What's the most unpopular benign/non-polarizing opinion you hold re: diving?

[Kharon]

Actually, the best and smartest thing is that all divers should be testing all tanks for % as well as CO. It should be taught to everyone at all levels. I have seen people on boats thinking they're diving air, but actually have 32 or 36. That would potentially suck if you break MOD significantly.

As to how to test. Buy an analox or oxycheq CO or Nitrox analyzers and they come with instructions.

Nice sales promo for test equipment. Let's see - what percentage of tanks get nitrox that shouldn't - approaching zero? Give me a break. If I had to test every tank I used for O2, CO, etc. I would go back to snorkeling.

 

[Steve_C]

Most of my diving these days are with my own tanks. Those few times I am renting while traveling I get them at the shop/boat. When I pick up my tanks I use the shops sensor to test for O2%. I have an O2 sensor but have not used it for several years since shops/boats always have them. If the shop had an O2 sensor also, I would use it. I understand the O2 sensors are not ultra high precision but I have had the percent off by 2 or 3 of what was requested. (Quit using that shop). That same shop I when picking up tanks handed me the sensor, I commented I needed to calibrate it and they just turned the setting to 20.9. This was after they had been using it to test some other nitrox tanks during the day. I told them to get me an air tank since they had just completely screwed up its setting.

By the way my tanks are uniquely labeled and in my posession until at the boat and diving. There is no way I am going to be able to dive the wrong set of tanks.

 

[NYCNaiad]

We're getting off topic again.

Let's bring this back around to another unpopular benign/non-polarizing opinion held re: diving:

I have a good number of dives under my belt, but I still log all my dives and I:

• Do it in a paper log book (even though I work in technology & love digital records for everything else)
• Ask my buddies to sign the log
• Ask the dive shop to stamp the log
• Review my prior dives

And I plan to do this forever!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I have over 2200 dives all logged in a paper logbook. I've never had anyone sign any of them, however.

 

[george_austin]

I use rubber for harness straps not resin impregnated nylon - so much more comfy

 

[scubafanatic]

We're getting off topic again.

Let's bring this back around to another unpopular benign/non-polarizing opinion held re: diving:

I have a good number of dives under my belt, but I still log all my dives and I:

• Do it in a paper log book (even though I work in technology & love digital records for everything else)
• Ask my buddies to sign the log
• Ask the dive shop to stamp the log
• Review my prior dives

And I plan to do this forever!

Paper log books are like the most boring thing ever! I'm hip deep in paper/recordkeeping at work, certainly NOT bringing that nonsense on my big, juicy, long anticipated dive vacations! The only thing I bother recording are a few details on my exposure protection (wetsuit thickness), BP type, if any, tank type used, lead used, so I can do a pretty accurate pre-dive estimate of my lead requirements for any given future trip before hitting the water.

 

[scubafanatic]

People do the same thing regarding nitrox. In spite of the fact that DCS occurs in less than .01% of dives on air many insist they are reducing the risk by diving nitrox.

Captain Frank (SPREE @ Dry Tortugas/Flower Gardens) offered FREE Nitrox while his boat was operating in the Texas Flower Gardens. His many years of running a live aboard offered him the real world experience of the great benefits of Nitrox!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Captain Frank (SPREE @ Dry Tortugas/Flower Gardens) offered FREE Nitrox while his boat was operating in the Texas Flower Gardens. His many years of running a live aboard offered him the real world experience of the great benefits of Nitrox!

Diving on a liveaboard, nitrox allows for more bottom time or shorter surface intervals. Most LOB divers make 3+ dives per day. That's what nitrox is for.

 

[KevinNM]

Captain Frank (SPREE @ Dry Tortugas/Flower Gardens) offered FREE Nitrox while his boat was operating in the Texas Flower Gardens. His many years of running a live aboard offered him the real world experience of the great benefits of Nitrox!

I was on the first trip where a nitrox diver got DCS and flown off by the coast guard.

 

[Kevrumbo]

A misleading and inadequate assessment in the following Alert Diver/DAN article, of the standard of care to treat the full range of morbidity in DCI Cases:

. . .Compounding the problem is that some injured divers are turned away because of a misconception that divers need a level of care beyond what a facility can provide. In fact, divers are generally healthier and more stable than the average wound-care patient. Nor do injured divers need a chamber that can be pressurized to more than 2.8 ATA (60 feet of seawater), as is mistakenly believed by some health-care providers. The standard of care for the overwhelming majority of dive injuries is a U.S. Navy Treatment Table 6 (USN TT6). This treatment protocol does not exceed 2.8 ATA. Monoplace (single-occupant) chambers are capable of providing a USN TT6. . .
Alert Diver | Why Are Fewer Chambers Available for Emergencies?

This is what the DAN article above fails to consider (and @Duke Dive Medicine should agree): A worst case emergent scenario of a dive casualty with AGE near drowning in full arrest, will need a 6 ATA capable Multiplace Chamber (multiple occupants including the patient, Chamber Patient Tender and an assisting Paramedic EMT) with an Auxiliary Lock to provide accessibility for an Emergency Medicine Physician with Hyperbaric sub-specialty to examine the patient at treatment pressure, as well as to return the Physician to surface atmospheric pressure in order to prescribe additional Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) treatment as needed.

There is a difference between a standard level of care mentioned in the article above, and a "Gold or Trauma Level Standard of Care":

. . .Most chambers in the U.S. are used primarily for hyperbaric oxygen treatment for wounds or diabetes and secondarily if at all for diving accidents. They are smaller one or two person chambers meant to pressurize only to the equivalent of a 66-foot depth (3 ATA) in order to improve oxygen saturation to damaged tissues. The Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber has bunks to treat two divers and has been pressed into service to treat as many as four with attendant doctors, EMT’s, and tenders. It can pressurize to 165 feet (6 ATA) in order to squeeze bubbles to their smallest diameter to treat embolisms. It is, therefore, ideally suited to treatment of [all] diving injuries. . .
USC Dornsife Scientific Diving: The Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber

-->The best local resident divers in the world along with welcoming visitors to the best diving here in SoCal, deserve the best emergency support 365 24/7 --all provided by the only joint private university-municipal government run 6 ATA Recompression Chamber in the United States solely for the treatment of Diving Accidents, as an integral part of Los Angeles County EMS/Fire & Lifeguard/Paramedic and US Coast Guard offshore rescue operations.