Sat down with a welder from the Gulf last month who changed how I think about bottom time

I was on a shore job in Port Fourchon and grabbed lunch with an older guy named Jimmy who did deep sat work back in the 80s. He told me he never trusted the tables past 80 feet because he saw too many guys get bent running lighter mixes on the edge. He said the real trick was keeping your ascent as slow as the boss would let you get away with, not what the chart says. That hit me because I always treated the decompression schedules like they were perfect, but he had a point about how water temp and current mess with how gas moves in your blood. I started taking my final stops a few minutes longer even on shallow jobs and feel way less foggy after the dive. Anyone else adjust their ascent based on conditions instead of sticking to the book?

3 comments

3 Comments

gray_patel1mo ago

Not superstition, man. Jimmy was right about how conditions affect your tissue loading. On a cold Gulf morning with a current ripping, your body handles gas way different than a calm warm quarry dive. I bumped my last stop from 10 to 15 minutes on a 60 foot job in 50 degree water last winter and felt way less foggy afterward. The tables are a starting point, not a perfect rule for every situation.

richardk265d ago

Doesn't the book's schedule just assume you're in a controlled tank at a perfect temp? I remember this one time I was diving a wreck off the New Jersey coast in fall, water was maybe 45 degrees and choppy as hell. The tables said I had 10 minutes of decompression but I took closer to 20 on that last stop. My buddy stuck to the exact schedule and popped up with a headache that lasted two days. I'm with Jimmy on this one, the real world ain't a lab and your body tells you more than a chart ever will.

jamiegreen1mo ago

i mean, a few extra minutes probably ain't gonna hurt but it sounds kinda like superstition to me