I have not taken a DCS hit and the only one known to me was a case of "skin bends" (rash) at the site of a six month old injury that happened to one of the dive instructors wives. BTW, apparently she hadn't done anything wrong except being on a live-aboard and push the computer somewhat.
Most of the deep divers that I dive with plan dives with way more gas than they need, so we have air to do proper ascents and long safety stops even if a bad situation happens underneath the water. We also dive computers such that we spend as long as possible in the 15- 30 ft. range (sometimes twenty to thirty minutes) prior to our safety stop at 15-20 ft. rather than make straight ascents with only one safety stop to the surface. Also, most of the divers that I dive with dive Nitrox which gives a little better safety margins *if used with training and little common sense*.
Despite these precautions, I am aware that it could happen to me or anyone else at any given time. Decompression is theory and many experts in it will tell you that DCS is a statistical probabilty. One even wears a button that says "Stuff happens" (I paraphrased that as this a family board!).
Most of the deep divers that I dive with plan dives with way more gas than they need, so we have air to do proper ascents and long safety stops even if a bad situation happens underneath the water. We also dive computers such that we spend as long as possible in the 15- 30 ft. range (sometimes twenty to thirty minutes) prior to our safety stop at 15-20 ft. rather than make straight ascents with only one safety stop to the surface. Also, most of the divers that I dive with dive Nitrox which gives a little better safety margins *if used with training and little common sense*.
Despite these precautions, I am aware that it could happen to me or anyone else at any given time. Decompression is theory and many experts in it will tell you that DCS is a statistical probabilty. One even wears a button that says "Stuff happens" (I paraphrased that as this a family board!).
