Safety Stop Tips | #Top10 #scuba | @ScubaDiverMagazine

[Music] thank you safety stops are a recommended procedure at the end of every single dive just to allow some extra dissolved gases to escape your tissues before exiting the water completely and they're a very unique part of the dive so there are a few things that you need to remember and things that you can and probably should do during a safety stop okay first thing is the hand signals between you and your buddy so here's the hand signal for your safety stop and there's actually a meaning to both parts that a lot of divers might not know but a safety stop is usually three minutes at five meters so together it makes a complete hand signal some actually do a five meter stop at four or five minutes I should say so it becomes that other hand signals for your safety stop are to deploy a dsmb and that just looks like you're throwing a ball up into the air then it comes down to communicating how much time you have left on your computer to your buddy because some computers they time things a little bit different and if your dive profiles are different during the dive then one of you may need a little bit longer on the safety stop but you're using your basic numbers so you gested to your to your computer and then the number is how many minutes you have left if you really want to get fancy you can add a time so signal so you point to your computer time two minutes but then after that when it's all clear you just brush your computer to say that it's all clear and you're okay to ascend when you're in shallow water at the end of the dive you are at your most buoyant and the shift in your buoyancy is the greatest because any air pocket in your BCD or your dry suit changes volume a lot more in that final 10 meters than what's normally below that your cylinder is nearly empty and it's at its most buoyant so take particular attention to your buoyancy just as you're ascending to your stop depth and have your hand on that deflate button nice up and high so that you're ready to prevent a runaway Ascent remember that air in your BCD and your dry suit will find its way to the highest point underwater to try and make your left shoulder the highest point so that the air is near your inflator hose or your dry suit dump valve when you need to actually dump it one thing that so many divers do on a safety stop which is just plain wrong is they just tend to switch off it's as if the dive is over and they just spend three minutes just looking at their dive computer screen and just expecting something interesting to happen when there's still so much to look around and believe me your dive computer isn't going to be doing anything particularly exciting keep looking around and or try and plan your actual safety stop to explore the reef at that five meter level at a shallow depth and failing that if there is nothing for you to look at at least play Tic-Tac-Toe or rock paper scissors with your buddy some divers they practice their bubble rings but try not to just switch off completely just to hold on to that line and just kind of stare at your dive computer because you're still scuba diving safety stops are best done when you are completely horizontal in the water so that your entire body is all at the same depth and decompressing at the same rate more importantly and if you are holding onto a rope or a line in a current then there's actually more space for other divers to be at the correct depth if everybody's horizontal otherwise they have to deal with your legs even if there is no current a safety stop is the perfect time to practice your position in the water and work with your buddy to critique your positions and then you can work on your trim between Dives ready for the next dive during your safety stop it's important for you to consider actually where you are in the water and where you're planning to exit it's far more fun to actually surface near your exit Point rather than surface and then along surface wind so think about where you're going to exit instead of just hovering on the spot wherever you just happen to reach the correct depth if a boat is picking you up then you'll need to swim away from any refold rocks to give them plenty of space to pick you up boats won't get too close to the reef in case the current drags the boat over the Rocks so you're going to need to swim away from the reef and you might as well do that during or at least towards the end of your stop and then Ascend up there foreign if you are swimming out into open water then a surface marker boy is essential to let boat traffic know that you're down there once you've sent up a dsmb a few times it does get easier you practice makes better the important thing is to minimize the slack line so it doesn't get you tangled up both when you're deploying the boy make sure that line is nice and tight and then afterwards when you're winding it in at the end keep that line nice and tight a lot of drivers they also Mark their line at the five meter Point as like a visual depth marker so they know how deep they are and if they're sinking too much or floating too much as well it's an it's a handy visual reminder of exactly how deep you are but do remember to keep that line taut again it's it's not just so that you don't have all this slap line floating around you that you can get tangled up in it's so that your SMB actually stands upright in the water if there's no tension on that line it's going to flop down and it's going to be a lot harder for boats to see if you're holding onto a rope line during your safety stop that's attached onto a boat or something don't hold too tightly onto it because it will yank you around which can be very dangerous so if that rope wants to go just let it go only hold on to it gently to kind of maintain your position and do a quick assessment of that rope first before you blindly grab onto it because Marine ropes are often covered in sharp mollusks and can even the Rope itself can be very coarse and rough and with wet hands a small movement in that rope line will cut your hand or damage your gloves so do be very careful with Marine ropes and don't like properly hold onto it unless you have to [Music] one thing that isn't recommended to do during your safety stop is practice particular skills you have a few minutes to kind of Mill around and it does make sense to hone some of your skills but remember that you're still decompressing even on a safety stop so if you practice like s drills or something that can lead you to panic and suddenly want to bolt to the surface don't practice that particular skill you do need to practice it but try and do it at the end of the safety stop and after your computer gives you that all clear don't just bolt to the surface you still have to ascend slowly because that final five meters is the greatest pressure change so take it nice and slow use that deflate button and exhale to slow yourself down and if you're holding onto a spool as well wind that in quickly so that your boy is still standing upright and you don't have any loose lines just floating around you and your buddy include the safety stop in your dive plan and gas management safety stops are that extra little safety buffer at the end of the dive to allow some more dissolved gas to flow out of your tissues into your bloodstream out of your bloodstream into your lungs and then you breathe it out but too many divers look at their gauges during the dive and they wait until the gauges are in the Red Zone before then ascending go to a safety stop you have to account for travel time because you're still breathing gas as you ascend to the safety stop and in a perfect world you should end the dive completely and be back on the boat with 50 bar in your cylinder not just starting your safety stop at 50 bar it's all a matter of just in case because it will be that one dive where you're down to 30 or 20 bar and your buddy Steven's regulator fails and now you both have to breathe from your single 12 liter cylinder with only 30 bar between you I've already told you to take a look around whilst doing a safety stop to keep yourself occupied but as you're finally ascending after your stop it's important to turn around and look and listen to the surface just because you have a surface marker boy on the surface does not mean that you are safe there not all boat owners are good and observant Boat Owners they don't always see your SMB so when you are ascending look for boat traffic heading your way and be prepared to stop the ascent to avoid a bump on the head and a terrifying propeller after that you'll hear a boat first but you won't be able to discern which direction it's coming from so you do have to look around and actually see if you can see that Hull coming your way and avoid it those were 10 tips that I could think of but do you have any handy tips or things to do during a safety stop let us know down in the comments below remember to subscribe to the scuba diver magazine channel for more scuba diving content thank you for watching everybody and of course save diving [Music]

Channel: Scuba Diver Magazine

Views: 12,550

Keywords: scuba, scuba diving, diving, diver, dive, underwater, news, Q&A, AMA, Travel, review, equipment, computer, advice and tips, scuba diving for beginners, scuba diving in the ocean, scuba diver, scuba diving (interest), scuba advice, scuba gear for beginners, scuba diving advice, scuba regs, diving hints & tips, scuba diving videos, scuba diving basics, scuba diving how to, scuba diving refresher, diver advice, simply scuba, scuba tip, mark newman, safe diving, safety stop, deco stop

Id: jN_f4mPjE40

Length: 10min 57sec (657 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 17 2022