The number of articles and discussions in the internet on decompression theory is endless. You can find articles on compartments, M-values, ascent procedures and so on. Unfortunately most of these publications come from the field of technical and commercial diving and are more aimed at pushing the limits than on conservative diving procedures. Information on decompression theory for recreational dive profiles is harder to find.
Dive computers base their recommendations for remaining dive time at a given depth on a limited number of factors – depth, dive time, altitude, previous dives, gas mix and in some cases diver behaviour, water temperature and workload during the dive. Dive computers do not or hardly take secondary factors into consideration. Workload before and after a dive, illness or injury, drug or alcohol abuse, age, sex, dehydration and all the other factors known to be of concern for decompression sickness.
It is up to the diver to take decisions based on the data of the computer and on common sense (computer assisted diving). Just following the data on the computer without adding common sense (computer controlled diving) could increase your risk of decompression sickness dramatically. Common sense requires informed decisions, meaning that you should know what a computer is doing (and especially what a dive computer is not doing) before taking a decision on a need to be more conservative and, if yes, in what way. This course is intended to give you the information needed to enable you to take informed decisions. The minimum age for this course is 15 and you must be a certified diver. The course can be completed in a day.
You start this course by downloading the book and reading only the third chapter. If you prefer to read your book on paper, then ask your instructor. The price for the paper version of this book is €35.90. If you cannot find a SCUBA C&P instructor in your area, then please contact us via info@scuba-courses.com.