Diving is an exhilarating and adventurous activity, but it comes with some risks. As you have learned in your open water diver course, safety stops are a critical aspect of scuba diving, ensuring that divers can decompress safely and avoid the risk of decompression sickness.
However, not all safety stops are created equal, particularly when you are just starting out with scuba diving. Luckily, there are some tips and tricks that you can follow to have the best safety stop possible. In this article, I’ll be sharing 15 tips for the best safety stop to help ensure your safety and maximize your diving experience.
Essential Requirements for a Safety Stop
Before diving into our tips, it’s crucial to highlight the basic requirements for a safety stop. These include a minimum duration, maximum depth, optimal neutral buoyancy, and having proper equipment.
Safety Stop Minimum Duration
A safety stop should last at least three minutes, provided you have not exceeded your Maximum Dive Time (MDT). If you have exceeded your MDT, then you should follow the instructions of your dive computer or re-compute your safety stop time with the help of dive tables.
Safety Stop Maximum Depth
A safety stop should not exceed 15 feet /5 meters. If you have not exceeded your MDT this depth has proven to be sufficient for most scuba diving safety stops in recreational diving. In technical diving, safety stop depth ranges might change depending on the profile of a dive.
Neutral Buoyancy
To avoid accidental ascents or descents, it’s important to maintain neutral buoyancy throughout your safety stop. Keeping neutral buoyancy will help you stay at the required depth range without efforts. If you are a newly certified scuba diver, the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty course will definitely help you out perfecting your buoyancy skills.
Proper Dive Equipment to Perform a Safety Stop
A dive computer, reference line, and surface marker buoy are among the necessary gear to execute a successful safety stop. In some cases, particularly if you are diving from a dive boat, you might not have a reference line nor a mooring line. YOu will therefore need to rely on your dive computer (with a safety stop mode).
Tips for the Best Safety Stop
- Ascend slowly: For dives shallower than 60 feet or 18 meters, ascend at a rate not exceeding 30 feet or 9 meters per minute until you have reached the safety stop depth. Keep an eye on your computer or depth gauge to monitor your ascent rate and depth. Remember to vent out some air from your BCD as you ascend to prevent an uncontrolled ascent.
- Stay well positioned: While ascending, start positioning yourself with your head-up. Upon reaching the safety stop depth, position your computer or dive watch at your chest level. During the safety stop, you should maintain a constant depth and your torso should be at a depth of 15 feet/ 5 meters.
- Use a line: In case you are using an anchor line, remember to grab it loosely. If the line is attached to a boat, it might move even several feet and you do not want to move with it. If you see that the line moves up and down excessively, do a normal safety stop without holding the line, monitoring the depth with your depth gauge or computer.
- Keep track of time: most computer will have an automatic timer that kicks off as soon as you reach the standard safety stop depth. If that’s not the case, keep an eye on your watch and keep track of time.
- Swim slowly: Once you are done with the 3 minutes safety stop, ascend slowly. Remember to vent out air from your BCD and ascend swimming upwards. Even if the safety stop is done in shallow water, you don’t want to take any risk of decompression sickness or lung overexpansion injuries by shooting up to the surface from a depth of 15 feet/ 5 meters.
- Be consistent: make a safety stop at the end of every dive, even if you are doing only one dive at a shallow depth. This will help you creating a habit and improve your own safety while diving.
- Optimal Depth: When planning a dive, choose a depth suitable for your skill level, experience, and environmental conditions. Never exceed your no decompression limits and do not embark on deep dives if you see that there are no environmental conditions to perform a safety stop adequately (e.g. strong currents, swells, or waves).
- Hands-off policy: avoid distractions that might result in an uncontrolled ascent such as touching marine life, playing with your regulator and making bubble rings, or trying to fix your camera housing. Stay focused on your safety stop and observe the environment around you. The underwater world uncovers many nice surprises also during safety stops.
- Ideal Location: Look for a location sheltered from waves, currents or boats. Unless you are drift diving, try to choose a location that is sheltered from currents. This will help you optimize your air consumption while doing the safety stop.
- Dive Computer: Use a dive computer to track time and depth and plan your safety stop. If you are doing your first dives, you might want to use a dive computer with integrated alerts. This will help you keep track of your ascent rate, stop time and depth.
- Air Monitoring: Air monitoring is essential throughout a dive. Always keep enough air to perform a stress free safety stop. Knowing that you should end a dive with 750 psi/ 50 bars, you want to initiate your safety stop with at least 1000 psi/ 70 bars. In case of adverse environmental conditions you should keep a higher air buffer accordingly.
- Buddy Awareness: Be mindful of your buddy’s location and movements during the safety stop. Remember that until a dive is not over and you have reached the boat or shore safely, you should remain at a close distance to your buddy and be ready to support in case needed. As you have learnt in your first diving courses, the buddy syste, is essential to have a safe dive.
- Always Use a Surface Marker Buoy (SMB): An SMB is essential to make yourself visible at the surface from your boat or in case you are diving in an area with high boat traffic. From your very first dives, you should get used to deploy an SMB so that you can do it safely, without shooting to the surface. I always recommend new scuba divers to deploy their SMB towards the end of the safety stop. This will ensure you have had enough time to decompress in case of an uncontrolled ascent.
- Avoid Strong Currents: Particularly in your early dives, avoid strong currents as they will make your safety stop turn into a nightmare. In case you are drift diving, try to perform your safety stop in a horizontal or prone position so that you can keep a constant depth while moving with the current. In such case deploying an SMB will be essential to be spotted by other divers and your boat.
- Follow the procedures: Be consistent and follow the diving procedures you have learned in your open water course. In case you miss a safety stop, for whatever reason, do not attempt at making one. End up your dive normally, avoid diving for 24 hours, and watch out for any sign of decompression sickness.
Summing Up
In conclusion, a safe and effective safety stop is critical to a successful and enjoyable dive. By adhering to these 15 tips, you can ensure that you will have the best safety stop possible, reducing the risk of decompression sickness and other diving-related injuries. Above all, safety should always be a top priority. With these tips, you’ll be well-equipped to have a memorable and safe diving experience.
Safety Stops FAQs
When is a safety stop required?
As a rule of thumb, a safety stop should be performed for any dives below 32 feet/ 10 meters. Note however that if you get close to your no decompression limits above 32 feet/ 10 meters, you still might want to perform a sefety stop. Doing a safety stop at the end of every dive is a good practice and habit that ensures a higher degree of safety.
Why should I make a safety stop?
Breathing compressed air at depth causes nitrogen accumulation in your arteries. As you surface, you will start off-gassing, and as pressure reduces, nitrogen is released in the form of small bubbles. If you surface too quickly and skip a safety stop, the small nitrogen bubbles become bigger and bigger possibly leading to decompressino sickness or worse diving injuries.
What is the difference between decompression and safety stops?
Decompression stops are required for deep divers or technical divers to off-gas at some predetermined depths. They are usually performed at depths greater than 15 feet/ 5 meters and allow technical divers to off-gass and avoid decompression sickness before continuing their ascent. Safety stops should be done by technical and recreational divers alike at the end of every dive to avoid the residual risk of decompression sickness. Skipping a decompression stop may lead to way more serious injuries than skipping a safety stop.
What happens if I skip a safety stop?
In most cases, if you have been diding within recreational limits and did not exceed your no decompression limits, nothing will happen. A safety stop is an additional safety layer that comes on top of the already safe recreational depth limits. It is however a good practice to stop diving for a while (24 hours) and watch out for any sign of DCS.
What is the best body position to perform a safety stop?
The best body position is almost vertical, with your head facing up while keeping your writst at the level of your chest. This will ensure that your torso stays at the optimal depth to perform your safety stop. Do not forget to wear your dive computer on your right wrist as your left hand will be busy with your BCD inflator hose durign your ascent (remember to deflate slightly as you ascend).
Where to perform a safety stop during a shore dive?
During a shore dive, you should perform the safety stop as if you were diving from a boat (i.e. neutrally buoyant). The only difference is that, you might have the possibility to do it while fin pivoting at the bottom if this can be done with out harming marine life.