Role of Chamber Dives in Recreational Diving

[muddiver]

Your assumption that a chamber run is safer than a dive is correct, therfore to go to depth in a dry environment where you are not chilled by water and where medical assistance is one lock away is a good reason to use a chamber as a training tool. In commercial diving they are used to do decompression because the diver is out of the water in a warmer and controlled environment. Most commercial dive companies (and the military) have more money to fund the use of a chamber though.

Dull and boring - yes if there is no point to the run. Limited availability - yes if it is the only chamber nearby and you pick the busiest time of the week. A chamber can be depressurized at a safe rate fast enough to allow use to do a treatment, so not doing educational runs because of needing to be on standby for emergencies is a load of c**p. The chamber owner is probably more concerned about liability than availability.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Your assumption that a chamber run is safer than a dive is correct, therfore to go to depth in a dry environment where you are not chilled by water and where medical assistance is one lock away is a good reason to use a chamber as a training tool. In commercial diving they are used to do decompression because the diver is out of the water in a warmer and controlled environment. Most commercial dive companies (and the military) have more money to fund the use of a chamber though.

Dull and boring - yes if there is no point to the run. Limited availability - yes if it is the only chamber nearby and you pick the busiest time of the week. A chamber can be depressurized at a safe rate fast enough to allow use to do a treatment, so not doing educational runs because of needing to be on standby for emergencies is a load of c**p. The chamber owner is probably more concerned about liability than availability.

The Chamber I dived was the only private Chamber available in the region at the time. There are several Chambers at the hospitals in the region but non are available to the public as they are the ones who say they will not risk having somone in the pot when an emergency happens. I think it may also be funding issues.

I really was sorry to hear the private chamber got sold and is no longer available for this type of thing.

CDnMoose thanks for a great report.

They had us answering quizzes, doing maths and manipulating things as well. It was interesting to see how close our computers were in depth with the very closely controlled pressure.

We "bent" hubby's computer on my first Chamber dive. He went off and did a wet dive while I got set up for the chamber.. he got there just as I was going in and gave me his computer... Computer started beeping alarms.. drove us all nuts then when we finished the dive it went into SOS mode and refused to do anything for a couple days good thing he didn't want to dive during that time.. Computer reckoned he was dead!