Accidental DECO and mild panic in a non tech certified diver.

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I hope that you and your sister will spend some time with one another on the surface, learning/relearning deco theory and her computer.

We went through the entire DECO section in the computer manual and how to deal with the various scenarios when we got back on the boat. I made sure to explain to her that it's even possible that once a DECO obligation is cleared there might be another one and to continue to follow the arrows until the computer clears.
 
I wish more people would take Tec 40, Extended Range, AN/PP etc. I also wish the agencies would change they way they're marketed moving the basic Deco course away from the mysterious (to most) "Tec" and back to the mainstream.

I wish like BSAC basic backgas deco procedures were taught as part of the recreational curriculum, probably replacing the "Deep" speciality.
CMAS *** does. It's supposed to teach enough deco theory and in-water skills to qualify the student for light backgas deco.

After reading the Most useful specialty courses thread, I have a feeling that my *** course more or less covered the following PADI specialties in addition to certifying me as a divemaster:
  • Nav
  • S&R
  • PPB
  • Deep
  • Rescue (except the accident site leadership training)
 
I've had one similar experience, a diving panicking because of the DECO suddenly apprearing on his computer. Several hundred dives. To be honest, I was baffled.

If they teach you that having 3 minutes of deco on 3 meters is very dangerous, and needs special education, they create situations like this in my humble opinion. We teach staged decompression as one of the available tools very early on. We don't say it is a good idea, we don't say it is dangerous.

Panic is dangerous.

Edit: My federation is indeed CMAS. You get Nitrox at first level and indeed all of the above at level 3.
 
Some agencies to teach that diving Nitrox, using Air tables as an acceptable method as long as your respect the MOD. So it’s not really “wrong”.. I just don’t personally like this method. I want actual real DATA available to me. If I feel the need to add conservatism to my dive plan, then extending a safety stop is easy to do. In an emergency, I want to know my real MOD and safe TTS. And not have to try to play tricks, sort of like setting your alarm clock 15m early so you have time to hit snooze a couple times. ...no thanks!

And re babysitting a dive buddy.. again, no thanks. I can think of several reasons why this is a flawed concept.

Bottom line here, is the sister was not educated on how to handle a contingency situation and wasn’t paying enough attention to her own dive plan. Panic is real, somewhat unpredictable and deadly. Even my first PADI ow training back in 1990, my instructor carefully told us that we could not discuss “the D word” in a PADI class. But, outside of the class, made sure we were all educated on how to handle an unplanned, emergency deco situation.
 
only gives you 25 minutes at 100 ft, and 39 minutes at 80 ft. The PADI RDP which is inline with a lot of rec computers gives 20 and 30 minutes respectively. So 35 minutes should've been a clue.

Here's the dive profile. We ascended at about 24 minutes. I caught up to her on the line at 15' and we briefly ascended to 10' after I was able to convince her to ascend although the profile doesn't indicate we were at 10' - but that could be a sampling rate error as I said it was a very brief 10' stop.
 

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To the best of my knowledge- there has never, ever been a single documented case of a recreational single tank diver breathing <40% EAN getting an 02 hit at any depth. Not one.

I don't believe there are any diving agencies that sanction using 1.6PO2 during the bottom (work) phase of a dive. 1.6 is only allowed during decompression ( zero work).

I've been lucky and never seen anyone fit in the water. One of the teams I dived with came very close to loosing a diver who fitted in the water. Luckily they where on the deco' bar, so there was plenty of help to hand. I have always been very wary of high PO2's ever since.
I've been on one trip when someone was late switching from travel to back gas. He was proper poorly on the boat when we finally surfaced. His buddy brought him straight up. We knew there was something wrong during deco', because there where extra stage cylinders clipped off to the trapeze, where the buddy started dumping kit on the way back up. I don't believe the diver fitted on that occasion, but his exposure was brief.

Talking to one of the chamber operators when I did a chamber experience they said the variability of individuals to high PO2's was quite surprising and alarming at times. One of the reasons we where all on full face mask when we breathing high PO2 was because he can pull it off quickly if we did react badly.
 
CMAS *** does. It's supposed to teach enough deco theory and in-water skills to qualify the student for light backgas deco.
I knew CMAS did but wasn't sure at what level so didn't mention it

Back to the thread.

The reality is that the vast majority of divers only retain the skills and knowledge that is applicable to the type of diving they do.

I often come across people with 500+ dives that have get bamboozled by a simple gear issue (say leak at first stage) because they always valet dive and have forgotten what they were taught years ago, because it's simply "not important to them" Or people who I know have been taught how to assemble their kit and been able to do it well, simply forget and look confused at which way their 1st fits to the cylinder or put their bcd on backwards or upside down.

Don't laugh it happens with alarming regularity

Even if you're taught basic deco, someone who doesn't see their comp go into deco until a few years later will probably "have a flap"

I personally would like to see divers taught more about gas planning etc before they go to 30m/100'. Have them be able to make a rudimentary stop near a line in OW while carrying out a mask flood and clear, and be able to shoot a dsmb from 10m or more and be able to work out ther SAC etc etc.

I can teach it and make sure they can make the required standard, but I can't make them practice the skills nor retain all the info so that even 6 months later they could pass the same tests.

Search for threads on check dives and see how much pushback there is from people believing it's beneath them and a waste of their vacation dives etc etc

Rock hard place or horse to water and all that
 
Here's the dive profile. We ascended at about 24 minutes. I caught up to her on the line at 15' and we briefly ascended to 10' after I was able to convince her to ascend although the profile doesn't indicate we were at 10' - but that could be a sampling rate error as I said it was a very brief 10' stop.

Your computer is pretty conservative, as it appears that even with EAN35 it went into deco at about 15 minutes bottom time at about 100ft. A Teric will give you about 30 minutes at that depth range at the medium conservatism (45/85). But considering your air consumption, you probably wouldn't have been able to use much more bottom time.
 
Your computer is pretty conservative, as it appears that even with EAN35 it went into deco at about 15 minutes bottom time at about 100ft.

What??? Please elaborate and explain where my computer went into DECO. I'm asking this because I was never even close to my limits unless I'm missing something that shows in the dive profile that you're referring to.

But considering your air consumption, you probably wouldn't have been able to use much more bottom time.

Right, I was down to only a few minutes but that was AFTER going back into the hold of the Rebel.
 
I spoke to my sister this morning and of course the "Day the dive went into Deco" came up as I'm sure it will, knowing my sister.. for the better part of the rest of our natural lives.

Anyway

1- She said "I still don't get how those little dots went from yellow- all the way to DECO almost immediately! Now I'll ask those of you reading this thread and learning for the first time to think of the answer, of course the experienced divers already know the answer (which is at the bottom of this post).

2- I also asked her another quiz question. "Why are you more likely than the average diver to have a greater chance of going into DECO?". Her immediate answer was "Because of my low air consumption!". Now realize I told her this many times, many ways when I urged her to take the Nitrox course last year. But it was in one ear and out the other- she did it just so I'd stop bugging her about it. It's amazing how a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

The answer to the above quiz question (as far as I know) is that the Nitrogen Loading bar graph is not linear. It's based on real time data which is sampled at somewhere between 15 seconds and 1 minute depending on your dive computer settings. Had she stayed at a shallower depth it would not have "jumped right into DECO". But when she dropped down, everything changed- quickly.
 
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