Safety Stops
There are a few different kinds of decompression stops/ pauses in ascent, which a scuba diver needs to make to allow for the expelling of inert gasses to minimize the possibility of the gasses forming micro-bubbles which in turn can cause Decompression Sickness or DCS. In this article we take a closer look at the Safety Stops.
Safety Stop
Every recreational scuba diver has been taught to perform safety stops while learning how to dive. A safety stop which is a 3 minute halt, assists the body in rapidly eliminating nitrogen. Even a diver that has remained within Decompression Limits is susceptible to bubbling on ascent and the safety stop helps mitigate the chances of this happening by speeding up the off-gassing process.
A diver that performs a 3 minute safety stop after a dive will have less nitrogen in their body immediately upon surfacing as compared to a diver that did not perform a safety stop, but has been on the surface “off-gassing” for 3 minutes. Therefore, no matter whether the dive is within NDL’s or not a safety stop is highly beneficial on any dive.
All dive computers prompt divers either with an audible alarm or through the display the when they should perform the stop, and provide a count-down of 3 minutes. If you dive without a computer, make sure you have a wrist watch or timer with you to ensure you spend the correct amount of time at this stop.
There are still a few divers that choose to ignore the safety stop when they have not gone in deco, claiming that the safety stop is not mandatory but only precautionary. One should still always observe the safety stop if they have sufficient air, as this is highly beneficial in helping the body “off-gas” and minimize the risk of DCS.
Rules of RDP:
Safety stop required:
1) diving 30 meters or deeper.
2) hitting the no decompression limits.
3) ending pressure group of your planned dive is within 3 pressure groups of the no deceompression limit.
Oceans 5 advice, make after every dive a safety stop, it is just good dive behavior.
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