Drive Grapevine after dive

[sandiego_frank]

We are planning a dive trip to Channel Islands. Boat is based in Ventura. Will do 4 dives on Saturday with the last dive ending somewhere around 3:30 or so. Planning on driving home on Sunday.
I know the no-fly time would be 24 hours, but what about driving home via the Grapevine? I believe the altitude would be around 4000-5000 feet. Should we also not plan on hitting the Grapevine before 3:30 Sunday afternoon?
Thanks

 

[Incident]

I will let a medical expert comment on the elevation question, but out of curiosity, if you are based in San Diego, and diving a boat in Ventura, why on earth would you end up on the Grapevine?

You could make the drive from San Diego to Ventura and probably never exceed an elevation of 100-120'.

I may be missing something here, but the Grapevine would put you pretty far out of the way.

 

[sandiego_frank]

One or our dive group lives in Livermore, CA. Easiest drive is to go via I-5

 

[drbill]

Personally I wouldn't do it. We had an instructor here on Catalina do a series of very conservative dives, then drive up over the central ridge (1,600 ft) to her boyfriend's house and end up in the chamber bent. His mileage may vary, but why risk it?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I wouldn't take the risk and simply take the 101 North since you are already nearby.

 

[beanojones]

Personally I wouldn't do it. We had an instructor here on Catalina do a series of very conservative dives, then drive up over the central ridge (1,600 ft) to her boyfriend's house and end up in the chamber bent. His mileage may vary, but why risk it?

Are you saying you would not do that after a 24 hour wait?

(Unless I misread, that's what the OP is planning.)

People fly all the time after 24 hours waits and they are going to 8000 feet.

 

[eponym]

First, ask a mod to move this thread to the "Ask Dr. Decompression" forum. Second, exposure to altitude after diving generally involves WAGs. See for example Altitude Exposure After Diving which is the work of one of diving science's pioneers, Edmond Kay, who admits that these are estimates and not hard guidelines.

 

[beanojones]

Ask Dr. Decompression

for those who can't find the link.

 

[eelnoraa]

No medical back ground here, but I can share my brief experience. I have done Catalina island live aboard twice. The last day of the trip's literary is similar to what you mentioned: 3-4 dives from morning, back in harbor in mid afternoon. We drove back to Bay Area afterward. Most of the people in the group were from Bay Area as well, I don't know of a case where driving over Grapevine caused any issues. Having that said, we didn't push NDL/MDL on any of the dives.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

The reason for the time interval between diving and flying is that most airliners pressure their cabin to the equivalent of about 5000 feet above sea level. SO you contemplated drive is very much like an airline flight so far as safety intervals are concerned. According to DAY, 18 hours of time after last dive and before air travel is recommended for multiple dives and multiple dive days. So time your drive to hit an altitude of 1000 feet or more no earlier than 9:30 a.m. the day after your last dive. The later you go from that time, the larger your margin of safety.
DivemasterDennis