80% for final deco. I did it because that is what my TDI instructor wanted to do, and I figured he was the boss. I noticed that the fill shop we used (Fill Express) banked it, so it must have been a commonly used mix. During one of my visits there while waiting for fills, the guy working there told me that was what most people used there. During my dives leading to Advanced Trimix certification, the vast majority (perhaps all, --I wasn't exactly taking inventory) of the other divers on the boat used 80%. It seemed to work fine for everyone.

If I were to get together with a group of divers today and plan a deco dive, I would advocate for 100% O2, but if everyone else wanted to go with 80%, I would not "beat my chest" (to use the phrase from the TDI textbook) and demand 100%. I would instead go along with the team so that we would all be on the same mix, and I would not worry about it because I believe it works just fine.

 

[Jax]

:shocked2: Banked 80%?!?!?! :Swooon:

 

[w ripley]

Is it possible the medic got it wrong? That the "same hit, same place" was NOT an automatic "not DCS", but a "high suspicion of DCS"?

Could be. I approached him after his presentation with my question and he may have been overly generalizing. I will send the question to DAN today and see if I get a response. I'll let you know if I do, and what they say.

 

[Cave Diver]

If I were to get together with a group of divers today and plan a deco dive, I would advocate for 100% O2, but if everyone else wanted to go with 80%, I would not "beat my chest" (to use the phrase from the TDI textbook) and demand 100%. I would instead go along with the team so that we would all be on the same mix, and I would not worry about it because I believe it works just fine.

Thanks. That makes more sense than how I was originally reading your statement.

 

[ucfdiver]

Shortest deco time isn't a good method for determining the optimal deco strategy

It's typically what I use.

I agree with that from a common sense perspective as I haven't the experience . . .

Do you then consider the optimal deco strategy as that which best fits yourself? Assuming learned from experience?


In my itsy bitsy experience, I am prone to sub-clinical DCS symptoms. Therefore, I am quick to go on richer gas, to begin off-gassing earlier, but do not try to take the shortest deco time.

FWIW females tend to get skin bends more often from my observations.

 

[Jax]

It's typically what I use.


FWIW females tend to get skin bends more often from my observations.

Do tell? Do they also complain of the sub-clinical DCS symptoms like heavy fatigue?

 

[Rainer]

Do they also complain [...]

Women complain? Never!