Driving over mountains after diving?

[krispykritter]

I live in phoenix and travil to San Diego to dive. On the drive home there is mountain that is about 4500 ft. This past weekend i dove 3 deep wreck dives, between 95 and 68 ft. We ended up going a different way home with less elivation change. How long before it is safe to drive over?

[supergaijin]

Diving in Fiordland NZ we faced a similar problem with driving over a mountain pass at 3000ft. This was a few years ago so I can't remember the exact amount of time to wait but it was something like 4 hrs. The operator had contacted DAN for information on how long to wait before going to elevation.

[Scott]

How long after your last dive until you make the climb out of SD? I typically have around four to five hours from my last dive until we start the ascent to Las Vegas and have never had issues.
You could always plan your dives as though you are at altitude.

[DivemasterDennis]

Airplanes are pressurized to about 5000 feet above sea level, so driving to that altitude it is prudent to follow the safety suggestions for flying after diving. For lower altitudes, a lesser time is ok. Also, number of hours under water is an important factor. Be more cautious after repetitive dives over several days. I think you were right to be cautious. I would call DAN for their input. I am sure they have a chart of suggested intervals.
DivemasterDennis

[krispykritter]

I called DAN and they said 18hrs, he also said he had to say that and that he's heard of peaple doing it in less time with no ill effects but DAN recomends 18hrs. As for time spent on the bottom, each dive was around 30 min. I usualy go for weekend trips (2 days). The first day ill dive deep (60 to 100) then the day that I leave I do a shallow dive in around 20 to 30 ft early in the AM around 7. Then around 5pm we head for home.

[Steve Barsky]

If you plan on doing this frequently you would be well served to get a dive computer that displays time to fly following your last dive...

[Kryssa]

Maybe different computers do it differently, but mine will always count down from the same time for "no fly".... I forget if its 18 or 24 hours? It's an Aeris Atmos AI. So as long as you know when you got out of the water, you could just as easily count down yourself

[eponym]

You might find this short article by Dr. Edmund Kay helpful. His recommendations are independent of particular agencies, tables, and residual/repetitive group notions. When I wrote the Altitude Diving specialty course for SSI, I factored in his recommended SIs. It's very handy around here when traversing high mountain passes after diving. Around here I use a rough guideline of two hours SI per 1000 feet elevation while driving.

Note that Dr. Kay admits that these are rough guidelines only.

Altitude Exposure After Diving

-Bryan

PS. For much more info from Dr. Kay, check out http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/

[DandyDon]

This comes up diving Santa Rosa NM - elevation 4616 ft, then driving over Raton Pass at 7834 feet, or to Albuquerque with a rise to over 6,000 feet - and I've read of some close calls. For "20 to 30 ft early in the AM around 7....around 5pm we head for home" I just don't see a reason for concern. I think you'd have to be ignoring symptoms already manifested to take a hit on that drive to 4500 ft.

Does your computer have an actual count down timer to clear...?

[lamont]

This comes up diving Santa Rosa NM - elevation 4616 ft, then driving over Raton Pass at 7834 feet, or to Albuquerque with a rise to over 6,000 feet - and I've read of some close calls. For "20 to 30 ft early in the AM around 7....around 5pm we head for home" I just don't see a reason for concern. I think you'd have to be ignoring symptoms already manifested to take a hit on that drive to 4500 ft.

Does your computer have an actual count down timer to clear...?

highlighted in bold is the thing that would actually concern me. that could potentially be likely since the second symptom of DCS is usually denial.

if the OP does some aggressive dives to 90 feet on air with minimal or next to none decompression and then is subclinically bent (feels tired and fatigued and a bit like they're running a fever) and then goes travelling over the mountain passes then a subclinical case could turn into a clinical case. if the OP is using nitrox and being conservative on the decompression and doing 1-1-3-3 deco or something a bit more than the 3 @ 15 that is suggested recreationally, and also not bounce diving on the shallow last dive and doing a mandatory safety stop there, then i'm a whole lot less worried... still a shunt can happen to anyone and the symptoms be missed and the altitude make it worse, so its not perfectly safe, but you can also get nailed by a semi on the drive home...