what is a decompression dive?
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miketsp
Contributor
Really scary, not diving for long, puts solo diver under his name and thinks decompression dives only take place if you go beyond rec depths!
IMHO he should go and ask for a refund for his OW course payment and redo it with a qualified instructor.
IMHO he should go and ask for a refund for his OW course payment and redo it with a qualified instructor.
Charlie99
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Your statement repeats a common and very important, although subtle, misconception.Diver Dennis:
The Suunto computer, like other computers, is displaying a CEILING DEPTH, above which you should not ascend. This is different from "ask you to ascend TO a certain depth".
One can still do a gradual ascent and deep stops even when the computer shows that you have a 10' CEILING depth.
It seems that many divers that reject computers do so because they do not understand them.
Charlie Allen
stunaep:
Bad move...There are good instructors and bad instructors but there ARE GOOD instructors and I would suggest you find a GOOD instructor. How do you go about training yourself when you do not have the training yourself. There is a great book called Diver Down: Real-World SCUBA Accidents and How to Avoid Them. Go to www.seaduction.com. Hopefully this book will awaken you a bit. Alot of the accident scenarios are caused by lack of training. If what you say is true then I can go out right now and hop on a rebrether and go diving. What will likely happen is I will die because I have absolutely no training on a rebreather. To keep from dying get trained by a good instructor. Don't try to train yourself.
nolatom
Contributor
Carlos--you have plenty of good advice above. Bear in mind that your computer's devised to keep you out of this kind of difficulty to begin with.
But let's say you went deeper than 130. Now you're in narcosis territory, so you have to concentrate on thinking straight. If you do, you'll recognize that your computer constantly tells you how many more minutes you can remain at whatever depth you're at without triggering a mandatory decompression stop (this is all in your computer's instruction manual, which you should have read twice, and again every year).
Pay attention to that number, ascend before it gets to zero, and you'll stay out of mandatory "deco".
If for whatever reason you didn't succeed at the above and you now have a deco obligation on the computer, it'll probably be something reasonable at first, like "stay below 10 feet for 3 minutes". This is basically an enforced safety stop, which shouldn't be a problem as long as you recognize what you have to do and have enough air to do it. But if you stay down much longer, or don't ascend early enough, your computer will then add the next level of required deco stop, probably 20 feet for at least 6 minutes, followed by 10 feet for 3 minutes. If you got narced down deep and didn't pay enough attention to your pressure gauge, and are wearing only that basic 80 cu ft. rental tank on your back, odds are you will now lack enough air to make 9 minutes of deco stops without running out. Now you have to find an alternate air source--either another diver with lots of air, or that regulator that some boats hang at 20'. And you need good visibility, calmness, a clear head, and favorable or no current, and frankly some above-average luck, to find either one in time. If you're quite lucky and this all works out without further glitch, you can keep breathing and clear your deco obligations. But if anything else goes wrong at all, you're either an air-gone casualty underwater, or bent after you rush to the surface.
I've never done any of this, and have never put my computer into deco. But I always have this "uh-oh" scenario in the back of my mind in order to keep me from getting into it in the first place, and (I hope) to help me understand what I'd have to do if it ever did happen.
It's good you at least asked the question. No doubt you will benefit from the responses.
But let's say you went deeper than 130. Now you're in narcosis territory, so you have to concentrate on thinking straight. If you do, you'll recognize that your computer constantly tells you how many more minutes you can remain at whatever depth you're at without triggering a mandatory decompression stop (this is all in your computer's instruction manual, which you should have read twice, and again every year).
Pay attention to that number, ascend before it gets to zero, and you'll stay out of mandatory "deco".
If for whatever reason you didn't succeed at the above and you now have a deco obligation on the computer, it'll probably be something reasonable at first, like "stay below 10 feet for 3 minutes". This is basically an enforced safety stop, which shouldn't be a problem as long as you recognize what you have to do and have enough air to do it. But if you stay down much longer, or don't ascend early enough, your computer will then add the next level of required deco stop, probably 20 feet for at least 6 minutes, followed by 10 feet for 3 minutes. If you got narced down deep and didn't pay enough attention to your pressure gauge, and are wearing only that basic 80 cu ft. rental tank on your back, odds are you will now lack enough air to make 9 minutes of deco stops without running out. Now you have to find an alternate air source--either another diver with lots of air, or that regulator that some boats hang at 20'. And you need good visibility, calmness, a clear head, and favorable or no current, and frankly some above-average luck, to find either one in time. If you're quite lucky and this all works out without further glitch, you can keep breathing and clear your deco obligations. But if anything else goes wrong at all, you're either an air-gone casualty underwater, or bent after you rush to the surface.
I've never done any of this, and have never put my computer into deco. But I always have this "uh-oh" scenario in the back of my mind in order to keep me from getting into it in the first place, and (I hope) to help me understand what I'd have to do if it ever did happen.
It's good you at least asked the question. No doubt you will benefit from the responses.
F Unit:
Cut with the Darwin stuff my friend.
Jason Ooi:
Jason...My Vyper locked me out once for 36 hours. It is set very conservatively. The two people I dived with didn't go into deco. One was my instructor and the other was a photographer...named Emily...Emily...Boy oh boy
...We all stayed at the same depth and together because I was doing a training dive and Emily was photographing. For some reason I exceeded my ceiling and it locked me right out. The word ceiling doesn't only mean an overhead environment. In deco it means I have gone to a shallower depth than where I was supposed to make a decompression stop. But yes...the computer will lock you out.
The monsters will get you! :11:stunaep:
Seriously, doing deep dives without the training and equipment to do deep dives isn't tec diving, or deco diving - it's dumb diving.
If you want to venture deeper go and talk to a dive school about an appropriate course.
rawls:Jason...My Vyper locked me out once for 36 hours. It is set very conservatively. The two people I dived with didn't go into deco. One was my instructor and the other was a photographer...named Emily...Emily...Boy oh boy
I don't use a computer but even back when I did, I wouldn't use one that would lock me out. All a computer needs to do is provide information. If a diver needs some one else to make their decisions they should bring their mother.
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