Posted by MHK on November 07, 2001 at 09:31:01:
In Reply to: Re: Nitrox/longer stop/how long posted by Ken Kurtis on November 07, 2001 at 00:59:55:
Posted by Ken Kurtis on November 07, 2001 at 00:59:55:
To single one factor and out and insist that IT is the one true and only solution, to my way of thinking, either indicates a blind adherence to a doctrine without regard to fact or simply an inability to rationally analyze a problem and all it's possible solutions/variables.
Ken,
To blindly ignore that the very likely scenario had she done the same exact profile while using Nitrox would VERY likely have ended in NO problem whatsoever.. You may ask why I say that conclusion with such conviction, and the answe is very simple..
As diver's we have all accepted that the tables are the basis for which we determine an acceptable level of NDL risks..
A strict comparision of her profile will tell you that while diving air she went into decompression and if she had used a 32% mix she could have stayed down 5 minutes longer before reaching her M-value.. To ignore that *variable* [ as you put it] and ignore advances in technology is equally, if not substantially more, of an inability to simply rationaly analyze a problem..
You mandate that your divers ignore the single largest safety margin in the kind of diving that you recomend, and then you get on here and speak about hidden agenda's [ or not so hidden], so just so we can clear up the ambiguity about my agenda, it's simple, it's clear and I state it repeatedly.. Diving Nitrox provides an added safety margin against decompression illness and in my very considered opinion, Marta would have been substantially safer, and more then likley would NOT have been bent had you allowed the use of Nitrox and to suggest anything otherwise is simply denial and misdirection..
Simply look at the tables.. A dive to 124' [ ie; 130'] using the standard PADI tables provides for a bottom time of 9 minutes before you hit the NDL, whereas a dive using a 32% Nitrox mix allows for a bottom time of 17 minutes before hitting your NDL.. Marta's dive profile clearly indicates that she exceeded NDL's on an air table and still had some 5 remaining minutes available had she been using Nitrox.. To ignore that REALITY, and to continue to misdirect the salient issue because of your [ not so well hidden] agenda is disingenuos at best..
And to continue the mantra of * we don't know what the solution...* is short sighted and irresponsible.. Maybe *you* don't know the solution, but the rest of the diving population can pretty easily figure it out, so if you don't know what the solution is just ask and we'll be happy to tell you.. You can feel free to join the FREE DIR Fundamental class that Andrew G, John Walker and myself are putting on in December and you can bet your bottom dollar that this issue will be covered in the class...
Furthermore, can you explain, in your * best guess* opinion of how staying for an added 200 psi at 15', therefore a PP02 of .3, would have somehow helped, but you deny that using a 32% mix for the entire dive is *an adherence to a doctrine without regard to fact*????
Later