There still seems to be too much controversy over fitness standards needing
to be created. This can only stem from a misunderstanding by many of the
unfit divers, as to "WHY" they are at risk. My example below, is another
attempt to explain the concept.  Anyone else want to jump in to this?


Ability to exchange gasses faster, as in an elite level athlete with a high
VO2 max, will translate into exposing more blood in the body, to the
gradient in the lungs, in a given period of time. This could translate into
a cross country skiing ( they traditionally have the highest VO2 max scores
of any Olympic athletes) tech diver having the ability to offgas helium and
nitrogen almost 4 to 5 times as fast as an obese  diver would be capable of.
Since the effects of hypothermia and the challenge of supporting a tech
diver begin to become more pronounced after several hours of deco, this will
make a huge difference, if the elite diver
needs a full hour to do deco from a 270  foot dive, for 23
minutes. The fat diver may find even more deco obligation than five times
the athlete's , because his longer stop requirements ( say 5 times as long
at each stop) at 180, 170, etc., will
incur more deco obligation from the deep deco part of the dive----they will
have to do more deco, just from their deep deco stops alone. This could
create exponential increases in deco time at 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 foot
stops.  Instead of this being 4-5  hours of deco , as would be suggested by
their slower gas exchange rate ( versus the 1 hour for the
athlete), they may "really" need 10 hours or even more.  Statistics on fat
tech divers
getting bent after deep long duration dives are horrifying, giving much
credence to these
ideas here.
Dan



--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]