alaxias
Registered
Posting this on behalf of SpreadingSolar on SCUBA: explore the underwater world, online but I've been wondering about this for some time as well!
Ive been diving for a few years and have come to understand that at times diving knowledge boils down to personal preference. However, in the case of sawtooth profiles (re-descending some amount after ascending some amount during a dive), most divers are of the opinion that diving this way is a very bad practice. I understand that 1) sawtooth profiles cause some folks to have issues with their sinuses, 2) sawtooth profiles are exceedingly difficult to calculate without a dive computer, and that 3) at all times, one should ascend slowly to reduce the likelihood of decompression sickness but aside from these considerations, why do divers conclude that sawtoothing is a dangerous practice? My background in physics makes me believe that descending simply increases nitrogen loading rates and cumulative loading and ascending rate are the key considerations and these dont change if your profile is a sawtooth. A variant of this convention is waiting 30 mins at the surface between dives what happens to the body during this 30 mins? Finally, after a recent reef dive, I was told that I wasnt allowed to do a few free dives (to something like 20 feet) because I was nitrogen loaded and therefore I would be making uncontrolled ascents. This seems counterintuitive to me I was already off-gassing at 1 ATM and would incur minimal additional nitrogen during my free dives to 20 feet. In any case, Im interested to hear if anybody has scientific information on why sawtooth profiles are worse than traditional dive profiles. Hopefully this will be educational for other folks as well.
Ive been diving for a few years and have come to understand that at times diving knowledge boils down to personal preference. However, in the case of sawtooth profiles (re-descending some amount after ascending some amount during a dive), most divers are of the opinion that diving this way is a very bad practice. I understand that 1) sawtooth profiles cause some folks to have issues with their sinuses, 2) sawtooth profiles are exceedingly difficult to calculate without a dive computer, and that 3) at all times, one should ascend slowly to reduce the likelihood of decompression sickness but aside from these considerations, why do divers conclude that sawtoothing is a dangerous practice? My background in physics makes me believe that descending simply increases nitrogen loading rates and cumulative loading and ascending rate are the key considerations and these dont change if your profile is a sawtooth. A variant of this convention is waiting 30 mins at the surface between dives what happens to the body during this 30 mins? Finally, after a recent reef dive, I was told that I wasnt allowed to do a few free dives (to something like 20 feet) because I was nitrogen loaded and therefore I would be making uncontrolled ascents. This seems counterintuitive to me I was already off-gassing at 1 ATM and would incur minimal additional nitrogen during my free dives to 20 feet. In any case, Im interested to hear if anybody has scientific information on why sawtooth profiles are worse than traditional dive profiles. Hopefully this will be educational for other folks as well.
