No safety stop during dives

[chinacat46]

This reminds me of when I was diving with a newbie in Oz. Near the end of the dive I went up to the top of the bommie and we spent the last 10 mins diving it at right around 5m. I thumbed to head up and he wanted to do a safety stop. I headed up and he came up right after me and said I thought we were supposed to a 3 min stop at the end of each dive. I then explained to him we just did a 10 min one.

[fisheater]

Originally Posted by hoova-scuba

We probably did hang around pretty shallow those last few minutes of the dive. They were all shore dives and we did gradually ascend rather than stopping and going straight up so I guess we were OK. Kinda hard to know since when following a DM I was not always sure what we were going to do next. We just followed him around and looked at the pretty fishies

By asking these questions, you're already showing that you're uncomfortable with "trust me" dives. YOU SHOULD BE UNCOMFORTABLE!

To become a safe and competent diver, you need to take responsibility for your own safety first. Even when on a DM-led dive, YOU are primarily responsible for your safety, not the DM. So, you should be keeping track of your depth and time and watching for whether you're at safety stop depths. (WHILE looking at the pretty fishes, too.)

If the DM is, nonetheless, leading your group up without a safety stop, simply signal him/her that you're taking one. The most common signal is your palm down, hand flat, waving slowly back and forth, signifying that you're staying at that level. If the DM signals back otherwise and insists that you surface, you're in a quandary. He/She may know something you don't and it'll be your call as to whether to comply. Afterward, you should get a full explanation. If it was simply that the DM didn't want to wait, find another operation to dive with. However, the most likely signal you'll get in response is an "OK" and a smile.

[Desert_Diver]

Until you have more experience, I think the 3 to 5 minute safety stop is a good habit to get into. As some of the posters have said, you can hang out on a shallow reef at 15 to 20 feet and have the same effect as a safety stop. However, getting into the habit is the safer approach until you have enough experience to weigh all the factors of a dive.

Dive safe. Have fun.

Art

[Lulubelle]

Originally Posted by WaScubaDude

I think safety stops are a great idea especially for new divers. Helps them get their buoyancy just right so they are not taking the elevator ride to the surface that I so often see.

I do think that in terms of recreational diving, less than 120ft deep and usually on a single tank of some kind, the charts, computer algorithms and safety stop "requirements" make for very conservative diving that should keep most all divers out of a bent situation.

Where things gets more dicey and questionable is with deeper diving; mixed gasses, out of shape divers and female divers, as well as more divers with less experience pouring into tech diving. Most of the data for safe deep dive profiles comes from very fit male navy divers. In addition, deep or long dives leave very little room for error in calculations or execution.

Is there any data to suggest that females may be more at risk for the bends than men? I'm curious!

We generally do a couple of safety stops here in NC (1/2 and 20 feet), sometimes 3 (1/3, 2/3, 20 feet). But we are coming up from 100-130 feet. And sometimes push our NDLs to the limit. And people get bent all of the time here. Even when they do follow guidelines to the letter.

[Desert_Diver]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

Is there any data to suggest that females may be more at risk for the bends than men? I'm curious!

We generally do a couple of safety stops here in NC (1/2 and 20 feet), sometimes 3 (1/3, 2/3, 20 feet). But we are coming up from 100-130 feet. And sometimes push our NDLs to the limit. And people get bent all of the time here. Even when they do follow guidelines to the letter.

I do not remember the source, but I have seen the statistic that wome are more prone to DCS than men. Where ever that info came from, I think they also said there was no hard evidence to explain why. There was some speculation that women have more subcutaneous fat and that could be a factor but no one has proven it.

[Scuba Pete]

I was talking to my Dad this weekend. He started diving in 1972 and hasnt dove much since 1976. He was telling me that they would dive on a single 72 with a j-valve to 110-120' for 20-25 minutes then go straight to the surface. I was dumfounded. I couldnt believe that he was here telling me about it. My software is telling me that there should be a 1min @50, 1@40, 2@30, 3@20, and 6@10. They were crazy in the day. Man to only know what we dont know.

[CompuDude]

For shore dives with gradual depth changes, I generally don't bother with a safety stop unless the dive goes deeper than 40' or exceeds 45-50min.

Anything over 40' that lasts longer than 15 minutes, however, is going to get a safety stop unless there is some emergency reason to skip it.*

As has been noted, however, a "safety stop" does not always require you to actually "stop", rather, you merely need to spend 3 minutes or so doing stuff between 20' and 10' to accomplish the intended purpose.




*(A dive to deeper depths, say, 60'+, will likely get a safety stop even if for some reason is was 15 min or less, however, the only reason I can think of why a dive would ever be that short is that there was some sort of issue requiring the dive to be thumbed... and in a true emergency, a safety stop may be skipped when needed.)

[navyhmc]

I too started diving way before the safety stops were thought of. I do them and have no problems with them...they are just that an added safety. If you missed womething went deep and are close to the NDL, why not? Adds a bit of safety to the dive. When you think about it, the Navy tables show 2-4 minutes at 10' as the deco stop for 5-10 minutes over the NDL ( 10 minutes for less than 60' and 5 minutes for 60' and over) so you are padding your nitrogen times and decreasing the microbubbles. A win-win situation.

[jet126]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

Is there any data to suggest that females may be more at risk for the bends than men? I'm curious!

We generally do a couple of safety stops here in NC (1/2 and 20 feet), sometimes 3 (1/3, 2/3, 20 feet). But we are coming up from 100-130 feet. And sometimes push our NDLs to the limit. And people get bent all of the time here. Even when they do follow guidelines to the letter.

I don't think women are at risk for the bends any more than men but I DO know that we are more at risk for joint and bone issues such as arthritis and osteoporosis - especially as we age. So the more we do to keep our joints safe the better. It's all related.

[Lulubelle]

So it appears that we may well be at increased risk for DCI. But it is retrospective, so not proof positive, but a strong indicator.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

One recent retrospective review of women divers (956 divers) with DCI found 38 percent were menstruating at the time of their injury. Additionally, 85 percent of those taking oral contraceptives were menstruating at the time of the accident. This suggests, but does not prove, that women taking oral contraceptives are at increased risk of decompression illness during menstruation. Therefore, it may be advisable for menstruating women to dive more conservatively, particularly if they are taking oral contraceptives. This could involve making fewer dives, shorter and shallower dives and making longer safety stops. Four other studies have provided evidence that women are at higher risk of DCI, and in one study of altitude bends, menses also appeared to be a risk factor for bends.