no safety stop after 53' dive

[shellski]

Today was my 6th open water dive. Five divers following DM. MY friend goes thru air much faster than I do so DM took her back to the line so she could ascend. We stayed down a bit longer looking at turtles.

DM was leading thru a narrow passage, I was not comfortable with this, so I attempted to follow 10' above. Thought I was hovering just about them when I realized I had gently surfaced! I am concerned because I didn't do the safety stop at 15'. I was breathing the entire way up.

This was the last dive of the day. I stayed in the water for 5 minutes before climbing onto the boat platform. Should I be concerned about the lack of stopping for 3 minutes at 15'?

It's been 5 hours since & I feel fine.
Thank you for your help!

 

[AfterDark]

Today was my 6th open water dive. Five divers following DM. MY friend goes thru air much faster than I do so DM took her back to the line so she could ascend. We stayed down a bit longer looking at turtles.

DM was leading thru a narrow passage, I was not comfortable with this, so I attempted to follow 10' above. Thought I was hovering just about them when I realized I had gently surfaced! I am concerned because I didn't do the safety stop at 15'. I was breathing the entire way up.

This was the last dive of the day. I stayed in the water for 5 minutes before climbing onto the boat platform. Should I be concerned about the lack of stopping for 3 minutes at 15'?

It's been 5 hours since & I feel fine.
Thank you for your help!

No, I was diving for 30 years before the idea of a SS was used. You'll be fine. The more important thing is your rate of acsent, slow is better.

 

[00wabbit]

Safety stop is recommended but not mandatory.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

A slow ascent and a safety stop are essentially the same thing from 53' so I would not be concerned. Sometimes I suspect the whole concept of a S/S is because people tend to push the 30FPM recommended ascent rate and it adds a nice safety margin, not because of the stop itself.

Congrats on NOT following the leader when you decided you were uncomfortable. The ability to say NO on your own is a milestone in your diving experience.

 

[Wolfie]

So you learned a big lesson of situational awareness as it relates to depth. Give yourself a dope slap, and promise yourself you won't do that again. You can give a dope slap for abandoning your dive buddy to go look at the turtles. I'm assuming buddy was relatively new as well and left to his own for ascent. These are the reasons you start with 53 ft dives before moving on to deeper depths that are not as forgiving. You'll be fine. Keep learning, keep training, keep diving.

 

[Stoo]

It really depends entirely on how long you were down. From the way you described the dive it's unlikely you were any where near the deco limit. Had you been down at that depth for a time approaching the NDL, then the "safety stops" become much more critical. There are countless factors that come into play in a situation like this... your physiology, body type, water temperature, degree of hydration, age and so on... Most critical though is your proximity to the NDL, which, depending on the tables, is perhaps 100 minutes... And that's tough to do on a single tank for most people!

This a great example of why novice divers need to stay shallow-ish...

As an aside, we might see some new research done by a group headed by Dr. Saul Goldman, where, in a nutshell, he is really emphasizing the importance of these safety stops. (I'm following this with interest as Saul is a former dive student of "mine" when I taught at the University of Guelph... although I was only a lowly AI at the time!)

 

[Zen Diving Inc.]

My only concern would be... The fact that you didn't know you were surfacing... Depth perception aside, you didn't notice your ears equalizing on the way up? Lack of buoyancy control? Not paying attention or hyper focused on the DM? Did you signal the group that you were leaving? What was the contingency plan? The DM took your dive buddy back, so who is your dive buddy now? Must not have been the DM who was leading a "group" thru conditions you were not comfortable with. Remember this on your next dive... Plan your dive and dive your plan. Simple mistakes, learn from them and don't leave your wingman next time with out prior planning. This is the time to develop good habits.

 

[DandyDon]

A slow ascent and a safety stop are essentially the same thing from 53'...

Well, we could debate that if it was important there, but nah - a missed SS from 53, with a slow ascent = no big deal. unless he'd done like 3 deeper dives before and his computer was loaded?

I am curious why he stayed in the water for 5 minutes after that? I am familiar with the 1 minute float benefit, but don't think more of that is helpful.

Next time your buddy needs to ascend, you go too - or you are not really buddies. Get her a bigger tank if needed.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

So you learned a big lesson of situational awareness as it relates to depth. Give yourself a dope slap, and promise yourself you won't do that again. You can give a dope slap for abandoning your dive buddy to go look at the turtles. I'm assuming buddy was relatively new as well and left to his own for ascent. These are the reasons you start with 53 ft dives before moving on to deeper depths that are not as forgiving. You'll be fine. Keep learning, keep training, keep diving.

Well, we could debate that if it was important there, but nah - a missed SS from 53, with a slow ascent = no big deal. unless he'd done like 3 deeper dives before and his computer was loaded?

I am curious why he stayed in the water for 5 minutes after that? I am familiar with the 1 minute float benefit, but don't think more of that is helpful.

Next time your buddy needs to ascend, you go too - or you are not really buddies. Get her a bigger tank if needed.

As new divers you are trained to stay with your buddy, but when doing guide led dives you're told that when you get low on air let the guide know and they take you back to the boat/line and you usually surface alone. The do usually keep you insight until you get back on the boat. If you're diving with a known buddy, most will surface with their buddy, but when you're with an assigned buddy on and expensive dive vacation, how many of us can really say we do that.

 

[RJP]

It's also a good thing you weren't hit by a boat or something at the surface. Sure, you might have heard it if there was one nearby, but the fact that you didn't know you were heading to/at the surface is concerning. If you were tring to be 10 ft above the group at 50ft... didn't you notice you were 20ft, then 30ft, then 40ft above them?