Reverse Dive Profiles

[FPDocMatt]

Matt: not sure if you're getting this, but the chances are that A LOT of the stuff you were force-fed on your open-water program has dubious value.

Sort of similar with "received wisdom" on an OW course and more advanced diving knowledge. In the case of both reverse profiling and Shakepspeare's authorship: we have a good idea, but we just can't be sure.

Well now, this is interesting.

Here's another one: On graduation from med school, they told us, "Half of what we've taught you will turnout to be wrong. Unfortunately, we don't know which half."

 

[HowardE]

I think the point is... that in Basic Open Water... They have to "dumb stuff down" a little bit to keep it simple for the sake of just learning basic scuba diving.

Don't dive reverse profiles. Never ever ever ever hold your breath. Don't exceed 1.6 ppo2. Don't go into deco... Do any of the preceding items, and you will probably die. Stuff like that.

They not necessarily wrong to teach people, not to do things that can harm the diver. All of the above statements are taboo to the OW student, but really... when you understand more about diving, you can comprehend, that everything has a deeper reasoning and you understand more of the WHY you were taught the simplified version from the get-go. There's just too much to cover in a 2 - 3 day course to understand everything.

 

[drbill]

There's just too much to cover in a 2 - 3 day course to understand everything.

Precisely... and that's why I'm glad I took a very intense three WEEK course to get my Los Angeles County certification back in the 60s. The courses taught today are, IMHO, far too basic and "simplified."

 

[drbill]

Of course you may exceed NDL in a reverse profile situation if you are comparing the same maximum depth and bottom time for each of the dives. That certainly is a factor to be considered in diving reverse profiles. If you want the most bottom time, doing the dives in a reverse profile manner will incur limitations and run the risk of exceeding "obligatory" deco. Given the current state of SCUBA training, I would rather see new divers stick with the guidelines of their training until they gather more experience and additional training.

 

[oly5050user]

During my open water certification

I asked the instructor why the first dive of the day has to be the deepest dive of the day. She didn't know why. I didn't understand the

If your instructor did not know why,I have to ask why is she representing herself as an instructor?
Granted there may be times that an instructor gets stumped on a question,that is when he/she finds out about it and gets back to you with a plausible answer.
Reverse profiles are discouraged because by adding on rnt time onto a profile greatly limits your second dive ndl limit.Deeper dives have short enough ndl time already without adding additional rnt on it to greatly shorten your dive.

 

[tech_diver]

Even though scientific evidence is starting to indicate that reverse profiles may not pose the threat that a lot of deco algorithms predict, they still freak me out. I've gotten so comfortable with the behaviors of the models and it has been so burned in my brain that reverse profiles are bad, I struggle to get past it.


I guess my OW training and the mentorship of the dive community was successful in that regard.


Further research might even reveal health benefits to reverse profiles like regrowing hair or increasing sexual performance but they will still scare me.


I never thought of myself as a superstitious person but we may find that the taboo of reverse profiles is just a superstition like not bringing bananas on a boat.

 

[beautybelow]

Even though scientific evidence is starting to indicate that reverse profiles may not pose the threat that a lot of deco algorithms predict, they still freak me out. I've gotten so comfortable with the behaviors of the models and it has been so burned in my brain that reverse profiles are bad, I struggle to get past it.


I guess my OW training and the mentorship of the dive community was successful in that regard.


Further research might even reveal health benefits to reverse profiles like regrowing hair or increasing sexual performance but they will still scare me.


I never thought of myself as a superstitious person but we may find that the taboo of reverse profiles is just a superstition like not bringing bananas on a boat.

It would be common practice here to grab a banana off the back of the boat right before you go make your last dive of the day a reverse profile dive.

 

[FPDocMatt]

If your instructor did not know why,I have to ask why is she representing herself as an instructor?

You'd have to ask her.

Reverse profiles are discouraged because by adding on rnt time onto a profile greatly limits your second dive ndl limit.Deeper dives have short enough ndl time already without adding additional rnt on it to greatly shorten your dive.

This makes sense. So it isn't that a reverse profile is in any way dangerous. It just limits your time at depth. Thanks for the explanation!

 

[FPDocMatt]

I never thought of myself as a superstitious person but we may find that the taboo of reverse profiles is just a superstition like not bringing bananas on a boat.

In fact, the author of Deco For Divers seems fairly sure of himself that reverse profiles aren't dangerous at all.

 

[Doppler]

You'd have to ask her.



This makes sense. So it isn't that a reverse profile is in any way dangerous. It just limits your time at depth. Thanks for the explanation!

Only if you are planning no-decompression dives.



And for the record, Mark Powell knows his stuff. His is a mighty useful reference book.