Reducing DCI risk by staying immersed on surface after a dive

[TicDiver]

Hi,
can you reduce your DCI risk (further) if you stay immersed (head out) on the surface after a dive? Good conditions assumed.

My first post: mid-30s, too many children to dive regularly, general practitioner.

 

[tursiops]

It is the same as being out of the water, you are at 1 atm pressure either way.
You will hear people talk about resting at the surface prior to exiting....but the purpose of that is to delay any hard exercise (like climbing a ladder with tanks on), because that exercise can force some bubbles out of your tissues. So, avoid the exercise...in or out of the water.

Welcome aboard!

 

[inquis]

Yes, and such a "surface stop" is common practice in the technical diving community. This gives tissues a chance to further off-gas before the exertion of getting out of the water with heavy gear.

 

[davehicks]

You can probably reduce risk by three simple practices:
1) Pay attention to your dive computer and don't run your NDL to zero
2) Make a slow assent to your safety stop at 15 feet
3) Extend your time on the 15-foot safety stop to 5 minutes whenever possible

 

[TicDiver]

@tursiops & inquis:
Is the 1.05 bar pressure on my tissue at about 50 cm average depth of the submerged body not relevant?
Intuitively, I would not consider the position of the airway opening to be more important.

But it could also be that it is just a theoretical construct and has no clinical relevance for my dives.

 

[tursiops]

@tursiops & inquis:
Is the 1.05 bar pressure on my tissue at about 50 cm average depth of the submerged body not relevant?
Intuitively, I would not consider the position of the airway opening to be more important.

But it could also be that it is just a theoretical construct and has no clinical relevance for my dives.

I suspect 0.05 ATM is within the error bars of the knowledge.

 

[dmaziuk]

@tursiops & inquis:
Is the 1.05 bar pressure on my tissue at about 50 cm average depth of the submerged body not relevant?

It's unlikely to make any practical difference. If you believe in bubble theories, bubbles at 3..5 msw (1.3 .. 1.5 bar) are smaller get out through alveolae faster than on the surface, and thus you are better off spending that time at safety stop. Assuming of course you have gas for it. But I doubt 1.05 bar is any different from 1 for practical purposes.

 

[happy-diver]

I'll spend however much time I have buzzing around in 1-2-3 metres with these sorts of things

Ha yeah most don't see them, it's not halucinations from magic mushies it's the far too quickly
surfacing, ripping off the mask out the reg, desperately sharing what the other guy did not see

look around, if you will

 

[Vicko]

Does it help, possibly no.
Does it cost you anything to do it anyway?

People will get in a fist fight over free samples in a store, but will rush to get on the boat after the dive.

 

[LI-er]

People will get in a fist fight over free samples in a store, but will rush to get on the boat after the dive.​

Totally not getting the analogy here.

That much being said I'll suggest why people might want to return to the boat sooner rather than later at the conclusion of a dive.

1- They're cold
2- They're hungry and thinking about their lunch in the cooler or the snacks given out by the dive charter
3- They're thirsty after breathing dry compressed air for what might be the better part of an hour
4- They want to get out of their gear and out of (or mostly out of) their dive skins (if there's going to be a subsequent dive).
5- They want to get their gear stowed before the boat fills up so they can find an out of the way place to relax which brings me to 6
6- They want to grab a good spot on the bow or the upper level sun deck