1st unplanned deco dive

[James Sparks]

Hi all, I've been lurking around Scubaboard for about 6 months reading posts and learning a great deal. After reading Aloha Joe's post on My Dive Mistakes, it got me motivated to make my 1st post. My teenage daughter and I just got back from 8 days diving in Kona. Toward the end of our 2nd dive on our 1st day out, my daughter showed me her computer and gave me the "what's going on" shoulder shrug. She had surpassed her NDL and her computer was telling her to Ascend to 10ft for 7 min. I gave her the follow me sign and we headed in closer to shore in the 10-15ft range to finish off the dive. After the 7 min stop, her computer switched to a 3 min safety stop and all was good. Once we were back on board we discussed what had happened and she told me she kind of figured something like that had happened. As this was the 1st time either of us had surpassed our NDL we also realized that we really did not have a signal for either approaching NDL or oops, went passed my NDL. She came up with a signal we could use and practiced the "approaching NDL" signal during our next days of diving going though an exercise of ascending about 10ft at a time and reviewing our new NDL times.

For us new divers that now have a few dives tallied up and are getting better on air consumption while also feeling comfortable diving deeper, NDL times are going to come into play more often. As others mentioned in Aloha Joe's post, take some time to really learn your computer. My teenager is figuring out now that it's more than just a pressure gauge and thermometer

 

[tbone1004]

@James Sparks if you are going to use a signal for it, please use the "standard" deco sign which is a closed fist with pinky up.
Conversation to ask how much someone has until ndl
"question"
"deco"

response if within NDL
"deco" -acknowledgement of the question
"zero" -I have no mandatory deco
"time" -time until I hit deco
"x-number" -amount of time

response if in deco
"deco"
"x-number"

 

[Lorenzoid]

Good job, and good learning experience, though ideally your daughter should have been familiar with her computer and known more than "something like that" had happened.

An extended pinkie finger is a common sign for "deco." Rec divers sometimes use it to signal "oops, unplanned deco."

 

[ScubaJCBS]

@James Sparks if you are going to use a signal for it, please use the "standard" deco sign which is a closed fist with pinky up.
Conversation to ask how much someone has until ndl
"question"
"deco"

response if within NDL
"deco" -acknowledgement of the question
"zero" -I have no mandatory deco
"time" -time until I hit deco
"x-number" -amount of time

response if in deco
"deco"
"x-number"

T-bone help me better understand this please. I got the closed fist with pinky up for deco and all the way to the x part so x like across your chest then time or what? Thank you

 

[lowviz]

@tbone1004, you referenced one of the most important and underused signals. "Question"

My son and I found that prefacing a question with "Question" immediately makes what comes next as NOT a command. Maybe explain that one too.

 

[JohnnyC]

T-bone help me better understand this please. I got the closed fist with pinky up for deco and all the way to the x part so x like across your chest then time or what? Thank you

"X" as in "insert number here."

Let's say you had 5 min of mandatory deco, you'd show 5 fingers.

When it comes to actual deco diving, there are more signs that indicate ascents, levels, etc. You can describe an entire deco profile if you wanted to.

 

[tbone1004]

T-bone help me better understand this please. I got the closed fist with pinky up for deco and all the way to the x part so x like across your chest then time or what? Thank you

what Johnny said. Just an "insert number here", could be 1, 17, 62, eleventy-five. When we use that question in this context, we are usually just asking for TTS, or total deco time. Once we get to a stop, then the complicated questions come in in terms of depth, time at that depth etc.

 

[ScubaJCBS]

ok I was just trying to figure out if I get the ndL sign or give it and then get a time is that time until deco or time in deco lol sorry if that's a stupid question

 

[scubadada]

Hi @James Sparks

Why was your daughter in deco and you were not. Did she spend a considerable time below you or does she have a computer with a more conservative deco algorithm?

Good diving, Craig

 

[James Sparks]

Thanks for the info tbone on the standard deco sign. I should have figured there would be a standard sign and just asked the DM on board. We will be sure to practice the sign between us before the next dive. Scubadada, my daughter was running a slightly more conservative algorithm than me. We were also diving along a pretty steep angled wall and she was diving beneath me for most of the dive. I'm a pretty analytical guy and have read the computer manual a number of times along with practicing in sim mode quite a bit. My teenager dive buddy, not so much. However after this dive she was more inclined to practice a little more.