Help in understanding an alert on the Suunto Vyper Air

[LanceRiley]

I have a suunto d4i. and the deep stop is activated.

I usually just level off and continue with my dive... it's just a minute or two.. it's not gona kill yah.

 

[bleeb]

The question is how much safer is it? If it has been proven that deepstops are safer than normal diving, why don't they teach it in OW training? I can only relate to SSI's OW training since I never did anything else. Is there a diving organization that teaches deepstops?

Deep stops in recreational NDL diving is still a relatively new concept. Last I heard, there was still some scientific uncertainty about whether deep stops were helpful or not. This might be from the already low incidence of DCS problems and as a result, the difficulty in collecting enough cases of problems (or lack thereof) to 'prove' anything.

NAUI started teaching it in OW courses a few years back, and I thought I'd heard most of the major agencies were considering it.

 

[reefduffer]

...
Regarding the deepstops, on my SSI training we never spoke about deepstops therefore I never heard of it. Once I got my computer, same as muzikbiz22 said, none of my buddies nor dive masters that I ever dove with used this feature. Even when I asked them about it they said they just don't use it.

The question is how much safer is it? If it has been proven that deepstops are safer than normal diving, why don't they teach it in OW training? I can only relate to SSI's OW training since I never did anything else. Is there a diving organization that teaches deepstops?

I'm not representing myself as particularly decompression theory knowledgeable, just a scubaboard reader. Here's some interesting reading on past threads discussing deep stops: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/google.php?cx=partner-pub-2523937279726743%3A2ve4p77k90k&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&q="deep+stops"&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&siteurl=www.scubaboard.com%2Fforums%2Fmarine-science-physiology%2F#914
That will keep you busy for awhile :cool2:, and bring you up to date on the discussion, some of it quite informed, as well as in violent disagreement.

I'd particularly recommend the first thread in that search http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ask-dr-decompression/12397-deep-stops.html , not for any intrinsic understanding of deep stops, but to capture how contentious the issue is.

 

[muzikbiz22]

Interesting stuff ! I am further enlightened and educated

Thanks tstormdiver, ajduplesses, bleeb, reefdiver; Great posts ! (#9, 10,12 & 13)

 

[ohecht]

I agree with muzikbiz22, very interesting stuff! Thanks for that.

reefduffer, your first link does not work, could you please re-post it?
I also found this article on DAN: Alert Diver | Deep Stops which is also interesting although all I could get from it is that I should not add deepstops manually, couldn't really understand if a computer automatic deepstops are good or not.

 

[reefduffer]

Sorry about that, I'm not sure what the problem is, it doesn't work for me now either. It was just a copy/paste of the url of some search results. Must be some temporary page created by the search mechanism, that no longer exists after I navigated away from it.

To recreate it:
- Go to Marine Science and Physiology
- In the search box at upper right, type "deep stops" - with the quotes. Hit return.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

FYI - you do not have to go to any specific forum to search "deep stops"

Any and every "forum" page has the search box (upper right) - type in your search and either click on the magnifying glass "button" or just hit your keyboard's enter key.

 

[Hatul]

If I recall correctly the upshot of the discussion in Alert Diver re deep stops is that if your computer allows deep stops there is some benefit in reducing silent bubbles. If your computer does not do deep stops you should not do them.

Adam

 

[ohecht]

After reading a bit more about deepstops (following reefduffer's recommendations) I have decided to activate deepstops on my computer for 1 minute.
My conclusion after reading is that as the computer does them automatically, it can only help and not provide any risk.

I would like to thank everyone that helped in the original topic and the followups.
Oren.

 

[Gcrackr]

My 2 bars from a Vyper Air owner who has had this problem a few times:

Regarding the original post: Section 5.10.2 is the correct resource. Suunto theory: Because of your fast ascent, what is usually a recommended safety stop is now mandatory (i.e. do not skip the stop or you will be penalized on future dives). In some cases, if it was NOT a serious the ascent violation, the stop display will disappear before you reach the safety stop zone (i.e. you have already off-gassed sufficiently). When ONLY the stop display appears (i.e. NO Ceiling indicator) you can continue the dive, being sure you have air for a safety stop. If the Stop display disappears during the dive, you could skip the safety stop if circumstances dictated.

Regarding Deep Stops: Deep Stops have nothing to do with your original experience. They are only of value in reducing the TOTAL time to reach the surface after an extended time at deeper depths. Suunto has a good write-up on their website that compares Deep Stop to normal decompression dives (look in the Diving Academy section)