GF and safety stops

[arcFlash]

I got my answer on this once I got it into deco. It added 4 minutes of stops starting at 40ft for 1 minute. I was a little surprised at the first stop but it made sense after I reflected on the theory while at my stops.

GF wouldn't use a single 'safety' stop. It would smooth the tissue pressures by adding smaller stops. So, I'm just going to follow this schedule if I elect to add a 'safety' stop on NDL dives. 3 stops @1min

(I'm still evaluating GF planning software)

[mcdiver]

Hey Steve,

I like to take a "safety stop" at about 1/2 of my max depth, even if it is only for a minute or two, something that I picked up from a tech buddy in California. When we dove the dump truck over the 4th of July, I took a "safety stop" at around the 40-45' range, just as an added measure of safety prior to the normal safety stop at 15'.

As I look back at my dive profile from those dives, my bottom time for those dives were in the 23-27 minute range. While looking at the US Navy Air Decompression Tables, they are not requiring/recommending a "deep water" stop, a diver would have to go pretty deep and stay for quite awhile before those tables required such a stop, something that you could not do on a single tank.

Dave Torry

[Deep Thought]

Yes Shearwater computers Rock!

Deep Stops are a theory, like much we know about modern technical and techreational diving….however the Deep Stops concept is still empirical data and not proven scientific data.  A number of years ago I attended a Deep Stops workshop in Florida hosted by NAUI and roomed with Bruce who designed the Shearwater.  The conference had all the names from around the globe including JP Imbert of Comex – Richard Pyle (teleconference), and speaker I recall quite vividly debunked the entire show as “witchcraft” .  His name was Dr. Neuman, and he was former USN and worked on the Dopler research – his point was the navy does “research” verse a bunch of divers saying “this feels good”.  It was a sobering point for the show, but a year ago I was speaking with Bruce of Shearwater and he related that one of the doctors in the audience felt so compelled, he started doing research on the topic.  His findings were reviewed at a DAN clinic, where he stated that he “lost his religion” or belief that Deep Stops were the answer.  In fact the point may be that divers are over doing deep stops.
 
So, while I have spent years doing deep stops, and still think there is some benefit in my decompression dives, I keep my ear to the ground as techniques are constantly changing and evolving.  I don’t think there is much difference between crawling the line and doing a deep stop as long as you slow the ascent from the bottom “slightly” and do not over extend your time.  Keep yourself well hydrated, rested and warm (buy a pee valve and suit heater for cold dives like Superior), always make safety stops,  and for deeper dives slow ascents within reason.

It never ceases to amaze me how dive computers have only recently come on the scene, and today we can control the profiles like individual decompression physiologist.

Safe Diving

Ron