> Hi Rich, Erich, George, Rob,
> 
> So the concept of "Blow and go" (what we did in the old days before 
> tri-mix)" deep air dive (e.g., 260 foot dive 25 min...then fully inflate bc 
> to ascend ballistically to 100 feet--stay 3-5 min, then go slowly  to first 
> safety stop at 60 , 50, 40 etc) could be seen as  be begging for bigger 
> bubbles, which could be more problematic than the decreased nitrogen 
> absorbtion "Blow and Go"  was used to  eliminate... 

That's sort of it. Eliminating dissolved N2 is only of secondary 
importance; the primary objective is to minimize bubble growth because it's 
bubbles, not dissolved nitrogen, that leads to the cascade of problems we 
call DCI.  While it is true that levels of dissolved N2 have a lot to do 
with bubble growth, it is certainly not the only factor.

> Typically Blow and go was followed by pure O2 at 20 foot and 10 foot stops, 
> with some air breaks, and this seemed (at the time) to be effective in 
> removing or shrinking bubbles...what are your current thoughts on this. It 
> would seem to me that at the very least, this was probably a great way to 
> "Farm" bubbles, and probably was responsible for some micro-vascular damage.

The O2 on shallow stops is very beneficial in all cases. I think Eric 
said it best - the idea is to find the optimum decompression strategy.  
Basically, finding the best ratio of low total decompression time to 
low probability of DCI. Compartment-based models fall fairly far away from 
this optimum, in my experience. Deep stops and slow initial ascents, I 
believe, are two of the important factors that will bring us closer to 
the optimum.

Aloha,
Rich

Richard Pyle
deepreef@bi*.bi*.ha*.or*
*******************************************************************
"WHATEVER happens to you when you willingly go underwater is
COMPLETELY and ENTIRELY your own responsibility! If you cannot
accept this responsibility, stay out of the water!"
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