Surface interval and snorkeling

Rank66 · May 20, 2009

Scenario,
You dive down to 50' for 40min putting you in a pressure group of M then take a 2 hour surface interval making your pressure group B

Question,
Does snorkeling for an hour during your 2 hour surface interval, have any affect on your pressure group?

Interceptor121 · May 20, 2009

If you snorkel relaxed at the surface and do not skin dive, it does not

ivobj · May 20, 2009

Exercise is not recommended, but if you stay in the surface relaxed, not much swimming, should do no harm in recreational dive.

ligersandtions · May 20, 2009

As long as you're not free diving (or doing strenuous work), it will not be an issue. If you are going to be diving down (even to 10-15 feet), it will be a big pressure change and may bring about some issues.

blue steal · May 20, 2009

Good question. I never even thought about that. Same scenario, 50 ft x 46 minute, then snorkeling during SI when when of the divers lost her mask. I went down maybe 20-25 ft to retrieve. Probably not a good idea.

Teamcasa · May 20, 2009

Interceptor121:
If you snorkel relaxed at the surface and do not skin dive, it does not

ivobj:
Exercise is not recommended, but if you stay in the surface relaxed, not much swimming, should do no harm in recreational dive.

ligersandtions:
As long as you're not free diving (or doing strenuous work), it will not be an issue. If you are going to be diving down (even to 10-15 feet), it will be a big pressure change and may bring about some issues.

Ditto. Just kicking it on the surface should not present any issue.

SkipperJohn · May 20, 2009

as long as you don't breathe compressed gas it should have no affect on your nitrogen

boulderjohn · May 20, 2009

Some of the responses you have received are based (without saying so explicitly) on the theory that exercise in the time surrounding a dive creates bubble seeds that can be a part of the DCS process. It does not affect your pressure group because none of that was factored into the calculations.

In the precise scenario you describe, there is not likely to be any problem. Lots of people do it without incident.

dumpsterDiver · May 20, 2009

SkipperJohn:
as long as you don't breathe compressed gas it should have no affect on your nitrogen

absolutely NOT true :shakehead:

LeadTurn_SD · May 20, 2009

SkipperJohn:
as long as you don't breathe compressed gas it should have no affect on your nitrogen

The problem is that while "off-gassing" there are two possible issues with snorkeling.

1.) The possibility of pushing any "bubbles" from the venous to the arterial side exists during a breath hold dive. Divers have gotten bent going down to quickly retrieve an object during their surface interval (but I believe this occured after a heavy exposure, i.e. a quick bounce during the surface interval following a deco dive).

2.) Heavy exercise after diving is thought to increase the chance of DCS.

So, easy snorkeling on the surface is no biggie, but diving down is a possible risk.

Best wishes.

Surface interval and snorkeling

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Rank66

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Interceptor121

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ivobj

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ligersandtions

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blue steal

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Teamcasa

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SkipperJohn

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boulderjohn

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dumpsterDiver

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LeadTurn_SD

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