Recreational Scuba Deco Diving

[scubadada]

I do back gas deco on approximately 5% of my dives It is planned, as I know my dive and what is to be expected. I have a very good estimate of gas consumption (RMV for last 1500 dives). Most of my dives are solo. I dive with an appropriately sized pony.

 

[Alekseolsen]

EDIT:

1. Seldom, occasionally, or often?
Occasional
2. Shore diving, or boat diving?
Both
3. Fresh water, or marine?
Sea
4. Buddy diving, or solo diving?
buddy
5. Rig?
D12 with Iso manifold
6. Exposures you typically plan for (i.e., planned max depth, planned bottom time, and planned deco stops and times)?
Planned deco time - <10min
7. Typical activities?
Ranges from training, sight-seeing to search (everything from lost fishing equipment to old anchors etc.)

Gas: Air, as that's what the LDS pushes. Banked 32% on its way, which will be the obvious choice once easily avalable

I am looking forward to your responses. (NOTE: I am NOT interested here in PSD-type nor commercial diving.)

TIA,

rx7diver

Edit: added gas in use

 

[Centrals]

Since when recreational diving included planned deco dive?

 

[scubadada]

Since when recreational diving included planned deco dive?

Never, but, how do you dive?

 

[JMBL]

Since when recreational diving included planned deco dive?

My guess would be : since the beginning, until the term 'tek diving' was coined and a distinction was made between recreational (no deco) and deco diving (tek).

 

[rhwestfall]

DECO is "overhead".....

 

[Brett Hatch]

Since when recreational diving included planned deco dive?

As JMBL says above, the rec/tec division has only existed for some 25 or 30 years, but scuba diving in general of course goes way back. So there are a lot of divers around today who learned prior to the 90s, when mandatory deco on rec dives was commonplace. In some parts of the world, planned deco on backgas is still a common practice among rec divers. I don't live in the UK and am not a member, but my understanding is that BSAC teaches this today, for example.

 

[rhwestfall]

As a side topic, my YMCA Scuba Diver cert in 1988 included instruction in staged decompression using the Navy Tables.... We learned how it could be done, but were advised to not jump in thinking we could do it...

 

[rhwestfall]

FWIW - I use the term "TechReational" for short deco 10 minutes or so....

 

[Blackcrusader]

Since when recreational diving included planned deco dive?

BSAC Sports diving is deco planned air dives. I did my courses in 1986 - 1988. It was never anything more than diving. There was no nitrox back then. Many people I know who trained in that era consider it recreational diving it was not considered technical diving. Of course most of us dived on single tanks but we had tanks on the anchor line at the pre planned deco stops.

If doing a deep wreck dive we knew where our buddy was. Not many had camera's back then so that added distraction was not there. Also you had your dive watch and tables as dive computers were not a common thing. Oh yeah and the lovely J valve on the tank. So there was no specialty course for a night dive, or a drift dive, or a identify the marine life, no course for peak buoyancy because you had that as part of your core novice skillset. It was just all recreational diving.