What would you do?

Without adding to the lively discussion in a couple of other recent threads about recreational divers going into deco, I am now potentially faced with a good dilema on the subject. I'm a relatively competent and experienced recreational diver with absolutely no plans of getting into technical diving. A friend invited us along with a number of her other buddies to go to Tufi Resort in PNG; if we take care of the airfare, this friend will pick up accommodations for everyone who joins her (and before anyone asks, I'm positive the offer does not extent to online friends of friends from Scubaboard!)

I started looking at the Tufi web site to find out about diving there, and there are some interesting wrecks; see Wreckdiving for the descriptions. These dives are clearly geared toward recreational divers, but are described as having only 10 minutes of bottom time and "a decompression dive with max depth 45m. Deco stops are compulsory and surface interval of 4 hours is mandatory before the second dive." There's even a muck dive off the wharf that includes a Land Rover on the bottom also described as a deco dive

What would you do in my situation and why? Just do the shallow muck diving and local reefs? Blindly follow their prescribed profile? Take a deco procedures class before going? These are 100 minute dives with stringent preplanned safety stops along the way, so I presume the resort has done this before, with plenty of tanks staged for those who can't make an Al80 last the whole dive, therefore assume there is some additional air besides the single on my back. Unfortunately they don't appear to have nitrox there. It sounds like there is a chamber in PNG

:blessing: and DAN.....

or, plan a dive, and dive a plan.....& to hell with the "charter" or "DM" plan - here is another "trust me" dive...

Get the training. That the resort has done this before with plenty of staged tanks is meaningless as far as you are concerned if you don't personally know how to plan the dives yourself. They don't know your personal limits that you have determined through training and experience for yourself. And if they are letting someone do these kind of dives on an al80 with tanks staged along the way I'd run the hell away from them. An al80 is not a suitable tank for a 45 m dive. Period. And if you can't make a tank last that long then your dive is not 100 minutes. Unless it's at 30 feet. Your dive lasts until you reach the turn pressure on your tank. You don't go extending bottom times with staged tanks that you have not been trained to use. Using stages tanks even for relatively shallow dives can throw you into deco. Deco that you do not know how to plan and how to do. You don't let someone else plan your decompression dives. Frankly you don't let someone else plan any of your dives at all.

Get the training before you go. Plan your dive based off gas availability(your gas, not prestaged tanks from the Operator, and take her up on the offer. Don't ever blindly run a deco profile without knowing the logistics involved, and definitely don't dive deco on a single AL 80.
Hope that helps.

This sounds like old school air only deco, no O2, no gas changes, you just need enough air. Having done it many times in the past I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

AfterDark:

This sounds like old school air only deco, no O2, no gas changes, you just need enough air. Having done it many times in the past I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

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135 is not optimal for Nitrox anyway. If you want a PO2 no higher than 1.4 you would need 27%. At 1.3 you are down to only 25% vs air at 21%. No big improvement.

Personally I would do mostly the shallower stuff. The deep dive sounds like a major trust me dive probably while narced. Not one I would do with an instabuddy or a guide hustling me along faster (or slower) than I want to go. Now if they let me rent a pony and hire a private DM so that I had a hopefully reliable buddy I would add in a deeper dive or two.

But then I am not a fan of being seriously narced when rationality is a survival asset and like more bottom time. So I tend to not dive deeper than about 105 most of the time.

If that 135 is sort of a resort rule and in fact the deep dives can be done around 100-105 then that changes things for me a bit but I would still want the pony and the DM.

---------added after seeing above-------

I should comment I can do 100 ft, safety stops, and be back on the boat using an AL80. Done it several times. The pony is reserve and not to get me to the boat on a normal dive.

There is no mention on availability of nitrox(for deco) so I will do a "bounce dive" on those deep wrecks. Another tank would be very handy.


To the OP:
If I were you I will just concentrate on the shallow dives.
Dont' force yourself to do something that you are NOT certain because you won't come here and asked the question.
Fligth to PNG is expensive so enjoy the trip.

IMO, if you have to ask the question, you probably know the answer. The prevailing wisdom is there for reasons paid for by other's mistakes...don't do a dive you aren't trained and comfortable to do.

rhwestfall:

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The title of the thread is what would you do? Who's you? Me that's who so that's what I would do. Had he asked what should I do? He would have got a different answer.