Safety Stop Thoughts...

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Another tip, use the search function and read, read, and read! I used this site quite extensively as a new diver and even now many years later for a great deal of clarification.

 

[namerg]

Thank youuuu

 

[diver 85]

Below the surface---@ 15 ft deep....& the older I get, the longer it gets---up to 5 minutes now, after Nov 15th(my next birthday, it might be 6....)

 

[TMHeimer]

I too tend to stay a bit longer than 3 minutes at 3 meters. If you are doing PADI the safety stop is now required on the new OW "mini dive", which you probably know. Another "tip" would be to study reading on the skills you'll do in the pool. There is a lot to absorb in 2 days.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

similar thoughts, 15' is kind of arbitrary, but it's deep enough to be relatively easy to maintain buoyancy for new divers, and 15' is deep enough to keep you out of harms way for most boats.

The ascent rate should be more correctly stated as "no more than 30ft/min". The safety stops can also be completed if you are shore diving by meandering around at relatively shallow depths. These are again precautionary stops, not decompression stops, so if you have to blow it you can, though it doesn't hurt to hang out at that depth and play around for a few minutes. Good practice for mandatory deco stops if you get to that point later down the road.

If you are diving less than 30', you really aren't on-gassing enough to really off-gas enough at 15' to warrant the stop, if you're diving like 50+ then you want to make them, and the deep stop thing is starting to come out, but science isn't really behind it, so if you're diving square profiles to 80+ft, it doesn't hurt to ascent to 40', chill out for a minute, then ascent up to 15', and chill out for a few minutes. This is all within NDL's, and it's important during these stops to keep moving. Slow deliberate motions from your arms and legs help. You don't want to be actively moving so much as every once in a while make a stretching motion to keep the muscles moving to promote blood flow.

I agree with this. However what I recommend for new divers is to NOT stop at 20 feet. It is too shallow to ensure that you make the stop...

If you are "bad" at controlling your ascent and you are absolutely determined to try to stop at 30 feet, chances are you will stop at 30 feet or quite likely fail a little, but still end up actually stopping at 20 feet. Trying to stop at 15 or 20 is tougher and the expansion rate is much higher at these depths, so it is much easier to just lose control and pop to the surface if you try to stop at 20 feet.

Stopping at 30 feet for 10-15 seconds is really a good goal and then you can move up to 20 AFTER you are sure you got everything stopped and under control. I figured this out as a DM and watching many, many divers fail to control their blue water, drifting ascent. Once I dictated a 30 ft stop (to check air or some BS task) 95% of my customer's ascent problems were solved.

Technically, you are to ascend in complete control the entire way and be able to stop instantly at any depth, but the reality of the situation is that this level of skill is not there for many or most new divers.

 

[namerg]

@TMHeimer: But as a new diver in two days, do you have the enough confidence to do the OW part ? Or you really need to practice more ? I am just asking I am a newbie.

 

[TMHeimer]

@TMHeimer: But as a new diver in two days, do you have the enough confidence to do the OW part ? Or you really need to practice more ? I am just asking I am a newbie.

From what I have seen a majority of students do OK-surprisingly to me. The ones that don't usually were not "water" people to begin with--ei. maybe bicycle kicking in the pool, not really having a "real" swim stroke on the swim test, etc. Personally, I still think it's a lot to absorb in 2 days, even if you swim like a fish. I took the course in 6 week nights, then the OW dives, which seemed about right for me. I mean it's not Brain Science, just a lot to do all at once. After certified, be sure to practise the pool skills you learned from time to time.

 

[Storker]

There must have been a reason the shallower one was considered better at first.

Wild guess: Because the standard deco stop depths are 3m/10ft, 6m/20ft and 9m/30ft?

And yes, it's markedly easier to hold your depth at 5m/15ft than at 3m/10ft. Particularly if you're a newbie.

Wish I could remember where I recently read it, but it seems that with no stop there is a fair bit of silent micro bubbling, with a 3 min stop a small amount of micro bubbling, and with a 5 min stop none - almost none. Of course all this applies to dives within NDL.

I think I've read the same, and I can't remember where, either.

Here's one advantage to shore dives - if bottom conditions and waves allow it: Follow the bottom up until you're splashing around in the shallows, and you'll automatically get a slow ascent all the way up.

ascend from the SS as slow as you can manage - this is where the biggest volume change occurs.

Quoted for truth. Anecdotes aren't data, but I noticed a marked decrease in post-dive fatigue - often ascribed to sub-clinical DCS and micro-bubbles in your system - when I started to routinely shoot a dSMB from my safety stop and follow the dSMB line up instead of what I often did before: cork from the last two meters.

 

[RJP]

Okay Okay i just want to have an idea...because my course is a two day weekend...and i am totally new with this. I have more questions ....oh well ....

What do your class materials say? For purposes of the class... go with that as the right answer.

 

[Diver0001]

I see a statement that says "ascent slowly, well within your computers ascent rate and make a safety stop at 5 meters/15 feet for three minutes or longer."

So, is this safety stop 5mts below surface ? Or above of my targeted depth while I am ascending.

Thanks for your help,

5 metres depth.

What's also important to understand aobut the safety stop is that it is a *minimum* stop of 3 minutes. You can extend your safety stop for as long as you like provided you do not decend aggain below 5 metres.

R..