Posted by Kendall Raine on February 20, 2001 at 10:10:37:
In Reply to: Re: d. reduce safety stops posted by RabidYak on February 18, 2001 at 19:35:24:
Two thoughts:
1) Safety stops, aka slow ascent rates, per se are good.
2) Safety stops are not created equal. Please see my post of today regarding the Alert Diver piece-Slow ascent rates. Depending on the profile, the typical shallow stop may be more or less efective at removing silent bubbles. On the other hand, no short safety stop which occurs at least one ata above mean max depth is going to hurt you.
Shallow stops typically serve to assist the off gassing from slower diffusing poorly perfused tissue-lipids, bone marrow, etc. while the deeper stops aka slower ascent rates, tend to address off gassing from faster diffusing well perfused tissue-like the spinal cord. The key is to balance the depth of the safety stop with the gradient of the inert gas. Controlling that relationship allows gas to stay in solution and be filtered by the lungs. Ascending too quickly, as in "rushing" to the 15 fsw safety stop from a short deep bounce dive, will tend to form bubbles in the faster tissues. Once bubbles form, the body's ability to remove the inert gas is impeded (slowed) by bubble kinetics and the insult caused by their presence.