Just learned a crazy stat about saturation diving math I never knew

I was reading through an old industry report from CDC archives about saturation diving incidents from 1980 to 2005. Turns out over half of the major decompression sickness cases happened during the last 3 feet of ascent, not deep down. I always figured the risk was highest at the bottom, but those shallow stops are no joke. Any of you guys check your ascent profiles stricter now than when you started?

3 comments

3 Comments

evan_anderson14d agoProlific Poster

That "last 3 feet" stat hit me hard too, I always rushed that part until I got a real scare. What worked for me was setting a timer for my final stop and literally counting down the seconds in my head so I didn't get impatient. Now I treat those last few feet like the most dangerous part of the whole dive and I haven't had a problem since.

blakem822mo ago

Felt that one deep in my gut, man. I had a similar wake up call a few years back when I rushed the last 10 feet on a 180 foot bounce dive and ended up with a wicked case of the bends in my left shoulder. Spent three days in a chamber eating sandwiches and watching bad TV, which really makes you pay attention to those shallow stops from then on.

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evaperez2mo ago

Ever been stuck in a hyperbaric chamber for that long? My buddy Charlie went through something like that after a dive in the keys, but they let him bring his guitar in. He spent two days strumming old blues tunes and driving the nurses crazy. Said the sandwiches were decent though, especially the tuna.