Safety stop immediately after surfacing

Hi,

I'm beginner diver. Let's say I didn't do safety stop, but instead surfaced. Does it make sense to go down (immediately after surfacing) to 5 meters to do the safety stop? I'm asking, because for my diving computer (Suunto Gecko) I read in manual that if you surface without making safety stop and then immediately go down to 5 meters, the computer will start counting the safety stop - this suggests, that it makes sense to go down and do the safety stop. Does anyone know the answer?

Best regards,
Jarek

yahro:

Hi,

I'm beginner diver. Let's say I didn't do safety stop, but instead surfaced. Does it make sense to go down (immediately after surfacing) to 5 meters to do the safety stop? I'm asking, because for my diving computer (Suunto Gecko) I read in manual that if you surface without making safety stop and then immediately go down to 5 meters, the computer will start counting the safety stop - this suggests, that it makes sense to go down and do the safety stop. Does anyone know the answer?

Best regards,
Jarek

Click to expand...

I don't know about the Gecko but I wouldn't go back down and do the safety stop once I had surfaced. It's not a requirement anyway and there was a thread on here a while back that indicated it may actually be more harmful to go back down once you have surfaced.

I cant see any sense in doing so, as long as you remain within the no decompression limits a safety stop is not required, its a great precaution and theres no harm doing one (before surfacing) but its not required.

Should you exceed your no decompression limits and surface this becomes another animal altogether.

I would just remember to do the safety stop on every dive, and not doing one only for some compelling reason.

Personally I rarely make safety stops unless I'm close to NDL or I've worked unusually hard while diving. Back in the olden days at least around here safety stops were unheard of.
We dived for 20 years without safety stops and nobody I knew ever got bent. We did add a few min. at the 10 foot mark when we did do deco dives, but that was all. Unless I was on a charter and my computer is going to screw me out of the next dive I wouldn't bother.

So? .. we used to do a lot of stuff .. that we do not do now.
It's alright if that's what you want to do .. posting about it in basic scuba might not be

You may be confusing a recommended safety stop with the mandatory safety stop found on page 19 of the Gekko manual.

The Recommended Safety Stop, as the name implies, is recommended. If it is
ignored, there is no penalty applied to the following surface intervals and dives.

Mandatory Safety Stop is when your ascent rate exceeds 12 meters/min [40 ft] momentarily or 10 meters/min [33ft] continuously. The gas model responds to this by adding a Mandatory Safety Stop to the dive. The time of this Mandatory Safety Stop will depend on the severity of the ascent rate excess.

Is this where your reading about going back down?
Gekko Manual page 20
You should immediately descend to, or below, the Mandatory Safety Stop ceiling depth. If you correct this situation at any time during that dive, there are no affects on the decompression calculations for future dives.

If so just know the following

If you continue to violate the Mandatory Safety Stop, the tissue calculation model is affected and the dive computer shortens the available no-decompression time for your next dive. In this situation, it is recommended to prolong your surface interval time before your next dive.

To directly answer your question I wouldn't go back down.

D_B:

So? .. we used to do a lot of stuff .. that we do not do now.
It's alright if that's what you want to do .. posting about it in basic scuba might not be

Click to expand...

Might be what? The point is NDL is just that no decompression. I didn't say don't do it, do what makes you fell comfortable. The OP asked whether going back to do a safety stop is necessary? No it isn't and as some posters pointed out may actually not be a good idea at all. I'm just trying to reassure the OPthat if a safety stop is missed and the NDL isn't violated then survivability is possible. IMO safety stops when diving well within the NDL is like safety switches on lawnmowers.

The computer is responding as if you are continuing your dive. This prevents calculating multiple dives with no surface interval; for example when you surface to find your buddy or want to make a navigation check. As I remember my Oceanic has to be surfaced for 5 min before it will start calculations for a second dive.

As AfterDark mentions the safty stop is a new thing. If I get back to a boat and have more air than I expected I will hang at the stop and practice buoyancy.

Bob

As already mentioned, the safety stop is a recommended practice, not mandatory, and there aren't any Scuba Police that are going to show up and cite you for missing it.

From the sounds of it, though, it may be more important to ask whether you're exceeding the safe ascent rate from a dive. Your Gekko has an indicator which will show you whether you're heading for the surface too quickly, and under normal dive circumstances, you should be staying within this ascent pace. As new divers, it's important for us to get into the habit of ascending at a safe pace, because the deeper we go with more experience, the more important a safe ascent rate becomes. It's a lot easier to develop good habits from the start, than it is to break a bad habit and replace it with a good one later.

One thing you might consider is to plan your dives in such a way that you make your safety stop a bit more interesting and productive by reaching the 5 meter depth, and holding that depth while continuing to swim towards your exit point. This is what we've done on most of our shore dives, and it's certainly a lot more enjoyable to spend 3 minutes cruising alongside the rocks or reefs at 5 meters, than just floating there, doing nothing. The "stop" part of "safety stop" refers to the ascent rate, not to all motion completely, and there's no harm in putting that time to good use.