Doing 'Light Deco' as a recreational diver

[Meng_Tze]

I'm curious how many people are comfortable 'riding their computer up', i.e. is this a fairly common practice?

The answer is yes, it is extremely common on the majority of operations. Heck, you don't get to dive nowadays in many places if you do not have a computer with you.

And people are happy to ride the computer. There have been many threads here about computers, tables etc, etc. Yes the computer can give you more accurate ('real time') display of gas loading/deco. But like MikeF said...... what do you do with issues, (gas/runtime) planning, if the computer is not there.

On recreational dives, diving with recreational buddies, I am quite happy to follow a computer when I get lazy. Most often though I run a 'light deco' - to stay with the definition thereof in this thread - profile and get my buddies to that as well.

On the more challenging tech dives, I ride my runtime table, backed up with 2-3 alternatives (depth/time).

 

[ianr33]

My buddy and I had planned our dive profiles rather carefully before the trip and we decided on 20 min at 100 for dive one, a 2 hour SI and 20 min at 80 for dive 2 (all on air).

Bjorn

Why not just use nitrox? You would be way inside the NDL's with the above profiles.

 

[ianr33]

What is "light deco?" Either it's deco or it's not.

Have to disagree with that. One computers deco is another computers 5 minutes NDL remaining.

Deco is not a sharply defined black line but a rather wide gray area

 

[onfloat]

Like, I said.....every dive is a deco dive.

 

[H2Andy]

Like, I said.....every dive is a deco dive.

let's say that 10 times

hey, i'm all for Darwin

(mercifully, most dives in a single tank will not result in serious DCS, even if you get to ride the chamber ... but it could ruin your diving for ever)

 

[roakey]

Reading this thread I think I've come up with what's meant by "light deco":

Light deco == Real deco without any gas planning.

Roak

 

[String]

I fail to see any difference what so ever between people computer riding to within 1 min of NDL on a computer or going the other way and running up 2-3 minutes of stops.

Yet no end of people think the first is safe, the second is lethal.

 

[dsteding]

Reading this thread I think I've come up with what's meant by "light deco":

Light deco == Real deco without any gas planning.

Roak

I can't help but use an old Saturday Night Live "Bad Idea Jeans" analogy here:

"I was going to use a condom, but then I thought 'when am I going to be in Haiti again?'":11:

Both are good ways to hurt yourself.

[I'm gonna get in trouble for this post . . . ]

 

[redacted]

With over 600 dives, I have never incurred a mandatory deco obligation. It is not so much a matter of comfort as a matter of equipment, planning and management. I do dive a fairly liberal computer (oceanic) so I don't find myself in the position I have seen other divers in a group in. That is, the group is still working on NDL bottom time while a diver with a conservative computer has picked up a deco obligation but stays with the group.

 

[do it easy]

I avoid light deco by leaving my computer at the surface if there is any chance that I will run past the NDL limits; I just use a bottom timer. I don't like to ride my computer, since I don't like the deco profiles that it gives- there are no deep stops and all the "deco time" is spent shallow.

Like others have said- the deco is the easy part, but the hard part is the gas planning and management.