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On 7/25/98 11:13 PM KybrSose@ao*.co* wrote: > > First all diving is decompression diving. All. From a physiological >standpoint we know very little, and asserting that it is ok for divers to >suck >an 80 and blow and go by design is _ wrong _. * I do not think this is your >position.* Blow and go is an emegency procedure, and any diver who uses such >a plan as a primary needs serious help, in that they have abandoned all their >training for luck and instinct. I would suggest that any diver who plans to >dive in this manner needs some retraining by a quality instructor, or they >need to take up golf. Al, I never said that blow and go is good, it is reality. I have 2 eyes and have been on a couple of dozen dive boats. This happens and this happens all the time. Look at florida dive boats, do they provide hang bars? Shit no. They put 25 divers in the water, do they expect everybody to hold on to a 1" area of line at 10' for a safety stop? You know the answer to that, Al. Blow and go is the standard with single 80's and it's a fact. Even around here where 80' is about the average depth for in-shore wrecks, people are free-ascending all over the place, and you know what? They are not getting bent. Dumb luck? some, but it is really hard to get bent on a 80 on your first dive and only a litte harder on your second. 80's have a built in saftey factor, the novice diver will run out of air long before he go's into pretzel deco. > Once a diver has mastered basic scuba, they would greatly enhance their >safety and comfort with a DIR style single rig. The reduced drag will allow >reduced breathing rates, and if the diver increases their level of >conditioning, they will see even more improvement. I agree 100% percent. My experience exactly. > This diver should be diving in a buddy team and both should have a good >handle on their gas consumption rates. Using nitrox for moderate depths, say >90 to 120fsw , they could easily reach or exceed their no deco limits, and do >the deco and survive, if they are a disciplined team. They should not >violate >thirds in open water to have all the redundancy they need < long hoses >, and >would be able to do it faster cleaner and simpler than two divers with iso >doubles. Realistically I really think that for the average diver it is reallllly hard to get into deco, esp. if they are required to have 500psi back on the boat. And I think that this is proven out by newbies hundreds of times a day around the world. Like I said, I've seen this with my own eyes dozens of times, as in your position you must have, too. Is it the right thing to do? Probably not. Does it happen? Yup. > Now if you have a long deco exposure in mind iso doubles are far superior to >single/pony rigs. Too many divers use the pony as a smaller additional tank. >This is also wrong. The pony should be only for an emergency, but all to >often >is not. Furthermore divers using this type of rig often have no idea what >their sac rate is, or how long their gas will last. The first time i used a >pony I let it get me into a place I had no business being, and i survived >because I am lucky. It took half a dozen more or so similar exposures for me >to think, I really need two big tanks. Then I was still diving stupid, only >with more crap to haul around. >It wasnt till I started to think about optimizing my gear to my plan, that i >began to try to DIR, and i am not there yet. > >Thats why the single will always have a place, and every diver should have a >single rig, because there will always be a dive which will require it. This >is another reason for standard rigs, because the rig doesnt change much when >your doing deep wrecks with doubles one day and shallow reefs with singles >the >next. > > Remember : redundancy always comes from the buddy first, then from the >gear. > > regards, > > Al Marvelli > Al, we are of the same mind on this topic. What you won't find me doing ever again is wearing a large single and getting into the kind of deco I do with doubles with a H valve or a pony. In these days of LP 120s you will see more and more divers getting into the danger zone with improper equipment and I hope the lightbulb comes on before they get seriously bent. Jim ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix At http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/trimix.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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