Captain CaveMan
Contributor
Pratice skills. never thought about that. form now on when im doing quarry dives thats going to be my new thing. thanks
Safety Stop
- Thread starter BigBill
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lmorin
Contributor
In Bonaire recently and nearly all our dives were multilevel, beginning at about 50-75 fsw and ending an hour later at 15-20 fsw. The last 5-10 min were in the relatively shallow water. That constituted not only fun time on the bottom, but the "safety" stop as well. As others have said, "safety" does not equate to "mandatory." It merely reduces your likelihood of a problem. On the other hand, we did one drift dive that ended in 45 ft of water and there we did an honest to goodness 15 fsw safety stop. Again, for safety's sake; not because it was mandatory.
That's funny...lmorin:
"Safety Stops - A safety stop for 3 mins. at 15 ft. is required (emphasis mine) any time the diver comes within 3 pressure groups of a no-decompression limit and for any dive to a depth of 100 ft. or greater"
-PADI RDP, lefthand column, second paragraph on the back.
By the RDP rules your hour long drift dive had a mandatory safety stop.
Some of the posters in this thread would benefit greaty from reviewing decompression theory and table use from their OW class.
The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
Places like Bonaire are phenomenal. Having LOTS of pretty fishes to look at makes a safety stop seem like "just a part" of the dive. They don't have to be painful!
MB, Walter and I were on a fairly full boat a couple of years ago. As we were on our safety stop we noticed a plethora of divers trying to get out of the soup. Rather than ascend after our obligatory 3 minutes was up, we just stayed until the group got out. We had a 15 minute safety stop while they made it onto the boat. In the mean time, we missed being buffeted by the waves or being kicked in the face. Quite relaxing actually!
MB, Walter and I were on a fairly full boat a couple of years ago. As we were on our safety stop we noticed a plethora of divers trying to get out of the soup. Rather than ascend after our obligatory 3 minutes was up, we just stayed until the group got out. We had a 15 minute safety stop while they made it onto the boat. In the mean time, we missed being buffeted by the waves or being kicked in the face. Quite relaxing actually!
OneBrightGator:
Or alternatively padi should reword the conflicting comments in their tables. If its a mandatory stop its NOT a safety stop.
Saying you MUST stop is the same as calling it a decompression stop. Thats not a safety stop even by their own definition elsewhere where they state they can be skipped.
H2Andy
Contributor
ah the games agencies play
m3830431
Contributor
A safety stop is to stop your ascend. While some will argue this should be done stationary by cruising around the 15 foot depth contour for three minutes you have accomplished a safety stop. Even though depending on you bottom time one could argue it would even be necessary. 
I'm with String on this one. A safety stop is, by definition, optional, regardless of the verbiage on the RDP.
The way I interpret the "mandatory safey stop" is - you are very close to your NDL and you are *required* to add a little bit of extra buffer/safety margin. It's much better to use your head in figuring this stuff out, rather than relying on linguists. IMO, anyway.
For the given dive profile (30-35 feet?), unless you do something plain ole dumb like power-inflate to the surface, you dont really need a safety stop. Especially if you've already been pootling around at an even-shallower depth for 10-15min.
Vandit
The way I interpret the "mandatory safey stop" is - you are very close to your NDL and you are *required* to add a little bit of extra buffer/safety margin. It's much better to use your head in figuring this stuff out, rather than relying on linguists. IMO, anyway.
For the given dive profile (30-35 feet?), unless you do something plain ole dumb like power-inflate to the surface, you dont really need a safety stop. Especially if you've already been pootling around at an even-shallower depth for 10-15min.
Vandit
But VKALIA . . . you are now relying on an individual to decide whether he SHOULD or SHOULD NOT make a "SAFETY STOP" ? ?
If he has been diving at ANY depth that has him loading his body up with nitrogen then there should be no QUESTION as to the individual doing a 3 minute SAFTEY STOP. . . and in order to keep things SIMPLE and NON-QUESTIONING to a diver . . we (as dive PROS) have tried to teach the concept that a SAFETY STOP is due at the end of ALL DIVES . . no questions asked !!
Whether it is one dive . . or multi dives for that diver . . it is always SAFER to do the SAFETY STOP and DEGASS ! !
If he has been diving at ANY depth that has him loading his body up with nitrogen then there should be no QUESTION as to the individual doing a 3 minute SAFTEY STOP. . . and in order to keep things SIMPLE and NON-QUESTIONING to a diver . . we (as dive PROS) have tried to teach the concept that a SAFETY STOP is due at the end of ALL DIVES . . no questions asked !!
Whether it is one dive . . or multi dives for that diver . . it is always SAFER to do the SAFETY STOP and DEGASS ! !
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