Exceeding maximum dive time?

[Cave Bum]

I'll agree with most of what's written above.

First, the internet isn't a good place to learn something "you're betting your live on". Ask your instructor.

Second: Plan your dive, dive your plan. In many, many years of recreational diving before I switched to technical diving (cave & deep) I never ran over my time nor ran my tank out of gas. It should never happen to you if you pay attention. If you don't pay attention, you shouldn't be diving, at least not that day.

Now having said that, there are a couple of things I'd like to throw out here. One is that all the tables, with the exception of the PADI tables, are based on the US Navy tables but with a safety factor or degree of conservatism incorporated into them. Second is that all decompression theory is just that, theory! They assign a mathematical model that seems to fit empirical data but they don't know what the physical interaction really is. I know divers who popped to the surface omitting over an hour of deco after a 250 foot dive and didn't suffer any ill effects and I know other divers, who stayed well within their tables or computers, but were dehydrated, and ended up in the chamber.

Be safe, stay within the limits of your tables.

 

[bamamedic]

...I know divers who popped to the surface omitting over an hour of deco after a 250 foot dive and didn't suffer any ill effects and I know other divers, who stayed well within their tables or computers, but were dehydrated, and ended up in the chamber.

Be safe, stay within the limits of your tables.

Wow.....250 foot dive, over an hour of missed deco, and no ill effects? Damn...that's one lucky dude! I could only wish to be so lucky if that ever happens to me...

 

[rstofer]

Correct me if I'm wrong Bob but doesn't NAUI recommend that if a recreational diver running tables slips into a deco dive that they should not do any additional dives for 24 hours? I seem to remember being taught that way and that is how I have been teaching students.

I'm not Bob but...

There is no such admonition on the dive tables themselves. There may be something in the training material but, if there is, it's long gone from my memory.

For these extended dives, you just wind up in a higher pressure group and work through the usual process.

There is a warning not to do repetitive dives over 100' if, after the SIT, you are still in pressure groups J, K or L. This from the 1989 version. The 1987 version didn't have the warning, it just didn't provide ANDLs for various pressure groups and planned depths. Also, it is fun (but useless) to note that they were NDLs in the '87 version and MDTs in the '89 version.

Richard

 

[mkutyna]

Perhaps my brain is confusing a mandatory deco stop that you didn't perform with actually performing one.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Perhaps my brain is confusing a mandatory deco stop that you didn't perform with actually performing one.

That is correct (sorry I missed this yesterday) ... what you're thinking of is "omitted decompression", which is where you skipped a mandatory deco stop altogether.

If you go into deco and honor your obligation, then you can do any dive allowable by the tables. In practice, this will mean your "residual nitrogen time" will be pretty high and you'll be sitting out a pretty long time before you get back in the water. But there's no 24-hour injunction.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Dannybot]

Just started my certification course and am wondering about the following:

1. Using Naui dive tables, what happens if you stay longer than the maximum dive time you are supposed to stay without a deco stop? As an example, what if you go down 60-ft and go beyond the maximum dive time of 55 minutes to, say 65 minutes? Is this dangerous or does it mean you just need a longer deco stop?

2. What about on your second dive if you go beyond the adjusted maximum dive time (AMDT)?

The SCUBA police come and haul you off in the PADI wagon!

Seriously, ask your instructor, thats why you learn the tables, also good luck getting that depth and time as a new diver on an 80AL tank.

 

[Extreme-Dive-Justin]

Hello,
First of all, this will be covered (I hope) when you have a class on dive tables.
This is a great question, but as someone answered earlier, it should not be learned on the internet.
Yes, of course there are safeguards you will learn in the event that something like this occurs.
Whether it is PADI, NAUI, PDIC, IANTD, TDI etc, all of these U.S. tables are based on similar if not the same algorithms from multiple sources including the U.S. Navy tables.
The main diff between NAUI and PADI tables is PADI has more letter groups associated with nitrogen loading.

A good instructor is a good instructor, it is not about the agency.

Good luck on the class, you are going to love it!

Thanks,
rebreathe