No safety stop during dives

[hoova-scuba]

I have recently done 3 open water dives after certification and have a question about the safety stop. My dives have been on average about 50 mins with 50 ft being the deepest depth. On each dive my DM did not have us do a safety stop. I assume since we didn't go deep is the reason for the omission, but it seems we should have done one for safety's sake. Can I get a quick explanation?

[jet126]

I'm not a pro - and certainly can't speak for your DM. But IMO, unless your entire dive is in 20 ft. or less, you should ALWAYS do a safety stop.

Don't ever let a DM compromise your safety. If you feel you need a stop, signal the DM so she/he is aware, and then do one. You are responsible for your own well-being.

[jet126]

Just another quick thought, what was the depth of your last 3-5 minutes? Some DM's will take you up to 20-ish ft. and do what's called a "rolling" stop where you're still moving around but at the right depth to gas off.

[Jack Hammer]

Originally Posted by jet126

Just another quick thought, what was the depth of your last 3-5 minutes? Some DM's will take you up to 20-ish ft. and do what's called a "rolling" stop where you're still moving around but at the right depth to gas off.

That was my first question. A lot of times I've seen this done and try to plan for the last 3-10 minutes of a dive be in under 20' water to avoid having to do a "stop" without omitting hte safety factor.

[fisheater]

Unless you're hanging out at 20-15' for at least three minutes anyway (which is -after all - a safety stop, just an interesting one), you should be doing safety stops on each dive.

Heck, even when I'm doing survey dives at 30', I ALWAYS include a safety stop.

[Splitlip]

A safety stop is just that. A safety stop. Not until recently did it become obligatory. (recent for me. LOL)

I have over 250 deep dives I made within the Navy tables without safety stops. In recent years I have blown off many. I am fine.

Don't get me wrong, they are a good thing. They give you an extra margine of "hello" safety.

Buddy of mine was out recently with an op. The young guide made him and his buddy do a safety stop after about 5 minutes in the water when they needed to re-drop. Turned into a clusterfuck (beat the filters ), because they ended up drifting into a shipping channel.

I am not suggesting anybody blow them off. follow your training.

[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

[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.

[Splitlip]

Now you are thinking!

Edit: meant as a reply to Hoova, WA.

[diverjay]

Originally Posted by jet126

Just another quick thought, what was the depth of your last 3-5 minutes? Some DM's will take you up to 20-ish ft. and do what's called a "rolling" stop where you're still moving around but at the right depth to gas off.

When i take OW divers down for a tour where i work thats what i do. Whats the point of sitting at 5m looking at nothing. I usually swim over a spot wheer there are 2 magnifacent anemonaes and have a look there for the safety stop.

I always do one, deep or not deep, better safe than sorry.