That study about dive times and deco schedules changed my mind on quick turns

I used to think pushing the limits on bottom time was no big deal as long as you felt fine. Then I read a report from the Divers Alert Network last month that looked at 200 decompression sickness cases over 5 years. Turns out, almost 40% of those guys were doing rapid turnaround dives with short surface intervals. I always ignored the 2-hour surface rule thinking it was just cautious old wisdom. But after seeing those numbers, I started actually timing my surface intervals on my watch. It made me realize I was gambling with something I didn't fully understand. Has anyone else switched their whole approach after looking at some hard data?

2 comments

2 Comments

richardknight21d ago

Hey, did that study actually say anything about the age of the divers? Because I had this buddy, Tom, who was in his early 50s and thought he was invincible. He'd do two dives a day with maybe a 45 minute surface interval, eating a sandwich between them. One afternoon after a second dive to 90 feet, he got this weird pain in his elbow that turned into full-on arm numbness by dinner. His wife drove him to the ER and they put him in the chamber for six hours. He said the doc told him it was 100% from the short turnaround, that his tissues were still saturated from the first dive. Now he's scared straight, carries a printed table in his BC pocket and sets a timer on his computer for a full two hours between dives. It's crazy how we all think it won't happen to us until we see it happen right next to us.

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piper_dixon4521d ago

Yeah I had a similar wake up call but with my computer. I used to just wing it on surface intervals, figured if I felt fine I was good to go. Then one trip to Cozumel I did three dives in a day with barely an hour between the last two. That night my left shoulder started aching and I wrote it off as being a little sore from carrying tanks. Woke up at 3am with my whole arm feeling like it was asleep and my chest tight. Scared the hell out of me. Now I set a hard rule for myself to wait at least 90 minutes no matter what, even if the dive was shallow. Do you still dive regularly or did that experience make you more cautious overall?