When to do a safety stop?

[BoltSnap]

The call to divers to make "safety stop" at the end of their dives was initiated during the mid-80's and was intended to make people slow their ascent speeds when they are close to the surface and in the range of highest rate of pressure change. The original depth for the "safety stop" was 10ft or 3 meters. It was changed later to 15ft/5m later because it was difficult for divers to maintain depth at 3m due to various environmental issues, waves, surge etc. It wasn't to meant to be a "decompression stop" but rather a slowing down of divers' ascent rates. NAUI calls it a "Precautionary Stop" not a "safety stop" and the time spent doing the "precautionary stop" isn't counted as part of the ADT, Actual Dive Time, when doing dive table calculations. It was highly advised to do it if you dove deeper than 12 meters/40ft. You are also cautioned to monitor your ascent rate very closely when making the ascent from the precautionary stop to the surface since divers often neglected to control their ascent speed properly when they were very close to the surface and are oblivious to their surroundings in the last few meters from the surface.

If you are using a dive computer, go with what the computer is telling you including the "safety stop" requirement and ascent speed rate and don't try to outsmart it. Drink plenty of water before and after your dive and avoid dehydration and get plenty of rest before and after diving. All of these little things make a difference when you aren't diving in optimal condition and you are on the edge in terms of susceptibility to decompression sickness.

I personally follow all of the rules and all of my computer warnings and spend at least 5 minutes at the 6 - 4 meter depth at the end of my dive and I watch my computer when ascending to the surface. I review my dive profile and my ascent rate when I download the dive-log to my laptop to see what I did and if there were any violations and why. I try to learn something from the review of the dive profile to do or to avoid on the next dive. I view my dive computer as a tool to enhance my safety and the quality of my dives in various ways.

Summary:

1. Do your precautionary stop and not second guess the rules and advice from your respective agency and dive computer.

2. Watch your ascent rate very closely and don't exceed the ascent speed according to your dive computer especially at the last few meters to the surface.

3. Prevent dehydration of your body and drink lots of water before and after the dive.

4. Try to avoid exertion before, during and after the dive.

At the end, it is my body, my health, my safety, my spinal cord and my being able to dive in the future...

 

[Tom_Subsurface]

"Drink lots of water before the dive" will not work if you drink it all at once. Your body can only take up around 200-300ml per hour = 1 glas. If you drink lots more most of it will leave your body the usual way.
As a rule of thumb we're being taught "the dive begins ~24 hours before the actual dive". Drink one glas of water per hour (not when in bed sleeping of course) to hydrate properly.

Are you exessively tired after the dive? Then your hydration or decompression/ascent was not good. Too much Nitrogen stuck in the lung filters waiting to get and out reducing oxygen uptake, making you tired.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Any dive deeper than 10 m should at least have some sort of safety stop. This might just be a slow ascent or a few minutes at 5 m. Personally, every dive I do has at least a five minute safety stop as there are virtually no sites I dive that are shallower than 10 m.

 

[Bigbella]

The call to divers to make "safety stop" at the end of their dives was initiated during the mid-80's and was intended to make people slow their ascent speeds when they are close to the surface and in the range of highest rate of pressure change.

The open-water course that I took through the Y, had us performing 5-6 meter safety stops, by the late 1970s . . .

 

[BoltSnap]

The open-water course that I took through the Y, had us performing 5-6 meter safety stops, by the late 1970s . . .

I don't remember that with the Y as a standard, it may have been individual recommendation by your instructor. DAN was formed circa 1980 btw.

 

[AfterDark]

I do my safety stops on the way up.

 

[boulderjohn]

I don't remember that with the Y as a standard,

I have no personal knowledge of the YMCA scuba program, but I read an analysis of its history that indicated that it never had a true centralized curriculum, with each location essentially forming its own program. I read that these individual locations resisted attempts to standardize the program.

 

[BoltSnap]

I have no personal knowledge of the YMCA scuba program, but I read an analysis of its history that indicated that it never had a true centralized curriculum, with each location essentially forming its own program. I read that these individual locations resisted attempts to standardize the program.

I assisted YMCA instructors during the early to mid-80's when I was going through the "apprentice" phase of my pre-instructor NAUI training to diversify my experience. I don't remember any set of standards or even a textbook from the Y at that time. No talk of "safety stops" at all then. We used the "Science of Scuba Diving" textbook written by an author I don't remember his name but it sounded like a "Polish name." The dive tables used were US Navy tables. NAUI didn't have its own textbook during these years IIRC. To be honest, my memory is hazy about what happened when exactly, it has only been almost forty years now

 

[BoltSnap]

I have no personal knowledge of the YMCA scuba program, but I read an analysis of its history that indicated that it never had a true centralized curriculum, with each location essentially forming its own program. I read that these individual locations resisted attempts to standardize the program.

Your dear friend (he is actually one of my best friend in the US), @whiteshark, was one of the people involved in the process of making the recommendations concerning safety stops.

 

[tursiops]

I started a new thead on the history of the safety stop. Sources are cited. If you want to add to it, please clarify if you have a citation for your addition, or if it is a memory or something you've heard. Thanks.
https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/history-of-the-safety-stop.598742