Hello From Tulsa! 3rd dive = Decompression Camber

[Matt the Aquaman]

Hi There Matt,
Welcome to Scuba Board –One of the most informative and dedicated boards on the net. You can meet a lot of helpful people here and it’s an awesome place to get answers to your questions regarding scuba diving. If you ever want to chat feel free to PM me. Take care and safe diving

-Matt- almtree::sunny

Click here to greet a new member! :happywave
No experience needed and it feels great!​

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
Seriously, whats the difference of me going 100ft on my first dive and someone that has 10 dives? Aren't they at the same risk of DCS as me? I know exactly what I was doing. I didn't do anything different from the couple that had 75 dives.

Seriously, the difference between somebody with 10 dives and somebody with 75 dives is that the diver with 75 dives knows whether or not he will be able to control his buoyancy if something goes wrong. A ballistic ascent from 100ft is almost guaranteed to cause a hit. Any number of small things can cause an inexperienced diver to forget about buoyancy.
From what you said you were wall diving. It's just as easy to lose control downwards as upwards. Then you're in the range where narcosis comes into play and you don't yet have the conditioned reflexes of an experienced diver.

Plus you may have some unknown medical condition that you can't even imagine.
That's why it's always good to tell the DM or your buddy if you are doing something outside your previous experience.

Most divers go deeper gradually from dive to dive as they gather experience.

Of course a healthy diver can do a deep dive early on and get away with it, provided nothing unexpected happens. But he's depending on luck and not experience.

 

[TekDiveGirl]

Edit due to rereading thread :

You made a lot of mistakes *if* this isn't a troll.

Did you have a depth gauge and timing device?

Did you plan these dives at all beforehand on the tables - depth and time to be sure you weren't violating any deco limits?

I know the answer to at least one of these questions.

Go back for remedial and further training. Tell your instructor about this. S/he will be horrified. Somewhere you missed the boat in your training.

You violated a lot of basic rules right out the gate. You are lucky you didn't get hurt worse than you did. I am glad you are ok.

Kimber

 

[murphdivers286]

Welcome to the board Matt. I hope this criticism doesn't scare you away. We tell it like it is here. Don't post anything you don't want picked apart. I'm just glad you are okay.

PLEASE listen to the others when they tell you it is important to use experience not luck. It may seem there is no difference between you (10 dives) and some one with 75 dives. It is not just the number of dives, but there training and experience. Just because someone has 100 dives in 20 feet of water with no other training than OW, does not make them ready for a 110' dive.

In AOW you learn about Narcosis and the effects. Then you do a deep dive with an instructor to monitor your reaction while performing certain exercises at depth. In my OW, I was only certified for 60' depth. I don't know if it has changed since then, but I don't think so.

Please don't take this as slamming, because i'm not. I'm only trying to explain things in a way it may help you understand why there are limits in diving, and more advanced training.

Cave diving interests me, but I would not go cave diving until I received the proper training. I love diving, not dieing. Good luck and like I said before, I hope this all does not scare you away. We just want you to to be the best diver you can be. That means staying alive......

 

[Squalus]

Don,
Thanks for the warm welcome.


I got PADI certified the week before we left for the caymans. So you'd think everything was fresh on my mind. But I didn't recall anything saying I should not go to 100ft. What is the difference of me going 100ft and a person with 10 dives under his belt? Ok, my first dive was 110ft sunday at 8:30am. Bottom time was 20 minutes. Second dive was 60ft at about 10:00am. Bottom time was 30 minutes. Then we took the rest of the day off. Monday morning we dive at 8:30am again. 7 of us descend to the ocean floor at 60ft. We slowing follow the ocean floor to about 80ft where the drop off starts. We descend down the wall and swim under an archway of coral at 119ft (guy behind us had a computer to confirm depth). We then slowing ascend just staying with the ocean floor which takes us to about 80ft. We all stay together taking our time then we continue up to 60ft where the anchor rose is tied to the ocean floor. 4 of us hang there for at least 2 minutes then me and Ryan start up the rope. We saw the others being loading into the boat so I hung around 20ft untill they and my partner (Ryan) got in the boat. So I went up slower than 4 other people. They were fine and I get the DC. Doesn't make much since to me. That whole dive took around 20 minutes and we were under 100ft for only a few minutes (less than 5).

The difference there is the experience, sounds like a Competitive-Perfectionist talking.

How long was your surface interval between the two dives, and did you hydrate between dives? By the way you know you had a mandatory Deco on your first dive 110 fsw for 20min(that is what you posted). Suprissed that you did not have symptoms that day. Maximum is 15 minutes at that depth, then an 1 1/2 hour surface interval would not allow you enough time to do another dive that same day at 60fsw. Could be the reason you ended up getting bent the day following.

Hmmm relying on somebody else's computer is not good(very big NO-NO), was he at the same depth as you all the time, was he using Nitrox or regular air? (need to go back and read that you need your own, cannot rely on another's computer/profile=FUBAR). What is puzzling to me is how you can guage your rate of ascent, you cannot rely on watching other's ascent and compare it to your own or, did you watch your bubbles and say to yourself, "if I go slower than my bubbles I will be ok". Are you nuts or just plain suicidal? Go and spend the money and get a dive computer take a nitrox class, maybe next time you might not get bent, along with that I would have a long talk to your instructor seeing he knows you enough to tell you what you might need refreshed on.

 

[Squalus]

Forgot my manners, Welcome to the board!

 

[Dive-aholic]

Go and spend the money and get a dive computer...

I disagree. It sounds like Matt wasn't paying much attention to his depth gauge or bottom timer. Getting a computer is only going to make him rely on the computer to alarm and let him know when something is wrong.

Matt, pay attention to your gauges and your profile. I'm not saying the inattention is what got you bent, but it could. Don't rely on what other people's computers or gauges say. I know in OW everyone probably logged the information provided by the instructor (I've always had a problem with this), but you need to look at your own gauges. When I dive with my wife, I'm almost always 3-5' deeper than her. (I wish she'd stay next to me because I can't see her up there, but I can't get her to change...). 5 feet isn't a whole lot at 30-50', but it can make a difference at 100' if you're pushing the NDLs. I have to rely on my own profile, not hers.

...take a nitrox class, maybe next time you might not get bent, along with that I would have a long talk to your instructor seeing he knows you enough to tell you what you might need refreshed on.

I agree. Nitrox will help lessen your N2 uptake. I also agree with the talk with the instructor. However, I'd probably talk to another instructor as well. I don't know the whole story, but I do know that after my OW I knew enough to gradually increase my depth.

Mike, an OW cert says you are trained to dive to 60'. In actuality, you were only trained to dive to 20' (all of your OW dives were at 20'). It's good you were on a guided dive first out of OW, but the depth was a bit much. If you complete advanced training, then you can dive to 100' (again, experience needs to be accounted for, if your training dive was to 65', then that's all you should really do for awhile). Once you complete your deep diver specialty, then you can go to 130' (again, experience, 105 on training dive means 105 for a while). Take it slow and gain some experience before you go deep again, especially since you've already taken a hit!

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
Mike, an OW cert says you are trained to dive to 60'. In actuality, you were only trained to dive to 20' (all of your OW dives were at 20'). It's good you were on a guided dive first out of OW, but the depth was a bit much. If you complete advanced training, then you can dive to 100' (again, experience needs to be accounted for, if your training dive was to 65', then that's all you should really do for awhile). Once you complete your deep diver specialty, then you can go to 130' (again, experience, 105 on training dive means 105 for a while). Take it slow and gain some experience before you go deep again, especially since you've already taken a hit!

I hope you mean Matt.
The 2 Mikes posting here are the good guys trying to help...

 

[Dive-aholic]

I hope you mean Matt.
The 2 Mikes posting here are the good guys trying to help...

oops! I did...as you can see at the beginning of that post.

2 Mikes v 1 Matt, the Mikes won...

 

[Ain'tDeadYet]

i disagree about the nitrox: if a person can't take the time to dive conscientiously and safely, nitrox will only increase their level of risk because, although the threat of DCS is lower, the threat of O2 toxicity is huge at depths like 119ft. also, having a nitrox tank might encourage some divers to behave even more irresponsibly because they feel falsely protected from the very real consequences of dangerous diving.
i'm looking at both the EANx and RDP tables. Matt's first dive (110 feet for 20 minutes) is way outside the no-deco limit on both charts. so there's no way to figure what his repetitive dive profile would be. a dive computer would credit some for time spent at shallower depths, but if you don't have a computer you have to dive tables. (it's really, really not okay to dive somebody else's computer.)
what's confusing to me is why a diver would wish to dive so far out of their level of control. sky-divers don't jump to see who can hit the ground fastest...
ADY