I believe my instructor said 12 hours is the interval. I fly out at 6 am. Can I dive until 6 pm the previous day and be ok or should I make the interval longer? If anyone has experience with this I would appreciate the info.

I understand that 12 hours is the minimal time, but this depends on whether you're doing daily, multiple dives for several days or not.. Sarah

24 hours is usualy given as the safe interval, as Sarah says it depends if you are doing multiple dives. Most dive computers advise on a suitable surface interval, some are strict at 24 hours no fly time. The Suunto ones give a bit more slack if you are not doing large amounts of long dives.

Best advise is not push the limits, drink plenty of fluids and surface slowly with at laeast a 3 minute stop. Two of my work colleagues got bent last year, one in Jaimaca on a 35 min 45 foot dive (heavily hung over and dehydrated from the night before) and the other surfacing too fast after a deepish dive (120ft)apparantly a diver ran out of air and then sucked down all his air too when given the octo.

The other problem is getting bent at 30,000 feet, long way from a chamber. A good reason to be very conservative and not dive the day before you dive. A perfect day to go see the park and do some snorkling.

One more comment as to not diving to the time limits. In December our flight was brought forward by 4 hours - we found out the morning of travel 16:00 had become 12:00. Fortunately our last dive was shallow at something special with a max of 20 feet. I did feel compromised and again took plenty of fluids (none alcoholic).

Brian, did you get over to the Dive Show, if so, how was it? Sarah

FAD FLying after Diving
There is an article on the subject in either a current or recent issue of New Diver Magazine.
Lydia

I was told if you are flying to Curacao first the plane does not go to a very high altitude and that this would "buffer" the few hours of difference in the flights, if yours were changed or bumped up a few...(never really checked out the truth in this though!)...We always use the 24 hour rule, since multiple dives are always done during our trips to Bonaire. Steve sometimes does 4 dives a day, (thank gosh for computers!) we always use the last day to go to Lac bay or drive around the island...

Sarah

The dive show was very good. I met the guy that trained & certified me in Key Largo 8 years ago, Marian from Bonhata & Nick Davis the former Habitat manager and a few friends we made on previous Bonaire trips. We got plenty of ideas for other dive destinations and new fins ready for our Maldives trip in two weeks.

Brian, I'm sorry we missed it.. so you're off to the Maldives, it's been years since I visited the Maldives (I stayed on the Bi Ya Doo Island).. it's a beautiful place.. I've no doubt it's changed somewhat over the years, but when I went, it was, what felt like, a three hour raft ride over to the island from Male Airport.. I understand that now you can go by helicopter or speedboat?. Have fun, Sarah

ps: don't forget your jabs and malaria precautions!

Sarah, we have had all but one of the jabs. Thanks I will double check on malaria as that was not raised as an issue. We are staying on a live aboard the first week and the second on the Full Moon Resort. Should be good. We will back to BON later in the year. Enjoy your next trip and good luck with the Certification.

Thanks Brian..

I should have mentioned that the Maldives hasn't had a bad malaria case since the 80's (when I was there).. though some travel companies still advise taking pills as a precaution.. I think particularly if you're stopping over in say Sri Lanka.. as I did! All the best to you, and take care.. Sarah

Do you think a morning boat dive the day before I leave would be ok. Boat dive is 8:30am and my plane leaves at 6:00am next morning.

Dain, I don't know which dive operator you're with, but the dive operators on BON are very much "on the ball" with this sort of thing.. I'm sure you'll get an answer from one of them at some point, or perhaps you could drop them an e-mail, just for your own peace of mind.. Sarah

Dain,

Better safe than sorry. Err on the side of caution and don't do a boat dive at 8:30am the day before a 6am flight.

Jake
(PADI OW Instructor #156069)

PS Consider a really late night dive instead - diving at midnight or early early morning is pretty cool :-)

Dain,

1. Please don't be mislead. I don't care how "on the ball" operators are, if you aren't wearing a dive computer on every cumulative dive, including shore dives, nobody can tell you what your nitrogen saturation is.

2. Commercial flights which are pressurized normally have a cabin altitude of around 8,000 feet even at a true altitude of 40,000 feet. If the flights to Curacao are non-pressurized, they may fly at an altitude equal or greater to that to avoid weather. I don't recall a pilot chiming in to ask passengers for permission to do so from the divers on board who might get bent.

3. If you aren't sure, do as Jake suggests and be conservative. If you are going to dive the day before a flight, make sure you are totally unsaturated and limit your dive to less than one atmosphere (33 feet).

Remember, diving is supposed to be fun. Please don't make me have to come get you.

Gordy

http://www.shorediving.com/content/lessons_learned.htm

If anything I want to err on the far side of caution. We plan to do multiple 2 (maybe 3 if I get the courage to night dive) per day. I have read that the more dives you do over more days, the more time you should give yourself between the last dive and your flight. Is 24 hrs still sufficient. Our flight leaves saturady and We plan to do our last dive at 8am on friday. That should give us over 24 hrs. Is that enough? -Misty

Misty,

I tried to post this a bit ago, but it didn't go through. Here's the deal:

Like Forrest Gump says: Nitrogen is like Chocolate, it goes where the fat is. And like chocolate, you can only absorb and store so much. It's called 100% saturation. All the dive tables are based on lean/mean navy divers. So, if you weigh 300+ lbs you will off gas N2 slower than the average diver.

If you are of average build, 24 hours will allow you to off gas even 100% saturation, unless you have some physiological problem that hampers the normal respiratory process. If you breathe O2 during your surface interval, or partake in a physically taxing activity, you can blow off even quicker.

So if you want to sleep well Friday night, take a quick hike or mountain bike up Brandaris on Friday afternoon. Take a few ibuprophen for the aches the next day (like Aspirin, it's good for DCS too) and try to enjoy your flight home....yeah, right!

Gordy

Gordy,
Hopefully you are still reading this thread.
Thanks for the advice.
Our flight leaves at 4 on Saturday so that gives us plenty of time on friday.
Looking forward to meeting you and your wife while on the island (march 23-30).
One question...where/what is Brandaris?
--Misty

Help:
I am moving to the island in July for a three month stay. I plan to dive and think and sculpt.
My question is: is there a kiln anywhere on the island from which I might rent some firing time?
Does any body have an answer?
thanks,
M.L. McKay

Marilyn,

I've not heard of one here, but drop a note to Janice Huckaby, a local artist in various media - she may be able to find out for you: info@janartbonaire.com

Jake

Thanks, Jake. I will send her an email.
Marilyn