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>[In response to a profile with a 131 minute hang.] 
> Yow! I've done hangs in excess of an hour, but none over two. I dive in the
open
> water, where conditions aren't always predictable, and really long hangs are
> risky.

I should have made it clear that this was in a cave with relatively warm
water. Decompression is easy under those circumstances. I point this out
not to make people jealous, but to show that there is nothing macho in
it.

> My question is, what do other people do on long hangs?  I usually do equipment
> drills, and otherwise just watch the jellyfish.

In a cave there are rocks, often with fossils, as well as fish and turtles
to watch. I imagine that in open water you are usually not able to see
the bottom from decompression stops, since the dive was most likely deep
or you wouldn't be decompressing. I usually just look at the rocks and
watch the fish for a while and then space out. Sometimes I swim around the
sinkhole a little. Since I am skinny and using a wet suit it helps to
think warm thoughts, even though the water temperature isn't bad.

At some caves there are swimmers to watch when the weather is warm.
There are also horse trough habitats at about 20 feet at many popular
caves, and occassionally nature domes which get filled with air from
divers' bubbles, so I can get partly out of the water and talk to my
buddy for some of the time, or eat or drink something.

In these pleasant circumstances I actually enjoy up to 30 minutes or
so of deco and I don't mind an hour at all. Much longer than that does
get boring and uncomfortable, but it is worth it for a good dive. I rarely
have to do more than 90 minutes or so. Apart from being a little
uncomfortable I don't mind decompression time any more than time spent
driving to dive sites.

Hard core divers around here get into hangs of four hours or more.
Obviously this is not by choice. They just do what they have to do
for the good dives.

I've seen people reading magazines, but never got into that myself.
Slick magazines hold up pretty well under water.

Bill Mayne

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