Altitude after dives

[jimmy71]

I have found plenty of info on how to adjust profiles for altitude (i just let my computer compensate, i'm lazy)
What i have not been able to figure out of trying to reduce my risk on the drive home after my dives. I am pretty land locked at the moment. My dives are well below 1000ft but my drive home takes me to 2500. I am doing to deep dives and moving into tech with deco. How can I limit my risks and be safe on the drive home? I have just not found any true info on the subject. The local dive shops have not been very helpful and just say "other people have done it and had no problems." Just not a good enough answer for me.
Thanks

 

[fire_diver]

2500 is nothing to worry about as long as you aren't doing any saturation level diving.

Just keep it below 7000. Even 7K isn't that bad if it's a long drive up to that altitude.

 

[jimmy71]

not to be picky but my girlfriend gets pretty freaked out. Where do those numbers come from?

 

[fire_diver]

If someone else doesn't cite the sources, I can look it up when I get home tomorrow.

 

[romad119]

How long from ending a dive until you reach 2500?

 

[jimmy71]

less than 1 hour. Obviously that time can change but I really want something somewhat scientific. Not just a "you'll be ok"

 

[eponym]

What i have not been able to figure out of trying to reduce my risk on the drive home after my dives. I am pretty land locked at the moment. My dives are well below 1000ft but my drive home takes me to 2500. How can I limit my risks and be safe on the drive home?

Excellent question. Comes up for us because some of our "local" dive spots include diving a 3000-foot lake and then driving over a 4500-foot summit.

Scuba-doc.com has created a short discussion of this subject here and there's a summary of "off-the-cuff" recommendations here.

In brief:

[TABLE 0 0 3]
Altitude gain after diving |Delay, single low-stress dive |Delay, multiple or deco dives
1000 feet|none|none (low stress)
||6 hrs. (mod stress)
2000 feet|none|2 hrs. (low stress)
||8 hrs. (mod stress)
4000 feet|8 hrs.|12 hrs.
6000 feet|12 hrs.|24 hrs.[/TABLE]

I wrote an approved altitude diving course for SSI which addresses the altitude after diving question. PM me if you'd like more particulars.

-Bryan

 

[jimmy71]

hmmmm, reading on that website. Damn, going to have to dig out my tables and work to understand exactly what they are saying. That is exactly what i am looking for.

 

[eponym]

hmmmm, reading on that website. Damn, going to have to dig out my tables and work to understand exactly what they are saying. That is exactly what i am looking for.

Think of driving to a higher altitude after diving as equilvalent to making a repetetive dive. You have to have a surface interval, get your residual nitrogen down. Worst case is flying, 18 to 24 hours depending on the training agency.

There are dive computers (some in the Uwatec line, I believe) that sense atmospheric pressure and will actually warn you if you drive to a dangerously high altitude after diving.

-Bryan

 

[Hatul]

How about if you account for altitude by programming your computer as though you're diving at the maximum altitude during your drive.

In your case you would program your computer as though you're diving at 2500 feet. That should be a conservative way of doing it.

Adam