Ratio Deco & Rec

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Seckendorf on June 13, 2009 at 6:41pm

Hi Shawn,

It is an interesting class. Ratio Deco is a strategy, not a decompression theory. It's a way to utilize many of the current decompression models in a simple, straight-forward way, and be able to modify your strategy "on the fly" without the use of computers or complicated software.

And the strategy can be applied to any dive, regardless of depth or time. We have many, many open water recreational divers using Ratio Deco, but they are just using the recreational portion of the strategy, which we call "min-deco." Basically, when you are within NDL, you stop at half your max depth, then do one minute at each 10'/3m stop on your way up. It's very simple.

We encourage open water divers to take the Ratio Deco class, so as you start to use min-deco on shallow dives, you also start to understand the system in preparation for when you go a bit deeper, or stay a bit longer.

We are very careful in the UTD classes to not have students need to un-learn anything as they go from class to class. Each class builds on the next. We go a little bit deeper, or stay a little bit longer, but the methodology stays the same. The skills and strategies you learn in our Rec 1 and Rec 2 classes are very similar to the skills and strategies in Tech 2 and Trimix - we just apply it all to deeper scenarios.

If you do take the class, please post on the site and let us (and the community) know how it works for you.

Best,

Jeff

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Permalink Reply by Lynne Flaherty on June 14, 2009 at 7:48am

I took the RD seminar with Andrew when I was still doing only simple recreational diving. I found it well worth the investment of my money and time. He does a very good job of reviewing the evolution of decompression theory, and explaining why some of the traditional approaches (eg. ascent to a 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet) do not fit well with some of the more current ideas of what is happening with gas kinetics in the body. Although I didn't have any need for the mechanics of calculating deco for a 150 foot dive, I still learned a lot and enjoyed the day.

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Permalink Reply by Jamie on June 25, 2009 at 4:06pm

Hey Jeff, any plans on a Los Angeles RD class anytime soon?

Jeff Seckendorf said:

Hi Shawn,

It is an interesting class. Ratio Deco is a strategy, not a decompression theory. It's a way to utilize many of the current decompression models in a simple, straight-forward way, and be able to modify your strategy "on the fly" without the use of computers or complicated software.

And the strategy can be applied to any dive, regardless of depth or time. We have many, many open water recreational divers using Ratio Deco, but they are just using the recreational portion of the strategy, which we call "min-deco." Basically, when you are within NDL, you stop at half your max depth, then do one minute at each 10'/3m stop on your way up. It's very simple.

We encourage open water divers to take the Ratio Deco class, so as you start to use min-deco on shallow dives, you also start to understand the system in preparation for when you go a bit deeper, or stay a bit longer.

We are very careful in the UTD classes to not have students need to un-learn anything as they go from class to class. Each class builds on the next. We go a little bit deeper, or stay a little bit longer, but the methodology stays the same. The skills and strategies you learn in our Rec 1 and Rec 2 classes are very similar to the skills and strategies in Tech 2 and Trimix - we just apply it all to deeper scenarios.

If you do take the class, please post on the site and let us (and the community) know how it works for you.

Best,

Jeff

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Seckendorf on June 25, 2009 at 5:53pm

Hi Jamie,

We ran one a few months ago, but we'll see if we can get Huber teed up to teach one.

js

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