Altitude Diving

[Bob DBF]

So I heard something today at LDS that I don't think is true. So I was talking about the 2000 foot diving elevation and was told that it's also a good idea to not drive down rapidly to lower elevation after dive? Is that true?

Well you could get in a car wreck.



Bob

 

[ScubaRob0311]

I have never heard that as a practical recommendation but you could draw a comparison the making another dive as you descend, although you would have to descend pretty far and pretty fast for it to be a factor.

Yes it would have to be pretty extreme lol, atmosphere weighs far less then water. She made that statement after me saying it was 1800ish feet and was the highest elevation on driving route. Plus I would assume she knows our elevation here is roughly 500 feet.

 

[wnissen]

I went to Google maps and put in my two points for directions and switched to bicycling and it showed me elevations.

This is a great tip but it's also good to check that the bike route follows the car route. There are lots of passes that a bike could get through where the road will have to go considerably higher.

 

[broncobowsher]

So I heard something today at LDS that I don't think is true. So I was talking about the 2000 foot diving elevation and was told that it's also a good idea to not drive down rapidly to lower elevation after dive? Is that true? I thought the whole thing with altitude diving is that when you surface you have less atmosphere above you so gas would expand more then at sea level increasing risk. But if you drive right after to a lower elevation that should help reduce gas expansion correct and reduce risk?

I am going to say you are correct and the LDS is wrong. They may have been thinking of driving UP after a dive (less pressure), but there should be nothing wrong with driving down. A 2,000 foot descent is the same as going back for a 2' dive.

 

[Esprise Me]

Well you could get in a car wreck.



Bob

I would strongly recommend not driving off a cliff after diving. That would mean a too-rapid descent, which itself is generally not a problem as long as your ears can handle it, but in this particular scenario your BCD wouldn't help much with the sudden stop at the bottom.

All kidding aside, it's the ascents that cause problems. More descents followed by more ascents cause bigger problems; if you dive at altitude, then drive down into a valley, then back up over a mountain pass, repeat several times, you might conceivably hurt yourself even if you're only going up and down a thousand or so feet each time. But it's the ascents that'll get you. If you just drive straight down and stay there, you should be fine.