Living above sea level and diving

[ystrout]

Hi,

I live in California and I'm considering buying a home that sits at about 1,250 feet elevation.

In spring through fall, I dive a lot. Most of my weekends involve at least 1 day of diving. If conditions are good, I'll do 3 to 5 dives a weekend. I also do Catalina Island day trips where I go to the island for just the day, do 3 dives in a row which get me pretty close to my NDL, then go home.

Would there be any issue with diving and living at this "elevation". I know most agencies say going to 1,000 feet is about the max you want to go to, a lot of people say 2,000 feet. But maybe that's just for a quick pass before you drop back down? So really you shouldn't live higher than 200 feet? I don't know. Any advice you can give would be great.

EDIT: I'm also nitrox certified. I really only use it on my first dive when I go to Catalina or on dive trips since most of my local dive days don't take me anywhere close to NDL. But I could start using it more if I had to.

Thanks.

 

[Neilwood]

@boulderjohn would probably be the person I would ask about it as he wrote an article about it - link

 

[boulderjohn]

Most authorities say you can ascend 2,000 feet without concerns. Even if you wanted to be super safe, by the time you got out of the water, got your gear stowed, etc., you would be plenty clear. The US Navy ascent to altitude tables should be convincing.

In addition to the blog listed above, I have a more complete article that should help.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Hello,
We live at 2450 feet. We also don't get anywhere close to NDL with our diving. Our diving is mostly boat dives, or "shore" dives at Catalina. Our depths are not much more than 60-70 feet although we are deep certified. Max 3 dives. Nitrox on boat dives if available. Very well rested and hydrated. We are about 1 1/2 hour away from the docks. Our way to mitigate the small risk is continuing to dive within our NDL, and taking our time getting home. Its an hour boat ride back to the dock, then 1 hour drive (without traffic...as if that happens in So Cal) to where we start to ascend from 679' to home. Often we will stop for dinner somewhere before ascending at that 629' mark making it about 2-3 hours before we go up. That last 30 min up the hill does cross my mind every single time. So far so good. If we dove harder/deeper the dinner stop would be mandatory and perhaps a little people watching on the docks.

 

[ystrout]

@boulderjohn & @Dizzi Lizzi

You both make good points. I'm also in socal and if I'm doing multiple dives per weekend, it's in La Jolla Cove which is very shallow and I don't get anywhere near my NDL.

The ONLY time I get close to my NDLs locally is when I'm diving Catalina Dive Park 3x in a row. We start diving around 10:30 and finish diving by around 4PM and take the boat back around 6. Get to the mainland at 7 and get home around 8:30 to 9 because we stop for dinner. 5 hours is a good amount of safety margin before going to such a slight altitude.

Thanks for posting that article John. I'm about to read it.

 

[yle]

In spring through fall, I dive a lot. Most of my weekends involve at least 1 day of diving. If conditions are good, I'll do 3 to 5 dives a weekend. I also do Catalina Island day trips where I go to the island for just the day, do 3 dives in a row which get me pretty close to my NDL, then go home.

Would there be any issue with diving and living at this "elevation". I know most agencies say going to 1,000 feet is about the max you want to go to, a lot of people say 2,000 feet. But maybe that's just for a quick pass before you drop back down? So really you shouldn't live higher than 200 feet? I don't know. Any advice you can give would be great.

If you're talking about living at a location where the elevation is 1200 feet, and driving to the ocean to dive... no, not a problem at all. I do it all the time (I live about an hour's drive from the beach in So Cal, at an elevation of 1500 feet.)

If you're talking about diving at that elevation... also not a problem. You took the nitrox class so you could use nitrox; if you're going to do altitude diving, take the altitude diving class. If you dive at altitude you just need to know how to adjust your NDL calculations. For minor elevation, like 1200 feet, the adjustment is very minor.

 

[ystrout]

If you're talking about living at a location where the elevation is 1200 feet, and driving to the ocean to dive... no, not a problem at all. I do it all the time (I live about an hour's drive from the beach in So Cal, at an elevation of 1500 feet.)

If you're talking about diving at that elevation... also not a problem. You took the nitrox class so you could use nitrox; if you're going to do altitude diving, take the altitude diving class. If you dive at altitude you just need to know how to adjust your NDL calculations. For minor elevation, like 1200 feet, the adjustment is very minor.

Yes, I'm talking about living at 1,250 feet elevation. Driving to the ocean to dive, then drive back to 1,250 feet elevation to our house.