Why 2 gradient factors ?

[scubadada]

My honest thought,

If you are planning deco dives with a single tank, it doesn't matter what GF you put in. The Gradient factor isn't what will wind up killing you.

What is this **** that happens making your no stop dive a deco dive?
Stop doing that. I have done a lot of no stop dives, can't say I have ever had one turn into a deco dive unexpectedly. You are diving too close to the edge if this is something you run into.

A little melodramatic, but I agree, your back gas light deco dives should be planned ahead of time. I plan my gas and have a redundant supply.

 

[tursiops]

every now and then s--- happens and a no-stop dive becomes a deco dive

My honest thought,

If you are planning deco dives with a single tank, it doesn't matter what GF you put in. The Gradient factor isn't what will wind up killing you.

What is this **** that happens making your no stop dive a deco dive?
Stop doing that. I have done a lot of no stop dives, can't say I have ever had one turn into a deco dive unexpectedly. You are diving too close to the edge if this is something you run into.

A little melodramatic, but I agree, your back gas light deco dives should be planned ahead of time. I plan my gas and have a redundant supply.

Avoid getting into this situation; you are not just getting into deco, but getting into the danger of being OOG. That's what will kill you, not the deco. Leave the bottom with at least 5 mins to go on your NDL. Either plan for deco -- with the required gas -- or avoid it.

 

[Brett Hatch]

Thanks everyone for responding, I appreciate your feedback. Just to be crystal clear @Tracy and @tursiops, this has never happened to me, and I've never been on a deco dive (planned or unplanned). Haven't been close to it, either. But that's the thing about ****, sometimes it happens. I have been on a boat with some divers who did accidentally go into unplanned deco, feel free to dump on them mercilessly. I'm not prone to spacing out like that, but who knows, maybe some day I'll be tired or distracted or entangled.

I agree with tursiops' and @rjack321 's point that in this situation, running out of gas is a much more serious and more likely issue than the *possibly* more likely DCS resulting from a poorer choice of ascent profile. That's why I'm thinking this through, and it seems that definitely from a gas conservation perspective, and possibly from a DCS perspective, the higher GFLo wins out. I don't see much pointing in the other direction, other than the awareness of my own ignorance.